Ovid's Priapus in the Merchant's Tale.

Author / Editor
Hoffman, Richard L.

Title
Ovid's Priapus in the Merchant's Tale.

Published
English Language Notes 3 (1966): 169-72.

Description
Explains the sexual resonances latent in the reference to Priapus in MerT 4.2034-37, citing tales in Ovid, the commentary tradition, and PF. January's statue of Priapus "constitutes a kind of devotion to the obscene god who was the true patron saint of old age."

Chaucer Subjects
Merchant and His Tale
Parliament of Fowls
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations