All The Merchant's Tale quotes

January chooses a wife that...

"nat passe twenty yeer"

January desires ... over ...

"yong flessh" over "old boef"

January wants a young wife so that he can manipulate her

"as men may warm wex with handes plye"

January has a firm belief that a man cannot...

"A man may do no synne with his wyf"

Proserpina rejects Solomon as a man to be worshipped because...

"made he eek a temple of false goddis"

Proserpina grants May the ability to lie

"I shal yeven hire suffisant answere"

May during the sex scene

"stille as a stoone"

May steps on January's back to deceive him in the pear tree

"up she goth"

May successfully uses language to avoid consequences

"He that mysconceyveth, he mysdemeth"

January is introduced as a...

"worthy knight"

Chaucer taints the image of nobility by exposing January has...

"folwed ay his bodily delit"

January is overly controlling

"hond on hire always"

May first speaks - deceit

"a soule for to kepe" "I am a gentil womman and no wenche"

May makes a copy of the key

"warm wex hath emprented the clicket"

Proserpina disregards Pluto's bashing about the infidelity of women, and the virtue of men - she suggests instead that...

"in sovereyn bontee/Nis noon but God"

May frames her deceit as...

"in ful good entente"

Dayman's letter expresses his...

"sorwe" and "langwissheth" for May's love

Dayman is a...

"lowly squire"

Sex in the pear tree is crude

"gan pullen up her smok and in he throng"

May is described as

"fressh"

The ending of The Merchant's Tale

"on hire wombe he stroketh hire ful softe"

Justinus warns it is...

"no childes play to take a wyf without advisement"

January's misuse of the Song of Songs

"Ris up my wyfe, my love, my lady free"

January imagines marriage as a...

"paradis terrestre"

January thought that his decision was wise

"Him thoughte his choys mighte nat be amended"

Justinus points out that May might be January's...

"Paraunter she may be youre purgatorie"

Placebo is a court sycophant

"so ful of sapience"