Dowrgi“Mault gave the Miller such a blow,
That from [h]is horse he fell full low,
He taught him his master Mault for to know
you neuer saw the like sir.”
That’s interesting. It’s similar to the idea in the Cornish riddle. I’m reading this as the malt (beer) that got the miller drunk! Humorous as it is, it’s also a way of recognising that nature demands respect and balance – for whatever you take, there is a price and you could come a cropper if you’re not careful. In the Middle Ages, I believe that millers were objects of suspicion as they were known to have a fair number of tricks up their sleeve in order to cheat their clients, so a figure of fun and the miller falling off his horse drunk would also have appealed to the humour of the people of the time.
Bennathow
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