Chaucer's 'Merchant's Tale' and the 'Decameron'
- Author / Editor
- Beidler, Peter G.
Chaucer's 'Merchant's Tale' and the 'Decameron'
- Published
- Italica 50 (1973): 266-84.
- Description
- Argues that Boccaccio's "Decameron" influenced MerT deeply, even though it may not be the primary source of the plot. The characterizations of MerT (especially the "mental blindness" of January) are more like those in "Decameron" 7.9 than those in Matthew of Vendome's "Comoedia Lydidae," a possible source for both later tales. As well, details in "Decameron" 2.10 may have influenced January's potions and aphrodisiacs.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Merchant and His Tale
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations