DOLLS HOUSE QUOTES

• weping and wailing


  merchant presents his misery in his own marriage - funeral rather than marriage, use of alliteration, melodramatic misery
• i have a wyf, the worst that may be

  Merchant talking about how awful his wife is
• shrewe


  the animal that the merchant's wife is compared to
• i wolde nevere eft comen in the snare

  merchant stating that he would never enter the trap of marriage
• worthy knight


  suggestion that January is a good and virtuous knight
• for wedlock is so esy and clene, that in this world it is a paradys

  January ironic statement about marriage, saying it is easy and a paradise - reference to Garden of Eden
• thanne is a wyf the fruyt of his tresor


  Merchant combines 2 images of life (fruit) and money (treasure) when talking about a wife
• Theophrastus


  Ancient commentator on marriage who said that wives bring distress because they are motivated by greed, January dismisses his work as a lie
• a wyf is Goddes yifte varraily


  Merchant stating that a wife is a gift from god to a man

  - women equated to material objects
• i kan not seye


  cruel humour of the merchant, he cannot say
• love wel thy wyf, as Crist loved his chirche


  Merchant explaining that you should love your wife as much as Christ loved his church

  - christian reference
• he which hath no wyf, I holde him shent; he livest helpless and al desolat


  Merchant saying that without a wife one is helpless and alone
• oold fish and yong flessh

  animal imagery, contrast between old J and young M
• fair and tendre of age

  Januarie stating that he wants someone who is.... young and fair
• old boef is the tendre veel


  old beef is the tender veal
• warm wex with hands plye


  J stating he wants his wife to be malleable like warm wax in someones hands
• ne children sholde i none upon hire geten


  J saying he couldnt marry a woman who has already had children
• take him a wyf with greet devocioun


  J wants a wife who is devoted, she should be permanently available to satisfy his desires
• I feele my lymes stark and suffisaunt


  J saying that he is up to the task (of having a younger wife)
• I fare as dooth a tree


  Irony of J comparing himself to a tree - foreshadows later events
• Justinus and Placebo


  Names of figures who are for and against marriage
• wher she be wys, or sobre, or dronkelewe, or proud, or ells ootherweys a shrewe


  Placebo saying that J needs to consider women's characteristics instead of looks

  shrewe - woman who will scold her husband and never give him rest,
• it oghte ynough suffise


  Justinus saying that no woman is perfect - shows a pragmatic approach to marriage
• certein i finde in it but cost and care and observances, of alle blisses bare

  Justinus saying that he finds his marriage to be full of expense, worry and duties
• for love is blind alday


  image of cupid as the blind young god of love - he doesn't care where the arrow lands (Chaucer implies his own choice is stupid - would be blind to pick May)

  - image of blind cupid becomes a physical reality that reflects the spiritual and ethical blindness that is already becoming evident to the audience
• whoso tooke a mirour, polisshed bright, and sette it in a commune market-place


  Chaucer creates an extended mental image of January setting up a mental image in a market place - reinforces the suggestion that there is a lack of solid substance in his selection of a bride
• she were of small degree


  first implication of something romantic about the relationship between J and M - she is of a lower social class than he is.
• wo and stryf


  January implies that his marriage may not just be of 'so greet ese and lust
• ther may no man han parfite blisses two

  no may may experience perfect happiness twice - ludicrous idea

  - J worries that he will not experience perfect joy in death if he has it in marriage
• that i shal have mayn hevene in erthe here


  which quote does 'ther may no man han parfite blisses two
• she may be youre purgatorie


  Justinus reinforcing the link between May the the Wife of Bath (previous speaker who talks about how she treated her husbands badly)
• bad hire be lyk Sarra and Rebekke


  Priest praying that May is like Sarah and Rebecca - both deceive male characters in the Old Testament
• tendre youth hath wedded stouping age

  direct contrast between the adjectives 'tendre' and 'stouping
• harden than evere Paris dide Eleyne


  exemplum of the story of Paris and Helen

  - famous and popular story Paris: young noble lover, Helen: very beautiful woman (or *****), Menelaus: foolish cuckolded old husband
• God forbede that I dide al my might!


  But God forbid that I should make love with all my energy - January has a high opinion of his own virility
• Til fresshe May wol rewen on his pleyne

  May will take pity on his suffering and agony - foreshadows the plot thickening later in the poem
• Thus laboureth he til that the day gan dawe


  wittingly draws a silence over what May is doing, January is the active figure

  - he works hard until the day began to dawn
• And in a purs of silk, heng on his sherte He hath it put, and leyde it at his herte


  Resides the letter in purse over his heart -
• a gardyn: walled al with stoon, so fair a gardyn i moot not known


  symbolism of a garden - stoned

  relates to garden of eden
• golden prison

  hortus conclusus


  what does 'walled al with stoon' create an image of and what is the latin for an enclosed garden