I remember having to memorize the prologue to The Canterbury Tales in high school and it seeming dreadfully boring. A couple years ago for some reason I decided

I remember having to memorize the prologue to The Canterbury Tales in high school and it seeming dreadfully boring. A couple years ago for some reason I decided to read the rest of the text. I was shocked with the hilarious lewdness and also just the generally familiar description of the human condition written so long ago. One of the funnier ones is the Millers Tale (from Wikipedia; spoilers!): That same night, Absolon comes to the house and begs Alisoun to kiss him. At first she refuses, but Absolon persists, so she offers him one quick kiss. Instead of presenting her lips to Absolon, though, she sticks her backside out the bedroom's "shot-window" (privy vent), and Absolon kisses her "ers" (arse) in the dark. Angry at being fooled, Absolon gets a red-hot coulter from the blacksmith, with which he intends to burn Alisoun in revenge. He returns with it to the window and knocks again, promising Alisoun a gold ring in exchange for a kiss. This time, Nicholas, having gotten up to relieve himself anyway, sticks his buttocks out to get in on the joke and farts thunderously in Absolon's face. Absolon thrusts the coulter "amidst the ers" of Nicholas who cries out for "Water!" to assuage the pain. The fact that someone took the time to write it in such structured rhyming poetry just blows my mind.