Irony in the "Merchant's Tale."

Description: Identifies various instances of irony in MerT, arguing that its "persistent irony" distinguishes the tale from Chaucer's comic fabliaux and aligns it with the "moral fable" of PardT. A poem of "clarity, critical observation, and disgust," MerT also generalizes its criticism, adding touches of allegory (onomastic and otherwise) and "width of reference," to make it "saner and more balanced than the conventional account might suggest."