The 'Cherry-Tree Carol' and the 'Merchant's Tale'

Author / Editor
Rosenberg, Bruce A.

Title
The 'Cherry-Tree Carol' and the 'Merchant's Tale'

Published
Chaucer Review 5.4 (1971): 264-76.

Description
Tallies similarities between the pear tree episode in MerT and the cherry tree account in an apocryphal narrative about the pregnancy of Mary, mother of Jesus. Explores parallels among various analogues, and explains how the parallels capitalize on details that occur earlier in the Merchant's narrative and heighten the audience's awareness of January's "spiritual blindness."

Chaucer Subjects
Merchant and His Tale
Sources, Analogues and Literary Relations