Key Quotes – ‘The Merchant’s Tale’
Themes/Analysis Quote
Power, gender, religion – phallic ‘A man may do no synne with his wyf, ne hurte hymselven
imagery and religious misjudgement with his owevene knyf’
Lust, sex – Januarie as predatorial,
‘Oold fissh and yong flessh wolde I have fayn. Bet is, quod he,
consumption, comparison of
a pyk than a pykerel, and bet than old boef is the tendre veel’
young/old women
Power, lust, sex – Januarie as
‘Al my corage, it is so sharp and keene’
predatorial, lustful, perverse
Power, lust, gender – Januarie able to
‘Warm wex with handed plye’
shape young women/May
Lust, sex, power, gender – Januarie ‘The bryde was brought abedde as stille as stoon’, ‘And she
as a predator, marital rape obeyeth he hire lief of looth’
Power, garden – Januarie holding ‘Ha baar alwey silver clyket, with which, whan that hym leste,
key for garden – women’s body he is unshette’
Gender, lust, power – objectification ‘A whoso tooke a mirror, polished bright, and sette it in a
of women as items in a market commune market-place’
Place, setting, wealth, hierarchy ‘Al ful of joye and blisse is the paleys’, ‘marchal of his halle’
Power, garden, lust - entrapment ‘He made a gardyn, walled al with stoon’
Lust, courtly love – May and
‘She taketh hym by the hand and harde hym twiste’
Damyan
Power, gender – May does the ‘In warm wex hath emprented the clyket, ye been so depe
moulding enprented in my thought’
Consumption, imagery – May ‘A woman in my plit, May han to fruyt so greet an appetit that
hungry for fruit she may dyen but she of it have’
Courtly love, power, gender – ‘He was so ravysshed on his lady May that for the verray peyne
Damyan in love with May he was ny wood’
Power, gender, love – Damyan’s ‘And in a letter wroot he al his sorwe, in manere of a
letters for May - lovesick compleynt or a lay’
Deception, power, humanity – ‘O servant traytour, false hoomly hewe, lyk to the naddre in
Januarie calling Damyan a snake bosom sly untrewe and still he sit under a bussh anon’
Gender, women, marriage – Justinus Justinus – ‘Paraunter she may be youre purgatorie! She may be
and anti-feminism your Goddes meene and Goddes whippe’
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Themes/Analysis Quote
Power, gender, religion – phallic ‘A man may do no synne with his wyf, ne hurte hymselven
imagery and religious misjudgement with his owevene knyf’
Lust, sex – Januarie as predatorial,
‘Oold fissh and yong flessh wolde I have fayn. Bet is, quod he,
consumption, comparison of
a pyk than a pykerel, and bet than old boef is the tendre veel’
young/old women
Power, lust, sex – Januarie as
‘Al my corage, it is so sharp and keene’
predatorial, lustful, perverse
Power, lust, gender – Januarie able to
‘Warm wex with handed plye’
shape young women/May
Lust, sex, power, gender – Januarie ‘The bryde was brought abedde as stille as stoon’, ‘And she
as a predator, marital rape obeyeth he hire lief of looth’
Power, garden – Januarie holding ‘Ha baar alwey silver clyket, with which, whan that hym leste,
key for garden – women’s body he is unshette’
Gender, lust, power – objectification ‘A whoso tooke a mirror, polished bright, and sette it in a
of women as items in a market commune market-place’
Place, setting, wealth, hierarchy ‘Al ful of joye and blisse is the paleys’, ‘marchal of his halle’
Power, garden, lust - entrapment ‘He made a gardyn, walled al with stoon’
Lust, courtly love – May and
‘She taketh hym by the hand and harde hym twiste’
Damyan
Power, gender – May does the ‘In warm wex hath emprented the clyket, ye been so depe
moulding enprented in my thought’
Consumption, imagery – May ‘A woman in my plit, May han to fruyt so greet an appetit that
hungry for fruit she may dyen but she of it have’
Courtly love, power, gender – ‘He was so ravysshed on his lady May that for the verray peyne
Damyan in love with May he was ny wood’
Power, gender, love – Damyan’s ‘And in a letter wroot he al his sorwe, in manere of a
letters for May - lovesick compleynt or a lay’
Deception, power, humanity – ‘O servant traytour, false hoomly hewe, lyk to the naddre in
Januarie calling Damyan a snake bosom sly untrewe and still he sit under a bussh anon’
Gender, women, marriage – Justinus Justinus – ‘Paraunter she may be youre purgatorie! She may be
and anti-feminism your Goddes meene and Goddes whippe’
27
