MAY, MAYUS is the name of the twenty-year-old young woman chosen by sixty-year-old Januarie to be his wife in The Merchant's Tale. She is beautiful but of lower social class than Januarie. After a particularly wretched wedding night, May casts her eye on Januarie's squire Damyan, who burns in Venus's fire with love for her. When Januarie becomes blind, May makes a tryst with Damyan to meet in the pear tree in the garden. As Damyan makes love to May in the tree, Pluto, god of the Underworld, gives Januarie back his sight, and he sees them in the act. Proserpina, Pluto's wife, gives May her answer, and May tells Januarie that she wrestled with Damyan so as to cure him of his blindness. For the connection between the month of May and lechery, see the illuminations for May in the calendar of The Belles Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry. Instead of Castor and Pollux, the traditional figures of Gemini, this Book of Hours shows a nude couple embracing, a shield barely covering their genitalia. May is also the month favorable to physicians, and May tells Januarie that her action has restored his sight. [Damyan: Gemini: Januarie: Mercurie: Pluto: Proserpina]

The epithet "fresshe" occurs seventeen times of the twenty-six times the name is mentioned, emphasizing the incongruity between May and Januarie. Mayus, the ME variant of Latin Maius, occurs once initially, MerchT 1742, and three times in medial positions, MerchT 1693, 1888, 2157. May occurs eleven times in medial positions, MerchT 1782, 1822, 1851, 1932, 1995, 2050, 2116, 2137, 2185, 2218, 2328; and fifteen times in final rhyming position, MerchT 1748, 1774, 1859, 1871, 1882, 1886, 1895, 1914, 1955, 1977, 2002, 2054, 2092, 2100, 2321.