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PLACEBO is the name of Januarie's second brother in The Merchant's Tale. He agrees with Januarie in everything he says about marriage and encourages him in his folly. Januarie is sixty years old. Afraid that in the next world he will be punished for his fornications, he intends to marry in order to make his sexual appetite lawful. Placebo agrees with his arguments in favor of his marriage to May. Placebo means "I will please" and occurs at the beginning of the Office of the Dead. The Summoner uses the phrase "to sing Placebo," meaning "to flatter," when he warns against flatterers, SumT 2075. The Parson is more specific: "Flattereres been the develes chapelleyns, that syngen evere Placebo," ParsT 617.

Placebo occurs twice initially, MerchT 1478, 1617; twice medially, MerchT 1520, 1571; and once in final rhyming position, MerchT 1476.


D.W. Robertson, Jr., A Preface to Chaucer, 111.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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