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Unit 13: The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (Non-detailed Study): Discussion and Analysis-V

as he would with his wife,would never find a similar happiness in heaven, for one must choose Notes
between one perfect happiness and another. Justinus, furious with January’s foolishness, advised
him that God sent a married man more reason to repent than a single man, and so, married, he
might be more likely to get to heaven–even suggesting that marriage might be January’s purgatory.
The narrator then, by way of an occupatio leaves out the wedding ceremony, but tells us that January
married his intended, May, in a lavish and joyous ceremony. Venus, the goddess of love, laughed at
all of the guests, as January had become one of her knights: when tender youth has wedded stooping
age, the narrator continues, there is such mirth that it cannot be written.
At the end of the feast, the men cast spices around the wedding house, and everyone was full of
joy–except for Damian, the knight’s squire, who was so in love with the lady May that he was
almost mad. The men rode home, and said their farewells and thanks to January, who then decided
he would go to bed. He drank strong spiced and sweetened wines, and many a medical mixture,
before taking his fresh wife in his arms, rocking her and kissing her often, his bristly beard scratching
her tender skin. January made an apology for the offense he was about to do her, but reminding her
that legally, he could do whatever he liked to her body. The two then had sex until the day began to
dawn, at which point January awoke, drank some bread in wine, and sang loudly, sitting upright in
his bed. Quite what May thought of all this, only God knows, the narrator comments–though she
thought his sexual exploits absolutely useless.
However, Damian, had written a love letter to May that he pinned in a silk purse next to his heart.
One day, Damian was not attending January, and to cover for him the other squires told January
that Damian was sick. May and January sat at dinner, and January decided to send May to visit
Damian, to tell him that January would soon visit soon, after he had rested. May went straight to
Damian, and, secretly, Damian slipped his letter into her hand: knowing that she could not afford
to have it discovered, May hid the letter in her bosom. Reading it later, she tore it up and cast it in
the toilet so as not to have it discovered.
May had already decided to return Damian’s advances, and replied to his letter telling as much–
taking her letter to his bedroom, putting it under his pillow and giving him a secret handshake.
Damian awoke the next morning, his sickness all vanished, and returned to serve January humbly.
January’s house had a garden so magnificent, the narrator now continues, that even he who wrote
Romance of the Rose could not describe its beauty, nor could Priapus accurately describe its art.
January loved this garden so much that only he possessed the key to it. In the summer he would go
there with May and have sex. January had also, in this time, become blind and became increasingly
possessive of his wife, which caused Damian great grief–and May too wept very often, for January
was always in her company. However, May and Damian kept in touch via letter, and by various
secret signs.
May imprinted January’s key to the garden in warm wax, and Damian made a secret copy of the
key. The eighth of June came round, and January decided, thanks to the incitement of his wife, to go
and have sex in his beautiful garden. He sang a beautiful song to awake his wife and tempt her to
the garden, and eventually, January, blind as a stone, and May, unlocked the gate and stepped into
the garden.
Damian had already entered the garden, as May had made signs to him to do so, and now she
signaled to him to climb up a nearby tree, full of fruit. At this point, the narrator makes an unusual
departure from the supposed realism of January’s story to narrate the descent of Pluto and Proserpina
into the garden, who have a long argument about marriage, citing various classical sources. Pluto,
feeling pity for January, wants to restore January’s sight so that he can see the villainy about to be
done behind his back; Prosperina rejects his argument, telling him that the classical sources which
proclaim the evil of women missed out the evil performed by men.

Proserpina wants May to have sex with Damian; Pluto wants to restore his sight
to prevent it-and Proserpina forcibly ends the argument.

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