SOURCE: “Januarie and May in Chaucer's Merchant's Tale, in English Studies, Vol. 78, No. 5, September 1997, pp. 407-16.

In the following essay, Cooke argues that in “The Merchant's Tale” the naming of the characters Januarie and May is more obscure than many critics have previously allowed. Cooke demonstrates the error many have made in calculating the ages of the characters, and discusses the significance of this miscalculation.

In his article of 1973, Norman E. Eliason expressed a commonly held view concerning the naming of Januarie and May in Chaucer's “Merchant's Tale”:

… the metaphor involved in applying these month names to the old husband and his young wife is anything but obscure nor one which demanded much ingenuity of Chaucer.¹

Though written over twenty years ago, Eliason's view is generally held to be as true today as when it was first expressed. While the article rightly warned against over-interpretation of the names...