Meanwhile January decides to build a walled garden and he is the only one to possess the key. Yet there is a serpent in Eden and his name is Damian, the knight’s squire who is so enamoured of May “that for the very pain he was nearly crazy.” January, believing that Damian is truly sick, visits him with May, whereupon Damian secretly give her a letter and she learns of his passion for her. Chaucer ensures that the descriptions of January are unflattering and lecherous, to place the reader into May’s viewpoint, and as January spends hours satisfying his passion with her and assuring her that he can do no wrong in the eyes of the law, she finally takes to her room and locks herself in for four days. The wedding is described in detail, but January wishes it to end so he can slake his amorous desires on his new wife. and, of course, Chaucer’s playful spirit. Justinus assures him that will not be the case, and, in fact, he can take comfort in the fact that his marriage will probably be a purgatory.Īnd so “tender youth has wedded stooping age” and all around them is mirth …. It is said men cannot experience bliss twice and he is concerned that all the happiness he is sure to find with his wife, will then be denied to him in Heaven. He finds the perfect wife in May, a poor yet fair girl, but January is tormented by another thought.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |