The Merchant's Tale Textual Quotes

Question 1

The Merchant

Answer 1

• “Sowninge alwey th’encrees of his winning”
• ‘Ther wiste no wight that he was in dette, so estatly was he of his governance’
  No one knew he was in debt - facade/untrustworthy
• “Weping and wailing, care and oother sorwe I know ynogh, on even and a-morwe” -
• “feend… Hir hye malice? She is a shrewe… Ther is a long and large difference Bitwix Grisildis grete pacience Between Griselda’s great patience And of my wyf passyng crueltee…my wyves cursednesse”
• ”Unbounden…snare”
  the Merchant’s descriptions of marriage
• “We wedded men lyven in sorwe and care”
  Only been married 2 months: ‘thise months rwo, and moore nat’
• Despite saying he will ‘telle may namoore’ of his ‘owene soore’, the tale is laced with his hatred of marrriage

Question 2

May before adultery

Answer 2

• “bright and sheene” May before adultery
• His fresshe May, his paradys, his make.

Question 3

Damyan initial description

Answer 3

• Al but a squyer, highte Damyan, Which carf biforn the knyght ful many a day…Thyn owene squier and thy borne man,
• He was so ravysshed on his lady May That for the verray peyne he was ny wood. Almoost he swelte and swowned ther he stood, So soore hath Venus hurt hym with hire brond,
  That for the very pain he was nearly crazy. Almost he fainted and swooned where he stood, So sorely has Venus hurt him with her torch,
• This sike Damyan in Venus fyr

Question 4

Januarie intro

Answer 4

• ‘Whilom ther was dwellynge in Lumbardye A worthy knyght, that born was of Pavye, In which he lyved in greet prosperitee; And sixty yeer a wyflees man was hee, And folwed ay his bodily delyt On wommen, ther as was his appetyt’
  Once there was dwelling in Lombardy A worthy knight, who was born in Pavia, In which he lived in great prosperity; And sixty years a wifeless man was he, And followed always his bodily desire

Question 5

Justinus

Answer 5

• Justinus’s sounds advice: I warne yow wel, it is no childes pley To take a wyf withouten avysement….it so that no man fynden shal Noon in this world that trotteth hool in al,
  - I warn you well, it is no child’s play To take a wife without deliberation…Although it is so that no man shall find…Any in this world that is perfect in everything
• ‘I have wept many a teere ful prively, sin I have had a wyf” despite having ‘the mooste stedefast wyf’
• Subverts advice: A wyf axeth ful many an observaunce. ( A wife requires constant attention)
• “Ye shul nat plesen hire fully yeres thre” (You shall not please her fully years three )
• REJECTED advice: Straw for thy Senek, and for thy proverbes!

Question 6

Placebo

Answer 6

• “Ye been So ful of sapience” saysd placebo to januraie ‘I holde youre owene conseil is the beste “
• STATUS AND COURT SATIRE: I have stonden in ful greet degree Abouten lordes of ful heigh estaat; Yet hadde I nevere with noon of hem debaat. I nevere hem contraried, trewely… A ful greet fool is any conseillour… That dar presume…That his conseil sholde passe his lordes wit.’
  I have stood in very high degree Among lords of very high rank; Yet had I never with any of them disagreement. I never contradicted them, truly… A full great fool is any counselor that dares presume That his counsel should surpass his lord’s judgment. = 40 lines of sycophancy
• “And trewely, it is an heigh corage of any man that stapen is in age to take a yong wif” - placebo

Question 7

Proserpina’s Power

Answer 7

• Proserprina ‘yeven hire suffisant answere’ while Pluto give Januarie ‘ayen his eyen syght’
• WOMEN AS DECIETFUL: Proserpina gives** ‘alle wommen’ **the ability to ‘wepe, and swere, and chyde subtilly So that ye men shul been as lewed as gees.’ = dichotomy between genders/seperation =
• PROSERPINA HAS MORE SPEECH = POWERFUL VS IS SHE IS SHREW? Proving women to be sinful?
• ‘in sovereyn bontee Nis noon but God, but neither he ne she.’ = SENSE OF EQUALITY IN SIN = DISMANTLING MISOGYNISTIC REAOSNING and breaking down sources/male voices that men have cited throughout tale = Solomon as ‘**a lecchour **and an ydolastre’, citing Book of Kings, power in reason, takes a more learned approach to citation
• POWERFUL FEMALE REJECTION: I sette right noght, of al the vileynye That ye of wommen write, a boterflye! I am a womman, nedes moot I speke, Or elles swelle til myn herte breke.
  I reckon all the villainy That you of women write not worth a butterfly! I am a woman, I must necessarily speak,Or else swell until my heart breaks.
  MADE MORE POWERFUL MY PLUTO GIVING IN= ‘ I yeve it up

Question 8

Delusion / Ideals around Marriage

Answer 8

• “blisful lyf that is bitwixe an housbonde and his wyf…hooly boond”
• “wedlock is so esy and so clene That in this world it is a paradis” Thus seyde this olde knyght, that was so wys.’ (Syphilis less likely from a virgin)
• A wyf is Goddes yifte verraily; Alle othere manere yiftes hardily, As londes, rentes, pasture, or commune,
  A wife is God’s gift truly; All other sorts of gifts certainly, Such as lands, rents, pasture, or right to use common = COMPARED TO OBJECTS
• “Mariage is a ful greet sacrement.”

Question 9

Moral Lessons

Answer 9

• SETS UP MORE ADULTERY= Til that youre sighte ysatled be a while Ther may ful many a sighte yow bigile. (Until your sight be settled a while There may full many a sight deceive you.)
• ENDING DEFIES FABLIAUX, ignorance is bliss and lies triumph = who is glad but he?He kisseth hire and clippeth hire ful ofte, And on hire wombe he stroketh hire ful softe, And to his palays hoom he hath hire lad. (And to his palace he has her led home.)

Question 10

May’s Female Power

Answer 10

• EXCUSE: ‘to make yow to see’ May would ‘strugle with a man upon a tree’ … ‘I dide it in ful good entente’
• Female power= He stoupeth doun, and on his bak she stood,
• I telle yow wel, a womman in my plit May han to fruyt so greet an appetit That she may dyen but she of it have. = emotional manipulation
• In response, CRITICAL NARRATOR: ‘Swiche olde lewed wordes used he.’
  Januarie blind and Dmyan ‘sit under a bussh anon’ = MAY IN CONTROL = coutrly love undermined by uncooth descirptions
  This Januarie, as blynd as is a stoon, = ROLE REVERSAL, May sharing epithets with Janurie puts them on same level
• “in warm wex emprented the cliket”
• POWER = she pitied Damyan: Hath take swich impression that day Of pitee of this sike Damyan …. graunted hym hire grace

Question 11

Satire

Answer 11

• CRUDE: this Damyan Gan pullen up the smok, and in he throng.
• DIRECT PARAPHRASING OF SONG OF SOLOMON which begins “Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away.’: biblical words undermined by lacivious words; Rys up, my wyf, my love, my lady free!… How fairer been thy brestes than is wyn! (How fairer are thy breasts than is wine!)
• Ironic tone of melodrama = O perilous fyr, that in the bedstraw bredeth!… O servant traytour, false hoomly hewe,
  Parfourned hath the sonne his ark diurne; (The sun has completed his daily journey;)… Night with his mantel, = language of high romance perverted