Preview: Section 5
Reading boundary
Start: There was also a Reeve, and a Millere,
Stop after: Therefore he sang full merrily and loud.
The narrator names the remaining members of the company, then supplies a row of vivid portraits shaped by work, appetite, appearance, and access to other people’s money. A miller, purchasing agent, estate manager, church-court officer, and seller of pardons display very different kinds of practical cleverness.
These descriptions are unusually bodily and theatrical: voices, faces, hair, clothing, instruments, Latin phrases, and the objects people carry all matter. Practical skill, official authority, performance, and outward appearance contribute differently to the narrator’s judgments.