Symkyn

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Symkyn is the name of the miller in The Reeve's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer, a fabliau.

Osewold, the reeve in Chaucer's Tales, uses this character to requite the Miller's Tale (a fabliau as well), because in that tale a carpenter called John is cuckolded. Since Osewold is a carpenter himself, he decides to tell a tale in which a miller is the fool.

Symkyn sets his customers' horse free in order to have some time for himself to steal some of the flour he grinds for them. Aleyn and John, two students from Cambridge, take revenge at night by seducing his wife and his daughter, called Malyne.

When Symkyn discovers what happened, he tries to beat up Aleyn but is hit over the head by his own wife who is trying to help him. The students manage to recover both their flour and and the cake made from the stolen flour.