The Structure of The Merchant's Tale

Abstract

There is nothing new in this paper except perhaps, in the way of assemblage and emphasis. Nevertheless, this sort of thing, if done better than it will now be done, might properly be excused. The Merchant and his performance figure largely in discussions of chronology, order, sources, and analogues of The Canterbury Tales; and all this, of course, is basic and invaluable. But, apart from a remarkable essay by Professor Tatlock, there has been no really substantial examination of the poem's art, no full study of the object as in itself it really is—and that still remains, surely, a function of criticism. This paper merely attempts to underline certain phases of Chaucer's workmanship as he handles what is often considered to be a “plot suited to the Hottentot,” as an outraged scholar has called it.

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