He may not suddenly so well y-see,
First when his sight is newe come again,
As he that hath a day or two y-seen.
Till that your sight establish'd be a while,
There may full many a sighte you beguile.
Beware, I pray you, for, by heaven's king,
Full many a man weeneth to see a thing,
And it is all another than it seemeth;
He which that misconceiveth oft misdeemeth."
And with that word she leapt down from the tree.
This January, who is glad but he?
He kissed her, and clipped* her full oft, *embraced
And on her womb he stroked her full soft;
And to his palace home he hath her lad.* *led
Now, goode men, I pray you to be glad.
Thus endeth here my tale of January,
God bless us, and his mother, Sainte Mary.


Notes to The Merchant's Tale


1. If, as is probable, this Tale was translated from the French,
the original is not now extant. Tyrwhitt remarks that the scene
"is laid in Italy, but none of the names, except Damian and
Justin, seem to be Italian, but rather made at pleasure; so that I
doubt whether the story be really of Italian growth. The
adventure of the pear-tree I find in a small collection of Latin
fables, written by one Adoiphus, in elegiac verses of his fashion,
in the year 1315. . . . Whatever was the real origin of the Tale,