Merchant’s Tale — quick summary (from the Harvard Chaucer page)

1. Merchant’s Tale — quick summary (from the Harvard Chaucer page) January, a noble sixty-year-old bachelor, determines he must marry and beget an heir; he insists on a young wife and settles upon the fair and youthful May. The issue of January's marriage is debated by Justinus, who argues against it, and Placebo, a flattering courtier who agrees with January's determination to marry. January loses his sight, and May conspires with a young squire to cuckold him, which she does in a pear tree. Pluto restores January's sight; Prosperine gives May the wit to convince the old man that he should not believe what he has seen with his own eyes.

2. Squire’s Tale –quick summary (from Harvard Chaucer Page) Part I -- In Tartary, king Cambuskan, who has two sons by his wife Elpheta; Algarsyf and Cambalus, and a daughter, Canacee, holds his birthday feast. At the third course a knight rides in bearing four gifts from the king of Arabia and India -- a mechanical brass steed, a magic mirror, a ring that enables its bearer to understand the language of the birds, and a sword that will cure any wound it makes. The ring and mirror are gifts for Canacee. Part II -- Canacee finds a wounded falcon, lamenting her sad lot. Canacee, whose ring allows her to understand the bird, hears the story of her betrayal by a false lover. Now, the narrator says, I shall tell the adventures of Cambuskan, Cambalus, and Algarsif. Part III -- Here the poem ends (after only two lines).

3. The Franklin’s Tale • Franklin—a prosperous country gentleman; locally influential, landowning, but non-noble • A “Breton lay”—i.e., Chaucer’s version of Marie de France’s genre • A “rash promise” tale (cp. Decameron, 10,5)

4. The Franklin’s Tale • Franklin—a prosperous country gentleman; locally influential, landowning, but non-noble • A “Breton lay”—i.e., Chaucer’s version of Marie de France’s genre • A “rash promise” tale (cp. Decameron, 10,5) • Dorigen’s list draws on St. Jerome’s Adversus Jovinianum (392 CE; a frequent source for Chaucer)

5. The Franklin’s Tale • Franklin—a prosperous country gentleman; locally influential, landowning, but non-noble • A “Breton lay”—i.e., Chaucer’s version of Marie de France’s genre • A “rash promise” tale (cp. Decameron, 10,5) • Dorigen’s list draws on St. Jerome’s Adversus Jovinianum (392 CE; a frequent source for Chaucer) • End with a demande d’amour or “question of love” (with the usual Chaucerian twist)

6. The Franklin’s Tale • Franklin—a prosperous country gentleman; locally influential, landowning, but non-noble • A “Breton lay”—i.e., Chaucer’s version of Marie de France’s genre • A “rash promise” tale (cp. Decameron, 10,5, Filocolo) • Dorigen’s list draws on St. Jerome’s Adversus Jovinianum (392 CE; a frequent source for Chaucer) • End with a demande d’amour or “question of love” (with the usual Chaucerian twist; cp. Filocolo:) • Part of the “Marriage Debate” in the Canterbury Tales (Kittredge, 1912: the resolution of that debate, and Chaucer’s own solution?)

7. The Franklin’s Tale • Franklin—a prosperous country gentleman; locally influential, landowning, but non-noble • A “Breton lay”—i.e., Chaucer’s version of Marie de France’s genre • A “rash promise” tale (cp. Decameron, 10,5) • Dorigen’s list draws on St. Jerome’s Adversus Jovinianum (392 CE; a frequent source for Chaucer) • End with a demande d’amour or “question of love” (with the usual Chaucerian twist) • Part of the “Marriage Debate” in the Canterbury Tales (Kittredge, 1912: the resolution of that debate, and Chaucer’s own solution?) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elq_lNO5Kwg&feature=related

8. Equality in marriage, from the Romance of the Rose They knew well the saying, neither lying nor foolish, that love and lordship never kept each other company nor dwelt together. The one that dominates separates them. (Romance of the Rose, trans. Dahlberg, ll. 8450-8454) My friend, consider this mad jealous boor--may his flesh be fed to the wolves--so filled with his jealousy, as I have described him here for you in this story. He makes himself lord over his wife, who, in turn, should not be his lady but his equal and his companion, as the law joins them together; and, for his part, he should be her companion without making her lord or master....Yes indeed, without fail, whatever she says, he will not be loved by his wife if he wants to be called 'lord,' for love must die when lovers want lordship. Love cannot endure or live if it is not free and active in the heart. (RR 9421 -9442)

9. From Boccaccio’s Filocolo: “Then to conclude, the knight was more liberall that granted his honour than any of the others: and thinke this one thing, that the honour he gave was not to be againe recovered, the whiche happeneth not in many other thinges, as of battels, prowesse, and others like: for if they are at one time lost, they are recovered at an other, and the same is possible. Therefore this may suffice for answere unto your demaund.”