The Canterbury Tales: Anxiety Release and Wish Fulfillment

In the Merchant's Tale, old January informs his young bride on their wedding night:

The overt meaning of doun descende is dismount: it will be a long time before January finally dismounts from his wife. Yet, when we consider that January is portrayed as a sexually inadequate husband who will be flattered at the thought of having sired a child,2 a more likely interpretation is that January is announcing that it will take him a long time to achieve ejaculation. I shall later adduce evidence in support of this interpretation; suffice it for the moment to note that January, after pleading that “no werkman … may bothe werke wel and hastily” (1232-33), indeed “laboureth … til that the day gan dawne” (1241). This does of course not mean that he maintains an erection throughout the night. On the contrary, January has to take aphrodisiacs “t'encreessen his corage” (1808), i. e., to increase his sexual vigor. As Thomas W. Ross points out in his book Chaucer's Bawdy, the word corage (“courage,” “vigor”) can be used in a sexual meaning: “the capability to achieve and maintain erection—the act of valor peculiar to the bedroom.”8 The sexual connotation of corage possibly derives from its Latin synonym virtus: “ courage,” literally “manliness,” “that which befits a man.”

Chaucer uses the term corage in its sexual meaning to