WoB Marriage Quotes

Question 1

Prologue: quote about woe in marriage and how many husbands she’s had

Answer 1

“To speke of wo that is in mariage;
For, lordinges, sith I twelve yeer was of age, (…)
Housbondes at chirche dore I have had five”

Question 2

Quote about definition of husbands allowed

Answer 2

“Yet herde I nevere tellen in myn age

Upon this nombre diffinicioun”

Question 3

Bigamy quote

Answer 3

But of no nombre mencion made he,
Of bigamie, or of octonomie;
Why sholde men thanne speke of it vileynie?

Question 4

Who does she mention in we bigamy argument

Answer 4

King Soloman, Lameth, Abraham and Jacob

Question 5

The wife blesses God for what?

Answer 5

Yblessed be God that I have wedded five!

Welcome the sixte, whan that evere he shal.

Question 6

The wife’s religious argument for valuing wives as high as virgins

Answer 6

I nil envye no virginitee.
Lat hem he breed of pured whete-seed,
And lat us wives hoten barly-breed;
And yet with barly-breed, Mark telle kan,
Oure Lord Jhesu refresshed many a man.

Question 7

The wife’s husband will be what to her?

Answer 7

Which shal be bothe my dettour and my thral.

Question 8

Upstarts the Pardoner - why should he marry?

Answer 8

Pardoner: I was aboute to wedde a wyf; allas,

What sholde I bye it in my flessh so deere?

Question 9

What is the wife an expert of?

Answer 9

Tribulacion in mariage,

Of which I am expert in al myn age

Question 10

The Pardoner wishes to learn from the wife’s tale

Answer 10

Pardoner: Telle forth youre tale, spareth no man,

And teche us yonge men of youre praktike.

Question 11

How many of her husbands were good and how many bad?

Answer 11

As thre of hem were goode, and two were badde.

Question 12

The freedom the wife believes she should be a given as a wife

Answer 12

Thou sholdest seye, “Wyf, go wher thee liste;
Taak youre disport, I wol nat leve no talis.
I knowe yow for a trewe wyf, dame Alis.”

Question 13

One of the analogies the wife uses to describe what she did to her fourth husband

Answer 13

But certeinly, I made folk swich cheere
That in his owene grece I made him frie
For angre, and for verray jalousie.
By God! In erthe I was his purgatorie

Question 14

What happens when her manipulation doesn’t work with Jankin?

Answer 14

For that I rente out of his book a leef,
That of the strook myn ere wax al deef.
Stibourn I was as is a leonesse
And of my tonge a verray jangleresse

Question 15

What part of Ecclesiastes did Jankin strongly believe in?

Answer 15

That ilke proverbe of Ecclesiaste
Where he comandeth, and forbedeth faste,
Man shal nat suffre his wyf go roule aboute.

Question 16

What are of the things in Jankin’s book, other than parables and books by clerks such as St Jerome?

Answer 16

To reden on this book of wikked wives.
He knew of hem mo legendes and lives
Than been of goode wives in the Bible.
For trusteth wel, it is an impossible
That any clerk wol speke good of wives

Question 17

Tale: what are widows considered?

Answer 17

And many a widwe, for that they been wise