A Vertext for “The �Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
Boy! Did they ever censor my prologue!
Behind the Wall� by Tracey Chapman
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
…all goes to show
That marriage is a misery and a woe
Pg 95 ln. 3
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
“Better it is to marry than to burn…�Show me a time or text where God
disparages
Or sets a prohibition upon marriages
Expressly
Pg 95 ln. 18
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
But no specific number [of marriages] mentioned He,
Whether of bigamy or octogamy;
Why should men speak of it reproachfully?
Lo, there's the wise old king Dan Solomon;
I understand he had more wives than one;
And now would God it were permitted me
To be refreshed one half as oft as he!
ln. 32-38 (not in your textbook)
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
Not every dish and vessel’s made of gold,
Some are of wood, yet earn their master’s
praise.
Pg 95 ln. 40
“if gold [the parson] would rust
what will iron [his parish members] do?”
(from the General Prologue
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
Thus the Apostle Paul has told it me,
And bade our husbands they should love us
well,
There’s a command on which I like to dwell
Pg 96 ln. 61
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for women to speak in church.�� �-St. Paul: 1 Corinthians 14:34-35
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
I was about to take a wife; alas!
Am I to buy it on my flesh so dear?
(spoken by The Pardoner)
Pg 96 ln. 67
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
You wait, she said, my story’s not begun
You’ll taste another brew before I’ve done’
You’ll find it doesn’t taste as good as ale,
And when I’ve finished telling you my tale
Pg 96 ln. 70
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
And please don’t be offended at my views;
They’re really only offered to amuse.
Pg 96 ln. 88
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
Those husbands that I had,
Three of them were good and two were bad.
The three that I call ‘good’ were rich and old.
I managed them so well by my technique…
Pg 96 ln. 90
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
A knowing wife if she is worth her salt
Can always prove her husband is at fault,
Pg 96 ln. 107
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
You say that some desire us for our wealth,
Some for our shapeliness, our looks, our health,
Some for our singing…
And some because our hands are soft and
small;
By your account the devil gets us all…
Pg 96 ln. 132
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
You also say we count it for a crime�Unless you’re always poring on our faces
Pg 97 ln. 160
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
Why do you hide the keys of coffer doors?
It’s just as much my property as yours.
Do you want to make an idiot of your wife?
Pg 97 ln. 174
I think you’d like to lock me in your coffer!
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
Picture of Women’s Health Meeting at the White House, 2017
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
10/24/2017
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
“’ And when a woman tries a mild display
In dress or costly ornament, you say
It is a danger to her chastity…’”
Pg 97 ln. 184
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
“I’ll pay as much attention to your text
And rubric in such things as would a gnat
Pg 97 ln. 192
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
For if you singe a cat it will not roam
And that’s the way to keep a cat at home.
Pg 97 ln. 196-197
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
By God, if women had but written stories
Like those the clergy keep in oratories,
More had been written of man’s wickedness
Than all the sons of Adam could redress….
Pg 101 ln. 456
From Jane Austen’s Persuasion
Well, Miss Elliot,"
(lowering his voice,) "as I was saying we shall never agree,I suppose, upon this point. No man and woman, would, probably.
But let me observe that all histories are against you--all stories, prose and verse. If I had such a memory as Benwick, I could bring you fifty quotations in a moment on my side the argument, and I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say
upon woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all
written by men."
From Jane Austen’s Persuasion
"Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes, if you please, no reference to examples
in books. Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story.
Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has
been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything."
"But how shall we prove anything?"
"We never shall.
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
Lies, tears, and spinning [lying] are the
things God Gives
By nature to a woman…
Pg 98 ln. 248
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
You’re fond of preaching patience out of Job,
And so be patient; practice what you preach
Pg 98 ln. 259
“This noble example to his sheep he gave
That first he wrought, and afterward taught”
(The Parson – from the General Prologue)
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
But age that comes to poison everything
Has taken all my beauty and my pith.
Well, let it go, the devil go therewith!
The flour is gone, there is no more to say.
Pg 98 ln. 282
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
I told you how it filled my heart with spite
To see another woman his delight,
By God and all His saints I made it good!
I carved him out a cross of the same wood…
Pg 99 ln. 288
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
Now of my fifth, last husband let me tell.
God never let his soul be sent to Hell!
And yet he was my worst, and many a blow�He struck me still can ache along my row…
He still could wheedle me to love, I own.�I think I loved him best, Ill tell no lie.
Pg 99 ln. 311
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
I think I loved him best, Ill tell no lie.
He was disdainful in his love, that’s why…
When something’s difficult, or can’t be had,
We crave and cry for it all day like mad.
Forbid a thing, we pine for it all night,
Press fast upon us and we take to flight;
Pg 99 ln. 318
Outside of That� by Bessie Smith
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
So help me God, I thought he [Johnny]
looked so bonny
Behind the coffin! Heavens, what a pair
Of legs he had!
Pg 100 ln. 391
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
I handed him [Johnny] the money, lands,
and all
That ever had been given me before;
This I repented later, more and more.
None of my pleasures would he let me seek.
Pg 100 ln. 405
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
I didn’t give a hen
For all his proverbs and his wise old men.�Nor would I take rebuke at any price;
I hate a man who points me out my vice,
Pg 100 ln. 434
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
…there is no libel�On women that the clergy will not paint,
Except when writing of a woman-saint,�But never good of other women
Pg 100 ln. 451
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
Who could imagine, who could figure out�The torture in my heart?
Pg 101 ln. 486
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
I suddenly grabbed and tore three pages out�Where he was reading, at the very place…
Then like a maddened lion, with a yell�He started up and smote me on the head…
Pg 101 ln. 494
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
So help me God, I never again will hit
You, love; and if I did, you asked for it.
Forgive me!
Pg 101 ln. 505
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
Why some Battered Women Sometimes Stay
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
Homework – “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” &
“Fredrigo’s Falcon” BOTH
due for our next meeting.