The Merchant’s Tale Video

“The Merchant’s Tale” is a story about an elderly knight who marries a young peasant in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Written between 1387 and 1400, The Canterbury Tales is comprised of 24 poems narrated as part of a storytelling contest between a group of pilgrims traveling from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas à Becket. Like many of the poems, “The Merchant’s Tale” uses humor to address the complex issues surrounding the institution of marriage.

The Merchant begins his story on the heels of the Clerk’s tale, which preaches the virtues of wifely loyalty. The Merchant, an arrogant and materialistic man, responds by claiming that he too is familiar with the tribulations of marriage. While he has only been married for two months, the Merchant already despises his wife. But when the Host invites him to tell a story about his wife’s cruelty, the Merchant instead opts to tell a tale of someone else’s marital sorrow.

His story opens on a knight named January, who, after living nobly for sixty years without a wife, has decided to get married. Gripped by the idea that marriage is paradise on earth, January searches for a beautiful wife under the age of twenty, who he can mold like “warm wax.”

Consulting his friends, January finds that each man has a different outlook on marriage. One friend, Placebo, advises January to do as he pleases. However, another friend, Justinus, counsels him to proceed with caution, warning that a young wife might be more likely to cuckold him.

Night after night, January fantasizes about the plethora of fair and virtuous women available to him. Finally, the noble knight decides on a peasant woman of “fresh beauty” and “age tender” named May. So taken with her is January that, in sharing the news with his friends, he has no doubt they will approve of his choice.

Still, there is something on his mind. If marriage is heaven on earth, January asks his friends, then how can one also be admitted to heaven? Must one choose between happiness on earth and happiness in the afterlife? Admonishing January as a fool, Justinus predicts that his friend will indeed be admitted to heaven, since marriage is more like purgatory than paradise.

Ignoring Justinus, January weds May in a lavish ceremony watched over by Venus, the goddess of love. All of their guests are filled with joy—that is, except for January’s squire, Damian, who falls so madly in love with May that he grows ill.

After their wedding, January consummates the marriage, with little regard for May’s consent. Eventually, however, he grows concerned for Damian’s health and sends May to check on him. Damien takes advantage of her visit by passing May a note professing his love for her, a gesture that she soon reciprocates.

In an effort to better enjoy the fruits of marriage, January creates a beautiful garden where he makes love to May during the summer months. However, January also becomes increasingly possessive of her, guarding the garden’s only key with his life. Despite this, May and Damien continue to conduct their affair, exchanging letters and secret codes.

Soon, January mysteriously goes blind and asks May to hold his hand so that he knows where she is at all times. Searching for a way to continue seeing Damien, May creates a wax copy of the key to January’s garden, instructing Damien to hide in the pear tree so they can rendezvous in secret.

Meanwhile, Pluto, god of the underworld, and his wife, Proserpina, are observing the situation unfolding between January, May, and Damian. While Pluto frowns upon May’s deceit and expresses his intention to restore January’s sight at just the right moment, Proserpina detests January’s lechery and vows to help May.

May enters the garden, still holding January’s hand, and expresses her desire to pick a pear. January invites her to climb onto his shoulders and into the tree, where Damian is waiting. Pulling up May’s dress, Damien begins to pleasure her. Seeing this, Pluto restores January’s sight just in time for him to witness May cuckolding him.

January roars with rage, but Proserpina provides May with the perfect excuse. May tells her husband that his sight must still be faulty, like that of one awaking from a deep sleep. Furthermore, she claims to have heard that the best way to restore a husband’s eyesight was to “struggle” with a man in a tree. Satisfied with her explanation, January takes May into his arms, strokes her belly, and carries her “to his palace home.”