The text as Chaucer’s first readers met it, with help built in. Dotted words carry
a gloss: rest on them, or tab to them, and the modern sense appears. Notes in the margin
mark the moments a first reading should not miss. Nothing here replaces your own
annotation; it gets you into the Middle English fast enough to start making it.
This page covers the section Eduqas sets for Component 1 Section A and nothing
beyond it: the whole of the Merchant’s Prologue and Tale (Group E 1213 to
2418). Exam extracts can come from anywhere in both, so the full section will
appear here; the edition below currently runs to E 1310 and grows as the class
works through the poem. The text follows W. W. Skeat’s public-domain edition
(Oxford, 1894). The class edition numbers the Prologue and Tale from 1 at
‘Weping and wayling’, so subtract 1212 from a Group E number to find the
class line; spellings also differ (the class edition’s Januarie, May and
Damyan). Check wording and line numbers against your own copy before an essay
quotes anything.
The Prologe of the Marchantes Tale
‘Weping and wayling, care, and other sorwe
I know y-noghenough, on even and a-morweby evening and morning: all day long,’
Quod the Marchaunt, ‘and so don othere mo
That wedded been, I trowe that it be so.
For, wel I woot, it fareth so with me.
I have a wyf, the worste that may be;
For thogh the feend to hir y-coupled were,
She wolde him overmaccheoutmatch, get the better of, I dar wel swere.
What sholde I yow reherce in special
Hir hye malice? she is a shrewescold; a sharp-tongued, ill-tempered woman at al.
Ther is a long and large difference
Bitwix GrisildisGriselda, the endlessly patient wife of the Clerk’s tale grete pacience
And of my wyf the passing crueltee.
Were I unbounden, al-so moot I theeas I may prosper: a mild oath!
I wolde never eftagain comen in the snare.
We wedded men live in sorwe and care;
Assaye who-so wol, and he shal finde
I seye sooth, by seint Thomas of Inde,
As for the more part, I sey nat alle.
God shilde that it sholde so bifalle!
A! good sir hoost! I have y-wedded be
Thise monthes two, and more nat, pardee;
And yet, I trowe, he that all his lyve
Wyflees hath been, though that men wolde him ryvestab, pierce
Un-to the herte, ne coude in no manere
Tellen so muchel sorwe, as I now here
Coude tellen of my wyves cursednessewickedness, shrewishness!’
‘Now,’ quod our hoost, ‘Marchaunt, so god yow blesse,
Sin ye so muchel knowen of that art,
Ful hertely I pray yow telle us part.’
‘Gladly,’ quod he, ‘but of myn owene sore,
For sory herte, I telle may na-more.’
Here biginneth the Marchantes Tale
Whylomonce, once upon a time ther was dwellinge in Lumbardye
A worthy knight, that born was of Pavye,
In which he lived in greet prosperitee;
And sixty yeer a wyfleeswifeless, unmarried man was he,
And folwed ay his bodily delyt
On wommen, ther-as was his appetyt,
As doon thise foles that ben seculeerlaymen, not in holy orders.
And whan that he was passed sixty yeer,
Were it for holinesse or for dotagethe folly of old age,
I can nat seye, but swich a greet coragedesire, ardour
Hadde this knight to been a wedded man,
That day and night he dooth al that he can
Tespyen where he mighte wedded be;
Preyinge our lord to granten him, that he
Mighte ones knowe of thilke blisful lyf
That is bitwixe an housbond and his wyf;
And for to live under that holy bond
With which that first god man and womman bond,
‘Non other lyf,’ seyde he, ‘is worth a bene;
For wedlok is so esy and so clene,
That in this world it is a paradys.’
Thus seyde this olde knight, that was so wys.
And certeinly, as sooth as god is king,
To take a wyf, it is a glorious thing,
And namely whan a man is old and hoorwhite-haired;
Thanne is a wyf the fruit of his tresor.
Than sholde he take a yong wyf and a feir,
On which he mighte engendren him an heir,
And lede his lyf in Ioye and in solas,
Wher-as thise bacheleres singe ‘allas,’
Whan that they finden any adversitee
In love, which nis but childish vanitee.
And trewely it sit wel to be so,
That bacheleres have often peyne and wo;
On brotelbrittle, insecure ground they builde, and brotelnesse
They finde, whan they wene sikernessesecurity, certainty.
They live but as a brid or as a beste,
In libertee, and under non areste,
Ther-as a wedded man in his estaat
Liveth a lyf blisful and ordinaat,
Under the yok of mariage y-bounde;
Wel may his herte in Ioye and blisse habounde.
For who can be so buxomobedient, yielding as a wyf?
Who is so trewe, and eek so ententyfattentive
To kepe him, syk and hool, as is his makemate, partner?
For wele or wo, she wol him nat forsake.
She nis nat wery him to love and serve,
Thogh that he lye bedredebedridden til he sterve.
And yet somme clerkes seyn, it nis nat so,
Of whiche he, TheofrasteTheophrastus, supposed author of a treatise against taking a wife, is oon of tho.
What force though Theofraste liste lye?
‘Ne take no wyf,’ quod he, ‘for housbondrye,
As for to spare in houshold thy dispence;
A trewe servant dooth more diligence,
Thy good to kepe, than thyn owene wyf.
For she wol clayme half part al hir lyf;
And if that thou be syk, so god me save,
Thy verray frendes or a trewe knave
Wol kepe thee bet than she that waiteth ay
After thy good, and hath don many a day.
And if thou take a wyf un-to thyn hold,
Ful lightly maystow been a cokewoldcuckold: a husband whose wife is unfaithful.’
This sentence, and an hundred thinges worse,
Wryteth this man, ther god his bones corse!
But take no kepe of al swich vanitee;
Deffye Theofraste and herke me.
The text continues
The set section runs on to E 2418, where the Tale ends: Januarie’s counsel
with Placebo and Justinus, the choice of May, the wedding night, Damyan, the
walled garden, and the pear tree. Those parts join this page, with their glosses
and notes, as the class reaches them; nothing outside the set section will be
added.