January's 'Honeste Thynges': Knighthood and Narrative in the 'Merchant's Tale'
- Author / Editor
- Field, Rosalind.
January's 'Honeste Thynges': Knighthood and Narrative in the 'Merchant's Tale'
- Published
- Reading Medieval Studies 20 (1994): 37-49.
- Description
- Considers January's social status and asks why MerT concerns a knight. Examines portrayal of January's household, finding him well-bred but lacking gentility; MerT is thus more firmly situated in the debate about "gentilesse." Also argues that part of MerT's satire focuses on the idea of privacy: it is in private that January is ridiculed, whereas his public image is maintained.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Merchant and His Tale.