May Devoid of All Delight: January, the 'Merchant's Tale and the 'Romance of the Rose'

Author / Editor
Calabrese, Michael A.

Title
May Devoid of All Delight: January, the 'Merchant's Tale and the 'Romance of the Rose'

Published
Studies in Philology 87 (1990): 261-84.

Description
Reason's speeches in the "Roman de la Rose" connect lust and avarice with merchants and thus provide a gloss for MerT. Amant, January, and the Merchant are similar moral types; the Merchant and January are dramatically related in that both marry "worldly goods" and both are guilty of avarice.

Chaucer Subjects
Merchant and His Tale.