The Merchant’s Tale (written between 1387-1400)
Characters
The Merchant
- The Merchant is the first of the commoners in The Canterbury Tales immediately following the clerical
characters.
- Materialistic
o “A Marchant was ther with a forked berd, In mottelee, and hye on horse he sat”
Fashionable kind of beard and fabric – cares about his appearance/trying to convey an image of
wealth and status. Forked = two-sided
o “Sowninge alwey th’encrees of his winning” - Always concerned with the increase of his profits –
Materialistic
o “Ther wiste no wight that he was in dette”
o “A Marxist reading may highlight her inferior social status and see this as the Merchant’s own
preoccupation with rank.” – Tina Davidson
- Views on marriage
o “We wedded men liven in sorwe and care.”
Yet only married 2 months: “I have ywedded bee thise months two” – ironic.
o Suggests Januarie may marry because of senility – “Were it for hoolinesse or for dotage, I kan nat
seye”
o “Both the Merchant and Januarie consider their wives as products purchased for a price and become
bitter when they realise the product is flawed.” – Sam Brunner
o The Merchant presents Januarie as naive and senile, suggesting he has to be so to think marriage could
be good, but by making Januarie so naive he is also ridiculing himself as he is married and therefore
has made the same mistake.
- Personal life
o “This worthy man” / “For soothe he was a worthy man with alle”- Ironic
o The Merchant says “the cursed monk, daun Constantin”, cursing Constantinus Afer and his book of
advice for various treatment of male problems, especially impotence.
Suggests he has a personal understanding of the contents of the book/their effectiveness.
o “The merchant’s misogyny is a product of his marital disillusionment” – Stephanie Tolliver
- Sensationalist
o “Ladies, I prey yow that ye be nat wrooth; I kan nat glose, I am a rude man”
Paralipses – rhetorical device in which an idea is emphasised by the pretence that it is being
dismissed.
This sentiment is obviously false as he was able to describe using prettier terms before.
- Context of Merchants
o A new but growing class making their fortunes from trade.
The Merchant’s portrayal “suggests unease about these recent social arrivals” – Jackie Sheed.
The Merchant class muddies the social waters.
The Merchant appears wealthy but isn’t:
“A Marchant was ther with a forked berd, In mottelee, and hye on horse he sat” –
fashionable (cares about appearance/trying to convey an image of wealth and status).
“Ther wiste no wight that he was in dette”
Chaucer seems to point out that it was once clear who was wealthy or not.
There is mercantile imagery throughout – as if this is the only frame of reference for the
merchant.
Merchants – New but growing class making their living from trade. Mercantile activity is harder
to gauge than acreage; the Merchant class muddies the social waters.
Chaucer would have been familiar with merchants as between 1372 and 1389 he worked
as controller of the Customs on wool and hides in the port of London. (The Canterbury
Tales were written in the period 1387-92 and probably up to his death in 1400).
Januarie
- Age and Character
o First described as “A worthy knight” – ironic
While the first medieval knights were professional cavalry warriors, as knighthood evolved, a
Christian ideal of knightly behaviour came to be accepted, prioritising respect for the church,
protection of the poor and weak, loyalty to one’s superiors, and preservation of personal honour.
, By the middle of the 13th century, Knighthood had almost completely lost its martial purpose
and was reduced to an honorific status that could be bestowed by sovereigns. The audience soon
realises that the epithet “worthy” is intended as ironic.
o “dwellinge in Lumbardye” – known as a place of wealth + disrepute.
o “January appears helpless, romantic, generous, tragic” – Coghill
o Januarie is described as exactly 60 – “sixty yeer a wyflees man was hee”
The four-stage pattern of human life, reinforced by its correlation with the humoral system of
medicine and the four seasons of the year, was well-known in the Middle Ages and featured age
60 as the beginning of old age.
His age is further stressed by his name itself as it is a winter month.
“Chaucer must have been trained to think of old age in moral and ethical terms” – Hartung
Chaucer’s emphasis of Januarie’s age is to bring this ethical background to mind and bear
the full irony that its pretence would carry with it as Januarie’s desires to continue his life
of sensuality in marriage are revealed.
J: I am “almost […] on my pittes brinke” – edge of my grave
Januarie can be seen as fitting the model for the stock figure of a Senex Amans
o Januarie wants to marry a young wife despite his own age
In The Miller’s Tale, the Miller warned that “Men should marry a woman similar to themselves,
for youth and old age are often in disagreement”
- Lust
o “folwed ay his bodily delit on wommen, ther as was his appetit.”
o J says that if he can’t find pleasure with a wife he would immediately cheat and so be sent to hell – he
wants to avoid this. His priority is sexual pleasure.
J: “if […] I in hire ne koude han no plesaunce, thane sholde I lede my lyf in avoutrye, and go
straight to the devel, whan I die.”
o “Though I be hoor, I fare as dooth a tree” – J to his friends – asserting sexual strength and endurance.
Phallic imagery. J has an inflated perception of himself.
o Sexual Impotence
“He drinketh ypocras, clareee, and vernage”
Despite J’s boasting about his virility he drinks aphrodisiacs to increase his sexual
potency.
- Views on Marriage
o “sixty yeer a wyflees man was hee”
o “wedlock is so esy and so clene, that in this world it is a paradis.”
The Merchant says sarcastically about J’s views on marriage.
o Reasons for marrying.
The prior comments about J’s lust and his desire to marry a young bride suggest that J is
marrying for sexual pleasure rather than morality.
J wants to marry “som mayde fair and tendre of age”
J: “bet than old boef is the tendre veel” – reference to her flesh – interest in her body.
o Language of consumption – J’s wife is just a product to fulfil his appetite.
He wants to be able to mould/shape his wife/have control.
Wax Extended Metaphor
o J: “a yong thing may men gye, Right as men may warm wex with hands plye.”
Ironic as later May “In warm wex hath emprented the cliket that Januarie bar
of the smale wiket”
She uses wax to make an impression of the key.
o J: “Ye been so depe emprented in my thoght”
You are so deeply imprinted in my thoughts – she has made an impression on
him when he wanted to make an impression on her.
o “Both the Merchant and Januarie consider their wives as products purchased for a price and become
bitter when they realise the product is flawed.” – Sam Brunner
- Ignorant
o Ignores advice: Listens to “Placebo” – I shall please, over “Justinus” – the just one.
o “Swiche olde lewed wordes used he” – (“Lewed” could mean obscene but also unlearned/ignorant.)
- Januarie’s Imagination
o “Heigh fantasye and curious bisynesse fro day to day gan in the soule impresse of Januarie about his
marriage.”
