"The Merchant's Tale" () is one of

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

's ''

Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' () is a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. The book presents the tales, which are mostly written in verse (poetry), verse, as part of a fictional storytellin ...

''.

Summary of the tale

After a prologue where the Merchant laments the cruelty of his spouse, he begins the story in

Pavia Pavia ( , ; ; ; ; ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, in Northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino (river), Ticino near its confluence with the Po (river), Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was a major polit ...

, where Januarie, a sixty year old knight, is enamoured by the idea of

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

. He asks his two friends for advice. The first, Placebo, flatters him and agrees with all that he says, whereas the second, Justinus, advises him to be cautious when selecting a bride. Januarie ignores Justinus' advice and marries a young girl of around twenty years named May. During the marriage feast after the ceremony is conducted, Januarie's squire, Damyan, falls in love with May. He secretly gives her a love letter, the sentiment of which she reciprocates and the forbidden couple start to plot a plan to consummate their love without Januarie's knowledge. All of a sudden, Januarie is mysteriously struck blind, allowing May and Damyan's plan to come to fruition. One day in June, when husband and wife are in the

walled garden A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate c ...

that Januarie built as a place to fulfil his sexual desires, May asks Januarie to pick a pear from one of the pair trees for her. Januarie, being blind, is incapable, so he lets her climb on his back to pick one herself. Damyan has been waiting in the tree for her, as he obtained a copy of the garden key from May, and when she climbs up, they begin to make love among the branches. However, this affair has been witnessed by two gods:

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...

and

Proserpina Proserpina ( ; ) or Proserpine ( ) is an ancient Roman goddess whose iconography, functions and myths are virtually identical to those of Greek Persephone. Proserpina replaced or was combined with the ancient Roman fertility goddess Libera, whos ...

. Outraged by the behaviour of women, Pluto restores Januarie's sight, who begins to panic as he sees his wife cheating on him with his squire in the tree. However, Proserpina, reacting to Pluto's behaviour, sends May a false excuse to help her out of this situation. May declares to Januarie that she had learnt that his blindness would be cured if she 'wrestles' with a man in a tree, and that his eyes deceive him. Januarie believes her, and the two go home together. The tale is followed by an epilogue where the Innkeeper complains about his wife.

Critical interpretations

In this tale, it has been argued by critics that Chaucer subtly mocks anti-feminist literature like that of

Theophrastus Theophrastus (; ; c. 371 – c. 287 BC) was an ancient Greek Philosophy, philosopher and Natural history, naturalist. A native of Eresos in Lesbos, he was Aristotle's close colleague and successor as head of the Lyceum (classical), Lyceum, the ...

("Theofraste"). One question that splits critics is whether the Merchant's tale is a

fabliau A ''fabliau'' (; plural ''fabliaux'') is a comic, often anonymous tale written by jongleurs and clerics in France between c. 1150 and 1400. They are generally characterized by sexual and scatological obscenity, and by a set of contrary attitud ...

. Typically a description for a tale of carnal lust and frivolous bed-hopping, some would argue that especially the latter half of the tale, where Damyan and May have sex in the tree with the blind Januarie at the foot of the tree, represents fabliau.

Derek Pearsall Derek Albert Pearsall (1931–2021) was an English medievalist and Chaucerian who wrote and published widely on Chaucer, Langland, Gower, manuscript studies, and medieval history and culture. He was the co-director for the Centre for Medieval St ...

, for example, is in favour of this view. Some critics, such as Maurice Hussey, feel that Chaucer offers a great deal more sophistication and philosophical insight to put this on a level above fabliau. Though several of the tales are sexually explicit by modern standards, The Merchant's is often regarded as especially so. Larry Benson remarks:

Technique and style

Many characters in this Tale have cratylic names: Januarie, the main character, is named in conjunction with his equally seasonal wife May, representing their individual characters: Januarie is , sharing the bare and unfruitful characteristics of his title month, whereas his youthful and wife represents the spring seasons. This has particular relevance when considering the parallel between this tale, and the Biblical tale of

Adam and Eve Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...

. Januarie's brothers are named Placebo and Justinus: the former a

sycophant In modern English, sycophant denotes an "insincere flatterer" and is used to refer to someone practising sycophancy (i.e., insincere flattery to gain advantage). The word has its origin in the legal system of Classical Athens, where it had a d ...

, whose name in Latin means 'I will please', and the latter a fairer man ('the just one') with no individual motive. The main character, Januarie is a typical example of the trope.

Sources and variants

It has been arguedthat the tale also shows the influence of

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was s ...

(''

Decameron ''The Decameron'' (; or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dante Alighieri's ''Comedy'' "''Divine''"), is a collection of ...

'': 7th day, 9th taleThe ninth tale of Book VII of the Decameron. See

Summary of Decameron tales This article contains summaries and commentaries of the 100 stories within Giovanni Boccaccio's ''The Decameron''. Each story of the ''Decameron'' begins with a short heading explaining the plot of the story. The 1903 J. M. Rigg translation he ...

), Deschamps' , by

Guillaume de Lorris Guillaume de Lorris () was a French scholar and poet from Lorris. He was the author of the first section of the . Little is known about him, other than that he wrote the earlier section of the poem around 1230, and that the work was completed f ...

(translated into English by Chaucer),

Andreas Capellanus Andreas Capellanus (''Capellanus'' meaning "chaplain"), also known as Andrew the Chaplain (), and occasionally by a French translation of his name, André le Chapelain, was the 12th-century author of a treatise commonly known as '' De amore'' ("Ab ...

Statius Publius Papinius Statius (Greek language, Greek: Πόπλιος Παπίνιος Στάτιος; , ; ) was a Latin poetry, Latin poet of the 1st century CE. His surviving poetry includes an epic in twelve books, the ''Thebaid (Latin poem), Theb ...

, and Cato on Chaucer's writing. Similar tales are Boccaccio's Story of Lydia and Pyrrhus and The Simpleton Husband from ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition ( ...

.'' Book IV of The ''

Masnavi The ''Masnavi'', or ''Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi'' (, DIN 31635, DMG: ''Mas̲navī-e maʻnavī''), also written ''Mathnawi'', or ''Mathnavi'', is an extensive poem written in Persian language, Persian by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, also known as Rumi. I ...

'' of

Rumi Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (), or simply Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi '' faqih'' (jurist), Maturidi theologian (''mutakallim''), and Sufi mystic born during the Khwarazmian Empire ...

contains another pear tree story.

Adaptations

On 27 February 2017, the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music school, music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz al ...

premiered a new, full-length operatic adaptation of Chaucer's ''The Merchant's Tale'' created by writer Stephen Plaice and composer Julian Philips, entitled '' The Tale of Januarie''. Plaice created his libretto in

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

not only adapting the original Chaucer text for an operatic setting, but also drawing on other works by Chaucer and creating entirely original

lyrics. Philips and Plaice structured this adaptation across all four seasons of the calendar year, extending Chaucer's original Tale into Autumn thereby following Januarie's tale on beyond the grave. ''The Tale of Januarie'' is published by Peters Edition.''The Tale of Januarie'', Peters Edition score
/ref> In

Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist ...

's film ''

The Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' () is a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. The book presents the tales, which are mostly written in verse, as part of a fictional storytelling contest held ...

'', this story is adapted with

Josephine Chaplin Josephine Hannah Chaplin (March 28, 1949 – July 13, 2023) was an American actress and the daughter of filmmaker Charlie Chaplin and his fourth wife, Oona O'Neill. She had a featured role in Pier Paolo Pasolini's ''The Canterbury Tales'' (1972) ...

as May and

Hugh Griffith Hugh Emrys Griffith (30 May 1912 – 14 May 1980) was a Welsh actor. Described by BFI Screenonline as a "wild-eyed, formidable character player", Griffith appeared in more than 100 theatre, film, and television productions in a career that spa ...

as Sir January.

Notes

External links

Harvard's interlinear translation.

Harvard's page

Modern Translation of the ''Merchant's Tale'' and Other Resources at eChaucer

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merchant's Tale The Canterbury Tales Fiction with unreliable narrators Fiction about infidelity Proserpina