'Hortus Inconclusus': The Significance of Priapus and Pyramus and Thisbe in the 'Merchant's Tale'

Author / Editor
Brown, Emerson Jr.

Title
'Hortus Inconclusus': The Significance of Priapus and Pyramus and Thisbe in the 'Merchant's Tale'

Published
Chaucer Review 4.1 (1969): 31-40.

Description
Explores the sources of Chaucer's allusions to Priapus and to Pyramus and Thisbe in MerT (4.2034-37 and 4.2125-31) and argues that the allusions deepen the bitter cynicism of the Tale by suggesting sexual fruitlessness and frustration in the pear tree episode.

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