NOE. Noah, son of Lamech, was father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. In order to save Noah from the flood with which He intended to drown the world, God gave him specific instructions about building the ark and ordered him to take every clean beast by sevens, the male and the female, into the ark. After the flood subsided Noah and his family disembarked and became progenitors of a new human race (Genesis 5-10). Noah's wife is mentioned in the Biblical story, when she enters the ark with her husband (Genesis 7:7, 13) and when she leaves the ark after the flood (Genesis 8:16, 18). Like her daughters-in-law, she has no name. In the medieval dramas of the flood she is known as uxor Noe or "Noah's Wife," and she is given a shrewish character.

Nicholas tells John the carpenter that Noe had so much trouble before he could get his wife to enter the ship that he would have preferred her to go in a ship by herself, MillT 3539-3543. Nicholas promises to save the carpenter's wife from the coming flood, MillT 3558-3560. He tells the carpenter that, after the flood, the three of them will be lords all their lives like Noe and his wife, MillT 3581-3582. When Absolon strikes Nicholas on the buttocks with the hot iron, Nicholas's cries bring out the neighbors, but the carpenter thinks that the flood has come, and he cuts the ropes of his tub, which crashes to the ground. Nicholas and Alison tell the neighbors that John is foolish enough to be afraid of Noe's flood, MillT 3832-3837. [Absolon²: Alisoun²: Nicholas¹: Nowelis]

Noe, both the ME and medieval Latin variant, appears three times medially, MillT 3539, 3560, 3582, and once in final rhyming position, MillT 3534. Noes, the ME genitive case, appears in the penultimate position, MillT 3518; Noees, tri-syllabic, occurs initially, MillT 3616.