Reserve Text from Bruce Nicoll, Cliff's Notes Study Guide to The Canterbury Tales. Lincoln: Cliff's Notes, 1964.

THE WIFE OF BATH'S PROLOGUE
Summary
The Wife of Bath begins her prologue by announcing that she has always followed the rule of experience rather than authority. And since she has had five husbands at the church door, she has had a great amount of experience. She sees nothing wrong with having had five husbands, and cannot understand Jesus' rebuke to the woman at the well who had also had five husbands. She prefers the biblical injunction to "increase and multiply."

She reminds the pilgrims of several biblical incidents: Solomon and his many wives, the command that a husband must leave his family and join with his wife, and St. Paul's warning that it is better to marry than to burn. Having shown herself to have a knowledge of the Bible, she asks where it is that virginity is commanded. It is, she admits, advised for those who want to live a perfect life, but she admits that she is not perfect. Moreover, she asks, what is the purpose of the sex organs. They were made for both functional purposes and for pleasure. And unlike many cold and bashful women, she was always willing to have sex whenever her husband wanted to. The Pardoner interrupts and says that he was thinking of getting married, but having heard the Wife of Bath, he is glad that he is single. She responds that she could tell more, and the Pardoner encourages her to do so.
The Wife then relates stories concerning her five husbands. She recalled that three of them were very old and good and rich. And she will now reveal how she was able to control each one. Her techniques were very simple. She accused her husbands (the first three) of being at fault. She scolded them when they accused her of being extravagant with clothes and jewelry when her only purpose was to please her husband. She railed at her husband when he refused to disclose the worth of his land and the value of

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his coffers. She derided the husband who considered her as property. She denounced men who refused her the liberty of visiting her friends for women, like men, like freedom. She decried the husband who suspected her chastity was in danger every time she smiled at another gentleman to whom she wished only to be courteous. She denounced the husband who hired spies to determine if she was unfaithful, and indeed, hired her own witnesses to testify to her faithfulness to her marriage bed.

Each time she gained complete mastery over one of her husbands, he would then die. But her fourth husband was different. He kept a mistress, and this bothered her because she was in the prime of life and full of passion. Thus, while not being actually unfaithful to her fourth husband, she made him think so. Thus "in his own greece I made him fry." But now he is dead, and when she was burying him, she could hardly keep her eyes off a young clerk named Jankyn whom she had already admired. Thus, at the month's end, she married for a fifth time even though she was twice the clerk's age. And this time she married for love and not riches. But as soon as the honeymoon was over, she was disturbed to find that the clerk spent all of his time reading books, especially books which disparaged women. In fact, he collected all the books he could which told unfavorable stories about women and he spent all his time reading from these collections.

One night, he began to read aloud from his collection. He began with the story of Eve and read about all the unfaithful women, murderesses, prostitutes, etc., which he could find. The Wife of Bath could not stand this any more, so she grabbed the book and hit J ankyn so hard that he fell over backwards into the fire. He jumped up and hit her with his fist. She fell to the floor and pretended to be dead. When he kneeled over her, she hit him once more and pretended to die. He was so upset that he promised her anything if she would live. And this is how she gained "sovereignty" over her fifth husband. And from that day on, she was a true and faithful wife for him.

Commentary
The Wife of Bath's Prologue occupies a unique position in that it is longer than the tale. It functions to justify her five marriages and to suggest that the thing women most desire is complete control over their husbands. But in addition to being a defense of her marriages, it is also a confession of her techniques and subtly speaking, a plea for certain reforms for women. She uses two basic arguments: if women remained virgins, there would be no One left to give birth to more virgins, and that the sex organs are to be used for pleasure as well as function. And like the Devil who can quote scripture to prove a point, the Wife of Bath also uses this same technique. Her prologue then refutes the popular theory that women should be submissive, especially in matters of sex. And we should remember that
her argument is against the authorities of the church and state and that she is a woman who prefers experience to scholarly arguments.

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THE WIFE OF BATH'S TALE

Summary
Once, long ago, a knight was returning to King Arthur's Court when he saw a fair young maiden all alone, and raped her.

The countryside was revolted by the knight's act, and King Arthur was petitioned to bring the knight to justice. The king condemned the knight to death. The queen, however, begged the king to permit her to pass judgment on .the knight. When brought before her, the queen informed him he would live or die depending upon how successfully he answered this question: "What is the thing that women most desire?" The knight confessed he did not have a ready answer; so the gracious queen bade him return within one year.

The knight roamed from place to place. Some women said they wanted wealth and treasure.. Others said jollity and pleasure. Others said it was to be gratified and flattered. And so it went. At each place he heard a different answer.

He rode toward King Arthur's court in a dejected mood. Suddenly, in a clearing in the wood, he saw twenty-four maidens dancing and singing. But as he approached them they disappeared, as if by magic. There was not a living creature to be seen save an old woman, whose foul looks exceeded anything the knight had ever seen before.
The old woman approached the knight and asked what he was seeking. She reminded him that old women often know quite a bit.

The knight explained his problem. The old woman said she could provide the answer, provided that he would do what she would require for saving his life. The knight agreed, and they journeyed to the Court.

Before the queen the knight said he had the answer to what women desired most, and the queen bade him speak.

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The knight responded that women most desire sovereignty over their husbands. None of the women of the Court could deny the validity of this answer.

The knight was acquitted. Then the old crone told the Court she had supplied the knight's answer. In exchange the knight had, upon his honor, agreed to honor any request she made of him. She said that she would settle for nothing less than to be his very wife and love. The knight, in agony, agreed to wed her.

On their wedding night the knight turned restlessly paying no heed to the foul woman lying next to him in bed. She said, "Is this how knights treat their wives upon the whole?' " Then the knight confessed that her age, ugliness, and low breeding were repulsive to him.

The old hag then gives the knight a long lecture in which she reminds him that true gentility is not a matter of appearances but rather virtue is the true mark of the gentle and noble. And poverty is not to be spurned because Christ Himself was a poor man as were many of the fathers of the church and all saints. All the Christian and even pagan authorities say that poverty can lead a person to salvation. Then she reminds him that her looks can be viewed as an asset. If she were beautiful, there would be many men who would desire her; so as long as she is old and ugly, he can be assured that he has a virtuous wife. She offers him a choice: an old ugly hag such as she, but still a loyal, true and humble wife, or a beautiful woman with whom he must take his chances in the covetousness of handsome men who would visit their home because of her and not him.

The knight groaned and said the choice was hers. " 'And have I won the mastery?'" she said. "'Since I'm to choose and rule as I think fit?' " "'Certainly, wife,'" the knight answered. "'Kiss me,'" she said. "'...On my honor you shall find me both.. .fair and faithful as a wife... Look at me' " she said. The knight turned, and she was indeed now a young and lovely woman. And so, the Wife concluded, they lived blissfully ever after.

Commentary
The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale is one of Chaucer's most original stories. Yet even here he confesses that he has depended upon "old books." Two are of principal interest, Roman de la Rose as elaborated by Jean de Meun, and St. Jerome's statement upholding celibacy Hieronymous contra Jovinianum. Yet, Chaucer has created here a work of literary art and good story telling that goes far beyond his source material. The tale is, of course, an exemplum, that is, a tale told to prove a point. And the reader should remember that the narrator is an old hag telling a story about an old hag who gained sovereignty over her husband.

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Chaucer's time, the literature was filled with the favorite theme of vilifying the frailty of woman. Chaucer's tale, however, is not a moral diatribe for or against woman. He has created a woman in the person of the Wife of Bath who both exemplifies all that has been charged against women but openly glories in the possession of these qualities. Chaucer goes further. He asks the reader to accept woman's point of view and, perhaps, even feel some sympathy for her.

Chaucer does not make it clear whether he sympathizes with the Wife's opinion of marriage and celibacy, but it is obvious that he did not agree with the prevailing notions of his time about celibacy.

In Chaucer's time, as in a lesser degree today, a second marriage was considered sinful. The Wife's Prologue has been described, therefore, as a revolutionary document. This is why Chaucer has the Wife so carefully review the words of God as revealed in scripture. Nowhere, she confesses, can she find a stricture against more than one marriage save the rebuke Jesus gave the woman of Samaria about her five husbands. But this, she confesses, she cannot understand.

There was also, in Chaucer's time, considerable praise for perpetual virginity. The Wife now departs from holy writ and appeals to common sense. If everyone should practice virginity, who is to beget more virgins?

The truly remarkable aspect of The Wife of Bath's Prologue however, is not her argument with the mores of her time, but the very wonderful portrait of a human being. She tells the company she married her first three husbands for their money, and each of them died in an effort to satisfy her lust. Her fourth was a reveler who made her jealous and the fifth a young man who tried to lord it over her and when she had mastered him, he ungraciously died. Surely, she moralizes, is this not the tribulation of marriage?

Despite her brash accounting of marriage, one gets the impression she is not sure of herself when she exclaims, "Alas, that every love was sin!"

Chaucer has given us a portrait of an immoral woman, a coarse creature to shock her age. But the author does not apologize for her. He leaves the moral arguments in balance. One can only conclude that he believes that unbridled sensuousness is not the key to happiness.

The Wife of Bath's Tale simply underscores the Prologue. Here she again pleads for the emancipation of women in the Middle Ages. Many authorities believe that it was not Chaucer's intention to change the filthy hag literally into a beautiful woman. Rather it is a change from a kind of ugliness into a kind of beauty. Similar tales were widespread in Chaucer's time and he has done little to disguise the fact that he borrowed heavily from them in devising his story.