The Wife of Bath's Prologue & Tale (Quotes)

Question 1

Reference to polygamy in the bible as a defence of her multiple marriages.

Answer 1

The “hooly” “Abraham” and “Jacob … hadde wyves mo than two,”

I woot wel Abraham was an hooly man,
And Jacob eek, as ferforth as I kan;
And ech of hem hadde wyves mo than two,
=
I know well Abraham was a holy man,
And Jacob also, insofar as I know;
And each of them had more than two wives,
(PROLOGUE, 55 - 52)

Question 2

Advocacy of manipulation of ( and aggression towards) husbands to get own way.

Answer 2

Thus shulde ye speke and bere hem wrong on honde,
For half so boldely kan ther no man
Swere and lyen, as a womman kan.
=
Thus should you speak and accuse them wrongfully,
For half so boldly can there no man
Swear and lie, as a woman can.
(PROLOGUE, 226 - 228)

Question 3

Women desire to be free to go where they want.

Answer 3

We love no man that taketh kep or charge
Wher that we goon; we wol ben at oure large.
=
We love no man who takes notice or concern about
Where we go; we will be free (to do as we wish).
(PROLOGUE, 321 - 322)

Question 4

Use of antifeminist/sexist ideas for own ends.

Answer 4

Oon of us two moste bowen, doutelees,
And sith a man is moore resonable
Than womman is, ye moste been suffrable.
=
One of us two must bow, doubtless,
And since a man is more reasonable
Than a woman is, you must be able to bear suffering.
(PROLOGUE, 440 - 442)

Question 5

Women desire what they cannot have (Not interested in desperate men).

Answer 5

Forbede us thyng, and that desiren we;
Preesse on us faste, and thanne wol we fle.
=
Forbid us a thing, and we desire it;
Press on us fast, and then will we flee.
(PROLOGUE, 519 - 520)

Question 6

Women have been portrayed badly due to clerks. If women had written stories, the same would be true of men.

Answer 6

"By God, if wommen hadde writen stories,
As clerkes han withinne hire oratories,
They wolde han writen of men moore wikkednesse
Than al the mark of Adam may redresse."
=
[By God, if women had written stories,]
[As clerks have within their studies,]
[They would have written of men more wickedness]
[Than all the male sex could set right.]
(PROLOGUE, 693 - 696)

Question 7

Women and clerks (men) can never peacefully coexist.

Answer 7

And Venus falleth ther Mercurie is reysed.

And Venus falls where Mercury is raised.
(PROLOGUE, 705)

Question 8

If God had commanded virginity, he would have damned marriage (along with the act of procreation).

Answer 8

For hadde God comanded maydenhede,
Thanne hadde he dampned weddyng with the dede.
=
For had God commanded maidenhood,
Then had he damned marriage along with the act (of procreation).
(PROLOGUE, 69-70)

Question 9

Unfortunate use of phallic imagery in describing church doctrines of virginity.

Answer 9

The dart is set up for virginitee;

PROLOGUE, 75

Question 10

Admits she is not perfect (like Flamineo in WD).

Answer 10

He spak to hem that wolde lyve parfitly;
And lordynges, by youre leve, that am nat I.
=
He spoke to those who would live perfectly;
And gentlemen, by your leave, I am not that.
(PROLOGUE, 111-112)

Question 11

Marriage/sex is her talent (after admitting imperfection).

Answer 11

I wol bistowe the flour of al myn age
In the actes and in fruyt of mariage.
=
I will bestow the flower of all my age
In the acts and in fruit of marriage.
(PROLOGUE, 113-114)

Question 12

Man’s best payment for marriage is sex (penis reference).

Answer 12

Now wherwith sholde he make his paiement,
If he ne used his sely instrument?
=
Now with what should he make his payment,
If he did not use his blessed instrument?
(PROLOGUE, 131-132)

Question 13

Will use her sexuality as freely as God sent it to her. (Reference to use as a tool)

Answer 13

In wyfhod I wol use myn instrument
As frely as my Makere hath it sent.
=
In wifehood I will use my instrument
As freely as my Maker has it sent.
(PROLOGUE, 149-150)

Question 14

Opening line: what guides her?

Answer 14

Experience, though noon auctoritee

Experience, though no written authority

Question 15

Fate, the stars, state of the heavens (single word).

Answer 15

“constellacioun”

Question 16

Growing old, will use what she has left.

Answer 16

Lost her “flour”, will try to sell her “bran”.

Question 17

Janekin’s book

Answer 17

“book of wikked wyves”

Question 18

Friar interrupts

Answer 18

“This is a long preamble of a tale!”

End of Prologue, 831

Question 19

Summonour responds to Friar

Answer 19

“By God’s two arms!”, blasphemy

End of Prologue, 833

Question 20

Lying/blackmailing husbands for things they didn’t do/say.

Answer 20

Things “they seyden in hir dronkenesse / and al was fals”

PROLOGUE, 382

Question 21

Understands importance of church ritual in marriage.

Answer 21

“at chirche dore”

Start of Prologue, 6

Question 22

General prologue: Experience with love.

Answer 22

Knew all the “remedies of love”, had learnt “the olde daunce.”

Question 23

General prologue: Evidence of her lustiness.

Answer 23

She was “gat-toothed”.

Question 24

Loses where she is (distracted).

Answer 24

“I have my tale ageyn.”

Prologue, 586

Question 25

Unattractive description of first husbands (old).

Answer 25

“endure”
“bacon”
(Prologue, 217)

Question 26

Evidence of wife in control of first husbands.

Answer 26

“I governed hem so wel, after my lawe,”

“I governed them so well, according to my law,”
(Prologue, 219)

Question 27

Old hag.

Answer 27

“loathly lady”

Question 28

WOB’s use of bible to justify her sexual activity suggests she is a lollard (critic)

Answer 28

“God bad us for to wexe and multiplye”

Alisoun’s “emphatic determination to recuperate sexual activity within a Christian context and on the authority of the Bible echoes one of the points made in the Lollard Twelve Conclusions of 1395” - Helen Cooper

Question 29

WOB’s riches serve her well, possibly even making up for her lack of virginity? (critic)

Answer 29

“a rich widow was considered to be a match equal to, or more desirable than, a match with a virgin of property” - Mary Carruthers

Question 30

Lots of sex in her marriages.

Answer 30

“Myn housbonde shal it have bothe eve and morwe,”

Question 31

Fourth husband was a ____.

Answer 31

“revelour”

General prologue

Question 32

Fourth husband had a ____.

Answer 32

“paramour”

General prologue

Question 33

Fourth husband buried ____.

Answer 33

“ygrave under the roode beem,”

Prologue

Question 34

She has a craft.

Answer 34

“Of clooth-making she hadde swich an haunt,”
surpassed that of “Ypres and of Gaunt”
(General prologue)

Question 35

She has done a lot of _____.

Answer 35

“wandrynge”

General prologue

Question 36

Analysis of love as “daunce”

Answer 36

Game in which each partner tries to outmanoeuvre the other

Question 37

Woman voluntarily submits after being given what she wants.

Answer 37

“Dooth with my lyf and deth right as yow lest.”

End of tale

Question 38

End of tale.

Answer 38

"And eek I praye Jhesu shorte hir lyves
That noght wol be governed by hir wyves;
And olde and angry nygardes of dispence,
God sende hem soone verray pestilence!"
(End of tale)

Question 39

Chastity is not commanded by God, as such.

Answer 39

“conseilling is no commandment”

Prologue

Question 40

Analysis of: use of the word “I”.

Answer 40

Reliance on her own “experience”

Question 41

First three husbands were _____.

Answer 41

“goode men”, as they were “riche, and olde.”

Question 42

Laughs at the suffering of her first three husbands.

Answer 42

“I laughe whan I thinke /

How pitously a-nyght I made hem swynke!”

Question 43

Accusations of misogyny (to husbands).

Answer 43

“Thou liknest eek wommenes love to helle,”

Question 44

She pities knight having to sleep with ugly woman.

Answer 44

“Greet was the wo the knyght hadde in his thoght, /
Whan he was with his wyf abedde ybroght;”
=
Great was the woe the knight had in his thought,
When he was brought to bed with his wife;

Question 45

Age has taken away beauty/vigour.

Answer 45

"But age, allas, that al wole envenyme,
Hath me biraft my beautee and my pith."
=
But age, alas, that all will poison,
Has deprived me of my beauty and my vigor.

Question 46

Made her 4th husband’s life a misery (also, blasphemy)

Answer 46

“By God! In erthe I was his purgatorie.”

…

“For which I hope his soule be in glorie.”

Question 47

Wife tries to save herself after saying “By God! In erthe I was his purgatorie.”

Answer 47

“For which I hope his soule be in glorie.”

Question 48

Paradoxical discussion of freewill and the stars in conjunction.

Answer 48

“I folwed ay myn inclinacioun

By vertu of my constellacioun.”

Question 49

Claims to be governed purely by desire (contradiction).

Answer 49

“folwede myn appetit,”

Question 50

Philosopher on the middle ages.

Answer 50

“nasty, brutish and short” - Thomas Hobbes

Question 51

Contemporary poet on suffering in this life for rewards in the next.

Answer 51

“Life is a veil of tears” - William Langland

Question 52

Critic: Knight’s punishment a dark joke about rape.

Answer 52

His “punishment - having to have sex with an old, ugly woman - is darkly funny in so far as the depiction is a playful rendition of non-consensual sex, a sort of joke about rape.” - Sylvia Frederico

Question 53

Feminist critic

Answer 53

Of all Chaucer’s pilgrims, WOB “seems the most obviously feminist prototype”, for her “strong female voice”. - Gail Ashton