The Non-Comic "Merchant's Tale," Maximianus, and the Sources.

Description: Evaluates MerT in light of its sources and analogues, including the "Miroir de Mariage," Boccaccio's "Ameto," and the "Elegies of Maximianus," the latter identified here as an analogue for the first time, with its presentation of "amorous senility that Chaucer would have known longest and most intimately." Focuses on the characterization of January and the pear tree episode, arguing that, although not bitterly satiric, MerT is "non-comic," a serious critique of human folly.

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