The Merchant's Tale page 3
Line 365 ff
Line 365 ff
At this point the narrative mode changes so that we see the inside of January's mind and spirit which would not be the case in a traditional fabliau. His feverish and obsessive complulsion is graphically recounted: "Heigh fantasye and curious bisynesse" affect his soul, "curious" meaning something like "full of care and intensity". He moves further and further away from reality as female shapes and faces pass through his imagination night after night: the image of a mirror placed in a public market place emphasises both the unreality and the transactional nature of the enterprise. It is a well controlled digressio and the Merchant soon returns to January's interior thought mechanisms as he sees forms pass by. January has difficulty in deciding which woman to pick as one has beauty and another a good reputation for "sadness" [seriousness] and "beningnitee"; public opinion matters to him and he dismisses those who are rich but not well thought of. Finally "between ernest and game" [between seriousness and playfulness], a phrase which reveals the unreal side of his intension, he fixes on one and, almost by an effort of will, dismisses the others from his heart. Without taking advice and on his own authority, he settles his choice, a result which is instantly undermined by the sceptical line: "For love is blind alday and may nat see." This is clearly satirical as January is not in love and yet is behaving blindly whilst the theme of blindness and refusal or inability to see is established as a theme. Cupid is traditionally portrayed as blind, as is Fortune, whereas January is mentally and morally unseeing. All the women he has encountered are merely images and he is driven by lust.
He proceeds to work himself into a near frenzy as he concentrates on his fantasies: anaphora in the repetition of "Hir [her]" at the start of the next four lines suggests the obsessive yet deliberate nature of his imaginings. Her fresh beauty, youth, slim waist and long slender arms would have been recognised as aspects of the perfect stereotyped woman in the medieval mind, to which he adds the moral attributes of prudent self-control, "gentillesse" [a strong word indicating all the qualites of a noble person], good conduct such as chastity and fidelity and seriousness of manner. She is an ideal but he has never met her and so we wait to see if she will behave like this when he marries her. Now that he has fixed his choice, he is beyond advice and considers other men's ideas so unworthy that no one can dispute his choice, the word "fantasye" reappearing so that the repetition confirms the unreality of his position. He calls another mock-council to approve his decision in a similar charade and will declare that he intends to go no further in his search. He is unstoppable and tells them outright that he does not want disagreement, (the double negatives "noon" and "none" are for emphasis) claiming that his purpose is pleasing to God and therefore cannot be undermined. This apparent religiosity is vitiated by the phrase "verray ground of his prosperitee", where his self-interest is obvious.
He has chosen a maiden renowned for her beauty although of lowly birth, "smal degree", and so her "gentillesse" and noble propriety of behaviour are in question. Her youth and looks are enough for him with his dual motives for marriage: "ese and hoolinesse" showing that he wants an earthly paradise as well as a heavenly one lending a moral ambiguity to his purpose. All he asks is that his listeners help him achieve his aim, repeating the word "ese" proving that is his main aim. One matter troubles him as he is familiar with theological doctrine and knows that no-one can expect two sources of bliss, on earth and in heaven. Even if a man keeps clear of the seven deadly sins there is such pleasure in marriage that he doubts if he will then earn a place in heaven, having enjoyed himself so much on earth. Heaven can only be guaranteed if the man has bought it with "tribulation and greet penaunce [suffering in return for sins committed]". This long sentence includes an idealised sense of a fantasy marriage, "myrie" and "delicat withouten wo and strife" which makes us sure that he is heading for disillusionment, particularly when reinforced by the ironical: "As all wedded men doon with hire wyvys." His only desire in this conundrum is that they reassure him of the impossible: that he can do his devout duty as well as satisfying his bodily cravings. It is hypocritical and not a sincere request for an informed doctrinal opinion and we wonder if, in fact, he will come to endure severe difficulties in his marriage which will answer the problem as Justinus also points out.
Justinus hates January's foolishness and answers mockingly, claiming that he will shorten his comments by omitting reference to authorities, which is an abdication of his duty as advisor. He is clever and sharp and replies that God will ensure salvation because January will come to repent of marriage even though he now believes that it is free from trouble and strife: here Justinus turns his words back on him as well as his hypocrisy as this is not the answer January needs. He advises January to bear in mind that the new wife will be his Purgatory (a place of purification through suffering after death with the prospect of Heaven in the future). This is highly comic as it is unanswerable - or would be if January were honest in his questioning. The Wife of Bath had said that she acted as Purgatory for her husbands and so the screw has a further twist. January's wife will then be Heaven's means of ensuring Heaven and the humorous rhyme "whippe/skippe" shows Justinus' impatient scorn of January as does his emphasis on the arrow-like speed with which his soul will ascend. His advice points out acutely that January cannot have the best of both worlds and assures him, with repeated negatives ("Nis/no", "ne nevere") for emphasis, that there is no bliss in marriage which will prevent his salvation. His sarcasm and bitter irony may conceal a personal concern about an inheritance but it also reflects the Merchant's hostile attitude to the wedded state.
With more mischievous irony he advises January to be sparing with sex as even within marriage lust must be controlled: he should take care not to satisfy the desires of a young woman too enthusiastically, a pertinent and malign comment as January is marrying largely for sanctified and legalised sex and, in view of his age, will probably have some physical difficulty matching the needs of a youthful female. If he does not please her, however, he leaves room for her adultery. Justinus is exasperated and wants to end the charade, using falsely the rhetorical device of diminutio to draw to a conclusion: "my witte is thinne" he claims when he is the most intelligent person present. A further rhetorical device of occupatio, moves him forward, when he openly says he wants to cut short: "lat us waden out of this mateere." Ironically, he describes the Wife of Bath as having declared "ful wel in litel space" when she rambled uncontrollably in her Preamble about how she mistreated her husbands, using feminist arguments to justify her blatant fortune-seeking and revealing all her unpleasant tricks and devices whilst longing for the old men to die. This reference cannot be by Justinus who is a character within the Tale and knows nothing of the Wife but must be by the Merchant (who would have quoted the Wife to support his anger about wives) via Chaucer: its function is to remind us that real marriages between young and old are far from ideal and to create dramatic tension as we wait for the prophecies to be fulfilled.
When Justinus and Pacebo see that the matter is decided they set about arranging the marriage: the haste of the process is stressed as if January cannot wait and the Merchant adds to this sense of hurry by the device of occupatio by which he eliminates the legal details of the settlement whilst still letting his audience know that the bride is granted January's lands by writs and bonds. Her name being May, we are reminded of the calendar and its essential division between spring and winter and, in the Tale, youth and age. The Merchant also skips over her rich clothing and arrives at the wedding day, showing a firm control of his material. The apparent holiness in the ceremony is emphasised and the priest made real by the mention of his stole: it was traditional to bid the woman to be as wise as Rebecca and as faithful and long-lived as Sarah, but the name of Rebecca has underhand connotations. The phrase "as is usage" suggests that the priest delivers the usual formalities (he "croucheth" [crosses] them) but without engagement as does: "And made al siker ynogh with hooliness" as though religion were merely an agent for sticking the couple together in matrimony. This superficial and swift treatment echoes January's hypocrisy as he is anxious to bed May with haste.
By contrast, the description of the secular feast is complex and detailed with classical references rather than medieval to add status. It is a seasonal festival such as might be represented on a calendar and is hyperbolic in manner: the instruments are the finest in Italy and the music is better than that of Orpheus or Amphion of Thebes. Such music accompanies every course of the banquet, creating the loudest noises. The god of wine, Bacchus, pours wine for them all and the ceremony has become distinctly pagan as Venus, goddess of physical love, laughs because January has become her knight (and is therefore in her power) in that he wants to try out his virility in "libertee, and eek in marriage". If "libertee" is taken to mean "promiscuity", these are opposites and so it probably has the sense of enjoying unlimited sexual freedom within the legal bond, an indulgence that Justinus has warned about. She carries a flaming torch, symbolising passion and introducing the leitmotif of fire which will recur. The effect is of danger and over-excitement underlined by the statement that Hymen, god of marriage, has never seen such a merry husband. The sense is that this fever pitch cannot last. The criticism of the poet Marcian and its disrespectful tone are also warnings that all this elaborate show is flimsy and the heavy irony is pointed by the bathos in: "Whan tendre youthe hath wedded stouping age" with its exaggeration of January's years. There is ambiguity in the claim that there has never been such mirth as the laughter could be mocking as the instruction: "Assayeth it youreself" suggests, when real experience would vitiate this false and illusory jollity.
For the first time we are now invited to turn our attention to May, although she is depicted from the outside: she has such a meek expression that it is enchanting to behold her. There is another side to the reference to Esther who looked meek also when she was plotting the death of Ahasuerus and we recall that the Wife of Bath, though far from meek, was constantly hoping for the death of her first husbands. Occupatio is again employed to avoid a detailed description of May's beauty ("I may yow nat devise [describe]") but the reference to the springtime month and therefore her youth once more emphasises the problem of their discrepancy in age, and the repetition of the word "beautee" reminds us that other men may find her attractive. We rarely know what May is thinking or feeling in this part of the Tale but we do gain profound insight into January's emotions and thoughts.
Each time January looks at May he is "ravisshed in a trance" [carried away in a fantasy] a strong expression which suggests that he is in a feverish state of sexual excitment with an undertone of violence when he threatens or menaces her in his heart and wants to clasp her more tightly than Paris did to the renowned beauty, Helen. He compares himself to the young lover but the audience, familiar with the legend, might well see him as Menelaus, the old deluded and cuckolded husband. Throughout the Tale so far we have had indications that he will be disillusioned and his expectations defrauded, particularly here in the almost comic lines where he wonders if she will be able to sustain his passionate love-making and his "corage [sexual desire] deluding himself that he will have to restrain his virility. He is again in haste, this time that the banquet should end but we are aware that this is the urgency of senility and feel that his pride must come before a fall. He needs to behave respectably and, with laughable double motives, is polite yet dismissive of his guests.
When they rise from the table at the appropriate time they dance, drink and scatter spices around; everyone is in a joyful mood except for Damyan, the squire, and possibly May, whose feelings are not described. This young man has fallen in love with May in the traditional manner of courtly love, suddenly and intensely, and the language reflects this: "Almoost he swelte [fainted] and swooned ther he stood", the hyperbole and alliteration being a feature of exaggerated nature of the mode. The painfulness of his emotions is stressed by the image of Venus' burning torch and the misery with which he retires to bed to weep and lament. With the device of occupatio, the Merchant refuses to tell us more at this point but indicates that May will take pity on him later (note the use of the word "til"), thus ensuring tension as we know, even before the marriage is consumated, that he will re-enter the narrative and that she will be unfaithful to January. This already affects the tone and meaning of the adjective "fresshe" as frequently applied to May and it becomes less and less appropriate as the Tale proceeds. The Merchant is an accomplished narrator as he leaves us wondering what the wedding night will be like if May is to harbour desires elsewhere so very quickly.
The next lines also show the Merchant's skill as a narrator as the account of Damyan's passion conrats with that of January's, having less of the fantasy element - despite being formalised within the courtly love mode - and fewer mercenary concerns. His is the physical anguish of the young and virile man, full of vigour and energy; there less of a feeling that he is working up his emotions. The image of fire returns and is within the domestic and appropriate setting of a straw mattress. Anaphora occurs with the repetition of "O" at the start of the lines, which is also an example of apostrophe in the addressing of objects as well as than people. Further repetition of "hoomly" stresses that the danger is within the house. Alliteration emphasises the trouble brewing ("famulier foo" and "hoomly hewe" denoting the close servant) and the image of the snake "the naddre in bosom sly untrewe" adds a suggestion of the serpent in paradise. The narrative line is paused for this description but the Merchant remains in control of his material whilst employing these literary and rhetorical devices by which he hopes to engage and impress his listeners. The claustrophobic sense of a burning threat which could affect any one is strongly presented as is the treachery: it is like a pantomime where the teller or audience member alerts a character to watch out as he warns January, drunk and blinded by the delights of marriage, directly of how "Thyn owene squier and thy borne man [man born on his estate]" is about to betray him with disloyalty. We know there will be adultery: the questions are when and how.
At this point (line 583) the Merchant embarks on a description of nightfall which, in accordance with the conventions of rhetoric, pauses the plot for circumlocutio, a wordy way of expressing something simple. This is perhaps intended to make the listener as impatient as January as well as to show off the teller's poetic powers but there is a comic phrase which undermines the lyrical effect: Night's mantle is described as "derk and rude" emphasising the new husband's sexual intentions. At last the "lusty route" [pleasant company] departs with thanks to January and there is a touch of bathos in: "Where as they doon hir thinges as hem leste" [do what they want] as though the narrator's imagination or stamina has failed him.
January is in a feverish haste to have sex with May but, in comic contrast to his earlier boasts of virility, representing hubris, needs a range of aphrodisiacs to stimulate him. He takes spiced and strong wine and other remedies for possible impotence as recommended by Constantius Afer ("cursed" is the Merchant's term, not January's) in his book De Coitu: the effect of these lines is humorous as January swallows everything in a desperate attempt to ensure success. He clears the house, the bed curtains are drawn and, significantly: "The bride was broght abedde as stille as stone." This ominous simile contrasts with January's frenzied activity and with the image of fire in a mattress referring to Damyan's burning passion. May's feelings or lack of them are left to our imagination.
Once the bed is blessed, January seizes May "his paradis, his make [mate]," caresses and kisses her but, at the alliterative mention of his bristly beard rubbing her tender face she already seems much less "fresshe". Ironically, he has shaved himself to seem young but the effect is to make his chin like the skin of a dogfish (so rough that carpenters used it as sandpaper.) The desritpion of his love-making is highly comic throughout and becomes more and more grotesque. Firstly he apologises hypocritically and boastfully to her for the offence he may cause her before he goes to sleep, the word "descende" having a sexual connotation also. The analogy with a workman who, in order to perform well, must not hasten his labour is humorous and the excuse that they can enjoy themselves as long as they like because they are married makes us wonder, by its use of "we", what May must be feeling about this promise - or threat. Behind this speech is the theological warning that marriage should not be sanctified lust, but January is proving that his motive for finding a wife was just that. His desire to "pleye us by the lawe" is bizarre and the homely image of the knife creates bathos. He does labour (reminding us of his earlier comparison and making the act of sex seem hard work) until dawn, when he has need of further stimulant, although bread dipped in "fyn claree [wine]" was not an unusual early breakfast. The visual picture becomes hilarious as he sits up in bed and sings, then frisks about like a colt, chattering like a magpie, with a close-up portrait of his neck, which is presumably what May can see near her: "The slakke skin aboute his nekke shaketh/Whil that he sang, so chaunteth he and craketh", where the rhythm of the lines echoes the wobbling of his folds of skin and the alliteration is exaggerated to point the effect. It is a repulsive detail, the animal imagery debasing January further, but the close portrayal is not typical of a fabliau even though we expect a similar outcome to that in a bawdy bar-room story.
At line 639 the Merchant abdicates from the mode of omniscient narration to claim that only God knows what May feels as she sees January sitting up in his night shirt and cap. He could tell us if he wishes, since he has created the character but there are three functions in his refusal: it makes the narrative more realistic if her emotions are left to the listener/reader to imagine; it adds some suspense as we are sure that she is repelled by the sight and will find satisfaction elsewhere and it leaves May as a cipher, a sketched-in figure viewed externally who does not speak for many more pages until she comes alive for Damyan, though we rarely know what she thinks from within. We see January with her eyes and we do learn that she did not rate his love-making more than a bean, a homely and dismissive image in a low register. He rests until nine o'clock before getting up but she keeps to her room for the customary four days, for reasons which are not made clear. The lexis is of work, labour and rest but she has seemed entirely passive and presumably more in need of time to herself than repose. She seems no longer "fresshe" and becomes more and more stale-seeming throughout the Tale and the animal comparisons of "fish, or brid, or beest" are debasing.
With a clear signal of change of topic common and necessry in oral narration, the Merchant turns to Damyan. Now the teller of the Tale addresses one of his characters directly, which makes Damyan seem real. and brings the Merchant into the narrative adding engagement and feeling. With apostrophe, he calls the servant simple and foolish for loving from an impossible distance and choosing someone who will refuse him if he speaks or even betray him. Because of the heavy irony and the passages we have just read or heard we suspect that she will eagerly accept his attentions.
To continue to The Merchant's Tale page 4 click here
To return to the Home Page with list of texts click here
He proceeds to work himself into a near frenzy as he concentrates on his fantasies: anaphora in the repetition of "Hir [her]" at the start of the next four lines suggests the obsessive yet deliberate nature of his imaginings. Her fresh beauty, youth, slim waist and long slender arms would have been recognised as aspects of the perfect stereotyped woman in the medieval mind, to which he adds the moral attributes of prudent self-control, "gentillesse" [a strong word indicating all the qualites of a noble person], good conduct such as chastity and fidelity and seriousness of manner. She is an ideal but he has never met her and so we wait to see if she will behave like this when he marries her. Now that he has fixed his choice, he is beyond advice and considers other men's ideas so unworthy that no one can dispute his choice, the word "fantasye" reappearing so that the repetition confirms the unreality of his position. He calls another mock-council to approve his decision in a similar charade and will declare that he intends to go no further in his search. He is unstoppable and tells them outright that he does not want disagreement, (the double negatives "noon" and "none" are for emphasis) claiming that his purpose is pleasing to God and therefore cannot be undermined. This apparent religiosity is vitiated by the phrase "verray ground of his prosperitee", where his self-interest is obvious.
He has chosen a maiden renowned for her beauty although of lowly birth, "smal degree", and so her "gentillesse" and noble propriety of behaviour are in question. Her youth and looks are enough for him with his dual motives for marriage: "ese and hoolinesse" showing that he wants an earthly paradise as well as a heavenly one lending a moral ambiguity to his purpose. All he asks is that his listeners help him achieve his aim, repeating the word "ese" proving that is his main aim. One matter troubles him as he is familiar with theological doctrine and knows that no-one can expect two sources of bliss, on earth and in heaven. Even if a man keeps clear of the seven deadly sins there is such pleasure in marriage that he doubts if he will then earn a place in heaven, having enjoyed himself so much on earth. Heaven can only be guaranteed if the man has bought it with "tribulation and greet penaunce [suffering in return for sins committed]". This long sentence includes an idealised sense of a fantasy marriage, "myrie" and "delicat withouten wo and strife" which makes us sure that he is heading for disillusionment, particularly when reinforced by the ironical: "As all wedded men doon with hire wyvys." His only desire in this conundrum is that they reassure him of the impossible: that he can do his devout duty as well as satisfying his bodily cravings. It is hypocritical and not a sincere request for an informed doctrinal opinion and we wonder if, in fact, he will come to endure severe difficulties in his marriage which will answer the problem as Justinus also points out.
Justinus hates January's foolishness and answers mockingly, claiming that he will shorten his comments by omitting reference to authorities, which is an abdication of his duty as advisor. He is clever and sharp and replies that God will ensure salvation because January will come to repent of marriage even though he now believes that it is free from trouble and strife: here Justinus turns his words back on him as well as his hypocrisy as this is not the answer January needs. He advises January to bear in mind that the new wife will be his Purgatory (a place of purification through suffering after death with the prospect of Heaven in the future). This is highly comic as it is unanswerable - or would be if January were honest in his questioning. The Wife of Bath had said that she acted as Purgatory for her husbands and so the screw has a further twist. January's wife will then be Heaven's means of ensuring Heaven and the humorous rhyme "whippe/skippe" shows Justinus' impatient scorn of January as does his emphasis on the arrow-like speed with which his soul will ascend. His advice points out acutely that January cannot have the best of both worlds and assures him, with repeated negatives ("Nis/no", "ne nevere") for emphasis, that there is no bliss in marriage which will prevent his salvation. His sarcasm and bitter irony may conceal a personal concern about an inheritance but it also reflects the Merchant's hostile attitude to the wedded state.
With more mischievous irony he advises January to be sparing with sex as even within marriage lust must be controlled: he should take care not to satisfy the desires of a young woman too enthusiastically, a pertinent and malign comment as January is marrying largely for sanctified and legalised sex and, in view of his age, will probably have some physical difficulty matching the needs of a youthful female. If he does not please her, however, he leaves room for her adultery. Justinus is exasperated and wants to end the charade, using falsely the rhetorical device of diminutio to draw to a conclusion: "my witte is thinne" he claims when he is the most intelligent person present. A further rhetorical device of occupatio, moves him forward, when he openly says he wants to cut short: "lat us waden out of this mateere." Ironically, he describes the Wife of Bath as having declared "ful wel in litel space" when she rambled uncontrollably in her Preamble about how she mistreated her husbands, using feminist arguments to justify her blatant fortune-seeking and revealing all her unpleasant tricks and devices whilst longing for the old men to die. This reference cannot be by Justinus who is a character within the Tale and knows nothing of the Wife but must be by the Merchant (who would have quoted the Wife to support his anger about wives) via Chaucer: its function is to remind us that real marriages between young and old are far from ideal and to create dramatic tension as we wait for the prophecies to be fulfilled.
When Justinus and Pacebo see that the matter is decided they set about arranging the marriage: the haste of the process is stressed as if January cannot wait and the Merchant adds to this sense of hurry by the device of occupatio by which he eliminates the legal details of the settlement whilst still letting his audience know that the bride is granted January's lands by writs and bonds. Her name being May, we are reminded of the calendar and its essential division between spring and winter and, in the Tale, youth and age. The Merchant also skips over her rich clothing and arrives at the wedding day, showing a firm control of his material. The apparent holiness in the ceremony is emphasised and the priest made real by the mention of his stole: it was traditional to bid the woman to be as wise as Rebecca and as faithful and long-lived as Sarah, but the name of Rebecca has underhand connotations. The phrase "as is usage" suggests that the priest delivers the usual formalities (he "croucheth" [crosses] them) but without engagement as does: "And made al siker ynogh with hooliness" as though religion were merely an agent for sticking the couple together in matrimony. This superficial and swift treatment echoes January's hypocrisy as he is anxious to bed May with haste.
By contrast, the description of the secular feast is complex and detailed with classical references rather than medieval to add status. It is a seasonal festival such as might be represented on a calendar and is hyperbolic in manner: the instruments are the finest in Italy and the music is better than that of Orpheus or Amphion of Thebes. Such music accompanies every course of the banquet, creating the loudest noises. The god of wine, Bacchus, pours wine for them all and the ceremony has become distinctly pagan as Venus, goddess of physical love, laughs because January has become her knight (and is therefore in her power) in that he wants to try out his virility in "libertee, and eek in marriage". If "libertee" is taken to mean "promiscuity", these are opposites and so it probably has the sense of enjoying unlimited sexual freedom within the legal bond, an indulgence that Justinus has warned about. She carries a flaming torch, symbolising passion and introducing the leitmotif of fire which will recur. The effect is of danger and over-excitement underlined by the statement that Hymen, god of marriage, has never seen such a merry husband. The sense is that this fever pitch cannot last. The criticism of the poet Marcian and its disrespectful tone are also warnings that all this elaborate show is flimsy and the heavy irony is pointed by the bathos in: "Whan tendre youthe hath wedded stouping age" with its exaggeration of January's years. There is ambiguity in the claim that there has never been such mirth as the laughter could be mocking as the instruction: "Assayeth it youreself" suggests, when real experience would vitiate this false and illusory jollity.
For the first time we are now invited to turn our attention to May, although she is depicted from the outside: she has such a meek expression that it is enchanting to behold her. There is another side to the reference to Esther who looked meek also when she was plotting the death of Ahasuerus and we recall that the Wife of Bath, though far from meek, was constantly hoping for the death of her first husbands. Occupatio is again employed to avoid a detailed description of May's beauty ("I may yow nat devise [describe]") but the reference to the springtime month and therefore her youth once more emphasises the problem of their discrepancy in age, and the repetition of the word "beautee" reminds us that other men may find her attractive. We rarely know what May is thinking or feeling in this part of the Tale but we do gain profound insight into January's emotions and thoughts.
Each time January looks at May he is "ravisshed in a trance" [carried away in a fantasy] a strong expression which suggests that he is in a feverish state of sexual excitment with an undertone of violence when he threatens or menaces her in his heart and wants to clasp her more tightly than Paris did to the renowned beauty, Helen. He compares himself to the young lover but the audience, familiar with the legend, might well see him as Menelaus, the old deluded and cuckolded husband. Throughout the Tale so far we have had indications that he will be disillusioned and his expectations defrauded, particularly here in the almost comic lines where he wonders if she will be able to sustain his passionate love-making and his "corage [sexual desire] deluding himself that he will have to restrain his virility. He is again in haste, this time that the banquet should end but we are aware that this is the urgency of senility and feel that his pride must come before a fall. He needs to behave respectably and, with laughable double motives, is polite yet dismissive of his guests.
When they rise from the table at the appropriate time they dance, drink and scatter spices around; everyone is in a joyful mood except for Damyan, the squire, and possibly May, whose feelings are not described. This young man has fallen in love with May in the traditional manner of courtly love, suddenly and intensely, and the language reflects this: "Almoost he swelte [fainted] and swooned ther he stood", the hyperbole and alliteration being a feature of exaggerated nature of the mode. The painfulness of his emotions is stressed by the image of Venus' burning torch and the misery with which he retires to bed to weep and lament. With the device of occupatio, the Merchant refuses to tell us more at this point but indicates that May will take pity on him later (note the use of the word "til"), thus ensuring tension as we know, even before the marriage is consumated, that he will re-enter the narrative and that she will be unfaithful to January. This already affects the tone and meaning of the adjective "fresshe" as frequently applied to May and it becomes less and less appropriate as the Tale proceeds. The Merchant is an accomplished narrator as he leaves us wondering what the wedding night will be like if May is to harbour desires elsewhere so very quickly.
The next lines also show the Merchant's skill as a narrator as the account of Damyan's passion conrats with that of January's, having less of the fantasy element - despite being formalised within the courtly love mode - and fewer mercenary concerns. His is the physical anguish of the young and virile man, full of vigour and energy; there less of a feeling that he is working up his emotions. The image of fire returns and is within the domestic and appropriate setting of a straw mattress. Anaphora occurs with the repetition of "O" at the start of the lines, which is also an example of apostrophe in the addressing of objects as well as than people. Further repetition of "hoomly" stresses that the danger is within the house. Alliteration emphasises the trouble brewing ("famulier foo" and "hoomly hewe" denoting the close servant) and the image of the snake "the naddre in bosom sly untrewe" adds a suggestion of the serpent in paradise. The narrative line is paused for this description but the Merchant remains in control of his material whilst employing these literary and rhetorical devices by which he hopes to engage and impress his listeners. The claustrophobic sense of a burning threat which could affect any one is strongly presented as is the treachery: it is like a pantomime where the teller or audience member alerts a character to watch out as he warns January, drunk and blinded by the delights of marriage, directly of how "Thyn owene squier and thy borne man [man born on his estate]" is about to betray him with disloyalty. We know there will be adultery: the questions are when and how.
At this point (line 583) the Merchant embarks on a description of nightfall which, in accordance with the conventions of rhetoric, pauses the plot for circumlocutio, a wordy way of expressing something simple. This is perhaps intended to make the listener as impatient as January as well as to show off the teller's poetic powers but there is a comic phrase which undermines the lyrical effect: Night's mantle is described as "derk and rude" emphasising the new husband's sexual intentions. At last the "lusty route" [pleasant company] departs with thanks to January and there is a touch of bathos in: "Where as they doon hir thinges as hem leste" [do what they want] as though the narrator's imagination or stamina has failed him.
January is in a feverish haste to have sex with May but, in comic contrast to his earlier boasts of virility, representing hubris, needs a range of aphrodisiacs to stimulate him. He takes spiced and strong wine and other remedies for possible impotence as recommended by Constantius Afer ("cursed" is the Merchant's term, not January's) in his book De Coitu: the effect of these lines is humorous as January swallows everything in a desperate attempt to ensure success. He clears the house, the bed curtains are drawn and, significantly: "The bride was broght abedde as stille as stone." This ominous simile contrasts with January's frenzied activity and with the image of fire in a mattress referring to Damyan's burning passion. May's feelings or lack of them are left to our imagination.
Once the bed is blessed, January seizes May "his paradis, his make [mate]," caresses and kisses her but, at the alliterative mention of his bristly beard rubbing her tender face she already seems much less "fresshe". Ironically, he has shaved himself to seem young but the effect is to make his chin like the skin of a dogfish (so rough that carpenters used it as sandpaper.) The desritpion of his love-making is highly comic throughout and becomes more and more grotesque. Firstly he apologises hypocritically and boastfully to her for the offence he may cause her before he goes to sleep, the word "descende" having a sexual connotation also. The analogy with a workman who, in order to perform well, must not hasten his labour is humorous and the excuse that they can enjoy themselves as long as they like because they are married makes us wonder, by its use of "we", what May must be feeling about this promise - or threat. Behind this speech is the theological warning that marriage should not be sanctified lust, but January is proving that his motive for finding a wife was just that. His desire to "pleye us by the lawe" is bizarre and the homely image of the knife creates bathos. He does labour (reminding us of his earlier comparison and making the act of sex seem hard work) until dawn, when he has need of further stimulant, although bread dipped in "fyn claree [wine]" was not an unusual early breakfast. The visual picture becomes hilarious as he sits up in bed and sings, then frisks about like a colt, chattering like a magpie, with a close-up portrait of his neck, which is presumably what May can see near her: "The slakke skin aboute his nekke shaketh/Whil that he sang, so chaunteth he and craketh", where the rhythm of the lines echoes the wobbling of his folds of skin and the alliteration is exaggerated to point the effect. It is a repulsive detail, the animal imagery debasing January further, but the close portrayal is not typical of a fabliau even though we expect a similar outcome to that in a bawdy bar-room story.
At line 639 the Merchant abdicates from the mode of omniscient narration to claim that only God knows what May feels as she sees January sitting up in his night shirt and cap. He could tell us if he wishes, since he has created the character but there are three functions in his refusal: it makes the narrative more realistic if her emotions are left to the listener/reader to imagine; it adds some suspense as we are sure that she is repelled by the sight and will find satisfaction elsewhere and it leaves May as a cipher, a sketched-in figure viewed externally who does not speak for many more pages until she comes alive for Damyan, though we rarely know what she thinks from within. We see January with her eyes and we do learn that she did not rate his love-making more than a bean, a homely and dismissive image in a low register. He rests until nine o'clock before getting up but she keeps to her room for the customary four days, for reasons which are not made clear. The lexis is of work, labour and rest but she has seemed entirely passive and presumably more in need of time to herself than repose. She seems no longer "fresshe" and becomes more and more stale-seeming throughout the Tale and the animal comparisons of "fish, or brid, or beest" are debasing.
With a clear signal of change of topic common and necessry in oral narration, the Merchant turns to Damyan. Now the teller of the Tale addresses one of his characters directly, which makes Damyan seem real. and brings the Merchant into the narrative adding engagement and feeling. With apostrophe, he calls the servant simple and foolish for loving from an impossible distance and choosing someone who will refuse him if he speaks or even betray him. Because of the heavy irony and the passages we have just read or heard we suspect that she will eagerly accept his attentions.
To continue to The Merchant's Tale page 4 click here
To return to the Home Page with list of texts click here