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    The Wife of Bath
    The Wife of Bath
    The Wife of Bath
    Ebook49 pages31 minutes

    The Wife of Bath

    By Geoffrey Chaucer

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    About this ebook

    The Wyves Tale of Bathe and prologue are among the best-known of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. They give insight into the role of women in the Late Middle Ages and are probably of interest to Chaucer himself, for the character is one of his most developed ones, with her prologue twice as long as her tale.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilder Publications, Inc.
    Release dateJul 4, 2014
    ISBN9781633841734
    The Wife of Bath
    Author

    Geoffrey Chaucer

    Often referred to as the father of English poetry, Geoffrey Chaucer was a fourteenth-century philosopher, alchemist, astrologer, bureaucrat, diplomat, and author of many significant poems. Chaucer’s writing was influential in English literary tradition, as it introduced new rhyming schemes and helped develop the vernacular tradition—the use of everyday English—rather than the literary French and Latin, which were common in written works of the time. Chaucer’s best-known—and most imitated—works include The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, The Book of the Duchess, and The House of Fame.

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    Book preview

    The Wife of Bath - Geoffrey Chaucer

    The Wife of Bath

    by Geoffrey Chaucer

    SMK Books

    Copyright © 2014 SMK Books

    All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

    Manufactured in the United States of America

    10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

    ISBN 978-1-63384-173-4

    Table of Contents

    The Prologue.

    The Tale.

    The Prologue.

    Experience, though none authority authoritative texts

    Were in this world, is right enough for me

    To speak of woe that is in marriage:

    For, lordings, since I twelve year was of age,

    (Thanked be God that is etern on live), lives eternally

    Husbands at the church door have I had five,

    For I so often have y-wedded be,

    And all were worthy men in their degree.

    But me was told, not longe time gone is

    That sithen Christe went never but ones since

    To wedding, in the Cane of Galilee, Cana

    That by that ilk example taught he me, same

    That I not wedded shoulde be but once.

    Lo, hearken eke a sharp word for the nonce, occasion

    Beside a welle Jesus, God and man,

    Spake in reproof of the Samaritan:

    Thou hast y-had five husbandes, said he;

    "And thilke man, that now hath wedded thee, that

    Is not thine husband:" thus said he certain;

    What that he meant thereby, I cannot sayn.

    But that I aske, why the fifthe man

    Was not husband to the Samaritan?

    How many might she have in marriage?

    Yet heard I never tellen in mine age in my life

    Upon this number definitioun.

    Men may divine, and glosen up and down; comment

    But well I wot, express without a lie,

    God bade us for to wax and multiply;

    That gentle text can I well understand.

    Eke well I wot, he said, that mine husband

    Should leave father and mother, and take to me;

    But of no number mention made he,

    Of bigamy or of octogamy;

    Why then should men speak of it villainy? as if it were a disgrace

    Lo here, the wise king Dan Solomon, Lord

    I trow that he had wives more than one;

    As would to God it lawful were to me

    To be refreshed half so oft as he!

    What gift of God had he for all his wives? special favour, licence

    No man hath such, that in this world alive is.

    God wot, this noble king, as to my wit, as I understand

    The first night had many a merry fit

    With each of them, so well was him on live. so well he lived

    Blessed be God that I have wedded five!

    Welcome the sixth whenever that he shall.

    For since I will not keep me chaste in all,

    When mine husband is from the world y-gone,

    Some Christian man shall wedde me anon.

    For then th’ apostle saith that I am free

    To wed, a’ God’s half, where it liketh me. on God’s part

    He saith, that to be wedded is no sin;

    Better is to be wedded than to brin. burn

    What recketh me though folk say villainy care evil

    Of

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