Procol Harem: Whiter Shade of Pale

From Genius lyrics:

We skipped the light fandango

Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor

I was feeling kinda seasick

But the crowd called out for more

The room was humming harder

As the ceiling flew away

When we called out for another drink

The waiter brought a tray

[Chorus]

And so it was that later

As the miller told his tale

That her face, at first just ghostly

Turned a whiter shade of pale

[Bridge 1]

[Verse 2]

She said, there is no reason

And the truth is plain to see

But I wandered through my playing cards

And would not let her be

One of sixteen vestal virgins

Who were leaving for the coast

And although my eyes were open

They might have just as well've been closed

I'm lookin' for my big Green original language Chaucer book! Where the Miller told his tale. · now.

As AI summarizes the Miller's tale:

In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, a drunken Miller tells a bawdy, comic story about an old, jealous carpenter named John, his flirtatious 18-year-old wife Alison, and a clever student named Nicholas who rents a room in their house. Nicholas and Alison have an affair, trick John into hiding in a bathtub from a fake second Noah's flood, and outwit another suitor named Absolon through a series of crude pranks involving a misplaced kiss and a hot branding iron.

So he would not let her be one of 16 vestal virgins ( Roman virgins I think dedicated to Hestia?

reminding of the virgins and boys sent to be sacrificed to the Minotaur- ended by Theseus, freeing Athens, which were 14? These were indeed leaving from the coast of Athens for the coast of Crete to be sacrificial victims.

So, what is going on is that his eyes are open to the infidelity of his beloved, and she, pale already, amid partying as after a show, turns white when it is revealed, breaking his heart. Would not let her be a sacrificial virgin is hard, though- because he sees it? Or...

Would not let her appear to be faithful? Or would not leave her chaste to begin? Or both!

The Virgins of Vesta=Hestia were 6, not 16, serving for 30 years to keep a sacred fire lit, says AI. Hestia is goddess of the hearth- gotta keep it lit!

So the Millers tale is about that, and the college kids are reading Chaucer while getting their heart's broken, is how I imagine it- liberal arts poetry.

More, it is somehow from a tale told by his "Miller," a co-party-er, that the affair or infidelity is revealed in a way that is obvious to both of them. Did it even happen while he was on stage? When one knows another is located and occupied? Schliest!