Chaucer's Droghte of March in Medieval Farm Lore

The sense of these words in the opening couplet of the Canterbury Tales is examined in the light of the commonplace historic meaning the phrase has held since, at least, the thirteenth century. A March drought has long been a recognized feature of the springtime phase of the agricultural cycle in Britain. In fact, in the setting of Chaucer's Pilgrimage, March is normally the driest month. The folklore and the actual practice of farming demonstrate that medieval and renaissance agriculturalists put great stock in this dry spell as indispensable to successful plowing and sowing. Medieval treatises on farming specify work to be accomplished during March's dry weather (not a "drought" in our present-day sense). In urging that barley be sown in March, Thomas Tusser implies the age-old observance of the custom. The words are not a conventional tag without realistic substance. Neither are they devoid of symbolic force. Taken in their context they promised a bountiful harvest in a harmonious nature. The setting of the Pilgrimage suggests a fresh, recreated world of promise, reminiscent of the Book of Isaiah.