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1. The Wife of Bath’s Prologue
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The Prologue to the Wife of Bath’s Tale
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1
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Experience, though no authority
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2
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Ruled in this world, would be enough for me
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3
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To speak of the woe that is in marriage.
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4
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For, lordings, since I twelve years was of age,
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5
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Thanks be to God who eternally does thrive,
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6
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Husbands at church-door have I had five –
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7
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If it be allowed so oft to wedded be –
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8
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And all were worthy men in their degree.
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9
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But I was told, for sure, and not long since,
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10
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That since Christ never went but once
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11
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To a wedding, in Cana of Galilee,
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12
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That by the same example He taught me
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13
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That I should only be wedded once.
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14
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Hark too, lo, what sharp words for the nonce
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15
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Beside a well, Jesus, God and Man,
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16
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Spoke in reproof of the Samaritan:
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17
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‘You have had five husbands,’ quoth he,
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18
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‘And that same man that now has thee
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19
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Is not your husband’ – so he said for certain.
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20
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What he meant by that, I can’t explain;
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21
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But I ask you why the fifth man
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22
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Was not husband of the Samaritan?
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23
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How many was she allowed in marriage?
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24
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I have never yet had despite my age
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25
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Of that number any definition.
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26
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Men may divine and gloss, up and down,
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27
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But well I know, indeed, without a lie,
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28
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God bade us all to wax and multiply.
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29
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That gentle text I well can understand!
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30
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And I know too He said that my husband
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31
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Should leave father and mother and cleave to me;
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32
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But of no number mention made He,
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33
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Of bigamy or of octogamy.
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34
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Why should men then speak of it evilly?
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35
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Lo, here, the wise King, old Solomon,
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36
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I think he had more wives than one!
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37
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As would to God it were permitted me
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38
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To be refreshed half so oft as he!
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39
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A gift of God had he of all those wives!
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40
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No man has such that’s in this world alive.
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41
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God knows, that noble king, as I see it,
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42
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The first night had many a merry fit
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43
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With each of them, so happy was his life!
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44
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Blessed be God, that I have wedded five,
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45
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And they I picked out from all the best,
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46
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Both for their nether purse and their chest.
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47
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Diverse schools make perfect clerks,
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48
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And diverse practice in many sundry works,
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49
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Makes the workman perfect, certainly.
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50
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Of five husbands have I made a study;
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51
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Welcome the sixth, whenever he befall!
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52
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Forsooth, I will not keep me chaste in all;
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53
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When my husband from this world is gone,
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54
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Some Christian man shall wed me anon.
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55
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For then the Apostle says that I am free
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56
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To wed, in God’s name, where it pleases me.
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57
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He says to be wedded is no sin, I learn:
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58
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‘Better to be wedded than to burn.’
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59
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What care I if folk speak maliciously
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60
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Of wicked Lamech and his bigamy?
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61
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I know that Abraham was a holy man,
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62
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And Jacob also, as far as ever I can,
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63
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And each of them had more wives than two,
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64
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And many another holy man had too.
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65
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Where can you show me, in any age
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66
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That God on high forbade our marriage
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67
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By express word? I pray you, tell it me.
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68
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Or where commanded he virginity?
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69
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I know as well as you, what he said,
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70
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The Apostle, when he spoke of maidenhead,
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71
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He said that precepts for it he had none.
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72
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Men may counsel a woman to live alone,
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73
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But counselling is no commandment;
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74
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He has left it to our own judgement.
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75
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For had God commanded maidenhood,
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76
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Then had he ended marriage and for good.
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77
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And surely, if there were never seed sown,
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78
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Virginity, where would that be grown?
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79
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Paul did not dare command, not in the least,
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80
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A thing of which his Master never preached.
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81
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The spear, the prize, is there of virginity;
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82
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Catch it who may, and who runs best let’s see!
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83
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But this word is not said of every wight,
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84
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Rather God’s pleased to grant it of his might.
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85
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I know well that the Apostle was a maid,
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86
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But nonetheless, though he wrote and said
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87
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He wished that everyone was such as He,
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88
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He was but counselling virginity,
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89
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And to be wife he still gave me leave
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90
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Of indulgence; so no reproof indeed,
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91
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If my husband die, in wedding me,
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92
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No objection on grounds of bigamy,
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93
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Though it were good no woman for to touch –
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94
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He meant in bed or on a couch or such –
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95
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For peril it is, fire and tow to assemble –
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96
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You know what this image does resemble!
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97
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The long and short: he held virginity
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98
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More perfect than marriage in frailty.
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99
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Frailty I say, unless the he and she
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100
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Would live all their life in chastity.
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101
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I grant it well, I would have no envy,
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102
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Though maidenhood devalue bigamy.
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103
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They like to be clean in body and ghost.
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104
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And of my state I will make no boast;
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105
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For you well know, a lord in his household
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106
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Has not ever vessel made all of gold.
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107
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Some are of wood, and do good service.
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108
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God calls folk in sundry ways like this,
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109
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And everyone has from God his own gift,
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110
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Some this, some that, as is in His wish.
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111
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Virginity is a great perfection
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112
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And continence also with devotion.
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113
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But Christ, of perfection is the well,
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114
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And bade not everyone to go and sell
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115
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All that he had, and give it to the poor,
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116
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And in that guise follow him, for sure.
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117
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He spoke to those who would live perfectly;
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118
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And, lordings, by your leave, that is not me!
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119
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I will bestow the flower of my age
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120
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On the actions and the fruits of marriage.
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121
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Tell me then, to what end and conclusion
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122
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Were made the members of generation,
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123
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And in so perfect wise Man was wrought?
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124
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Trust me right well, they were not made for naught.
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125
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Gloss as you will and give the explanation
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126
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That they were made merely for purgation
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127
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Of urine, and both our things, so the tale,
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128
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Made but to know the female from the male,
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129
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And for no other purpose – say you no?
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130
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Experience knows well it is not so.
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131
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So long as the clerics with me be not wrath,
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132
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I say this: that they are made for both –
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133
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That is to say, for office and for ease
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134
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Of procreation, that we not God displease.
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135
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Why else is it in the books clearly set
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136
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That a man shall pay his wife her debt?
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137
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Now wherewith should he make his payment,
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138
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If he did not use his blessed instrument?
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139
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Thus were they added to the creature
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140
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To purge urine, and continue nature.
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141
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But I do not say every wight is told
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142
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That has such tackle, as I unfold,
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143
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To go and use it to engender there –
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144
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Or men for chastity would have no care.
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145
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Christ was a maid, yet formed as a man,
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146
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And many a saint since the world began,
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147
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Yet lived they ever in perfect chastity.
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148
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I have no quarrel with virginity;
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149
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Of pure wheat-seed let them be bred,
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150
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And let us wives be dubbed barley-bread –
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151
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And yet with barley-bread, as Mark can
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152
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Remind you, Jesus fed full many a man.
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153
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In such a state as God has called us,
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154
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I will persevere; I am not precious.
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155
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In wifehood will I use my instrument
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156
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As freely as my Maker has it sent.
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157
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If I be niggardly, God give me sorrow!
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158
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My husband shall have it eve and morrow,
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159
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When he would come forth and pay his debt.
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160
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A husband I will have, I will as yet,
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161
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Who shall be both my debtor and my thrall,
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162
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And bear the tribulation withal
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163
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On his own flesh, while I am his wife.
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164
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I have the power during my whole life
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165
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Over his proper body, and not he.
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166
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Right thus the Apostle told it me,
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167
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And bade our husbands for to love us well;
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168
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On that saying I ever like to dwell.’
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169
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Up started the Pardoner, and that anon:
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170
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‘Now dame,’ quoth he, ‘by God and by Saint John,
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171
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You are a noble preacher in this cause!
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172
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I was about to wed a wife: I pause!
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173
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What! Should I pay, with my own flesh, so dear?
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174
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I’d rather wed no wife, then, any year!’
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175
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‘Abide,’ quoth she, ‘my tale’s not yet begun.
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176
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Nay, you will drink from a different tun,
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177
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Before I go, and savour worse than ale.
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178
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And when I have told you all my tale
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179
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Of tribulation in marriage,
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180
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In which I am an expert at my age –
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That is to say, I have been the whip –
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182
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Then please yourself whether you wish to sip
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183
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Of this tun that I shall broach.
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184
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Beware of it, before a close approach!
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185
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For I shall give examples more than ten.
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186
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‘Whoever will not be warned by other men,
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187
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To other men shall an example be.’
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188
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These very words writes Ptolemy;
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189
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Read in his Almagest, and find them there.’
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190
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‘Dame, I would pray you, if it is your care,’
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191
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Said this Pardoner, ‘as you began,
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192
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Tell forth your tale; spare not any man,
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193
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And teach us young men of your practices.’
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194
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‘Gladly,’ quoth she, ‘if you it pleases.
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195
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But yet I ask of all this company,
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196
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If I should chance to speak out of whimsy,
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197
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Take no offence then at what I say,
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198
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For my intention is but to play.
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199
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Now sir, then will I tell you all my tale.
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200
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If ever I might drink of wine or ale,
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201
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I shall speak true: those husbands that I had
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202
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Three of them were good, and two were bad.
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203
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The three good men were rich and old.
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204
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With difficulty only could they hold
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205
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To the articles that bound them to me –
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206
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You know well what I mean by that, I see!
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207
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So help me God, I laugh when I think
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208
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That sad to say they never slept a wink.
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209
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And, by my faith, I set by it no store.
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210
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They gave me land and treasure more;
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211
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I had no need to show them diligence
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212
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To win their love, or do them reverence.
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213
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They loved me so well, by God above
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214
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I had no need to set store by their love.
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215
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A wise woman will busy herself anon
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216
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To win her love, yes, if she has none.
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217
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But since I held them wholly in my hand,
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218
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And since they had given me all their land,
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219
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Why should I be concerned to please,
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220
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Except for my own profit and my ease?
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221
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I set them so to work, by my faith,
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222
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That many a night they sang “well-away!”
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223
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But never for us the flitch of bacon though,
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224
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That some may win in Essex at Dunmow.
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225
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I ruled them so according to my law,
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226
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That each of them was blissful and in awe,
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227
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And brought me pretty things from the fair.
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228
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They were full glad when I spoke them fair,
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229
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For God knows, I chid them mercilessly.
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230
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Now hearken how to act properly.
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231
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You wise wives that will understand,
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232
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Put them ever in the wrong, out of hand,
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233
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For half so boldly there never was a man
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234
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Could swear oaths and lie as woman can.
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235
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I say this not for wives who are wise,
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236
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Unless it be when they are mis-advised.
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237
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A wise wife, if she knows good from bad,
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238
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Will call the chattering magpies merely mad,
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239
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And obtain the witness of her own maid
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240
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To what she asserts – listen how I played:
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241
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“Old sir dotard is this then your way?
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242
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Why is my neighbour’s wife dressed so gay?
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243
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She is honoured now wherever she goes;
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244
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I sit at home; and lacking decent clothes.
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245
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What are you doing at my neighbour’s house?
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246
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Is she so fair? Are you so amorous?
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247
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What do you whisper to the maid, benedicitee?
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248
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Old sir lecher, away with your trickery!
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249
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And if I have a gossip with a friend,
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250
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All innocently, you chide like the fiend
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251
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If I walk or wander to his house.
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252
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Yet you come home drunk as a mouse,
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253
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And preach from your chair, beyond belief!
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254
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You tell me, then, how it’s a great mischief
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255
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To wed a poor woman, the expense,
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256
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And then if she’s rich, of good descent,
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257
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Then you say it’s a torment, and misery
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258
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To endure her pride and melancholy.
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259
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And if she be fair, you proper knave,
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260
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You say that every lecher has his way
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261
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With her, since none in chastity abide,
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262
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When they are assailed from every side.
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263
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You say, that some desire us for our riches,
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264
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Some for our shapeliness, some for our fairness,
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265
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And some because we can sing or dance,
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266
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And some for gentleness and dalliance,
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267
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Some for our hands and arms so small –
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268
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By your word, thus to the devil go us all!
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269
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You say men never hold a castle wall,
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270
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If it is long laid siege to, it will fall.
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271
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And if she be foul, you say that she
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272
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Covets every man that she might see,
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273
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For like a spaniel she will at him leap
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274
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Till she finds some man to take her cheap;
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275
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Never a goose so grey swam on the lake
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276
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That, say you, it will not find a mate.
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277
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You say it’s a hard thing to control
|
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278
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What no man willingly will hold.
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279
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Thus say you, lord, on your way to bed,
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280
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And that no wise man ever needs to wed,
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281
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Nor no man that has his eye on Heaven –
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282
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Wild thunderbolts and lightning-fire then
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283
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Fall on your withered neck till it be broke!
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|
284
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You say that leaking roofs, and thick smoke,
|
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285
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And chiding wives can make men flee
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286
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From their own house – ah, benedicitee,
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287
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What ails the old man so to make him chide?
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288
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You say we wives will all our vices hide
|
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289
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Till we be wed, and then we show them you.
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290
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That may well be the saying of a shrew!
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291
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You say that oxen, asses, horse and hound,
|
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292
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Can be tried over every sort of ground,
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293
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Basins, bowls, before a man may buy;
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294
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Spoons, stools, and all such things we try,
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295
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And likewise pots, clothes, and finery,
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296
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But wives must remain a mystery
|
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297
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Till they be wedded, you old dotard shrew!
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298
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And then, we will our vices show, says you.
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| |
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299
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You say too that it displeases me
|
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300
|
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Unless you forever praise my beauty,
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301
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And every moment pore o’er my face,
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302
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And call me “fair dame” in every place,
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303
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And lay out for a feast upon the day
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304
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When I was born, and make me fresh and gay,
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305
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And do my old nurse every honour,
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306
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And my chambermaid in my bower,
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307
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And my father’s kin and his allies;
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308
|
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So say you, old barrel-full of lies!
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309
|
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And yet because of our apprentice, Jankin,
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310
|
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And his crisp hair, that shines as gold so fine,
|
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311
|
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And his squiring me both up and down,
|
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312
|
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You harbour false suspicion, as I found;
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313
|
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I would not want him if you died tomorrow!
|
| |
|
314
|
|
|
But tell me this, why do you hide, a sorrow,
|
|
315
|
|
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The keys of your chest away from me?
|
|
316
|
|
|
They are my goods as well as yours, pardee!
|
|
317
|
|
|
What, will you make an idiot of your dame?
|
|
318
|
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|
Now, by that lord who is called Saint James,
|
|
319
|
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You shall not both, whatever be your moods,
|
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320
|
|
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Be master of my body, and my goods.
|
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321
|
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One you shall forgo, so say I,
|
|
322
|
|
|
What need have you to enquire or spy?
|
|
323
|
|
|
I think you’d like to lock me in your chest!
|
|
324
|
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|
You should say: “Wife, go where you wish.
|
|
325
|
|
|
Take your pleasure; I’ll believe no malice.
|
|
326
|
|
|
I know you for a true wife, Dame Alice.”
|
|
327
|
|
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We love no man that keeps watch, takes charge
|
|
328
|
|
|
Of where we go; we wish to be at large.
|
| |
|
329
|
|
|
Of all men the most blessed must be,
|
|
330
|
|
|
That wise astrologer, old Ptolemy,
|
|
331
|
|
|
That writ this proverb in his Almagest:
|
|
332
|
|
|
“Of all men his wisdom is the highest
|
|
333
|
|
|
That cares not who has this world in his hand.”
|
|
334
|
|
|
By this proverb you must understand,
|
|
335
|
|
|
If you’ve enough, why should you care
|
|
336
|
|
|
How merrily other folks do fare?
|
|
337
|
|
|
Be sure, old dotard, by your leave
|
|
338
|
|
|
You shall have all you wish at eve.
|
|
339
|
|
|
He is too great a niggard who will spurn
|
|
340
|
|
|
A man who wants a light from his lantern;
|
|
341
|
|
|
He will have no less light, pardee!
|
|
342
|
|
|
If you’ve enough, don’t complain to me.
|
| |
|
343
|
|
|
You say too, if we make ourselves gay
|
|
344
|
|
|
With clothing, and with precious array,
|
|
345
|
|
|
It puts us in peril of our chastity.
|
|
346
|
|
|
And yet – curse it – you make free
|
|
347
|
|
|
With these words in the Apostle’s name:
|
|
348
|
|
|
“In clothing made of chastity and shame
|
|
349
|
|
|
You women shall adorn yourselves,” quoth he,
|
|
350
|
|
|
“And not with braided hair, or jewellery,
|
|
351
|
|
|
With pearls, or with gold, or clothes rich.”
|
|
352
|
|
|
According to your text, as your tricks,
|
|
353
|
|
|
I’ll not act, not as much as a gnat!
|
| |
|
354
|
|
|
You said then, that I was like a cat,
|
|
355
|
|
|
For whosoever singes a cat’s skin
|
|
356
|
|
|
Then will the cat keep to his inn;
|
|
357
|
|
|
While if the cat’s skin be sleek and gay,
|
|
358
|
|
|
She’ll not dwell in that house half a day.
|
|
359
|
|
|
But out she’ll pad, ere any daylight fall,
|
|
360
|
|
|
To show her skin, and go and caterwaul.
|
|
361
|
|
|
That is to say, if I feel gay, sir shrew,
|
|
362
|
|
|
I’ll run and show my old clothes to the view.
|
| |
|
363
|
|
|
Sir, old fool, what use to you are spies?
|
|
364
|
|
|
Though you beg Argus with his hundred eyes
|
|
365
|
|
|
To be my body-guard, since he best is,
|
|
366
|
|
|
In faith, he shall not if it’s not my wish.
|
|
367
|
|
|
Yet I will trim his beard, as I may thee!
|
| |
|
368
|
|
|
Then you said that there are things three,
|
|
369
|
|
|
The which things trouble all this earth,
|
|
370
|
|
|
And that no man may endure the fourth –
|
|
371
|
|
|
Away, sir shrew, Jesus trim your life!
|
|
372
|
|
|
You preach again and say a hateful wife
|
|
373
|
|
|
Is reckoned to be one of these mischances.
|
|
374
|
|
|
Are there then no other circumstances
|
|
375
|
|
|
You could address your parables to,
|
|
376
|
|
|
Without a poor wife acting one for you?
|
| |
|
377
|
|
|
You even liken woman’s love to Hell,
|
|
378
|
|
|
To barren land, where water may not dwell.
|
|
379
|
|
|
You liken it then, as well, to a wild fire:
|
|
380
|
|
|
The more it burns, the more it has desire
|
|
381
|
|
|
To consume everything that burnt can be.
|
|
382
|
|
|
You say, that just as insects kill a tree,
|
|
383
|
|
|
Just so a wife destroys her husband;
|
|
384
|
|
|
This they know who to a wife are bound.”
|
| |
|
385
|
|
|
Lordings, like this it was, you understand,
|
|
386
|
|
|
I kept my older husbands well in hand
|
|
387
|
|
|
With what they said in their drunkenness;
|
|
388
|
|
|
And all was false, but I had witnesses
|
|
389
|
|
|
In Jankin, and in my niece also.
|
|
390
|
|
|
O Lord, the pain I did them and the woe,
|
|
391
|
|
|
Full innocent, by God’s sweet destiny!
|
|
392
|
|
|
For like a horse I could bite and whinny.
|
|
393
|
|
|
I could moan, when I was the guilty one
|
|
394
|
|
|
Or else I’d oftentimes been done and gone.
|
|
395
|
|
|
Who at the mill is first, first grinds their grain;
|
|
396
|
|
|
So was our strife ended: I did first complain.
|
|
397
|
|
|
They were right glad and quick to apologise
|
|
398
|
|
|
For things they never did in all their lives.
|
| |
|
399
|
|
|
For wenching I would take the man in hand,
|
|
400
|
|
|
Though him so sick he could hardly stand.
|
|
401
|
|
|
Yet it tickled his heart, in that he
|
|
402
|
|
|
Thought I was fond of him as he of me.
|
|
403
|
|
|
I swore that all my walking out at night
|
|
404
|
|
|
Was just to spy on the wenches that I cite;
|
|
405
|
|
|
Flying that flag caused me many a mirth.
|
|
406
|
|
|
For all such wit is given us at birth;
|
|
407
|
|
|
Deceit, weeping, spinning, God gives
|
|
408
|
|
|
To woman by nature, while she lives.
|
|
409
|
|
|
And of one thing I can boast, you see:
|
|
410
|
|
|
I had the better of them in high degree,
|
|
411
|
|
|
By cunning, force, or some manner of thing,
|
|
412
|
|
|
Such as continual murmuring and grumbling.
|
|
413
|
|
|
And in bed especially they had mischance:
|
|
414
|
|
|
There was my chiding and remonstrance.
|
|
415
|
|
|
I would no longer in the bed abide,
|
|
416
|
|
|
If I felt his arm across my side,
|
|
417
|
|
|
Till he had paid his ransom to me;
|
|
418
|
|
|
Then would I let him do his nicety.
|
|
419
|
|
|
And therefore every man this tale I tell,
|
|
420
|
|
|
Win whosoever may, for all’s to sell!
|
|
421
|
|
|
With empty hand you will no falcon lure.
|
|
422
|
|
|
In winning would I all his lust endure,
|
|
423
|
|
|
And display a feigned appetite –
|
|
424
|
|
|
And yet in bacon I took no delight.
|
|
425
|
|
|
That was the cause ever I would them chide;
|
|
426
|
|
|
For though the Pope had sat down beside,
|
|
427
|
|
|
I would not spare them at their own board,
|
|
428
|
|
|
For, by my troth, I paid them word for word.
|
|
429
|
|
|
As may aid me God the Omnipotent,
|
|
430
|
|
|
Though I this minute make my testament,
|
|
431
|
|
|
I owe them not a word that was not quits!
|
|
432
|
|
|
I brought it about so by my wits
|
|
433
|
|
|
That they were forced to yield, for the best,
|
|
434
|
|
|
Or else we would never have found rest.
|
|
435
|
|
|
For though he might rage like a maddened lion,
|
|
436
|
|
|
Yet he would always fail in his conclusion.
|
| |
|
437
|
|
|
Then would I say: “My dear, note how meek
|
|
438
|
|
|
The look that Willikin displays, our sheep!
|
|
439
|
|
|
Come here, my spouse, let me kiss your cheek.
|
|
440
|
|
|
You should be as patient, and as meek,
|
|
441
|
|
|
And have as sweet and mild a conscience,
|
|
442
|
|
|
Since you preach so much of Job’s patience.
|
|
443
|
|
|
Practice endurance ever that you preach;
|
|
444
|
|
|
And if you don’t then certainly I’ll teach
|
|
445
|
|
|
How fair it is to have a wife at peace.
|
|
446
|
|
|
One of us two must yield, at least,
|
|
447
|
|
|
And since a man is more reasonable
|
|
448
|
|
|
Than a woman, you should be tractable.
|
|
449
|
|
|
What ails you, to grumble so and groan?
|
|
450
|
|
|
Is it you would possess my sex alone?
|
|
451
|
|
|
Why, take it all; lo, have it every bit!
|
|
452
|
|
|
Saint Peter damn you if you don’t enjoy it!
|
|
453
|
|
|
For if I were to sell my belle chose,
|
|
454
|
|
|
I could go as fresh as is the rose;
|
|
455
|
|
|
But I will keep it for your own use.
|
|
456
|
|
|
By God, you are to blame, and that’s the truth.”
|
| |
|
457
|
|
|
Such manner of words have we on hand.
|
|
458
|
|
|
Now will I speak of my fourth husband.
|
| |
|
459
|
|
|
My fourth husband was a reveller;
|
|
460
|
|
|
That is to say, he kept a lover.
|
|
461
|
|
|
And I was young, and my spirits high,
|
|
462
|
|
|
Stubborn and strong, and pert as a magpie.
|
|
463
|
|
|
How I danced to the harp, without fail,
|
|
464
|
|
|
And sang, indeed, like any nightingale,
|
|
465
|
|
|
When I had drunk a draught of sweet wine.
|
|
466
|
|
|
Metellius, the foul churl, the swine,
|
|
467
|
|
|
That with a stick robbed his wife of life
|
|
468
|
|
|
For drinking wine, though I had been his wife
|
|
469
|
|
|
Would never have frightened me from drink!
|
|
470
|
|
|
And after wine on Venus I would think,
|
|
471
|
|
|
For as surely as cold engenders hail,
|
|
472
|
|
|
A gluttonous mouth gets a lecherous tail.
|
|
473
|
|
|
A drunken woman has no true defence;
|
|
474
|
|
|
This lechers know from their experience.
|
| |
|
475
|
|
|
But, Lord Christ, whenever in memory
|
|
476
|
|
|
I recall my youth and all my jollity,
|
|
477
|
|
|
It tickles me about my heart’s root.
|
|
478
|
|
|
To this day it does my heart good,
|
|
479
|
|
|
That I have had the world, in my time.
|
|
480
|
|
|
But age, alas, that poisons every clime,
|
|
481
|
|
|
Bereft me of beauty, vigour with it.
|
|
482
|
|
|
Let go, farewell; and the devil take it!
|
|
483
|
|
|
The flour is gone, what more is there to tell.
|
|
484
|
|
|
The bran, as best I can, now I must sell.
|
|
485
|
|
|
But yet to be right merry, I have planned!
|
|
486
|
|
|
Now will I tell you of my fourth husband.
|
| |
|
487
|
|
|
I say, I felt at heart a deal of spite
|
|
488
|
|
|
If he in any other took delight;
|
|
489
|
|
|
But he was paid, by God and Saint Judoc!
|
|
490
|
|
|
I made him of the same wood a crook –
|
|
491
|
|
|
Not of my body, in some foul manner,
|
|
492
|
|
|
But was such friends with folk, by and by,
|
|
493
|
|
|
That in his own grease I made him fry,
|
|
494
|
|
|
For anger, and for very jealousy.
|
|
495
|
|
|
By God, on earth I was his purgatory!
|
|
496
|
|
|
For which I hope his soul is in glory.
|
|
497
|
|
|
For, God knows, he sat full oft in song,
|
|
498
|
|
|
When his shoe pinched him all along.
|
|
499
|
|
|
There is none but God and he who knew
|
|
500
|
|
|
In how many ways I tortured him anew.
|
|
501
|
|
|
He died when I returned from Jerusalem,
|
|
502
|
|
|
And lies there buried under the rood-beam,
|
|
503
|
|
|
Albeit his tomb’s not so curious
|
|
504
|
|
|
As was the sepulchre of Darius,
|
|
505
|
|
|
That Apelles sculpted subtly;
|
|
506
|
|
|
It were a waste to bury him preciously.
|
|
507
|
|
|
May he fare well, God give his soul rest!
|
|
508
|
|
|
He is now in his grave and in his chest.
|
| |
|
509
|
|
|
Now of my fifth husband will I tell.
|
|
510
|
|
|
God may his soul never come to Hell!
|
|
511
|
|
|
And yet to me he was the worst, I know –
|
|
512
|
|
|
I feel it on my ribs all in a row,
|
|
513
|
|
|
And ever shall, until my dying day.
|
|
514
|
|
|
But in our bed he was so fresh, I say,
|
|
515
|
|
|
And could cajole me so, God knows,
|
|
516
|
|
|
When that he would have my belle chose,
|
|
517
|
|
|
That though he’d beaten me on every bone,
|
|
518
|
|
|
He could still win my love to him anon.
|
|
519
|
|
|
I swear I loved him best, because he
|
|
520
|
|
|
Was in his love niggardly to me.
|
|
521
|
|
|
We women have, you’ll hear no lie from me,
|
|
522
|
|
|
In this affair a strange fantasy:
|
|
523
|
|
|
Whatever we may not easily get,
|
|
524
|
|
|
We cry all day and crave for it.
|
|
525
|
|
|
Forbid us aught, desire it then will we;
|
|
526
|
|
|
Press on us hard, and we will flee.
|
|
527
|
|
|
Reluctantly we show our goods at fairs;
|
|
528
|
|
|
Great crowds at market make for dear wares,
|
|
529
|
|
|
And what is cheap is held a worthless prize.
|
|
530
|
|
|
This knows every woman who is wise.
|
| |
|
531
|
|
|
My fifth husband – God his soul bless! –
|
|
532
|
|
|
Whom I took for love, not for riches,
|
|
533
|
|
|
He sometime was a clerk of Oxford town,
|
|
534
|
|
|
And left the college, and seeking found
|
|
535
|
|
|
Lodgings with my friend, there made one –
|
|
536
|
|
|
God keep her soul! Her name was Alison.
|
|
537
|
|
|
She knew my heart, and my secrets she,
|
|
538
|
|
|
Better than our parish priest, trust me.
|
|
539
|
|
|
To her I revealed my secrets all;
|
|
540
|
|
|
For had my husband pissed against a wall,
|
|
541
|
|
|
Or done some crime that would cost his life,
|
|
542
|
|
|
To her, and to another worthy wife,
|
|
543
|
|
|
And to my niece, that I loved as well,
|
|
544
|
|
|
I would have told the secret, just to tell.
|
|
545
|
|
|
And so I did full often, God knows
|
|
546
|
|
|
It made his face full often like a rose,
|
|
547
|
|
|
Red hot for very shame, and sorry he
|
|
548
|
|
|
For telling me his secret privately.
|
| |
|
549
|
|
|
And so befell it that one day in Lent –
|
|
550
|
|
|
For often to my friend’s house I went,
|
|
551
|
|
|
As ever yet I loved to laugh and play,
|
|
552
|
|
|
And to walk in March, April, and May,
|
|
553
|
|
|
To hear sundry tales among the alleys –
|
|
554
|
|
|
Jankin clerk, and I, and my friend Alice,
|
|
555
|
|
|
Into the fields about the city went.
|
|
556
|
|
|
My husband was in London all that Lent;
|
|
557
|
|
|
I had the greater leisure for to play,
|
|
558
|
|
|
And to see, and be seen, every day
|
|
559
|
|
|
By lusty folk. How did I know what grace
|
|
560
|
|
|
Might be my destiny, and in what place?
|
|
561
|
|
|
Therefore I made my visitations
|
|
562
|
|
|
Went to vigils, and also to processions,
|
|
563
|
|
|
To preaching too, and these pilgrimages,
|
|
564
|
|
|
To the miracle plays, and marriages,
|
|
565
|
|
|
And wore my gay scarlet as I might.
|
|
566
|
|
|
The worms, and the moths, and mites
|
|
567
|
|
|
Upon my soul, gnawed it never a bit;
|
|
568
|
|
|
And why? Well, I was never out of it.
|
| |
|
569
|
|
|
I’ll tell you now what happened to me:
|
|
570
|
|
|
I say that in the fields around walked we,
|
|
571
|
|
|
Till truly we made such a dalliance,
|
|
572
|
|
|
This clerk and I, that at a chance
|
|
573
|
|
|
I spoke to him, and said to him that he,
|
|
574
|
|
|
If I became a widow, should marry me.
|
|
575
|
|
|
For certainly, with no false modesty,
|
|
576
|
|
|
I was never without a little surety
|
|
577
|
|
|
Of marriage, nor ever had far to seek.
|
|
578
|
|
|
I hold a mouse’s heart not worth a leek,
|
|
579
|
|
|
That only has one little hole to bolt to,
|
|
580
|
|
|
And if that fail, then everything is through.
|
| |
|
581
|
|
|
I maintained he had enchanted me;
|
|
582
|
|
|
My mother taught me that subtlety.
|
|
583
|
|
|
And I said too, I dreamed of him all night;
|
|
584
|
|
|
He seemed to slay me as I lay upright,
|
|
585
|
|
|
And all my bed indeed was full of blood –
|
|
586
|
|
|
“But yet I hope that you will do me good,
|
|
587
|
|
|
For blood betokens gold as I was taught.”
|
|
588
|
|
|
And all was false; I never dreamed of aught,
|
|
589
|
|
|
But by way of following mother’s lore,
|
|
590
|
|
|
In things like that as well as others more.
|
| |
|
591
|
|
|
But now, sir – let me see – what’s to explain?
|
|
592
|
|
|
Aha! By God, I have my tale again!
|
| |
|
593
|
|
|
When my fourth husband was on his bier,
|
|
594
|
|
|
I wept for hours, and sorry did appear –
|
|
595
|
|
|
As wives must, since it’s common usage,
|
|
596
|
|
|
And with my kerchief covered up my visage.
|
|
597
|
|
|
But since I was provided with a mate,
|
|
598
|
|
|
I only wept a little, I should state.
|
|
599
|
|
|
To church was my husband borne that morrow,
|
|
600
|
|
|
With neighbours that wept for him in sorrow,
|
|
601
|
|
|
And Jankin, our clerk, was one of those.
|
|
602
|
|
|
So help me God, when I saw him go
|
|
603
|
|
|
After the bier, I thought he had a pair
|
|
604
|
|
|
Of legs and of feet so fine and fair,
|
|
605
|
|
|
That all my heart I gave to him to hold.
|
|
606
|
|
|
He was, I swear, but twenty winters old,
|
|
607
|
|
|
And I was forty, to tell the truth,
|
|
608
|
|
|
But yet I always had a coltish tooth.
|
|
609
|
|
|
Gap-toothed I was, and that became me well;
|
|
610
|
|
|
I’d the print of Venus’ seal, truth to tell.
|
|
611
|
|
|
So help me God, I was a lusty one,
|
|
612
|
|
|
And fair, and rich, high-spirited and young!
|
|
613
|
|
|
And truly, as my husbands told me,
|
|
614
|
|
|
I had the finest quoniam that might be.
|
|
615
|
|
|
For certain, I am all Venereal
|
|
616
|
|
|
In feeling, and my heart is Martial.
|
|
617
|
|
|
Venus gave me my lust, lasciviousness,
|
|
618
|
|
|
And Mars gave me rebellious boldness.
|
|
619
|
|
|
My ascendant Taurus, with Mars therein –
|
|
620
|
|
|
Alas, alas, that ever love was sin!
|
|
621
|
|
|
I always followed my inclination,
|
|
622
|
|
|
By virtue of my constellation.
|
|
623
|
|
|
It made me so I could never withhold
|
|
624
|
|
|
My chamber of Venus from a fellow bold.
|
|
625
|
|
|
Yet have I Mars’ mark upon my face,
|
|
626
|
|
|
And also in another private place.
|
|
627
|
|
|
For, God wisely be my salvation,
|
|
628
|
|
|
I never loved with any discretion,
|
|
629
|
|
|
But ever followed my appetite,
|
|
630
|
|
|
Whether he was long, or short, or black or white.
|
|
631
|
|
|
I cared not, so long as he liked me,
|
|
632
|
|
|
How rich he was, nor of what degree.
|
| |
|
633
|
|
|
What can I say, but at the month’s end,
|
|
634
|
|
|
This jolly clerk Jankin, my godsend,
|
|
635
|
|
|
Wedded me with great solemnity,
|
|
636
|
|
|
And him I gave the land and property
|
|
637
|
|
|
All that had been given to me before.
|
|
638
|
|
|
But after I repented of it full sore;
|
|
639
|
|
|
He would allow me nothing I held dear.
|
|
640
|
|
|
By God, he smote me once on the ear,
|
|
641
|
|
|
Because I tore a page from his book,
|
|
642
|
|
|
So that my ear was deaf from the stroke.
|
|
643
|
|
|
Stubborn I was, as is a lioness,
|
|
644
|
|
|
And with a tongue nagging to excess,
|
|
645
|
|
|
And walk I would, as I had done before,
|
|
646
|
|
|
From house to house, something he deplored.
|
|
647
|
|
|
About which he often times would preach,
|
|
648
|
|
|
And of the old Roman tales he’d teach –
|
|
649
|
|
|
How Simplicius Gallus left his wife,
|
|
650
|
|
|
And forsook her for the rest of his life,
|
|
651
|
|
|
Because he saw her hatless in the way,
|
|
652
|
|
|
As he looked out his door one fine day.
|
| |
|
653
|
|
|
Another Roman, he told me his names,
|
|
654
|
|
|
Because his wife went to the summer Games
|
|
655
|
|
|
Without him knowing, he forsook her too.
|
|
656
|
|
|
And then would he to his Bible go anew
|
|
657
|
|
|
And seek that proverb of the Ecclesiast,
|
|
658
|
|
|
Where he commands and forbids, aghast:
|
|
659
|
|
|
“Man shall not suffer his wife to gad about.”
|
|
660
|
|
|
Then would he speak like this, without doubt:
|
|
661
|
|
|
“Whoever builds his house of willows,
|
|
662
|
|
|
And spurs his blind horse o’er the fallows,
|
|
663
|
|
|
And sees his wife a pilgrim to All Hallows,
|
|
664
|
|
|
Is worthy to be hanged on the gallows!”
|
|
665
|
|
|
But all for naught – I cared never a haw
|
|
666
|
|
|
For his proverbs, and his old saw,
|
|
667
|
|
|
Nor would I by him corrected be.
|
|
668
|
|
|
I hate him who my vice tells to me;
|
|
669
|
|
|
And so do more, God knows, of us than I!
|
|
670
|
|
|
He was enraged with me, fit to die;
|
|
671
|
|
|
I could not stand him in any case, alas.
|
| |
|
672
|
|
|
Now will I tell you true, by Saint Thomas,
|
|
673
|
|
|
Why I tore that page out of his book,
|
|
674
|
|
|
From which my ear was deafened by his stroke.
|
| |
|
675
|
|
|
He had a book that gladly night and day,
|
|
676
|
|
|
For his pleasure he would read always.
|
|
677
|
|
|
He called it Theophrastus and Valerius –
|
|
678
|
|
|
At which he used to laugh fit to bust.
|
|
679
|
|
|
And then there was some clerk at Rome,
|
|
680
|
|
|
A Cardinal, named Saint Jerome,
|
|
681
|
|
|
Who made a book against Jovinian;
|
|
682
|
|
|
In which book bound up was Tertullian,
|
|
683
|
|
|
With Chrysippus, Trotula, Heloise,
|
|
684
|
|
|
That was abbess not far from Paris,
|
|
685
|
|
|
And the parables of Solomon,
|
|
686
|
|
|
Ovid’s Art of Love, and many a one.
|
|
687
|
|
|
And all of these bound in the one volume,
|
|
688
|
|
|
And every night and day it was his custom,
|
|
689
|
|
|
When he had leisure and vacation
|
|
690
|
|
|
From other worldly occupation,
|
|
691
|
|
|
To read in this book of wicked wives.
|
|
692
|
|
|
He knew of them more legends and lives
|
|
693
|
|
|
Than there are of good wives in the Bible.
|
|
694
|
|
|
For trust me well, it is impossible
|
|
695
|
|
|
For any clerk to speak well of wives
|
|
696
|
|
|
Unless it is of holy saints’ lives,
|
|
697
|
|
|
Never of any other woman though.
|
|
698
|
|
|
Who wrote the histories, tell me who?
|
|
699
|
|
|
By God, if women had written the stories
|
|
700
|
|
|
As clerics have within their oratories,
|
|
701
|
|
|
They’d have written of men more wickedness
|
|
702
|
|
|
Than all the sons of Adam could redress!
|
|
703
|
|
|
The children of Venus and Mercury
|
|
704
|
|
|
In all their workings are contrary:
|
|
705
|
|
|
Mercury loves wisdom and science,
|
|
706
|
|
|
And Venus loves spending, revelry, and dance.
|
|
707
|
|
|
And because of their diverse disposition,
|
|
708
|
|
|
Each is in fall in the other’s exaltation;
|
|
709
|
|
|
So, God knows, Mercury is helpless,
|
|
710
|
|
|
In Pisces where exalted is Venus,
|
|
711
|
|
|
And Venus falls when Mercury is raised.
|
|
712
|
|
|
Therefore no woman is by cleric praised.
|
|
713
|
|
|
The clerk, when he is old, and cannot do
|
|
714
|
|
|
Of Venus’ works the worth of his old shoe,
|
|
715
|
|
|
Then sits he down and writes in his dotage
|
|
716
|
|
|
That women cannot be true in marriage!
|
| |
|
717
|
|
|
But now to my purpose, as I told you,
|
|
718
|
|
|
How I was beaten for a book, all true.
|
|
719
|
|
|
One night Jankin, that was our sire,
|
|
720
|
|
|
Read his book, as he sat by the fire,
|
|
721
|
|
|
Of Eve first, that through her wickedness
|
|
722
|
|
|
Brought all mankind to wretchedness,
|
|
723
|
|
|
For which indeed was Jesus Christ slain,
|
|
724
|
|
|
Who purchased us with his heart’s-blood again.
|
|
725
|
|
|
Lo here, expressed of women may you find,
|
|
726
|
|
|
That woman was the bane of all mankind!
|
| |
|
727
|
|
|
Then he read to me how Samson lost his hair:
|
|
728
|
|
|
Sleeping, his lover cut it with her shears,
|
|
729
|
|
|
Through which treason he lost both his eyes.
|
| |
|
730
|
|
|
Then he read me, for I’ll tell no lies,
|
|
731
|
|
|
Of Hercules, Deianira, and the pyre
|
|
732
|
|
|
Where, through her, he set himself on fire.
|
| |
|
733
|
|
|
Nor did he miss the sorrow and woe too
|
|
734
|
|
|
That Socrates had with his wives two –
|
|
735
|
|
|
How Xantippe poured piss over his head.
|
|
736
|
|
|
The foolish man sat still, as he were dead.
|
|
737
|
|
|
He wiped his head; no more dare say again,
|
|
738
|
|
|
But: “Ere the thunder stops, comes the rain.”
|
|
739
|
|
|
– Of Pasiphae, that was the Queen of Crete;
|
|
740
|
|
|
Out of maliciousness he thought that sweet –
|
|
741
|
|
|
Fie, speak no more, it is a grisly thing,
|
|
742
|
|
|
Of her fierce lust, and perverse liking!
|
|
743
|
|
|
– Of Clytemnestra, for her lechery
|
|
744
|
|
|
That made her husband die by treachery;
|
|
745
|
|
|
He read all that with great devotion.
|
| |
|
746
|
|
|
He told me also on what occasion
|
|
747
|
|
|
Amphiaraus at Thebes lost his life;
|
|
748
|
|
|
My husband had the legend of his wife,
|
|
749
|
|
|
Eriphyle, who for a necklace of gold
|
|
750
|
|
|
Secretly to all the Greeks had told
|
|
751
|
|
|
Of her husband’s private hiding-place,
|
|
752
|
|
|
For which at Thebes he did misfortune taste.
|
| |
|
753
|
|
|
Of Livia he told me, and Lucilia:
|
|
754
|
|
|
They both killed their husbands there,
|
|
755
|
|
|
The one for love, the other out of hate.
|
|
756
|
|
|
Livia her husband one evening late
|
|
757
|
|
|
Empoisoned, because she was his foe.
|
|
758
|
|
|
Lucilia, lascivious, loved hers so
|
|
759
|
|
|
That, to make him always of her think,
|
|
760
|
|
|
She gave him such a manner of love-drink
|
|
761
|
|
|
That he was dead ere it was the morrow –
|
|
762
|
|
|
And thus in every way husbands have sorrow.
|
| |
|
763
|
|
|
Then he told me how one Latumius
|
|
764
|
|
|
Complained to his comrade Arrius,
|
|
765
|
|
|
That in his garden there grew a tree
|
|
766
|
|
|
On which he said that his wives three
|
|
767
|
|
|
Hanged themselves, for spite it was.
|
|
768
|
|
|
“Oh dear brother,” quoth this Arrius,
|
|
769
|
|
|
“Give me a cutting from that blessed tree,
|
|
770
|
|
|
And in my garden planted it shall be!”
|
| |
|
771
|
|
|
Of wives of later date he also read,
|
|
772
|
|
|
How some had slain their husbands in their bed,
|
|
773
|
|
|
And let their lovers pleasure them all night,
|
|
774
|
|
|
While the corpse lay on the floor upright;
|
|
775
|
|
|
And some had driven nails through their brain,
|
|
776
|
|
|
While they were sleeping, and thus them slain.
|
|
777
|
|
|
Some had given them poison in their drink.
|
|
778
|
|
|
He spoke more harm than heart could think,
|
|
779
|
|
|
And with all that he knew more proverbs
|
|
780
|
|
|
Than in this world grow grass or herbs.
|
|
781
|
|
|
“Better,” quoth he, “that your habitation
|
|
782
|
|
|
Be with a lion or a foul dragon,
|
|
783
|
|
|
Than with a woman who will always chide.
|
|
784
|
|
|
Better,” quoth he, “high on the roof to abide,
|
|
785
|
|
|
Than with an angry wife down in the house;
|
|
786
|
|
|
They are so wicked and cantankerous
|
|
787
|
|
|
They hate what their husbands love,” he’d say,
|
|
788
|
|
|
“A woman always casts her shame away
|
|
789
|
|
|
When she casts off her smock,” and lo,
|
|
790
|
|
|
“A fair woman unless she’s chaste also,
|
|
791
|
|
|
Is like a gold ring in a sow’s nose.”
|
|
792
|
|
|
Who would think, or who could suppose
|
|
793
|
|
|
The woe, that in my heart was, and pain?
|
| |
|
794
|
|
|
And when I say he did begin again
|
|
795
|
|
|
Reading of that cursed book all night,
|
|
796
|
|
|
All suddenly three leaves then did I
|
|
797
|
|
|
Pluck from his book, as he read and, weak
|
|
798
|
|
|
As I am, my fist so took him on the cheek
|
|
799
|
|
|
That in our fireplace he fell backward down.
|
|
800
|
|
|
And started up as does a raging lion,
|
|
801
|
|
|
And with his fist he struck me on the head,
|
|
802
|
|
|
That on the floor I lay as I were dead.
|
|
803
|
|
|
And when he saw how still that I lay,
|
|
804
|
|
|
He was aghast, and would have fled away,
|
|
805
|
|
|
Till at last I came to and raised my head.
|
|
806
|
|
|
“Oh, have you slain me, false thief,” I said,
|
|
807
|
|
|
“And for my land thus have you murdered me?
|
|
808
|
|
|
Ere I be dead, yet will I kiss thee!”
|
| |
|
809
|
|
|
And near he came and knelt right down,
|
|
810
|
|
|
And said: “Dear sister, my Alison,
|
|
811
|
|
|
So help me God, I shall thee never smite.
|
|
812
|
|
|
That I have done so was your fault outright;
|
|
813
|
|
|
Forgive me yet, and that I do beseech.”
|
|
814
|
|
|
And once again I hit him on the cheek,
|
|
815
|
|
|
And said: “Thief, my vengeance thus I wreak!
|
|
816
|
|
|
Now will I die; I may no longer speak.”
|
|
817
|
|
|
But in the end, with care and much ado,
|
|
818
|
|
|
We came to an agreement did we two.
|
|
819
|
|
|
He gave the bridle all into my hand,
|
|
820
|
|
|
To me the governance of house and land,
|
|
821
|
|
|
And of his tongue and of his hand also,
|
|
822
|
|
|
And I made him burn his book of woe.
|
|
823
|
|
|
And when that I had gotten unto me
|
|
824
|
|
|
By mastery all the sovereignty,
|
|
825
|
|
|
And that he said: “Mine own true wife,
|
|
826
|
|
|
Do as you wish through all your term of life;
|
|
827
|
|
|
Guard your honour, and my good estate,”
|
|
828
|
|
|
After that day we had no more debate.
|
|
829
|
|
|
God help me so, I was as kind to him
|
|
830
|
|
|
As any wife from Denmark unto Inde,
|
|
831
|
|
|
And also true, and so was he to me.
|
|
832
|
|
|
I pray to God that sits in majesty,
|
|
833
|
|
|
To bless his soul, of His mercy dear!
|
|
834
|
|
|
Now will I say my tale, if you will hear.’
|
| |
| |
|
835
|
|
|
Behold the words between the Summoner and Friar
|
| |
|
836
|
|
|
The Friar laughed when he had heard all this;
|
|
837
|
|
|
‘Now dame,’ quoth he, ‘so send me joy and bliss,
|
|
838
|
|
|
This is a long preamble to a tale!’
|
|
839
|
|
|
And when the Summoner heard the Friar rail,
|
|
840
|
|
|
‘Lo,’ quoth the Summoner, ‘God’s arms two,
|
|
841
|
|
|
A Friar will interfere whatever you do!
|
|
842
|
|
|
Lo, good men, a fly and then a friar
|
|
843
|
|
|
Will fall in every dish and every fire!
|
|
844
|
|
|
What do you mean by your ‘preambulation’?
|
|
845
|
|
|
Come, amble, or trot, or sit, or stay in motion!
|
|
846
|
|
|
You’re hindering our sport in this manner.’
|
| |
|
847
|
|
|
‘You think so, Sir Summoner,’ quoth the Friar.
|
|
848
|
|
|
‘Now, by my faith, I shall, before I go
|
|
849
|
|
|
Tell of a summoner a tale or so,
|
|
850
|
|
|
That all the folk shall laugh in this place.’
|
| |
|
851
|
|
|
‘Now if not, Friar, I will curse your face,’
|
|
852
|
|
|
Quoth the Summoner, ‘and then curse me,
|
|
853
|
|
|
If I do not tell a tale or two or three,
|
|
854
|
|
|
Of Friars, ere I come to Sittingborne,
|
|
855
|
|
|
That will make your very heart go mourn,
|
|
856
|
|
|
For well I know your patience is all gone.’
|
| |
|
857
|
|
|
Our Host cried: ‘Peace, and that anon!’
|
|
858
|
|
|
And said: ‘Let the woman tell her tale.
|
|
859
|
|
|
You bicker like folk full drunk on ale.
|
|
860
|
|
|
Come, dame, tell forth your tale, that will be best.’
|
| |
|
861
|
|
|
‘All ready, sir,’ quoth she, ‘just as you wish,
|
|
862
|
|
|
If I have licence of this worthy Friar.’
|
|
863
|
|
|
‘Yes, dame,’ quoth he, ‘tell forth and I will hear.’
|
| |
|
864
|
|
|
Here ends the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and her Tale begins
|
| |
| |
|
2. The Wife of Bath’s Tale
|
|
0
|
|
|
In the olden days of King Arthur,
|
|
1
|
|
|
Of whom Britons speak with great honour,
|
|
2
|
|
|
All this land was filled full with faerie.
|
|
3
|
|
|
The Elf-Queen with her fair company
|
|
4
|
|
|
Danced full oft in many a green mead.
|
|
5
|
|
|
That was the old opinion, as I read –
|
|
6
|
|
|
I speak of many hundred years ago.
|
|
7
|
|
|
But now no man sees elves I know,
|
|
8
|
|
|
For now the endless charity and prayers
|
|
9
|
|
|
Of limiters and other holy friars,
|
|
10
|
|
|
Who search every field and every stream
|
|
11
|
|
|
As thick as are the motes in a sun-beam,
|
|
12
|
|
|
Blessing halls, chambers, kitchens, bowers,
|
|
13
|
|
|
Cities, boroughs, castles and high towers,
|
|
14
|
|
|
Thorps, barns, cattle-sheds, and dairies –
|
|
15
|
|
|
This is why there are no longer f |
