<i>Goddes Pryvetee</i>and a<i>Wyf</i>:<i>Curiositas</i>and the triadic sins in the Miller’s and Reeve’s Tales

A yet unobserved theme linking the Miller’s and Reeve’s Tales is curiositas, a vice medieval theologians often identified with the second of the triadic sins of 1 John 2:16, the lust of the eyes, and aligned with the other two triadic sins, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. In the two tales, Chaucer modifies the conception of curiositas by democratizing the usually highbrow, clerkly vice. Particularly through punning, Chaucer shows that all, including the readers of the Tales, are susceptible to the vice by virtue of its likeness to the two other triadic sins.