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'The Merchant's Tale' critics + quotation bank
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Written for A-Level OCR English Literature Drama and Poetry pre-1900s For 'The Merchant's Tale and Prologue' by Chaucer
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Chaucer quotation bankIronic/euphemistic words repeated throughout
‘Fresshe’
‘Pitee’
‘Ese’
‘Gentil’
‘Felicitee’
‘Blisful’
‘Wis’
‘Esy’
‘Noble’
‘Herte’
‘Grace’ – associated with courtly love; parody; ironic connotations of
purity
‘Pleasant’
‘Corage’
‘Sikernesse’
‘Worthy’
‘Honurable’
P15
‘I have a wyf, the worste that may be;// For thogh the feend to hire
ycoupled were, // She wolde him overmacche’ – more evil than the devil,
Eve
‘She is shewe at al’ – derogatory
‘my wyves cursednesse’ – Eve
‘snare’ – marriage as a trap
P17
‘A worthy knight, that born was of Pavie’ – worthy vs. Pavie
‘sixty yeer a wyflees man was hee’ – setting up Fabliau
‘On women, ther as was his appetit’ – appetite for sex, gluttony, lust
‘to live under that hooly boond with which that first God man and woman
bond’ – reference to Adam and Eve; inevitable failure; contrast to
Merchant’s views on marriage
‘Noon oother lyf is worth a bene’ – irony
‘wedlok is so esy and so clene, that in this world it is a paradis’ – Original
Sin, foreshadowing, irony
‘take a yong wif and a feir’ – passive wife’s role; Fabliau set up
P19
‘bacheleris have often peyne and wo’ – opposite to Merchant
‘so buxom as a wyf’ – obedience; expectations for women
‘Who is so trewe, and eek so entenif// to kepe him, sik and hool’ – job of a
wife as servant
P21
, ‘Deffie Theofraste, and herke me’ – ignoring warnings; ironic
foreshadowing
‘A wyf is Goddes yifte verraily;// Alle othere manere yiftes hardily, // As
londes, rentes, pasture, or commune, // Or moebles, all been yiftes of
Fortune’ – reducing wife to object/ commodity
‘Mariage is a ful greet sacrament’ – irony/undermined by Januarie
‘womman is for mannes help ywroght’ – woman’s place as a servant
‘wyf is mannes helpe and his confort;// His paradis Terrestre’ and his
disport’ – objectifying; paradise then destroyed is foreshadowing and irony
P27
‘The lusty lyf, the vertous quiete, // That is in marriage hony-sweete’ –
gluttony involved with his delusions for marriage
‘I am hoor and oold’ – Fabliau set up
‘in a l the haste I kan’ – marriage is not well-thought-out
‘I may be wedded hastily’ – quick to marry, not thoughtful
P29
‘a yong thing may men gye, // Right as men may warm wex with handles
plye’ – irony of him being in Fabliau; she will deceive him
‘nat oonly for paramour or love’ – opposite to his previous words; irony
P31
‘stark and suffisaunt’ – self-absorbed, delusional
‘so ful of sapience’ – sycophantic Placebo, fuelling delusions
‘weyven fro the word of Salomon’ – ignorance, irony
P33
‘Myn owene deere brother and my lord’ – sycophantic
‘I woot wel that my lord kan moore than I’ – sycophantic
‘youre words alle and youre opinioun’ – irony that the advice Januarie
follows is Placebos, which are just Januarie’s beliefs
P35
‘Justinus, thay ay stille sat and herde’ – genuine and wise character
‘be patient’ – good advice ignored by Januarie (haste)
P37
‘of all blisses bare’ – describing marriage, reference to Merchant,
undesirable (trustworthy character)
‘Ye shul nat plesen hire fully’ – foreshadowing, wise, Fabliau
P39
‘chees hire of his owene auctoritee’ – mockery of his lack of control in
future
P41
‘Hir fresshe beautee and hir age tendre, // Hir middle small… Hir…// Hir…’
– anaphora; his delusions; Fabliau; distasteful perception as object
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