Was Chaucer criticized for his bawdy humor?
Forsooth, some gentlefolk found my tales a trifle too... robust. The Miller’s Tale, with its earthy humor and the unfortunate affair of the clerk and the carpenter's wife, might raise an eyebrow or two in polite company. Yet, I contend that to understand man, one must understand all of him, the sacred and the profane, the noble and the base. The same world that offers the beauty of the Knight's tale also contains the antics of the Reeve and the Miller. To ignore the latter is to present an incomplete picture, a life without its necessary seasoning. The world is not all courtly love and high devotion, by my troth.
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