January's Knife: Sexual Morality and Proverbial Wisdom in the 'Merchant's Tale'

Author / Editor
Andrew, Malcolm.

Title
January's Knife: Sexual Morality and Proverbial Wisdom in the 'Merchant's Tale'

Published
English Language Notes 16 (1978-79): 273-77.

Description
The point of the proverb that a man may not sin with his own wife or cut himself with his own knife is reversed in MerT. Chaucer intends the effect of surprise to create a sense of the nature and significance of January's wrong headedness.

Chaucer Subjects
Merchant and His Tale.