• Justinius advises the old knight not to rush into the decision of marriage

• Placebo supported January’s decision to marry a young girl

• Pluto gives back January’s sight when the god witnesses May and Damian in the tree

• Proserpina fine with May’s actions and blames men for causing the problems that women are often blamed for

• Opens with a scathing attack on his wife of two months, depicting her as cruel and manipulative..

• January gathers his friends and tells them of his plan to marry a girl no older than twenty

• January selects May and retires with her to his bedroom

• When the planned day arrives, January bends over to allow May to climb over him into the tree

What the …

• God– Governs all laws– Frowns upon (May’s affair with Damian)

• Love– Christian love versus passionate love

• Youth/Beauty– Temptation to sexual desires– Immaturity/immorality of the youth

• Merchant’s honest desire to marry; selfish motives become clear

• Mock-romance reveals January’s distaste in his own wife and marriage

• “[has] a wife…even if the devil were coupled with her, she would master him” (241)

• Desires her for sexual reasons• “he asked her to strip naked…her clothes

hampered him” (275)

• The couple formulate a plan in which they fool Nicostratus into climbing a pear tree that that claim is enchanted

• While Nicostratus is in the tree, the two engage in sexual intercourse below

• When he finally climbs down, he sees the two sitting innocently. After cutting down the evil tree, he stops watching his wife

She’s still my lovely

wife…

• The merchant is the seventh of twenty-two pilgrims to be described. Therefore, he is seemingly of a relatively high social standing.

• Merchant is actually in terrible debt

• He portrays himself as being very wealthy, but is actually a poor man.

• January's social status is reveals what the merchant wishes he had.

• January is sixty years old, demonstrates the merchant's advice to hold off as long as one can

• January's blindness and gain of sight demonstrates the merchant's ignorance to the troubles of marriage and of disdain