WRITTEN LATE 14TH CENTURY
The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale
The Merchant in the General Prologue
“forked berd” - fashionable
“bootes clasped faire and fetisly” - neat and elegant fastening, the Mer-
chant takes care to appear as if he has a high status
“worthy” - this is how the Merchant will soon describe Januarie, who is
clearly not at all “worthy”, casting doubts on the Merchant’s own worthi-
ness
“in dette” secretive and perhaps untrustworthy, his wealth and status is
not as respectable as it seems, the narrator also does not know the Mer-
chant’s name
The Merchant’s Prologue
The Merchant is responding to the Clerk’s story about the perfect woman,
Griselda
The Merchant says his wife has caused him “weping and wailing”, she is a
“shrewe”
- Compares his wife to a rodent, a common animalisation of women in lit-
erature
- Mean-spirited and inferior
- Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew”
- The Merchant says that even if his wife were married to the devil she
would be able to overpower him
- The revelation that they have only been married for “thise monthes
two” invalidates the Merchant’s knowledge and opinions on the subject,
comes across as foolish
- The Host establishes that the aim of the Merchant’s story will be to jus-
tify his unhappiness by blaming womankind’s deceitful nature, and to
lament the foolishly trusting nature of men
The Fabliau style was popularised in medieval France
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, WRITTEN LATE 14TH CENTURY
- Perhaps the Merchant is attempting to display an awareness of interna-
tional literary fashions
The Merchant’s Tale: Januarie’s introduction
The setting is “Lumbardye” in Italy
Januarie is introduced, elderly Italian member of the second estate,
stereotypical lecherous and predatory old man
“worthy” knight, an ironic epithet which is repeated throuhgout the tale
“appetit” Januarie’s sexual desire, women as objects for consumption as a
food, Januarie is established from the beginning as holding automatic pa-
triarchal power
“hoolinesse” as a reason for Januarie’s desire to marry, marriage was de-
clared a sacrament by the church
“an heir” as a reason for Januarie’s desire to marry, in order to pass down
his wealth and maintain the order of the second estate
“wedlok is so esy and so clene”
“in this world it is a paradis”
The Merchant’s Tale: The Merchant’s ironic praise of
wives
“For who kan be so buxom as a wyf?” obedient, revealing of the Mer-
chant’s idealistic expectations before his marriage, a wife was expected to
be the ultimate servant, ideals based on the Virgin Mary
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