477-529 Flashcards
“Which that mayus heighte’
Read and meet the bride
-Her name being made suggests a more allegorical characterisation as it’s now clear that winter is marrying late spring
-The tail develops a calendrial theme suggest suggesting that winter should not attempt to marry early summer
-The tail is more over embellished with precise astrological references which take it beyond the bounds of simple fabliaux
- Mediaeval calendars were elaborate things showing all the fixed and movable feasts of the church, traditional human occupants for the month and the star chart from the zodiacs
- For sure and his contemporary astrology was part of mainstream scientific learning
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“Tender youth hath wedded stopping age ther is swich mirthe that it may Nat be written”
-again reinforces that they should not be marrying and adds humour to the tail as it’s so ridiculous that a man of such age marry a young woman so young.
- people are laughing at them mirthe is an ambiguous word suggesting marriage may be delightful or laughable.
“ script and bound” “ wys tretee” “ she was feffed in his lond” “ and seyed his orisons (prayers) as is usage and croucheth hem and bad god shall bless and made all secure enough with holiness
-lexical fields in this passage are interesting: legal vocabulary reminds us that this marriage is a transaction a binding commercial contract by which may is given a permanent interest in January’s lands
- The details are swiftly followed by almost desolate description of the marriage itself where the vocabulary associated with someone sacrament contrasts with the bold paratactic syntax of the single sentence devoted to the ceremony
“Al ful of joye and blisse” “Venus laugheth/ Daunceth biforn the bride’
-extravagant description of the wedding feast during exaggerated analogies with the pagan and classic examples
- we are told Venus goddess of sexual love is present dancing in front of the couple
- during chores time pagans were frequently incorporated into narratives with otherwise Christian perspectives
-conflict is avoided because the pagan deity comes to stand as an allegory for a particular property or attribute and as in this case with Venus also operates as a personification of a planet understood to exert some particular astrological influence
- an account liberally embellished with classical illusions such as this passage would not be out of place in the highest rhetoric of Romans as as is the case in the night‘s tale but here it is flanked by low style passages of realism which expose it as being as pretentious as January’s fantasies
“ poet Marcian/ smal is bothe thy pen” “ full of instrument and vitallie”
-in choice this time this poet was known for writing about love and marriage however because this wedding was so amazing and so nice he couldn’t even write about this wedding as it wouldn’t do it justice
- The true celebrity of the marriage is curiously sandwich between an account of legal settlement and the luxurious feast which stands in as a sensual foreplay for January as he looks forward to enjoying his bride
-Again Mercantile imagery and food imagery both types of consumption characterise this rather unholy transaction
Overall
-The description of a joyful wedding between unequal partners, youth and age seem almost too perfect to be real
-The metaphor of May in January represent opposites
-The imagery around the feast of music makes the scene vivid and the tone, playful mocking marriage and poets alike
‘This maiden named fair may “
-Immediately signal is an ironic commentary on the institution of marriage suggesting an unnatural or mismatched union
“May” “January”
May associated with spring and youth which contrasts hardy with January a symbol of winter and old
-this opposition serve a metaphor for the inherent contradictions in the marital arrangement and more broadly in the societal expectations of marriage
