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not done in bed". Immediately after this
Januarie is struck blind, although it is not explained why, though Chaucer's suggestion is that his vanity, lust and general immorality have rendered him blind in body and in moral judgment. This disability, however, spiritually serves Januarie well. His language and character, formerly lewd and repulsive, becomes beautiful and gentle love poetry, and his love for May could be seen to evolve to more than just lust and desire. On 8 June, Januarie and May enter a garden that he has built for her. Meanwhile, Damyan has sneaked into the garden using a key that he has made from a mould May has given him and waits for May in a pear tree, symbolising, it has been said, the forbidden fruit from
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woman and the religious confusion in the tale, which invokes both the classical gods and the
Christian one. Indeed the presence of particular gods has individual relevance when related to this tale: as the classical myth tells, Proserpina, a young and much loved goddess, was stolen and held captive by Pluto, the King of the Underworld, who forced her to marry him.
270:), indicating that, perhaps, her infidelity will not stop there. Conforming with the wider symbolism in the tale of spring triumphing over winter (May over January), the conclusion supports the unimportance of Damyan (whose name has no seasonal context): he only has two lines of direct speech in the tale, and at the end is utterly forgotten, even by the Merchant.
228:, soon to be cuckolded by a manipulative female figure, a clear reversal from the horrific and repulsive figure painted by the narrator in the opening presentation of the man. In the tree, May is promptly greeted by her young lover Damyan, and they begin to have sex, described by the Merchant in a particularly lewd and bold fashion:
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do physically intervene later, Damyan's love could be seen as literally induced by Venus. May reciprocates his attraction and plots to have sex with him. Januarie creates a beautiful walled garden, reminiscent of the Garden of Eden as well as courtly love poetry, where he and May do "things that were
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Two gods are, at this moment, watching the adultery: husband and wife Pluto and
Proserpina. They begin a passionate argument about the scene, in which Pluto condemns women's morality. He decides that he will grant Januarie his sight back, but Proserpina will grant May the ability to talk her way out
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Januarie regains his sight – via Pluto's intervention – just in time to see his wife and Damyan engaged in intercourse, but May successfully convinces him that his eyesight is deceiving him because it has only just been restored and that she is only "struggling with a man" because she was told this
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Januarie marries May, a young woman not yet 20 years old, largely out of lust and under the guise of religious acceptability. He chooses her seemingly spontaneously after telling all his friends to go and look for a wife for him. It is unknown why May accepts
Januarie; however, it is safe to assume
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should be able to excuse themselves easily from their treachery can be seen as a distinctly misogynistic comment from the narrator, or perhaps even from
Chaucer himself. These presentations of these two characters and their quarrel crystallises much of the tale, namely the argument between man and
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Januarie decides that he wants to marry, predominately for the purpose of lawful recreational sex and to produce an heir, and he consults his two brothers, Placebo (meaning 'I shall please'), who while encouraging him offers no personal opinion, and
Justinus (meaning 'the just one'), who opposes
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May, implying that she is pregnant and craving a pear, requests one from the tree and
Januarie, old and blind, and therefore unable to reach, is persuaded to stoop and allow May to climb onto his back herself. Here Chaucer evokes enormous pathos for the
282:. 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.
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The tale ends rather unexpectedly: the fooled
Januarie and May continue to live happily. However, Chaucer does not end the tale entirely happily: a darker suggestion is there, as May tells Januarie that he may be mistaken on many more occasions
246:"I swere / That I shal yeven hire suffisant answere / And all wommen after, for hir sake; / That, though they shulle hemself excuse, / And bere hem doun that wolden hem excuse, / For lak of answere noon of hem shall dien."
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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.
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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
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109:. The tale is found in Persia in the Bahar Danush, in which the husband climbs a date tree instead of a pear tree. It could have arrived in Europe through the
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at the wedding party – meaning she set his heart on fire with love. This could simply be a personification of Damyan falling in love, but since
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not only adapting the original
Chaucer text for an operatic setting, but also drawing on other works by Chaucer and creating entirely original
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wife represents the spring seasons. This has particular relevance when considering the parallel between this tale, and the Biblical tale of
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A squire in Januarie's court, called Damyan, falls in love with May and writes a letter to her confessing his desires: the goddess
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marriage from his own experience. Januarie, a vain man, hears only the flattery of his sycophantic friend Placebo.
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that she did it for social betterment and possibly some kind of inheritance, Januarie being a rich man.
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Indeed, the narrator does apologise for this explicit description, addressing the pilgrims saying:
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Similar tales are Boccaccio's Story of Lydia and Pyrrhus and The Simpleton Husband from
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http://en.wikisource.org/Masnavi_I_Ma%27navi/Book_IV#STORY_IX._The_Mule_and_the_Camel
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542:"The Merchant's Tale" – a plain-English retelling for non-scholars.
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465:"The Tale of Januarie review - new opera crosses Carry On with Chaucer"
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One question that splits critics is whether the Merchant's tale is a
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157:. Januarie's brothers are named Placebo and Justinus: the former a
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62:. In it Chaucer subtly mocks antifeminist literature like that of
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Innes, Sheila, ed. (2007). "The Merchant's Prologue and Tale".
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premiered a new, full-length operatic adaptation of Chaucer's
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A Commentary on the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
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Chaucer's influence on fifteenth-century Scottish literature
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The central episode of the Merchant's Tale is like a
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164:The main character, Januarie (or January), a
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1375:The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle
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267:"Ther may ful many a sighte yow bigile"
97:(translated into English by Chaucer),
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325:Guildhall School of Music and Drama
1294:The Canterbury Pilgrims (De Koven)
502:Harvard's interlinear translation.
315:contains another pear tree story.
249:Indeed, Proserpina's promise that
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1490:Fiction with unreliable narrators
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345:. Plaice created his libretto in
260:would get Januarie's sight back.
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463:Jeal, Erica (28 February 2017).
357:is published by Peters Edition.
530:and Other Resources at eChaucer
830:The Cuckoo and the Nightingale
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844:The equatorie of the planetis
427:. Cambridge University Press.
370:, this story is adapted with
858:Pierce the Ploughman's Crede
27:Part of the Canterbury Tales
805:A Treatise on the Astrolabe
301:One Thousand and One Nights
112:One Thousand and One Nights
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399:Summary of Decameron tales
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519:24 December 2002 at the
409:Larry D. Benson (1987),
1389:The Book of the Dun Cow
1382:Chanticleer and the Fox
1197:The Nun's Priest's Tale
1127:The Wife of Bath's Tale
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707:The Nun's Priest's Tale
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76:: 7th day, 9th tale),
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1286:The Two Noble Kinsmen
1202:The Second Nun's Tale
1122:The Man of Law's Tale
812:The Complaint of Mars
712:The Second Nun's Tale
632:The Man of Law's Tale
411:The Riverside Chaucer
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1485:The Canterbury Tales
1435:Chaucer's Retraction
1411:God Spede the Plough
1267:The Canterbury Tales
1162:The Physician's Tale
939:The Canterbury Tales
933:Manuscript tradition
791:Troilus and Criseyde
732:Chaucer's Retraction
672:The Physician's Tale
507:14 June 2020 at the
485:The Tale of Januarie
367:The Canterbury Tales
355:The Tale of Januarie
342:The Tale of Januarie
294:Sources and variants
82:Le Miroir de Mariage
18:Merchant's Tale
1238:The Tale of Gamelyn
1212:The Manciple's Tale
1187:The Tale of Melibee
1177:The Prioress's Tale
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1157:The Franklin's Tale
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1137:The Summoner's Tale
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687:The Prioress's Tale
677:The Pardoner's Tale
667:The Franklin's Tale
657:The Merchant's Tale
647:The Summoner's Tale
329:The Merchant's Tale
252:"alle wommen after"
184:Summary of the tale
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50:The Marchantes Tale
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16:(Redirected from
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1142:The Clerk's Tale
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1097:General Prologue
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64:Theophrastus
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52:) is one of
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1367:derivations
1365:Single tale
1289:(1634 play)
1029:(2001 film)
922:Rhyme royal
865:Jack Upland
741:Other works
374:as May and
339:, entitled
319:Adaptations
168:senex amans
1500:Proserpina
1479:Categories
1464:The Tabard
1406:" (Dryden)
1399:(Edwardes)
1340:Literature
1313:Television
1182:Sir Thopas
692:Sir Thopas
596:Canterbury
211:Proserpina
78:Deschamps'
1084:Order of
937:Order of
915:and Texts
473:. London.
159:sycophant
150:"fresshe"
129:remarks:
73:Decameron
68:Boccaccio
965:Scribe D
913:Language
822:Spurious
533:Archived
517:Archived
505:Archived
364:'s film
362:Pasolini
178:Lombardy
1428:Related
1226:Addenda
984:Related
308:Masnavi
280:fabliau
216:Genesis
135:fabliau
118:Masnavi
103:Statius
1332:(2003)
1324:(1975)
1270:(1972)
1003:(wife)
105:, and
1259:Films
1015:(son)
872:Tales
784:Boece
598:Tales
585:Works
413:: 600
382:Notes
207:Pluto
198:Venus
176:, in
174:Pavia
449:See
313:Rumi
209:and
123:Rumi
107:Cato
1086:The
1072:'s
594:The
360:In
311:of
121:by
93:by
56:'s
44:" (
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390:^
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1062:e
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264:(
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20:)
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