MERCHANT'S TALE - Student_Tasks.pdf

The Merchants Taleby

Geoffrey Chaucer

A level English Student Tasksby

Gerry Ellis

~ Wessex Publications ~

CONTENTS

Using the Workbook....................................................................... 1

'The Canterbury Tales' .................................................................... 2

Chaucer's Life and Character.......................................................... 4

Chaucer The Man ........................................................................ 7

Reading Chaucer............................................................................. 8

Portrait of the Merchant from the 'General Prologue'to the Canterbury Tales................................................................... 12

Portrait of The Merchant from the Prologue to 'TheMerchant's Tale' .......................... ................................................... 13

'The Merchant's Tale' - line by line................................................. 14

The Theme of Marriage in The Canterbury Tales.......................... 29

The Conventions of Medieval Courtly Love ................................ 32

Januarie's Character ....................................................................... 34

The Poetry of The Merchants Tale ............................................ 37

Chaucer's Sources .......................................................................... 40

Examination and Revision Questions............................................. 43

The Merchants Tale Using the Workbook

www.wessexpublications.co.uk - 1 -

This Workbook examines various aspects of The Merchant's Tale andyou will be asked to complete tasks on each of these areas as youprogress through the different sections. All the tasks are designed tohelp you look carefully as The Tale and to come to an appreciation ofits meaning and significance as a piece of literature. In addition toworking in the Workbook itself, it is advisable to keep your own, fullernotes, in a notebook or ring binder. These will be an important revisionaid if you are going to answer on this text in an exam.

Some of the tasks require quite short answers and, where this is thecase, a box is provided in the Workbook where you can write downyour responses if you wish.

Where you see this notebook symbol though, a fuller response isrequired and it would be best if you write your comments or answersin your own notebook or file.

At the end of the Workbook you will find a number of specimenquestions of the kind that you might find set for A-level EnglishLiterature (or an examination of similar standard). These titles andquestions would also be suitable for coursework assignments on thistext. If you are going to answer on this text in an exam it would bevery useful to practise writing answers to several of these and havesome idea of how you would tackle any of them.

Good luck with your studies.

USING THE WORKBOOK

NOTE: All references in this workbook refer to the edition ofThe Merchants Tale published by CambridgeUniversity Press and edited by M. Hussey.

The Merchants Tale The Canterbury Tales


The Renaissance, which began in Italy, had multiple effects on allbranches of art and learning in the medieval world, not least that ofliterature. Chaucer was indeed influenced by the most importantwriters of Italy - Dante and Boccaccio.

DANTE (1265 - 1321) A Florentine at thecentre of the Renaissance in Italy. HisDivina Commedia (Divine Comedy) was tohave a profound influence on thedevelopment of literature in the WesternWorld. In this allegorical masterpiece hisprotagonist goes on a search for God throughHell, Purgatory and Paradise.

Boccaccio (1313 - 1375) Another Florentineof the Renaissance period. His Decameronalmost certainly sowed the seed for the ideaof the Canterbury Tales in Chaucer. In the'Decameron' one hundred short stories,ranging from the bawdy to the earnest, recordthe exodus of ten young Florentines fromtheir plague-ridden city. Chaucer also usesBoccaccio's story Ameto as the source ofthe scene in which Januarie is bedded withMay in the Merchants Tale.

Dante contributed to the intense reverence for all things holy whichunderlies all Chaucers shrewdness and humour; and Chaucer almostcertainly took the very idea for the Canterbury Tales, of which 'TheMerchants Tale' forms an integral part, from BoccacciosDecameron. But, with his usual genius for building on his sources ofideas, Chaucer draws his characters from all classes while Boccaccio'scome only from one class. Moreover, Chaucer has his characters on apilgrimage to Canterbury, each telling a story to while away the timetaken for this journey, and this allows for the introduction of the maincharacters and incidents on the way. This gives scope for much morevariety, and for keeping more closely in touch with actual life, than ispossible in the Decameron.

THE CANTERBURY TALES

Dante and His Workby Domenico di Michelino, 1465

Boccaccio,detail of afresco by

Andrea delCastagno (c.

1421-57)

The Merchants Tale The Canterbury Tales


With the 'Canterbury Tales' narrative art is at the point of becomingdrama. The tales present a company of distinct and individual peopletalking. The tales are a part of themselves and their talk, so that theinterest is not simply in the tale but at the same time in the teller, andin the tale as characteristic of the teller. This is very true of 'TheMerchants Tale' and its narrator.

The 'Canterbury Tales' constitute the Human Comedy of the MiddleAges. The tone of Chaucers company of English folk is, as a whole,one of jollity. No attempt is made to lessen the weaknesses inherent inmany of the pilgrims, the Merchant and the characters in his Taleincluded. Yet, ultimately, the divine order is not felt to be disturbedand the treatment of those evil characters is always steady. Life in itsreality both good and evil - is accepted as exactly what it is observed tobe. The generous tolerance, so central to much of English Literature, isset on its course.

The Merchants Tale Chaucers Life and Character


It is important to know something of Chaucers life in order tounderstand the makings of the man. A man able to detail for us thewhole Human Comedy of the Middle Ages.

Read the following account of the life of Chaucer and produce a spiderdiagram (or a brief summary) in your file to show the key experienceswhich may have contributed to his being able to give such a variedpicture of the lives lived by his fellow countrymen at the time. A coupleof points are included to get you started.

Not a lot is known about Chaucer and it has to be pointed out that, Thebiography of Chaucer is built upon doubts and thrives uponperplexities, but, nevertheless, there is enough known to provide auseful series of benchmarks.

His date of birth provides a first 'doubt' but is generally agreed to be1340.

He was born in London to John Chaucer and his wife Agnes. His fatherwas a vintner, and Chaucer certainly has a close knowledge of the winetrade, as is frequently evidenced in the Canterbury Tales particularly inthe Pardoners warning:

Now kepe yow fro the white and fro the rede, (276-284)And namely fro the white wyn of Lepe,That is to selle in Fisshstrete or in Chepe,This wyn of Spaigne crepeth subtillyIn othere wines, growinge faste by,Of which ther riseth swich fumositeeThat whan a man hath dronken draughtes thre,And weneth that he be at hoom in Chepe,He is in Spaigne, right at the toune of Lepe..

His Life

Born c1340

Brought up in wine trade - London (mixed with merchant class)

Prisoner in French Wars (1359)(French influence on poetry)

CHAUCERBACKGROUND

Childhood

CHAUCER'S LIFE AND CHARACTER



There is little evidence about his education but it is very probable that hebecame attached to the Court. The reign of Edward III witnessed amarked increase in the prosperity of the merchant class and there wasnothing surprising in making a vintners son one of the household ofElizabeth, wife of the Kings son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence in 1357.

Also, in 1357 royal accounts reveal that Geoffrey Chaucer wasprovided with a paltok (cloak), a pair of red and black breeches and apair of shoes valued at three shillings. The Tales give abundant proofthat their author had a keen eye for the niceties of dress and fashion, aswitnessed in his description of the Pardoner

Him thoughte he rood al of the newe jet;Dischevelee, save his cappe, he rood al bare.

In 1359 he served in the French Wars and was taken prisoner. He wasfreed in 1360, Edward III paying 16 towards his ransom - he musthave been considered a person of some note at court for this to happen.

Renaissance man that he was, he was influenced by French eroticpoetry which laid down the elaborate code of duties owed by husband

to wife and lover to mistress and the whole artificial convention whichprescribed unhappy love affairs and revelled in the minute analysis ofover-strained emotion, which he mocks in several of the tales.

Returning to Court he became a valet of the Kings Chamber whichgave him ample opportunity to acquire an understanding of theworkings of court life. For a time he continued as a member of theKings own household.

Its probable that Chaucer married Philippa, one of the 'damsels' of theQueens Chamber c1366. Her sister was the wife of John of Gaunt, oneof Chaucers patrons. Attempts have been made to show that themarriage was unhappy. But the 'shrewish wife' was a stock comicconvention of the medieval world, and, very much a man of his time,Chaucer was quite prepared to use this convention in several of histales. Both the Merchant, and the Host himself, suffered from suchwives.

In 1368 he was promoted to be an Esquire of the royal household, aposition well suited to the life of a poet as its duties included piping orharpinge to help entertain the Court.

Chaucer was consistently favoured by John of Gaunt and in 1370 hewas sent abroad on an important mission, the exact nature of which isnot known. His travels take him to France and Flanders.

He travels to Italy. He visits Genoa and Florence, the then centre of theRenaissance, (the land of Boccaccio and Dante - whose influence onChaucer, was considerable). He meets the Italian poet Petrarch.

Education

Chaucer appearsin royal accounts

French wars 1359

Influence ofFrench poetry

Becomes valet inKing's Chamber

Probably marriedc1366

1368 - Esquire toRoyal Household

1370 - abroad

1372 - 73 in Italy



His fortunes grow and he is made Controller of Customs for Wool inthe Port of London in 1374 which inevitably brought him into contactwith a whole range of different people. He is also granted, in 1374, alease for life by the Corporation of the City of London of the houseover the Aldgate gate where he lived till 1385.

He is granted the Wardship of Edmund Staplegate in Kent in 1375which brings him 103.

In 1377 he was sent to France as part of a mission to seek,unsuccessfully, bringing about a marriage between the young KingRichard II and the daughter of the King of France. He goes on anembassy to Italy in the same year. He was, obviously, a diplomat ofsome standing.

In 1382, to his Controllership of Wool, is added that of Petty Customs.Again, inevitably, he becomes more and more aware of the methodsand activities and the types of those involved in trade.

Already a Justice of the Peace, meeting those whose activities werebeyond the law, he enters Parliament as one of the Knights of the Shireof Kent.

With John of Gaunt in Spain, and his brother, the Duke of Gloucester,gaining ascendancy over the King, Chaucer loses his Controllershipsand then, in 1387 his wife dies. His life was not one of continuoussuccess, he knew what it is to be out of favour and to suffer personaltragedy.

Gloucester falls in 1389 and Chaucer is once more in favour. Hebecomes Clerk of the Works to the King, which gives him charge ofthe fabric of the Tower, Westminster Palace, Windsor Castle and otherroyal residences. In 1390 he was entrusted with the repairing of StGeorges Chapel, Windsor.

He loses the position of Clerk to the Works in 1391 and suffers all theindignities inherent on having money problems. These continued up tohis death.

Henry IV, on his accession in 1399, secures his future somewhat bygiving him a pension. (It was with the backing of the Earl of Derby,later Henry IV, during the 1390s that Chaucer retained favour at courtand wrote his most famous work The Canterbury Tales.)

He was unable to enjoy his good fortune as he dies in 1400.

1374 Controller ofCustoms and movesinto house inAldgate

1375 - Wardship

Peace missions

1382 - Controllerof Petty Customs

1386 EntersParliament

1387 LosesControllership andwife dies

1389 Back in favour

1391- Losesposition

Henry IV grantshim a pension

Dies 25 Oct 1400

The Merchants Tale Chaucer The Man


Self-description

Numerous passages in his works reveal Chaucer as a man ofcheerful and genial nature, full of freshness and humour, a keenobserver of people and, at the same time, an enthusiastic student ofbooks. In his Prologue to Sir Thopas he describes himself as:

a large i.e. somewhat corpulent man, and no poppet toembrace;

having an elvish or abstracted look, often staring at theground as if he would find a hare;

doing no dalliance to any man i.e. not entering briskly intocasual conversation.

His love of reading and nature

His numerous references and quotations show that he was deeply readin all medieval learning and well acquainted with Latin, French andItalian. In his Hous of Fame he tells how he had set his wit to makebooks, stories and ditties in rime, and how often his head ached atnight with writing in his study. He tells also how, when he had donehis official work for the day and made his reckonings, he used to gohome and become wholly absorbed in his books 'hearing neither thisnor that', and thus he lived like a hermit, though (unlike a hermit) hisabstinence was but little. His love of nature, as he tells us in ThePrologue to the Legend of Good Women' , was such that when themonth of May is come, and I hear the birds sing and see the flowersspringing up, farewell then to my book and to my devotion to reading'.

Womanhood and manhood

In many passages he insists on the value of the purity of womanhoodand the nobility of manhood, taking the latter to be dependent upongood feeling and courtesy. As he says in The Wife of Baths Tale,The man who is always the most virtuous, and most endeavours to beconstant in the performance of gentle deeds, is to be taken as thegreater gentleman. Christ desires that we should derive our gentlenessfrom Him, and not from our ancestors, however rich.

Thus we can see that the Merchant-narrator and his hero, Januarie, arefar removed from his ideal man, a man whose every action is governedby notions of gentilesse, or true nobility.

CHAUCER THE MAN

Chaucer, portraitminiature painted after

the poet's death.

The Merchants Tale Reading Chaucer


The reading of Chaucer is an easier task than it appears at first sight. Itis not written in a foreign language, it is written in English andtherefore it is incorrect to talk about translating Chaucer; thislanguage is simply our own language as it was spoken and written sixhundred years, or so, ago. Over the centuries Chaucers MiddleEnglish, as it is called, has simply evolved and developed into themodern English used today. In fact, much of what Chaucer wroteremains quite easily recognisable for the careful modern reader.

Why read Chaucer?

Students frequently ask, Why read Chaucer with his difficult MiddleEnglish, when there is a wealth of modern English to be read andstudied? To realise Chaucers unique importance it is necessary tounderstand the following:

(1) the development of the English language - by the middle of the14th century it needed only that there should arise one writergreat enough to establish one dialect, or combination of dialects,from the several in use, for standard English to be established.This creation of language from dialect we owe in large measureto Chaucer who can justly be claimed as the Father of English,an English which combined French elegance and femininedelicacy; Latin scholarship; and English earthiness andmasculine strength.

The English of Old English, that of the Ancren Riwle ofBeowulf and Sir Gawayne is practically a foreign language,but Chaucers English, full as it may be of old and decayedterms, in fact, presents few real difficulties. Of course, you willhave to look up the odd word in the glossary, and will be puzzledby some of the astronomical or chemical terms, but these shouldnot be a huge stumbling block to understanding.

(2) the development of English literature - Chaucers uniquegreatness extends beyond his contribution to the development ofthe English language. He was a remarkable innovator as regardsthe development of English Literature and it is, equally, also justto claim him as the Father of English Literature. He adaptedcertain modes, themes, and conventions of French and Italianmedieval poetry to English poetry for the first time. But he was astill more remarkable innovator than that. He developed the artof literature itself beyond anything to be found in French orItalian, or any other medieval literature. In Troilus andCriseyde he gave the world what is virtually the first modernnovel and in The Canterbury Tales he developed his art of

READING CHAUCER



poetry still further towards drama and towards the art of thenovel.

(3) the quality of his work - Finally, Chaucers Tales are highlyentertaining, lively, amusing and original. They are about lifeand about people; they are universal stories and for all time.

Sum up Chaucers unique contribution to the development of both theEnglish Language and its Literature.

Getting started with The Merchants Tale

Begin

Begin by reading the Tale straight through at a leisurely pace and donot try to look up every word at this stage. Above all try to listen to thepoetry; it was intended to be read aloud. If you are able to read italoud, follow the spelling phonetically. Spelling was not fixed inChaucers time and it seems certain that the scribes of his day wouldhave spelt phonetically.

Pronunciation

The pronunciation of Chaucers English was not our own, but the mainthing to remember in pronouncing it is that it should be pronouncedmetrically. This is made much easier because Chaucer wrote inrhyming couplets, for example:

For wel I woot it fareth so with meI have a wyf, the worste that may be. (Lines 5 - 6)

For this purpose it has to be recognised that the ---e ending of manywords was generally pronounced as in the above example (exceptwhen the succeeding word begins with a vowel).

Here are the first eight lines of the Merchants Prologue, write down inthe box below (or in your file) as much as you can understand of them,leaving a space for any words that cause you problems.

Weping and wailing, care and oother sorowe (1)I knowe ynogh, on even and a -morwe,Quod the Marchant, and so doon other moThat wedded been. I trowe that it be soFor wel I woot it fareth so with me,I have a wyf, the worste that may beFor thogh the feend to hire ycoupled were,She wolde him overmacche, I dar wel swere (8)

TASK 1



Whatever you wrote you would have to agree that much of Chaucersoriginal 'English' is already familiar if you consider it at a leisurelypace. As confidence grows and you become more willing to apply amodern word order you will find it easier to handle Chaucers English.

With help from a colleague, or your tutor if needs be, and using thebox below, try to put lines 1 - 8 of the Merchants Prologue into goodmodern English.

The following strategies will help you all through yourreading of Chaucer:

Read the text aloud, if possible, pronouncing the words as theywould be pronounced phonetically and following the metre of thelines. Take note that the final -e is nearly always pronounced.

Try not to use the glossary excessively in your first reading, asthis will interrupt your understanding of the whole.

Take two or three pages at a time and finish at a full stop. Thenand only then, go back over the pages looking up difficult wordsand phrases in the glossary and notes.

If it is your own copy, annotate the text - highlighter pens can bevery useful too.

Have a modern English translation at hand but avoid using it ifpossible, especially at the early stages. Going straight to atranslation will make it harder to get to grips with the original.



If possible listen to a tape recording of the Tale read by aprofessional; or listen to any of the Tales that you are able toobtain. Ask at your local library.

The Merchants Tale The Portrait of The Merchant


Chaucer gives a series of thumbnail sketches of his pilgrims in TheGeneral Prologue.

Read the description of The Merchant in The General Prologue andmake your observations of his character as revealed here.

The tone has been set for the Prologue and Tale which follows.

THE PORTRAIT OF THE MERCHANTFrom The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales

TASK 2

The Merchants Tale Portrait of The Merchant


Lines 1 - 32

Read the Prologue to The Merchants Tale and make notes in the boxbelow on the nature of the Merchants marriage, and his attitudetowards marriage as a result.

THE PORTRAIT OF THE MERCHANTFrom The Prologue to The Merchants Tale

TASK 3

The Merchants Tale The Merchants Tale Line by line


Lines 33 to 54

You are first introduced to the worthy knight, Januarie, who lives inPavia in Lombardy, which was famous for both its bankers and itsbrothels, and so a very suitable scene for the Tale which follows. Sixtyyears old and unmarried Januarie has been accustomed to folwed aynhis bodily delyt and decides its high time he should be married. Hefeels,

As doon thise fooles that been seculeer (39)

(The word seculeer is a crux, i.e. a mystery, which has been the causeof much discussion amongst Chaucerian scholars, but its generallyaccepted as meaning layman)

that he will cultivate his soul under the guise of feeding his bodily lustsby getting married

Were it for hoolinesse or for dotage, (41-42)I kan nat say ...

He feels:-

... Wedlok is so esy and so clene, (52-53) That in this world it is a paradis

So this olde knight, that was so wis decides he must marry (54)

Irony runs as a constant thread throughout the Tale and is veryapparent in these introductory lines..

In the box below, give four examples of the use of irony from theselines.

THE MERCHANTS TALE (Line by line)

TASK 4



Lines 55 to 185

These lines constitute a long digression in which Januarie extols thevirtues of marriage.

Having read the digression give your own view in the Box as to whoactually says these lines, the Merchant or Januarie?

Thus he sees a wife as adding to his wealth. He repeats images of themonetary value of a wife throughout the digression (indeed,throughout the Tale).

In the next box make a list of these as they appear in this digression.

A wife will give him an heir and happiness impossible for youngbachelors who have often peyne and wo. Ironic indeed, as the only

TASK 5

TASK 6



pain that Damyan suffers is the conventional pain expected of a courtlylover and the real peyne and wo is suffered by Januarie.

A wife will look after him in sickness and in health (and May claims tobe doing just that when she is later found in the pear tree.) He sayssome writers consider that marriage is far from perfect, such asTheophrastus in his Golden Book of Marriage where he claims that,as regards household economy:

A trewe servant dooth moore diligence (86-87)Thy good to kepe, than thyn owene wyf

And that it is all too easy for a married man to be cuckolded. In hisunseeing arrogance Januarie dismisses such arguments out of hand. Hecontinues:

'That womman is for mannes helpe ywroght' (112)

And with an early mention of the biblical story of Adam and Evewhich will have important echoes later in the Garden of Love, he saysthat God, seeing man all alone bely-naked, created woman as ahelpmate to man. Man and woman living in harmony

O flessh they been, and o fleesh, as I gesse, (123-24)Hath but oon herte, in wele and in distresse.

He goes completely over the top when he echoes The Clerks Tale

A wyf, a Seinte Marie, benedicite (125)

A wife will instantly respond without question to her husband andmasters every command:

Al that hire housbonde lust, hire liketh weel; (132-34) She seith nat ones nay, whan he seith ye. Do this, seith he; Al redy, sire, seith she.

He introduces a series of biblical exemplars (examples) of goodwives. All are badly chosen in one sense, but they are appropriate forJanuarie, as they extend the picture we have of him as insensitive andblind. All of them introduce a note of duplicity and prepare us for theentry of May into the Tale.

(a) Rebecca deceived her blind husband by substituting Jacob forEsau.

(b) Judith saved her people by deceiving and slaying Holofernes.(c) Abigail saved her husband but made a later marriage contract

with David.(d) Esther pleaded the cause of the Israelites and secured the

promotion of Mordecai at the expense of the life of Haman.



Much is revealed of Januaries character in this digression. Summarisewhat view you have formed of him here.

Lines 187 to 262

His digression over Januarie starts the search for a wife. He sends outfriends in all directions to search for suitable young women. He repeatsthat it is fortunate that having spent his body folily it is thanks to Godeverything can be amended but only if he is married,

Unto som mayde fair and tendre of age. (195)

He stresses that his future wife will have to be young in one of thecoarse, but exact and powerful similes which Chaucer uses so tellingly:

.... yong flessh wolde I have ful fain. (206-208)Bet is, quod he, a pyk than a pikerel,And bet than old boef is the tendre veel.

As per usual he fails utterly to see himself as old boef, he prefers tosee himself as essentially young, which he expresses in another seriesof powerful and evocative similes, which again echo the image of thepear-tree which is to appear in the love garden and be the site of hiscuckolding. Ironically, the tree he compares himself with here arisesfrom his delusions just as he is, later, deluded by the events in thispear-tree in the love garden:-

Though I be hoor, I fare as dooth a tree (249-254)That blosmeth er that fruit ywoxen bee;And blosmy tree nis neither drye ne deed.I feele me nowhere hoor but on myn heed;Myn herte and alle my lymes been as greneAs laurer

These lines reveal clearly Chaucers masterly use of imagery. In thebox below list the images used in these lines and discuss, briefly, theireffectiveness.

continues over

TASK 7



Lines 263 to 364

Januarie is given various views as to whether or not he should marry;in these lines the dispute about this reaches a climax with his twobrothers Placebo = I shall please and Justinus = hard judiciousthinking, expressing their views.

In the box below summarise the advice of the two brothers. What doesJanuaries response to this advice show us about him?

continues over

TASK 8



Lines 365 to 410

In these lines Januaries illusions about marriage reach their absurdheight.

In the box below summarise how Chaucer shows Januaries totalillusion about marriage and about the true nature of his future bride.

Lines 411 to 483

Januarie considers whether the heaven on earth which he envisagesmarriage to be will prevent him reaching Heaven proper. Justinus giveshim an honest answer.

TASK 9



In the box below summarise Januaries dilemma and Justinusresponse to it.

The brothers then depart well aware that Januarie is totally resolved asto his course of action, he will marry May.

Lines 484 to 559

The wedding takes place with great solemnity and with truerenaissance colour and style, with the priest ever present. Venus, theGoddess of Love, dances before the bride, who is so beautiful thatJanuarie is ravisshed in a traunce (538). Januarie begins tocontemplate his wedding night when he would have May in his arms:

Harder than evere Paris dide Eleyne (542)

when, in reality, he is much closer to the deserted Menelaus. He fearsthat his sexual passion will be too much for her and will overwhelmher. He wishes his guests were gone and it was night. He attempts:

To haste hem fro the mete in subtil wise (555)

Eventually the celebrations do end.Lines 560 to 582

Chaucer introduces Damyan as a cardboard figure, a stock courtlylover.

TASK 10



In the box below trace how he does this so successfully in the space ofthese twenty-two lines

Lines 583 to 653

The wedding ceremony at last being over Januarie prepares for hiswedding night. In spite of all his bold comments about his sexualprowess and energy, he has to resort to multiple aphrodisiacs toenhance his performance:

He drinketh ypocras, clarree, and vernage (595-596)Of spices hoote, tencreessen his corage

Moreover he turns for ideas for his lovemaking to a book by thecursed monk Constantine entitled de Coitu.

With immensely powerful, devastating similes Chaucer shows Januarieat his most foolish in his lovemaking in these lines.

Record these in the box over the page.

TASK 11

TASK 12



Lines 654 to 719

The picture of Damyan who languissheth for love continues still insuitably overblown language:

This sike Damyan in Venus fyr (664-65)So brenneth that he dieth for desir

Continuing to meet the requirements of a courtly lover he writes a loveletter to May. When May is, once more, able to join in with the fullcompany in Januaries Hall, it comes to Januaries notice that Damyanis missing. With genuine concern (Januarie is presented as a muchmore rounded character than the other stereotypes. Chaucer certainlyshows him having redeeming qualities) he inquires if he is ill. Whentold he is, he immediately makes arrangements to have him lookedafter as:

He is a gentil squier, by my trouthe (695)



The irony is complete when Januarie sends May to visit the sick squiresaying he will visit him later.

Lines 720 to 776

The conventional love-pact is made between May and Damyan. Hehands her his love-letter, secretly, and she hides it, as to be expected, inher bosom. The unsavoury nature of the liaison is summed up veryappropriately when May retires to:

Ther as ye woot that every wight moot neede; (739-742)And whan she of this bille hath taken heede,She rente it al to cloutes atte laste,And in the privee softely it caste.

The unsavoury note continues as Januarie, awoken by a cough, forgetsall question of delicacy in love making and simply:

Anon he preyde hir strepen hire al naked (746)

because her clothes are proving an encumbrance to his love making.She obeys, be hir lief or looth - Januarie takes his maistrye forgranted little knowing what awaits him. The narrator at this stage coylyretires to a corner leaving the details of the love making to theimagination.

Lines 765 to 808

Summarise in the box below the steps taken by the stock courtlylovers, Damyan and May, in order to complete the arrangements fortheir adulterous affair.

TASK 13



Lines 809 to 842

Januarie as befits his position in society:

Shoop him to live ful deliciously (813)

There is little doubt that he really is able to live with style. He hasconstructed a love garden which is a conventional adornment ofcourtly love poetry. But there are already hints of the dark side of thisgarden in the presence of Priapus, the God of gardens, but also ofsexual love, and of Pluto and Proserpina. These pagan gods serve tocomment on the love affairs of the humans in the Tale, for Pluto hadseized and raped Proserpina in Sicily and she has been forced to livewith him in an uneasy marriage from which she escapes for six monthsin every year. Moreover, Pluto is often confused with Plutus, the Godof riches, so he is doubly apposite to comment on Januarie and hisaffairs. The pagan world is used to comment upon the Christian.

Januarie keeps the only key to the small gate into this garden where hetakes May in order to do:

... thinges whiche that were nat doon abedde, (839-40) He in the gardyn parfourned hem and spedde.

Lines 843 to 894

Fortune, which is likened to the scorpion with its sting in its tail,strikes Januarie blind just as he thinks he is happily married. Alwaysblind to what is going on around him, he is now literally blind.Initially, he is overcome with misery especially as he is not able towatch over his young wife. But his sorrow eases as he accepts his lot,and:



He paciently took his adversitee (872)

which is a mark in his favour. However, he responds to his blindnessby clinging to his wife the whole time, which causes her to be evermore desperate for Damyan:

... she moot han him as hir leste (883)

Damyan is equally desperate for May. The only way they cancorrespond with each other is by signs as Januarie:

... hadde an hand upon hire everemo. (891)

It is as if he is moulding her like wax. She is allowed no life of herown.

Lines 895 to 1012

The plot of Damyan and May nears its climax. Summarise that plot inyour notebook.

Throughout these lines Januarie remains foolishly unseeing, as well asliterally blind, but, as the notes below clearly illustrate, Chaucer doescreate some genuine sympathy for him in his pathetic condition.

In the next box trace how he does this. Also, briefly comment whetherby creating this sympathy Chaucer succeeds in making Januarie amuch more rounded, flesh and blood character than would otherwisehave been the case.

continues over

TASK 14



Lines 1013 to 1107

In these lines Chaucer introduces the Gods Pluto and Proserpina inmuch more detail as they join the humans in the garden of love.

In the box below trace briefly the connections between their lives andthose of the humans in the Tale.TASK 15



Lines 1108 to 1206

We now reach the climax of the Tale.

In the boxes below:

(1) summarise briefly the events which bring the Tale to aconclusion

(2) trace the heavy irony which continues throughout the climax andwhich is pointed out in the notes.

Summary

TASK 16



Use of irony

Lines 1207 to 1228

The Epilogue to the Tale

The host, who also has a shrewish wife, exclaims how women arealways intent, us sely men for to deceyve. But, knowing that if hecomplains too loudly about his wife it will get back to her, he thinks itis politic to say no more therefore my tale is do.

The Merchants Tale The Theme of Marriage in The Canterbury Tales


The Wife of Baths Tale

The debate concerning marriage begins with The Wife of Baths Tale.She is the totally dominant woman who will have nothing to do withthe notion that a woman should be the subservient lackey to herhusband. In fact, she has had five husbands and is so earthy in herjudgement of what will give satisfaction in marriage that, whileburying one of her husbands, she so fancies the legs of one of the pall-bearers that she sets her sights on their owner as her future husband.She says once she has gained the lond and ..... tresoor of herhusbands through marriage:

Me neded nat do lenger diligence (205-206)To winne hir love, or doon hem reverence.

What sholde I taken hede hem for to plese, (213-214)But it were for my profit and myn ese?

Far from accepting maistrie from a husband she is only satisfiedwhen she has gained it herself. With her true feminine guile she arguesthat it is the very fact of mans superior intellect which requires heshould give way to her whims:

Oon of us two moste bowen, doutelees; (440-442)And sith a man is more resonableThan womman is, ye moste been suffrable.

The Clerks Tale

The debate continues with The Clerks Tale in which a directlyopposite picture of marriage is presented. In it patient Griselda, thewife, is tested almost to destruction as regards her faithfulness, by ahusband who takes his maistrye for granted.

The Tale has resemblances with The Merchants Tale, whichimmediately follows it in The Canterbury Tales and continues themarriage debate. Both central characters live in Lombardy. Bothreceive advice about marriage. Count Walter from his tenants, whowant him to marry to secure their futures, and Januarie from hisbrothers, Placebo and Justinus. Both also have weddings celebratedwith splendid ceremony.

But, from that point, they are totally different. Having tested his wife,Count Walter finally gives her his love. Whereas in The Merchants

THE THEME OF MARRIAGE IN THECANTERBURY TALES



Tale, of course, May gradually gains dominance over her husband, adominance which the reader can easily see becoming outrightmaistrye if the marriage continues.

The Merchants Tale

As you have seen, The Merchants Tale is presented by a man totallydisillusioned as regards marriage and, now, very cynical as to whetherthat institution can be successful. The protagonists within the tale aredriven by lust and jealousy and have no notion of a partnership beingpart of a happy marriage. If the view of marriage presented here wasChaucers own rather than his narrators then we would have to viewhim as nothing other than a cynical misogynist like his narrator, but wehave already established that this view of marriage is not Chaucers.

The Franklins Tale

The corrective to these three tales comes in the next but one in theseries, The Franklins Tale, which concludes the marriage debate.

There are similarities with The Merchants Tale and thus the twotales have linking threads. In each a rich couple has a young man closeat hand who offers to destroy their marriage. Both have a garden as theplace for the intended adultery. The lover Aurelius is subject to all thecomplaints proper to a lover in courtly verse, just as Damyan has beenin The Merchants Tale:

In langour and in torment furyus (1101-2)Two yeers and moore lay wrecche Aurelius.

But the lady Dorigen, totally unlike May, refuses to make him al hoolagain, she would prefer to die rather than make love to him, and, in theend, he has the magnanimity to renounce his claim on her.

But, more important is the agreement concerning their marriage thatArveragus and Dorigen had made. The courtly and feudal notion oflove and marriage decreed that the man must be the ladys servantduring the courtship period, but would have maistrye once themarriage had taken place. However, Dorigen and Averagus haddecided, with a truly modern approach to marriage, theirs would bebased on mutual trust and respect and would be a true partnership:

Thus hath she take hir servant and hir lord, (792-94)Servant in love, and lord in marriage;Than was he bothe in lordshipe and servage.



This is far removed from the Merchants carnal assessment of marriedlifes possibilities, and much closer to what we would expect ofChaucers generous, tolerant and humane view of life.

Conclusions

The group of tales that form the debate on marriage come to aconclusion with the Franklins contribution, and it is fitting that the lastof the sequence should dispel the cynicism of the Merchant. The coreof the debate has centred on the notion of maistrye, and theconclusion is that marriage has its greatest chance of success whenneither partner seeks overpowering maistrye over the other. A truepartnership, it is suggested, holds out the best hope for a happy union.

Summarise how the four Tales related to the theme of marriage,contribute, in their separate but interlinked ways, to the debate onmarriage which Chaucer conducts in The Canterbury Tales.

The Merchants Tale The Conventions of Medieval Courtly Love


The Merchants Tale follows closely the four conditions of medievalcourtly love in poetry.

(i) Humility - that of Damyan which wears off during the course ofthe tale.

(ii) Courtesy - this is found in the rich and conventional court

setting of the poem with the closely observed etiquette of themarriage ceremony including Mays remaining hidden from thepublic gaze for four days.

(iii) Adultery - made plain in the first introduction of the loverDamyan at the wedding-feast of his master.

(iv) The religion of love - in fact, a perversion of religion; a certainritual is prescribed in which the lover is in pain in his search forrecognition and miraculously cured once it has been noticed.

Note (It is to be noted, however, that while adultery takes place in thevast majority of such poems it doesnt always do so. In TheFranklins Tale, adultery is threatened, but does not actuallytake place).

May and Damyan

With an understanding of the ideas and idioms of courtly love inmedieval poetry it becomes understandable why the events andcharacters central to its demands take place, and behave, as they do.(Januarie of course, is largely outside these demands). May is theadored one who comes around to requiting Damyans love. Damyan isthe adorer who has all the pangs of love longing to suffer and all thefears of discovery, he obeys all the rules of the game. His love lettergoes according to type. He is said to be gentil, sensable and sike;she shows pitie and franchise and bids him to be al hool. She hasher lover but he is no longer a servant, he is exposed as merelylustful and only capable of giving her a short-lived passionateexperience. The marriage has been treated cynically in The Tale, theadulterous affair is treated in an equally disenchanted manner. Mayand Damyan emerge as mere stock types and not living individualcharacters.

THE CONVENTIONS OF MEDIEVALCOURTLY LOVE

The Merchants Tale The Conventions of Medieval Courtly Love


The love garden

One of the central images of courtly romance is the love garden. It is inaccordance with the conventions of courtly romance that Januarie laysout such a garden. The love garden, conventionally, is central to apleasing view of the love vision, and Januarie builds his garden to findthe adorable qualities of love. But with his garden we are givenmention of Priapus the god of gardens (but also the god of orgiasticsensuality) as well as Venus, the goddess of love. Also the garden hasas its presiding god Pluto whose rape of Proserpina is one of thegreatest of all fertility and vegetation myths. There is a steady accentupon violence in this garden: Januaries view of sex as violenceinflicted upon women; Pluto and Damyan actually treat their partnerswith rough violence. There is complete lack of respect and affection allaround.

The carnality rather than the courtliness of this garden is encapsulatedin the gross image with which the whole story culminates:

And sodeynly anon this Damyan (1140-41)Gan pullen up the smok, and in he throng

Also within the garden is the image of the Tree; as powerful as any inthe poem. It is the Tree of the fruit of good and evil in which theserpent took up his abode (in this case Damyan of course); but it is alsoan image of Januarie himself. Early in the poem he remarks:

Though I be hoor, I fare as dooth a tree (249-50) That blosmeth er that fruit ywoxen bee

Myn herte and alle my lymes been as grene (253-54) As laurer thurgh the yeer is for to sene

He is mistaken - he is not an evergreen. He is not living through amidwinter spring but through an everlasting winter. He does not realisethat every paradise must have a source of evil. Blind, he doesnt seeDamyan in the tree. He embraces the trunk for May to climb up onhim, so that no one can follow. He is the agent of his own ruin. Hecannot see the Tree for what it is because he cannot see the evil in hisown life. Once his sight returns he still remains blind to the evil he haspromoted. The tree symbolises his complete lack of insight.

Summarise the conventional requirements of medieval courtly lovepoetry, and show how The Merchants Tale distorts and corruptsthose requirements.

The Merchants Tale Januaries Character


Make your own final assessment of Januaries character backing upyour assessment with textual references. Try not to look at the notesbelow at this stage.

Having completed your own assessment read the notes on Januariebelow and use them to back up, or augment, your own assessment, asproves necessary.

It would be quite wrong to reduce Januarie to the abstraction Elde(old age) since he is one of the poets most complex characters. Itsfrom him that almost all the ironies of the poem originate (takingliterary irony as, the writer utilising a naive hero, whose invincibleobtuseness leads him to persist in putting an interpretation on affairswhich the reader just as persistently alters or reverses.)

Januarie is indeed a naive hero always unaware of the fullestimplications of what he says. The long speech on marriage at theopening of the Tale is totally appropriate for him:

And certeinly, as sooth as God is King (55-59)To take a wif it is a glorious thing,

And namely whan a man is oold and hoor; Thanne is a wyf the fruit of his tresor. Thanne sholde he take a yong wif and a feir.

Does Januarie recognise himself as oold and hoor here? The wordfruit refers the reader forward, all the way to the catastrophe in thepear tree, while the word tresor brings into the poem the financialimagery. At every point Januarie sees marriage as a financial contractand an animal passion but as nothing of greater value.

Januarie in contrast to Damyan and May is indeed flesh and blood. Thereader can sympathise with him as he grows senile, becomes blind, andis betrayed, but the reader is also repulsed by him because of hisdelusion over his sexual prowess when in reality he has to take a wholerange of aphrodisiacs and read a manual De Coitu to show him howto proceed sexually, and when he feels that all he has to do to save hissoul is marry when the marriage is only based on his sexual appetite.

He acts with unceasing fantasye. He sees himself as a reincarnationof Paris carrying off his Helen, when he is more properly a fool of anold husband, a Menelaus. He believes that everything in life has a priceticket. As soon as he has found his wife he makes ready:

.... every scrit and bond (485-6)By which that she was feffed in his lond,

JANUARIES CHARACTER



His courtly pleasure garden is seen as an extension of a cash box inwhich the key is the all-important possession. He sees the relationbetween the sexes as a kind of war:

But in his herte he gan hire to manace (540-2)That he that night in armes wolde hire streyneHarder than evere Paris dide Eleyne.

He totally fails to read May, he marries her for her

... fresshe beautee and hir age tendre (389)

but also for her

... wise governaunce, hir gentillesse, (391-2) Hir wommanly beringe, an hire sadnesse.

Having decided the wife he wants he totally rejects the wisdom ofJustinus, and accepts only the advice of the timeserving sycophantPlacebo. His blindness is complete, he will only follow his ownappetites.

But there is another side to him. His house and his estate are wellordered and run and his servants are treated fairly and respect him. Hehas genuine sympathy for Damyan, his Squire, and wishes to comforthim when he is ill:

Of his bountee and his gentillesse (705-07) He wolde so comforten in siknesse His squier, for it was a gentil dede.

Of course, the fact that this squire is the very man who cuckolds himcan only sharpen the irony which pervades the whole Tale, but alsocreates pity for Januarie in the reader.

We can pity him again when his unfaithful wife uses him to crawl onhis back to meet this very squire in the pear tree. It would be difficultnot to empathise with him if not to fully sympathise. He is of the typeof man who never really grows up. Although sixty he still looks forone thing in a marriage: (although, as has already been noted in theline by line analysis, there are definite signs, in the love gardenscene, that he is beginning to move towards a more selfless love;ironically, its too late, May is intent on adultery). He sees likelymarriage partners as through:

.... a mirour, polisshed bright (370-71) And sette it in a commune market-place



He doesnt look for a real woman but only a reflection, and,appropriately, this reflection he sees in the place where objects arebought and sold.

The Merchants Tale The Poetry of The Merchants Tale


The colloquial and highly dramatic character of the poetry of Chaucerimplies that poetry was a highly developed social art. His poetryevidences the fact that he was no more cut off than Shakespeare fromthe more cultivated part of his audience and the vigorous life of theEnglish people as a whole. The implication is that the Englishcommunity portrayed in that poetry was, comparatively, ahomogeneous community - the pilgrimage ranges in its social make-upfrom the Knight to the Plowman.

The English oral/aural tradition

For the purposes of imaginative creation in language Chaucer had thehuge advantage of a cultivated English which was also rooted in thespeech - concrete, strong, figurative and proverbial - of the agriculturalEnglish folk. As such his phrases can seem disconcertingly simple.Similes not metaphors are characteristic of Chaucer and they in theirrobust strength are well adapted to the allegorical vision which remainsfirmly in place beneath his presentation of the human comedy.(Allegory = narrative description of a subject under the guise ofanother suggestively similar). The apparent simplicity of Chaucerspoetry is, in fact, a profoundly civilised simplicity and certainly not tobe mistaken for a primitive unsophisticated naivet.

Of prime importance to note is the fact that his poetry was written to beread aloud and not perused silently as has become customary withmodern verse. To be effective when read aloud, the poetry needs to beclear, brief in its effects, and disciplined, and the language he had at hisdisposal was well adapted to meet these requirements.

In your file list the six similes which you find most effective in TheMerchants Tale and say how each meets the requirements of poetryintended to be read aloud i.e. clarity, brevity and discipline?

The printer Caxton writing later of Chaucer, whom he greatly admired,wrote that the poet comprehended his matter in short, quick and highsentences, eschewing prolixity.

A powerful form of oral expression is the proverb which gives in thefewest possible words the greatest amount of moral wisdom e.g.

Ther nis no werkman, whatsoevere he be, (620-21)That may bothe werke wel and hastily

THE POETRY OF THE MERCHANTSTALE



List, in the box below, four examples of proverbs, which Chaucer usesin The Merchants Tale (in addition to the example above), whichyou found most effective.

Chaucers sensitivity to language

Chaucer reveals a true sensitivity to language and its possibilities, andto its qualities of immediacy and swiftness in lines such as:

When tendre youth has wedded stooping age (526)

and Lo, where he sit, the lechour, in the tree (1045)

and the description of the decrepit old man in bed is a perfect exampleof his powerful use of the simile which totally captures the blindfoolishness of Januarie who is never able to understand the reality ofany aspect of his lovemaking:

He lulleth hire, he kisseth hire ful oft; (611-13)With thikke brustles of his berd unsofteLyk to the skin of houndfissh, sharpe as brere

TASK 17



Illustrate how Chaucers rhyming couplet, and all aspects of his poetry,were so well adapted to meet the requirements of a verse intended tobe read aloud.

The Merchants Tale Chaucers Sources


The student of today, surrounded with the modern medias obsessionwith the new, with dizzying changes of fashion, is often surprised tolearn that the writing of the early poets and dramatists - Shakespeare aswell as Chaucer - had no such obsession. Their audiences were muchmore interested in the ways that well-known plots and ideas were usedand re-interpreted.

Its important to know something of Chaucers sources as used in TheMerchants Tale to understand his genius in the use of these. Chaucerhad what amounted to a working library of literature on Love toprovide background for his Tale. Latin books such as TheophrastusThe Golden Book; The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius; andThe Love of God and Consolation by Albertino, provided him withphilosophical observations and epigrams concerning love andmarriage. And three important sources lead back to the incidents in thenarrative itself. But it is important to note that no single source for thewhole Tale has ever been found.

(b)

(c)

CHAUCERS SOURCES

(a) Deschamps

The situation for Januarie making up his mind to marry andconsulting his friends for the purpose can be traced back to theFrench poet Deschamps and his poem Mirror of Marriage. Thisinvolves, A man of suitable age, feeling the prompting of certaininner impulses towards marriage. These impulses induce afoolish, deceitful .... line of reasoning. But the importantdifferences are that Deschamps hero is of suitable age formarriage and that, in the end, he is swayed by reason and notsexual passion.

(b) Boccaccio

The scene in which Januarie is bedded with May has for its source along speech in the story Ameto by Boccaccio, one of Chaucersmain Italian influences, but whereas Boccaccios Agapes, the youngwife, gives a full account of her suffering, May is completely silenti.e. Chaucer shows delicacy and restraint in handling this grotesqueincident.



But none of these covers much of the ground of this Tale, the varietyand pace of the story, together with much of the detail, are truly andoriginally, Chaucerian.

One other Latin work provides more than philosophical observations,Claudians poem The Rape of Proserpina.

In Claudian ye may the stories rede (1020)

This constitutes something of an extended metaphor for the wholeaction, for in the poem Pluto carries off and rapes Proserpina. She,hating her situation, always wished to escape from it, and latersucceeds in being separated from Pluto for six months in every year.They are a couple as unhappy and unsatisfactory as Januarie and May.

Chaucer draws together the two worlds of paganism and Christianityby giving Januarie and May counterparts from a completely separateorder of creature. Chaucer puts the pagan gods in their places,and alsodefines the living hell that can be lived by human beings who actblindly and selfishly.

Conclusion

For Chaucer sources were not merely literary sources. His fundamentalsource was the English language itself. The vitality and vividness ofChaucers human comedy springs from that common source, thatwell of English which, later, was Shakespeares also. The charactersof that human comedy are already recognisably English men andwomen, members of a community with the characters of later literature- there are in later English no characters more vivid than these, anintegral and vivid member of this group being Januarie. In fact, TheMerchants Tale as a whole, with its blending of Christian and pagan;its controlled irony; its powerful imagery; and its subtle inversion ofcourtly love traditions in its commentary on marriage is one ofChaucers masterpieces.

In the end no literary historian can adequately account for Chaucersart. There is nothing we know of literature and society of the time thatcan adequately do so. There is no clearer case of original genius.

(c) Tree stories

The third episode, that involving the adulterous Damyan in the peartree, can be traced to a variety of sources both oral and written. Aversion known as The Enchanted Pear Tree, and the legend thatinspired the Cherry Tree Carol, in which Joseph has to satisfy thelonging of Mary for cherries, both provide parallels.



Summarise the sources which Chaucer uses in his writing of TheMerchants Tale and show how his genius is displayed in the use ofthese.

The Merchants Tale Examination and Revision Questions


(1) The view of marriage as presented in The Merchants Tale isso cynical that it adds nothing to the eternal debate on the valueof that institution. Discuss.

(2) Januarie is the creation of a writer of supreme genius. Discuss.

(3) The Merchants Tale is indeed what we are led to expect fromour knowledge of the Merchant as a character. Discuss.

(4) By close reference to the poetry in The Merchants Talediscuss whether it displays a profoundly civilised simplicity.

(5) Similes, not metaphors are characteristic of Chaucer. Discusswhether you think this is true and why this is so. Refer closely tothe actual imagery of The Merchants Tale in your answer.

(6) The Garden of Love, and the events that take place in it,provides a fitting commentary on the bogus nature of Januarieand Mays marriage. Discuss.

(7) May and Damyan are mere stock characters so lacking in fleshthat they add nothing to the power of the Tale. Discuss.

(8) Pagan and Christian are combined in a very subtle fashion in theTale and this combination adds much to its final strength.Discuss.

(9) All is irony. Discuss in relation to The Merchants Tale.

(10) The work of a supreme genius. Summarise the argumentswhich could be put forward to support this view of TheMerchants Tale (or present your arguments for disagreeing).

(11) Describe how Chaucer uses authorities in The MerchantsTale, and account for how his use of them reveals his truegenius.

(12) Maistrye and gentillesse are key concepts in The CanterburyTales. Describe how they are used in The Merchants Tale.

(13) The two brothers, Placebo and Justinius, in their very differentadvice on the nature of marriage and whether Januarie shouldmarry, serve admirably to point up the totally unseeingfoolishness of Januarie. Discuss.

- end -

EXAMINATION AND REVISIONQUESTIONS

Documents

MERCHANT'S TALE - Student_Tasks.pdf