Rys up, my wyf, my love, my lady free!
The turtles voys is herd, my dowve sweete;
The wynter is goon with alle his reynes weete.
Com forth now, with thyne eyen columbyn!
How fairer been thy brestes than is wyn!
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Merchant’s Tale. January is inappropriately paraphrasing the Song of Solomon. However, there is nothing spiritual or religious about his misuse of the famous spiritual passages from the Bible. Filled with desire, he is admiring his wife’s breasts and asking her to accompany him to his secret garden so that he can satisfy his lust and have sex with her.