Notesale: Turn your study into money

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W’s discussion on marriage- 3 components:
 Theoretical arguments about marriage, its nature and purpose and issue of multiple marriages
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 Exemplum in form of her tale
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 Asserts value of her own judgements in highly modern manner
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o Focus of attack- no
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o Parody of a sermon:
 Similar devices of authoritative sermon- clear point to expound, cites bible for authority/justify her view
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o Ironic- claims doesn’t need ‘auctoritees’ but uses them at length to defend her right to multiple marriages
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o Dichotomy = practical v textual authority
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 Subverts medieval notions of male power- W boldly places her subjective experience on equal footing
with interpretations of male scholars
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o Exegesis- uses biblical examples to illustrate her point
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 'Cane of Galilee’- Jesus went to 1 wedding- should only marry once- misinterprets
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 ‘Wexe and multiplye’- Genesis- Christian belief in procreative function of marriage
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• Irony/humour- highlights medieval Church’s unrealistic expectations
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• ‘Wyves mo than oon’- humorous understatement
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• Solomon’s profusion of wives caused him to turn his heart away from God- W’s wish to followironically condemns her own behaviour twice over with this single biblical reference
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 ‘Lameth and Abraham’- more than 1 wife- uses example to support her opinion on multiple marriages
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 Gap between W’s apparent limited understanding and breadth of reference- C’s sophisticated learning
evident
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 Anti-feminism- stereotypical flaw of womanhood or impressively forceful female voice?
o Inconsistency- digressions/colloquial and formal- shifting registers- diversity of pilgrim listeners? Or entertaining
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o ‘commandement’ v ‘owne juggement’- binary opposition- order v opinion
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 Reduces St Paul’s work down to nothing more than mere advice ‘conseillyng is no commandment’
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 Audience would be aware of Wyclif’s challenge to church- he translated Bible so ordinary people could
understand
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 Disturbs ‘whan myn’- trochaic inversion of iambic pattern- ‘whan’ has stronger stress than ‘myn’- alerts
listeners to change
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Reductio ad absurdum- method of proving falsity of premise by showing its logical consequence is
absurd/contradictory
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 Rhymes ‘ysowe’ and ‘growe’ assist the ridiculous argument
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Internal rhyme ‘freletee//chastitee’- W more associated with ‘freletee’ than chastity valued by church
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 Repetition of ‘freletee’- W wittily picks up St Paul’s solution to what he regards as human perfection
turning it into a word she uses to critisise a failure to achieve sexual enjoyment
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‘I graunte it wel’- W preaches use biblical lang whilst challenging biblical texts
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 Element of humility- ordinary/natural lang
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‘nat every vessel al of gold’- biblical analogy- 2 Timothy- analogy of the vessels
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 Actually- metaphorically every person could and should become a golden vessel fit for the Lord’s service
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 E
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of her rejection of pious perfection in favour of liberty- flawed narrator
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‘that am nat I’- refreshing and amusing
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Questions sexual organs
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 ‘for office’ (urination) ‘engendure’ (procreation)- practical functions
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 Dangerous ground- church condemned sex for pleasure
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Transactional language- ‘dette’ ‘paiement’- economic of power within marriage
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 Clear indication of W’s pursuit for maistrie
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‘whete-seed’ ‘barly-breed’- domestic and biblical analogy- pure wheat v barley bread
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 Highlights W’s contentment with impurity
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‘Jhesu refreshed many a man’- sexual connotations or renewed/cleansed- deliberate ambiguity- provocation
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‘God yeve me sorwe!’- humorously inappropriate place to put vow to God- exclamation- contrast between
irreverent commend and religious oath
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Lines 163-193
o P- sold indulgences- parasitic agent of church
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 ‘gelding or a mare’/’no beard hadde he’- homosexual?
 W convinces him yet he’s supposed to be persuasive speaker himself- adds to W’s authority/comical
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o P interrupts claiming about to get married but W put him off
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 ‘allas!’- comical W’s already put someone off marriage
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 ‘my flesh so deere?’- echoes W’s dramatic words- bodily ownership of husband- this dismays P
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o ‘ptholomee’- W alludes to Greek astrologer banned by the Church
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 Ironic that P (gifted/fluent speaker) is silenced so quickly by a women/encourages her to continue
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 Verisimilitude- natural in storytelling to have interruption
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o Praises W as ‘noble prechour’- ironic/opportunity for C to critique church
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o ‘the whippe’- metaphor- connotations of dominance/violence
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o P addresses W ‘Dame’ ‘praye yow’- formal diction/deferential tone
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o ‘for myn entente nys but for to pleye’- intention to please listeners
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 C’s technique- distancing himself from censor by Church- cleverly far removed through W
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o Lumps 1st 3 husbands together
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o ‘goode’- because they were ‘riche, and olde’- age and feebleness enabled W to be dom
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 Age- infirm/vulnerable- easier to control/added advantage they’d soon die
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 One sided dynamic- sexual and practical dominance
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 Source of maistrie not just her authoritative stance but money and land- economics
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 ‘Hoolly in myn hand’- complete authority- submissive image/colloquial lang
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o ‘Swynke!’- work (grafting/menial term) or sexual connotations- tool for maistrie
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 But- anti-feminist? - connection with virgin-whore male gaze of C’s time- Eve type portrayal
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 Recalcitrant tone- stereotypical female vice- stubborn/cruel nature
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o ‘Weilawey!’- comical exclamation- colloquial and domestic reference- audience from variety of backgrounds
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 W proud she’s not a candidate for this
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 Fact that she’s proud of her behaviour suggests C critisising not praising W
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o Lexis- judicial ‘governed…my lawe’- almost places W as ruler and husbands as subjects
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o 'Ye wise wyves’- sets herself up as authority advising other women how to tame their husbands
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o bere hem wrong on honed that the cow is wood’- technique for maistrie
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‘the tell-tale bird’- Folk tale-bird informs husband wife has cheated
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 Medieval fable husband duped his wife over a talking bird- indicates kind of female cunning exemplified
by W
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‘were and lyen, as woman kan’- kind of anti-feminist sentiment we would expect W to refute not support
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o W brings catalogue of charges against her husbands
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 Contemporary readers may have recognised her points coming from this
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g
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 Women unending talk
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 Wife’s need for praise and attention
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o ‘Sire olde kaynard’- derogatory- monikers- nameless
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o Frequent rhetorical question’s- highlights indignant and jealous tone
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 ‘oxen, asses, hors and houndes’- women = property
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 But W’s handling of topic makes us re-access her perspective- accusations turn out to be charges she
attributed to them when they were drunk
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o ‘Moote thy welked nekke be tobroke!’- increasingly aggressive-insult to age/threating violence
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o ‘Chidying wyves maken men to flee’- women allied with destruction
o Rhyming couplet ‘shew/shrewe!’- draws our attention to language revealing/concealing
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o Caesura ‘thanne, sestow, we’- creates before and after
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o ‘Janekyn’- ‘crispe heer’ ‘gold so fyn’- comic touch of rhyming end of his name- contrast to description of
husbands- J described in idyllic terms
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 ‘fals suspecioun’- audience may be comically cynical
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o ‘it is my good as wel as thyn, pardee!’- until Married Women’s Property Act 1870 possessions of wife
automatically came under ownership of husband
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o Vows on ‘Seint Jame’- ironic as criticising church
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o Reported speech ‘thou sholdest seye “wyf, go wher thee liste’- W’s vision of how she wishes to be treatedrespectful/obsequious
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o ‘astrologien, Daun Ptholome’- classical learning/allusions- C’s voice coming through in nature of W- blending
of W’s narrative voice and C’s intelligence
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St Timothy- he felt women shouldn’t braid their hair/remain chaste- W doesn’t care for this passage
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‘deceite, wepyng, spynnyng God hath yive/…lyve’- rhyming couplet emphasising female flaws and draws
attention to idea women are reliant for survival on the very flaws exposed in prologue
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Analogy between sexual access and lamplight- its niggardly of husband to refuse another man to light a candle
as his lantern as he will have no less light for allowing it
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‘I was lyk a cat’- extended simile conveys W’s slyness/sexual drive
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 ‘shew hir skyn…goon a-caterwawed’- seeking a mate
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‘Argus’- Greek fable- argues even if husband had 100 eyes could only keep her fidelity if she wished it
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‘thou likest…wommenes love to helle’- religious connotations- medieval church taught Eve caused Adam to
disobey God and allowed the advent of sin into the world- women commonly associated with hell
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 Male anxieties about female power- women = inherently deceptive
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 C suggesting conflict in marriage is inevitable
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 Destruction imagery- Old Testament of Jonah- God sent ‘worm’ to destroy his vine
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 ‘deceite, wepyng, spynnyng’- W presented as conforming to misogynist stereotypes not refuting them
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 Universal ‘thou’- reference to universal female flaws- W = embodiment of all that’s worst about women
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 Turns husbands arguments against them- monosyllabic lines ‘I ne owe hem nat’ and rhyming of ‘quit’
and ‘wit’ (short vowel sounds)- sound patterns reinforce W’s skill in closing down arguments to her
advantage
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 Advantage of getting her point across first- triumphs in dispute by pre-empting the argument
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 Claims she goes out to spy on husband’s women/God has given her as a woman this subtle cleverness
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 W trades sex for material advantage/weaponises sex
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• Image of ‘haukes’- animalistic imagery- predatory position
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‘bacon’ = old meat- derogatory tone- metaphor for old husbands- comical/insulting depiction of husbands
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‘mekely looketh Wilkyn, oure sheep!’- husbands should behave submissively like W’s pet sheep
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'oon of us two moste bowen, doubteless’- depiction of maistrie- ultimate vision of marriage- battlefield of
conflict- only 1 can be victorious
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‘Thus they seyden in his dronkeness/and al was fals’- moment of bathos-W admits she actually made it up
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 W presented conforming to misogynist stereotype not refuting them- revels in them
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W’s lack of remorse- cruel/egotistical- C wanting to criticise her behaviour?

Lines 451-502
o Length of focus on 4th- dismissive due to him challenging her maistrie
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 Some vulnerability regarding her age/physical attraction
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o Given the epithet ‘Badde’ because he’s not under her control/enjoyed himself with other women
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 Comical inversion of interactions of first 3 husbands
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 Hints she made his life purgatory/suffered for cheating
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o ‘I made hym of the same wode a croce’- W’s idiom refers to teaching of Jesus- everyone has a cross to bear- W
imposing the pain of jealousy on her 4th as he has on her
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 'revelour’ ‘paramour’- symbol of resistance to W’s will
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o ‘but age, allas, that al wole envenime’- reflective/almost poignant tone
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o ‘Metellius’- ancient man who beat his wife to death because she drank too much wine
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o Again tries to avoid direct charges of adultery claiming she’s just securing her next husband
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o ‘jalousye’ ‘purgatorie’- heroic couplets- sets up direct connection between W’s jealousy/insecurity and pursuit
of punishing husband
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 Solution to her insecurity = conflict
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o 4th husband dies- says she wept ‘as wyves mooten’- suggests just putting on an act
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o 'nys but wast to burye hym preciously’- cruel/brutal- husband damningly equated with waste
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 Cruel and dismissive tone highlights W’s avaricious attitude to marriage
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o W is captivated by his youth/physical charms
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 In effect he does to her what she did to other husbands- role reversal builds up thematic tension
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 Whereas W created purgatory on earth for 4 th- she wishes J avoids altogether and immediately enjoys
God’s blessings in heaven
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o ‘shrewe’- unpleasant/ill-tempered women characterised by nagging/aggression
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 ‘that al myn herte I yaf unto his hold’- (gave him all her heart to hold)- glimpse at softer side of her
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 But can W distinguish between love and lust? - C comically later has her focus on physically attributes of
J ‘legges and of feet so clene and faire’
‘forebede us thing, and we desiren we’- C implies women are contradictory in nature
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 Craving for sex when its withheld/forbidden
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 W close with Alisoun- shared her husband’s secrets with her which J hated
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‘bet than oure parisshe preest’- more likely to confess to friends than priest- dismissive of religion
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‘Alisoun’- could be comical or to suggest all women are the same? - lends a kind of homogeneity to women
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Untrustworthy- ‘to hire (Alisoun), and another worthy wyf/and to my nece’
‘toold his conseil every deel’- subverting male authority
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 C suggests W uses religious events/ceremonies as social entertainment
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 ‘gaye scarlet gytes’- ironic- gossiping/wearing fine clothing in season of expected abstinence
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‘My dame taught me that soultiltee’- schooled by her mother in craft of female trickery
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 C equates W with cunning by rhyming ‘me’ with ‘soutiltee’- connotations of archetypically female form
of duplicity and artfulness
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Context- dreams of blood- connected to money ‘for blood bitokeneth (symbolises) gold’
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 Reminding J of her wealth- why he should be attracted to her
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 Financial security/pursuing masitry
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 Antifeminist reading- devious, selfish and materialistic
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 ‘A ha! By God, I have my tale ageyn’- colloquial/conversational language- naturalistic dictionverisimilitude
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 E
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of adhering of social expectations
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 ‘legges and of feet so clene and faire’
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 Comical- juxtaposes sombre funeral/W’s unchecked lust (idea marriage controlling a women’s sexuality)
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 Lustful/passionate tone
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‘Sainte Venus’- classical allusion- Venus = symbol of love/lust- more lustful with J than love?
‘beste quoniam’- bawdy euphemism- comical- switches quickly from the sacred to the profane
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Attempts to explain and excuse her character through forces that are beyond mankind’s control
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‘Venus me yaf my lust’- love/lust
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• Boldly aggressive and domineering
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 ‘withdrawe my chambre of Venus’- bawdy euphemism- may refer to sexual practice of withdrawing
before ejaculation
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• Sexual allusions heighten sense of her sexuality and places her in dominant role of male figure in
sexual role-reversal
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 ‘but evere folwede myn appetit’- values her own pleasure
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o W pushed beyond endurance- lost tempter and ripped 3 pages from book- tearing symbolic of not accepting
male authority
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 W lies still and J thinks he’s killed her- regrets hitting her immediately and asks for forgiveness
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 W’s anger- prolonged bullying from her husband or embodying exactly vices J complained about?
o W makes J burn the book- displaying thematic assertion that it’s better for women to be in control- attempt to
destroy patriarchal hold men have over women
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o W ceding (relinquishing) control- women’s complete dependence on male control of finances/social status as
she is property of her husband now
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 Previously got husbands to give her all their money- tables now turned
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o Shifts quickly from lust to violence ‘he smoot me ones on the lyst’
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 C may have used same word to create rhyming couplet to suggest W and J more similar than appear
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 Or transition of meaning of ‘list’ foreshadows transition of their relationship from love to belligerence
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 Perhaps she’s as much of a chauvinist as J is with her contempt for men
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o ‘verray jangle resse’ = chatterbox- weaponising her speech to maintain control
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o J cites anti-fem material from tales of Roman history against her
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 J = symbol of male textual authority W wants to challenge
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 ‘proverbe of ecclesiaste’- apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus- misogynistic attitudes
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'whoso that buyldeth his hous al of salwes/…is worthy to be hanged on the gawles’- allowing wives to go on
pilgrimages is illogical
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 4 lines rhyme- obvious rhyme- W dismisses/mocks this proverb by making it sound even more ridiculous
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‘valerie and theofraste’- refers to Walter Map’s letter of Valerius and Theophrastus
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 Theophrastus argued marriage is like trying to hold a constantly besieged castle and better not
undertaken at all
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‘trotula’- female physician in Italy 11thC- pioneering ideas about women sufficient for her to be in J’s book
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 Vehemence of medieval anti-female literature depicted as actually outweighing authority of Biblecontained mixture of male and female characters both good and bad
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‘wyves’ v ‘hooly seintes’- binary opposition between everyday wives and holy saints- virgin/whore dichotomy
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 Irony- forceful acknowledgement of lack of female voice by bold/vocal expression of W
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 ‘written of men moore wikkednesse’- if women had written about men they’d find more wickedness
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 Relates to Aesop’s fables- people represent things as they wish them to be
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 By going off on tangent/digressions- criticism- W’s illogical nature or source of humour
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 J linked to mercury/W to Venus-lust and practical experience- binary opposition
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 Reminder of how short W falls of image of ideal women- in this way C defuses her attack on authority
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‘But now to purpos’- back on track
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E
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’s from wicked book of wives- biblical/classical allusions
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 J used stories of female moral corruption as tool for control
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• Adds verisimilitude and help builds up excitement and suspense
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 ‘Eva first…hir wikkednesse/was all mankynde brought to wrecchednesse’
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 ‘Sampson’- Delilah betrayed her husband Samson by cutting off his hair
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• Poison was often assumed doing of women- deceptive/insidious nature- archetype of female
cunning
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• Irrationality/Socrates usually associated with wisdom
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• Women’s unchecked lust/acting on sexual desires can lead to perversion of nature
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 ‘Clitermystra’- killed her husband Agamemnon with an axe- women quick to anger
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 ‘of lyvia tolde he me, and of lucye’- both poisoned husbands- irrational logic and depravity
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 ‘Arrius’- asked for clipping of tree wives hung themselves on ‘plante of thike blissed tree’- black
humour
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‘hir lecchour dighte hire al the nyght/whan that the corps lay’
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J- chauvinist/bias or mirror of W- foolish and general in his attitude to women
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‘mo proverbes’- J quotes from Apocrypha and elaborates on some of pithy sayings attributed to Solomon
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 A quarrelsome wife Proverbs 21:9 becomes ‘an angry wife’ who is ‘wicked and contrary’
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‘thre leves have I plight out of his book’- her story has changed slightly- previously said 1 page now 3
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'who wolde wene, or who wholde suppose, the wo’- alliteration adds emphasis/repeated questions and
clauses underlines W’s distress
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‘wo…in myn herte…and pyne?/…I with fest so took hym on the cheke’
 Inversion- W originally talked of ‘wo’ of her husbands- W now vulnerable- due to presence of love?
 Having evoked pathos for genuine distress W experienced C soon undercuts it by almost comic-book
violence with which she retaliates
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‘I lay as I were deed’- C depicts physical comedy of W feigning death to get J’s forgiveness
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C chooses monosyllables- sense of quick pace but slows as J sees what he’s done- frightened sibilance and
assonance ‘saugh how stille’ ‘he was agast’
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‘yet wol I kisse thee/…I hitte hym on the cheke’- W attributes of Venus and Mars evident here- element of
knockabout farce to C’s depiction of her relationship
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 Originating from ‘this cursed book’- damned
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 W now in charge- image of maistrie
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'governance of hous and lond/and of his tonge, and of his hond’
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‘by maistrie, al the soveraynetee’ = mastery and supremacy
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 C presents ‘maistrie’ as W’s central concern
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‘after that day we hadden never debaat’- comical/C emphasising how unreliable she is
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‘I was to hym so kynde as any wyf frim Denmark unto Ynde’- hyperbole
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Lines 829-856
o Dramatic interlude to mark transition from W’s prologue to Tale and echo of P’s earlier interruption
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o Summoner = responsible for summoning offenders to appear before ecclesiastical court for their spiritual
crimes (e
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heresy)
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o Friar amazed by W’s excessive talking- laughs at her assertion she’s just about to begin her tale
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o S rebukes F for his outburst- believes typical of meddling friar
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 ‘I shal, er that I go, /Telle of a somonour’- threatening tone
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o S ‘flye and eek a frere’- associates Friar with dirtiness, insignificance and corruption
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 Swearing by arms of Jesus commonly depicted as stretched out on his cross
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 F later tells story of wicked summoner who’s carried off by devil after trying to cheat old woman
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 Male on male dispute
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o Lack of religion on this pilgrimage? - secular reasons
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 Male intervention allows W to continue tale- questions her authority/maistrie here?
o Tale- only ½ as long as prologue- C intends us to view prologue as major component of his portrayal of W
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 Although Host (male) allowed her to continue- needed a man to intercede?



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