The Merchant

General Prologue-

Physical Description- forked beard

- Wore motley (multi-colored, varied) gown with a belt around it

- Flemish beaver hat and boots

- Sat on a high horse

Mentioned-

- Speaking straight to the point

- Speaks of times where he won (confidence)

- Smart man and looked after all his trading

- Was a “worthy man”

Merchant’s Prologue-

- Merchant hates his marriage

- She is referred to as a “foul Fiend” and “shrewd in all”

- He is trapped and cannot escape referred to as a “snare”

- Swears and reaches out to St. Thomas of India “and he shall truly find I tell the truth, by Saint Thomas of Ind,”

- Says that he has been married two months

- Says that the only time a man is alive is when he is not married “And yet I think that he whose days alive have been all wifeless

- The host wants to hear of his marriage

- The merchant says that he cannot say anymore about his life because it is too sad, but he will tell a tale of marriage

Merchant’s Tale

- Once there was a worthy knight named January that live in Lombardy

- When he turned sixty he wanted to get married, might have been for piety or dotage (growing old)

- Says how having a wife is a glorious thing, a symbol of wealth and glory that will last after he dies

- Says an unmarried man lives in freedom and not under arrest

- A married man lives an ordered, moderate, but a happy life because of his wife

- Says that wife is God’s gift and will last longer than any Fortune

- Says how Adam was made and needed a partner for him, so God man Eve

- Describes marriage as a “earthly paradise and means of sport”

- States other biblical examples of marriage like Abigail saving her husband Nabal

- Issac and Rebecca, how Rebecca deceived Issac into blessing Jacob rather than Esau which he favored

- Mentions good and bad stories to create a good and bad side of marriage

- So January is convinced to get married, preferably a young, beautiful wife

- Spent a day to listen to what his friends have to say about getting married

- Says how he way growing ill and old and wanted a wife younger than twenty years old

Argument between Placebo and Justinus

Placebo-

- Cites Solomon “Do everything by counsel, and then thou hast no cause to repent thee.” Saying that he should do exactly what he wants to be pleased

- Completely agrees and wants January to marry such a young girl

- Says how “Christ Himself your counsel would have praised and truthfully,”

Justinus-

- Cites what Seneca would say, “To take a wife without much advisement. Men must inquire, and this is my intent, whether she's wise, or sober, or drunkard, or proud, or else in other things forward, Or shrewish, or a waster of what's had, or rich, or poor, or whether she's man-mad …”

- Disagrees with January and Placebo, does not want him to marry a young wife

- January takes Placebo’s advice

- Starts preparing for a wedding and find a match out of the many women available, a woman named May

- She was known for her beauty but was “of small degree” (low social rank)

- January asks his friends again for arguments against his wish

- His concern of that if he is happy on earth he will not be equally happy in heaven

- Justinus says that being married will help him get t heaven but will be like purgatory on earth

- So January decides to marry May regardless

- The ceremony was joyous and lavish

- Venus the goddess of love laughs because January had become her knight

- There is such mirth (laughter) because “tender youth has married stooping age”

- At the end everyone cast spices around the wedding house

- Everyone was happy except for Damian, January’s squire who was in love with May

- January drank some wine and medical mixtures and took May home and had sex all night with her

- May found his sexual nature unless

Affair

- Damian wrote a love letter for May that he pinned to a silk purse next to his heart

- One day Damian was not attending January and the other squires covered for him saying that he was sick

- January sends May to tell Damian that January would soon visit him

- Damian gives the letter to May and she keeps it in her bosom afraid to get caught

- She reads the letter tears it up and flushes it in the toilet

- She relied to Damian by writing him a letter, putting it under his pillow and giving hima a secret handshake

- The next day Damian returns to serving January

- The narrator describes the beauty of January’s garden

- And how he only had the key to it and would have sex with May in the garden

- At this time January had gone blind and very possessive of his wife

- But May and Damian stayed in touch through letters and signs

- May imprinted the key to January’s garden in hot wax and Damian made a secret copy of it

- One day January wants to have sex in the garden so they go in the garden where Damian is already waiting

- She tells him to climb up into the tree full of fruit

- Tells a story of how Pluto and Proserpina are arguing about marriage

- Pluto wants to restore January’s vision and show him the betrayal

- Proserpina wants Damian to have sex with May because she talks about the evils which men do

- Pluto wants to restore his sight to prevent it but Proserpina ends the argument

- Damian is up in the tree and May says to January how she wants to pick and eat a pear

- January helps May into the tree and Damian and her start having sex

- When Pluto saw this he restored January’s sight

- When January saw this he asked what his wife was doing

- So May says that she had been told the best way of restoring his vision was to struggle with some man in a tree

- January says that she was having sex with a man

- May tries to plead her false medicine on January and that he isn’t seeing clearly

- January says that he can see perfectly

- So May rejoices and says how it worked and persuades January that she wasn’t having sex with Damian in the tree

- January is delighted, hugs and kisses her and strokes her stomach leading her home

- End with calling out to Holy Mary

Merchant’s Epilogue

- Host is disturbed by the story

- Says how women seem busy to deceive men

- Says how he has a shrew wife that talks a lot

Analysis-

The merchant is a wealthy man by the way he is dressed and is described to be skilled in his trade. In the prologue you find out how the merchant hates being married even though he has been married only a year. Shows how this character hates marriage and describes it through his tale. Chaucer isn’t really being negative about the merchant but he is exist towards women through this tale. Saying how they are evil in some aspects through his biblical mentions in the tale. Chaucer sees some good aspects of marriage but mostly negative. The main focus was on January and how he was faithful and less on May how she was wicked and evil. There is a sense of irony how the character may has sex with is Damian, which is the devil’s name. Also the have sex in a fruitful tree which is a symbol of fertility. So when January hold May’s stomach at the end she might be pregnant with Damian’s (devil) child.

-Sebastian Jaskowski