Merchants Tale- Key Context

How is The Canterbury Tales different from other medieval texts?

• features a cross section of medieval society

• creates a rich social tapestry

• uses a narrative framework

Social Heirachy in 14th century england

GOD
KING

Those who fight, those who prey, those who work

The Black Death

on and off every ten years

worst peak 1348-1350, 30-45% of the British population died

Merchants

• merchants fall outside the three estates and therefore have varying status’ between wealthy anf peddlars

• Edward 3 gave knighthood to Merchants giving them hight social authority

• outsiders

Senex Amans

an old man married to a young woman

Where did the foundation of sexual prejudice come from?

The Garden of Eden

What did Aristotle claim women were?

Deformed men

What did Galen say about women?

They constantly wanted sex unless their womb would become cold and their eggs would die. A woman must have an orgasm to have a child

What is a cuckold

• a man whose wife cheated on him

Nomenclature

when writers give characters names that fir their personalities

medieval churched view on sex

valued celibacy and condemned sexual desires unless it was sanctified by the sacrament of marriage and therefore honoured by god

What are the features of courtly love?

• involved romance, love or passion in contrast to the usual mercantile gain of marriage

• women is in control of the relationship and the man owes her obedience and submission

• not restrcted by courtship could sometimes be adulterous

• women ofter of equal and higher status

Which text provided the rules of courtly love?

Andreas Capellonus ‘Act of Courtly Love’

What is the secular significance of gardens?

• walled garden in literature is referred as the locus amoenus (an idealised, pleasent place) or the hortus delicarium (garden if pleasure)

• Physcially- a place where lovers can conduct their romance

• Symbolically- female beauty is often associated with the beauty of the garden

• Walled garden represents the female reproductive organs

What are the religious significance of gardens?

• Gardens are often associated with the purtiy of the virgin mary. christians saw the enclosed garden as the virginity of christs mother

• The Garden of Eden is the setting of temptation and also mankind's fall from grace

What are the features of Damyan and May’s courtship that makes it a parody of Courtly Love?

• Damyan is not a knight

• He immediatly is cured from his illness after him and may have sex

• He is Januaries squire

• May is of low social status and doesn’t conform to traditional courtly love

What is the tale of Pluto and Prosepina?

Pluto captured Proserpina and took her to the underworld as she disobeyed him. Her mother was desperate to see her but she had eaten six of the twelve pomegranate seeds so she was only allowed out of the underworld for 6/12 months of the year. This is where seasons come from.