The Merchant’s Tale Context Flashcards
Chaucer
1340 - 1400 (ish)
Middle - Early Modern English
Edward III - Medieval Era / Audience / Reader / Reception
Lived in London, a Courtier and Ambassador
Dabbled in the Merchant Trade and he Travelled a lot Abroad
Married to a Distant Royal Female which increased his Status
‘The Father of English Literature’ - He introduced over 2000 words (Shakespeare was 1500!)
The Canterbury Tales
A Pilgrimage to Canterbury, Kent, to the Shrine of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral
The Pilgrims Gather at the Tabard Inn
Each Pilgrim tell Two Tales, One There, One Back (they didn’t though, because Chaucer didn’t finish) and the Best Wins a Prize
The Prologue introduces each of the Pilgrims
The Merchant
Provides his own Prologue like every Pilgrim before his Tale
In General Prologue, he has the smallest introduction
The English Language
Before the Norman Invasion, 1066, there was only Old English (Varied so Regionally that the North couldn’t understand the South)
William the Conqueror made the National Language French (the Court primarily spoke it, while the clergy spoke Latin)
1362, Edward III finally introduced Parliament and the Court to English, he was the First King to Speak English
Oxford and Cambridge, for example, set up 12th-13th century spoke an amalgamation of Latin, French and English
Structure of Society
The Feudal System / The Three Estates: Aristocracy / Gentry / Landowners / Nobility, Clergy / Catholic Church (Catholicism was National Religion, and the Church was very wealthy), Peasants
There was an increasing merchant class, although they wouldn’t be considered a class as themselves - they were mistrusted because they didn’t fit into the system and threatened wealth
Peasant Rebellions and Bubonic Plague also threatened the whole of Society
90% were illiterate - literature was written for a very narrow section of Society OR to be told by word of mouth (thus why the stories are written in rhyming couplets (a narrative poem), largely iambic and jaunty so they were memorable)
Courtly Love
An unrequited, pure love (not sexual) - a literary tradition that didn’t really happen - where a man would fall desperately in love with an unattainable (Married, Class Divides) woman and would perform acts of love to win her over
Petrarch - an Italian poet - invented the sonnet and was the father of ‘Courtly Love’
Fabliaux
A Baudy Story
A Popular Premise: An Old Man Foolishly in love with a Young Women and he would inevitably become a cuckhold
Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist who wrote the ‘The Decameron’, a major source for ‘The Canterbury Tales’.
Men and Women
Even more clear delineation between the power of men and women than the ‘Ideal Husband’. Women were property and had no power, increasing his estate and bearing him children.
In was perfectly acceptable for old men to marry young women, and to beat them
The average life expectancy was 32 (swayed by infant mortality & death in childbirth) - January are about 60 which is quite old.
Women would probably get married at about 12 or 13 (when they are fertile).
Anti-Female Literature because Women were seen as Inherently Evil & Sinful - the Original Sin and Women were called the ‘Daughters of Eve’ (society was highly religious and believed the Old Testament was real). Women were Mothers, Virgins or Prostitutes. This is highly different from ‘An Ideal Husband’ who had more respect for women’s moral power and roles as protectors of the home.
Pavia
January was born in Pavia, a city in Lombardy.
Pavia was a place of commerce, but especially of prostitution & brothels.
January thus has a sordid association
Chivalry
Chivalrous - A Performative and Mannerly Code of Behaviour that Suggests An Inherent Respect of Women
The Chivalric Tradition Underpinned the Idea of the Kmight - Codes of Behvaiour around Integrity and Respect
January undermines these Ideas.
