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| Image of the Wife of Bath's Tale |
*Today we will read the "Wife of Bath's Tale" from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
*However, before we listen to her, let's take a few minutes to put you young men on the spot. You have two options. Which wife would you choose?
- beauty incarnate (yet unfaithful) OR
- faithful and wonderful (yet troll-ugly)?
Now let's read her story (posted above).
HW: Study for Middle Ages Quiz on Monday.
From the General Prologue
455 A worthy woman from beside Bath city
Was with us, somewhat deaf, which was a pity.
In making cloth she showed so great a bent
She bettered those of Ypres and of Ghent.
In all the parish not a dame dared stir
460 Towards the altar steps in front of her,
And if indeed they did, so wrath was she
As to be quite put out of charity.
Her kerchiefs were of finely woven ground;
I dared have sworn they weighed a good ten pound,
465 The ones she wore on Sunday, on her head.
Her hose were of the finest scarlet red
And gartered tight; her shoes were soft and new.
Bold was her face, handsome, and red in hue.
A worthy woman all her life, what’s more
470 She’d had five husbands, all at the church door,
Apart from other company in youth;
No need just now to speak of that, forsooth.
And she had thrice been to Jerusalem,
Seen many strange rivers and passed over them;
475 She’d been to Rome and also to Boulogne,
St. James of Compostella and Cologne,
And she was skilled in wandering by the way.
She had gap-teeth, set widely, truth to say.
Easily on an ambling horse she sat
480 Well wimpled up, and on her head a hat
As broad as is a buckler or a shield;
She had a flowing mantle that concealed
Large hips, her heels spurred sharply under that.
In company she liked to laugh and chat
485 And knew the remedies for love’s mischances,
An art in which she knew the oldest dances.
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