The monk and the miller's wife. A comic tale.

Ramsay, Allan, 1685-1758

Glasgow: Printed for the Booksellers

1840-1850 per National Library of Scotland

8 pages

16 cm

Allan Ramsay (1686-1758) is referred to as the author of this particular song, but suggests it was derived from Dunbar’s writings in the 15th century and perhaps even earlier sources as well.

romance

wit & humor

This song tells the humorous tale of a miller and his young wife, who has been having an affair with the local priest. When a scholar traveling from St. Andrews happens upon the mill in the evening, the miller invites him to stay the night with his wife and him, sending him along on his own until his work at the mill is done. When the scholar reaches the house, the miller’s wife refuses to let him in, instead sending him to the barn, where he uses cracks in the wall to discover that the wife has the priest over for supper. When the miller comes home early, the priest is trapped in the house and the wife hides the evidence of their feast. The scholar is invited back into the house, where he uses his witnessed information to convince the miller of his ability to summon food and drink from thin air and then pretends to conjure a demon in the form of a priest, allowing the priest to escape, but not without a heavy blow from the miller who believes he is driving the devil out of his house.

St. Andrews, Scotland

Fife, Scotland

Highlands

Wit and Humor

Chapbooks - Scotland - Glasgow

Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph Library, Guelph, Ontario

JPEGs and PDF derived from master file, which was scanned from the original book in 24-bit color at 600 dpi in TIFF format using an Epson Expression 10000XL scanner.

In public domain; For higher quality reproductions, contact Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph. libaspc@uoguelph.ca 519-824-4120, Ext. 53413

English

Archival and Special Collections, University of Guelph Library, Guelph, Ontario, Canada