The Wife of Bath

1
The Wife of Bath

• Beatrice Mameli

2
We will be looking at

• The prologue
• -sources
• -Alisoun vs conduct literature
• The Tale
• -the romance genre
• -analogues

3
The Prologue

• (lines 1-8) She has had experience enough to be
  able to state that there always is much trouble
  in marriage.
• (line 13) She should have married only once
  because
• - (line 11) Christ took part only to one wedding
  feast
• (lines 15-19) he reproached a Samaritan for
  having had 5 husbands
• BUT
• (lines 23-25) nobody ever defined with certainty
  how many husbands a woman is allowed to have
• ( line 28) God bade us increase and multiply
• - (lines 35-43) Solomon had more than one wife
• (lines 55-56) Abraham, Jacob

4

• (lines 62-82) Virginity is only recommended
  because sexual intercourse is not explicitly
  forbidden.
• (lines 95-114) Chastity might be a good solution,
  but she is not interested (she does not want to
  reach perfection).
• (lines 115-137) defence of procreation.
• (lines 154-163 313-314) She wants power over
  herself, her possessions, and her husband(s)
• (Lines 163-187) the Pardoner tries to interrupt
  her.
• (Lines 195-223) Her husbands three were good
  (old and rich). They loved her and she always
  had the upper hand.

5

• (lines 224-378) Accusing your husband (and your
  potential rivals) is a wise way to hold him under
  control.
• (lines 431-442) Men are more reasonable than
  women, therefore, in quarrels it is the man who
  should be patient.
• (lines 453-502) The fourth husband was a reveller
  and had a lover. She was his Purgatory on Earth
  for this.
• (lines 457-479) One should drink and have fun
  while she is young.
• (lines 503-825) The fifth husband is the worst
  but he is also the one she loves the most he
  would not be easily subjugated, but eventually
  she tamed him.

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Prologue the sources

• http//www.luminarium.org/medlit/wifimg.htm
• Ellesmere Manuscript
• (first half 15th century) Huntington Library
• 41 glosses with literary references

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Prologue the sources

• Model for Alison La vieille (Roman de la rose)
• Antifeminist literature
• Maybe Deschampss Miroir de Mariage (Chaucer
  probably got a copy in 1393 but it could also be
  a common source)
• Lamentations of Matheolus (Mathieu of Boulogne)
• Adversus Jovinianum (Saint Jerome)
• Walter Maps Dissuasio Valerii ad Rufinum
  Philosophum ne uxorem ducat (in De Nugis
  Curialium 4.3-5)
• First Epistle to the Corinthians (Saint Paul)

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• BOOK OF WIKKED WYVES
• -Dissuasio Valerii ad Rufinum Philosophum ne
  uxorem ducat (De Nugis Curialium, 4.3)
• -Epistula adversus Jovinianum (Jerome)
• De exortatione castitatis or De monogamia or De
  pudicitia (Tertullian)
• -Crysippus lost probably the antifemminist
  writer mentioned by Jerome
• The De hegritudinibus mulierum or the De
  passionibus mulierum (Trotula of Salerno
  11th-12th centuries)
• La vie et les Epistres de Pierres Aberlard et
  Heloys sa fame (trans. by Jean de Meun)
• - Bible Prov. 31.10-31
• - Ars Amatoria (Ovid)

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Women and conduct literature

• Conduct literature for women
• Miroir des bonnes femmes (Franciscans beginning
  13th century)
• Livre pour l'enseignement de ses filles (Geoffrey
  De la Tour Landry 14th century)
• They prescribed
• -chastity
• -Sobriety
• -submission

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• While Alisoun
• She had five husbands at church door (line 6)
• She refuses chastity (line 46)
• She uses drinking metaphors (ex. lines 170-171)
• She wants power over herself, her possessions,
  and her husband(s) (lines 154-163 313-314)
• She often travels alone. The fourth husband died
  when she was back from Jerusalem. (line 495)
• She can not keep secrets (lines 530-538)
• Shes over forty, but with a taste for young men.
  (Lines 600-602)
• She answers back (line 422)

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Narrators and Narration

• http//fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/FichierJohannes_gump
  p.jpg

Chaucer
Alisoun
Tale
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The Tale Plot

• (lines 857-881) King Arthurs time and the
  Fairies
• (lines 882-898) A knight rapes a girl. The king
  allows the Queen to decide whether he should live
  or die.
• (lines 899-912) The Queen decides the knight will
  be set free only if he guesses what women most
  desire. The knight has a year and a day to find
  out.
• (lines 913-944) All people he asks give different
  answers.
• (lines 945-982) Ovids story of Midas ears.
• (lines 983-1022) When nearly all hope is lost, he
  meets a group of fairy ladies in a wood. When he
  gets closer he realizes they are all gone but an
  old hag. The old hag promises she will give him
  the answer on condition that he grants her the
  first thing she asks.

13

• (lines 1024-1045)He returns to court with the
  correct answer women want sovereignty over their
  husbands and lovers.
• (lines 1045- 1082) The old hag asks him to marry
  her as a reward for giving him the right answer.
  The knight has no choice but to take her as his
  wife.
• (lines 1083-1218) On their first night together,
  the hag asks the knight what ails him. He answers
  that he is ashamed of having married someone so
  old and ugly and of such low condition. The hag
  replies defending virtue and gentleness of soul
  over the noble origins.
• (lines 1219-1238) The hag allows the knight to
  choose whether he prefers a beautiful but
  unfaithful wife, or the old but trustworthy woman
  she is. He surrenders and gives her complete
  power over himself and their life together.
• (lines 1239-1258) The hag becomes a beautiful
  young woman and they live happily ever after.

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The Romance

• Hard to give a definition (no fixed length/
  sometimes prose sometimes verse)
• The story is generally felt as distant in
  time/space both for the audience and for the
  narrator
• Segmentation of the narrative into episodes
• Interlacing themes
• Often belonging to cycles Matter of Rome (Greek
  and Roman mythology)/Matter of France
  (Charlemagne, Roland)/Matter of Britain (Arthur)
• Acceptance of a set of conventions

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The Romance Standard Pattern

• Negative situation1 for the hero
• Quest 1 (divided into more episodes)
• Success/marriage
• Negative situation2
• Quest2
• Triumph

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Chaucer and Romance

• Le Roman de la rose (translation allegorical
  poem)
• Troilus and Criseyde
• (difficulties in ending irony)
• The Knights Tale
• (contradictions of courtly love)
• The Tale of Sir Topas
• (interrupted)

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The Tale and the Romance Genre

• Traditional
• -Matter of Britain
• -Conventional pattern
• Innovative
• Arthurian time is worse than present time
• knight/quest are not so noble after all
• - refusing clichés

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Analogues the loathly lady Theme

• Niall Noígíallach (Niall of the Nine Hostages
  Irish legend Annála na gCeithre Máistrí )
• Perceval (Chrétien de Troyes)
• The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle (15th
  century)

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Conclusions

• Chaucer and auctorities
• Troilus and Criseyde (V, 1772-1778)
  Bysechyng every lady bright of hewe,/And every
  gentil womman, what she be,/That al be that
  Criseyde was untrewe,/That for that gilt she be
  nat wroth with me./Ye may hire gilt in other
  bokes se/And gladlier I wol write, yif yow
  leste,/Penolopees trouthe and good Alceste
• Chaucer and women
• Merchants Tale (lines 2311-2317) I yeve it
  up! But sith I swoor myn ooth That I wolde
  graunten hym his sighte ageyn, My word shal
  stonde, I warne yow certeyn. I am a kyng, it sit
  me noght to lye." "And I," quod she, "a queene of
  Fayerye! Hir answere shal she have, I undertake.

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Useful Bibliography

• Boitani, Piero, Mann, Jill (eds.) The Cambridge
  Companion to Chaucer, Cambridge  Cambridge
  University Press, 2003.
• Benson, Larry D.(ed.), The Riverside Chaucer,
  Oxford Oxford University Press, 2008.
• Brunetti, Giuseppe, Sui Racconti di Canterbury,
  Padova Unipress. 1988.
• Correale, Robert M., Hamel, Mary (eds.),
  Sources and Analogues of the Canterbury Tales II,
  Woodbridge D. S. Brewer, 2005.
• Harding, Wendy (ed.) Drama, narrative and Poetry
  in the Canterbury Tales, Toulouse Presses
  Universitaires du Mirail, 2003.
• Johnston, Mark (ed.), Medieval Conduct
  Literature, An Anthology of Vernacular Guides to
  Behavious for Youths, with English Translations,
  Toronto University of Toronto Press, 2009.
• Thompson, N.S., Chaucer, Boccaccio, and the
  Debate of Love, Oxford Clarendon press, 1996.
• (http//www.youtube.com/watch?v_XJCOmcKadQfeatur
  erelated)