When Harold Brooks, a Chaucer scholar, likened the Miller's portrait to "a great bull," the dynamic depiction is stillborn. Though Chaucer's rendering is clear, no startling vitality emerges unless you know you're dealing with the zodiac.
Taurus' bodily characteristics fill fifteen of the twenty-two line introduction. The Pilgrim Miller
Very big he was of muscles, and of bones.
. . .
At wrestling he would always have the ram.
The ram he'd win as a wrestler is a prize. But the zodiac reading also sees Taurus always succeeding, overcoming the Ram--that is, Aries, the Ram.
Chaucer supplies a simple picture-perfect portrait:
He was short-shouldered, broad, thick as a knarre (gnarled tree).
Then the poet astonishes us and adds vigor to the animal impression.
There was no door that he could not heave off its hinge,
Or break it by running at it with his head.
A rarity follows. We learn details of the Miller's face.
His beard was red as any sow or fox,
And also broad, as though it were a spade.
The comparison is to rustic non-humans! And the grotesque association of a chin wide as a spade keeps us entertained.
The Taurus constellation has two star-clusters: the Pleiades and the Hyades. Both become part of the continuing description of his face.
On the very top of his nose he had
A wart, and on it stood a tuft of hairs.
The Pleiades have inspired many poetic visions: a swarm of fireflies, a cluster of golden bees, or folds of silk decked with gems. I can't help but be amused at Chaucer picturing them as a hairy wart!
His nostrils were black and wide.
These wide, black nostrils ought to be a giveaway. You have to skim past a lot of powerful beast-like features to remain oblivious to this prime bull-like attribute.
The next line sounds strictly human--unless it is used figuratively.
A sword and buckler (small shield) he bore by his side.
But in the Middle Ages beasts were said to use their horns as men use weapons! An MED entry confirms this: "Out . . . come four-and-twenty oxen playing at the sword and buckler." It's more of the poet's game.
Because this is a horned animal, he corresponds the the traditional representation of the devil. The Hyades, Taurus' second star-cluster, appears here.
His mouth was as great as a great furnace.
Ovid sees the radiant Hyades as "seven flames." And a mouth like a furnace, again, indicates the devil. In medieval writings, one often encounters a furnace intending "fires of hell." Sermons refer to "the yawning chasm of hell-mouth." Chaucer's Parson, too, speaks of the devil's furnace.
The Miller's devilish traits follow.
He was a teller of dirty stories and a glutton of words.
Much of the Miller's Tale revels in sin, obscene behavior, and filth.
As a miller, he was a furtive thief.
Stealing corn and tax[ing] it thrice.
In Taurus' constellation, the star Aldebaran is yellow and brightest in the zodiac. This is featured as the Miller's "thumb of gold" that aids his thievery.
As the portrait draws to a close, Taurus' mythology plays a small part.
A white coat and blue hood he wore.
In Troilus, Chaucer alludes to Taurus "the white Bole," of the myth. The blue hood I take to mean the firmament.
Finally, the devil returns.
A bagpipe well could he blow and sound,
And therewith he brought us out of town.
A triptych by Hieronymus Bosch shows pipers playing flesh-colored bagpipes at a celebration. The pipes symbolize "perversions and snares of the flesh." More precisely, it is the performing piper who encourages "perversions and snares of the flesh."
Ultimately, when the pilgrims actually begin their journey, there is no mention of the Miller or his bagpipes. Chaucer projects a momentary mental picture here, just for effect (as he did with Bobbe-up-and-doun and the Scales).
Taurus, the second of Pilgrim Chaucer's clique, is the Devil--as in "the world, the flesh, and the devil." Our fourteenth-century poet surely acknowledgd the Devil as a force in life.
Next time--dreadful Scorpio.
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