The Canterbury Tales · The Wife of Bath’s Tale · The Prologue 1741 (3/4)

Now of my fifthë husband will I tell:

God let his soul never come into hell.

And yet was he to me the mostë shrew;1928

That feel I on my ribbës all by rew,1929

And ever shall, until mine ending day.

But in our bed he was so fresh and gay,

And therewithal so well he could me glose,1930

When that he wouldë have my bellë chose,

Though he had beaten me on every bone,

Yet could he win again my love anon.

I trow, I lov’d him better, for that he

Was of his love so dangerous1931 to me.

We women have, if that I shall not lie,

In this mattér a quaintë fantasy.

Whatever thing we may not lightly have,

Thereafter will we cry all day and crave.

Forbid us thing, and that desirë we;

Press on us fast, and thennë will we flee.

With danger1932 utter we all our chaffare;1933

Great press at market maketh dearë ware,

And too great cheap is held at little price;

This knoweth every woman that is wise.

My fifthë husband, God his soulë bless,

Which that I took for love and no richéss,

He some time was a clerk of Oxenford,1934

And had left school, and went at home to board

With my gossip, dwelling in ourë town:

God have her soul, her name was Alisoun.

She knew my heart, and all my privity,

Bet than our parish priest, so may I thé.1935

To her betrayed I my counsel all;

For had my husband pissed on a wall,

Or done a thing that should have cost his life,

To her, and to another worthy wife,

And to my niece, which that I loved well,

I would have told his counsel every deal.1936

And so I did full often, God it wot,

That made his face full often red and hot

For very shame, and blam’d himself, for he

Had told to me so great a privity.1937

And so befell that onës in a Lent

(So oftentimes I to my gossip went,

For ever yet I loved to be gay,

And for to walk in March, April, and May

From house to house, to hearë sundry tales),

That Jenkin clerk, and my gossíp, Dame Ales,

And I myself, into the fieldës went.

Mine husband was at London all that Lent;

I had the better leisure for to play,

And for to see, and eke for to be sey1938

Of lusty folk; what wist I where my grace1939

Was shapen1940 for to be, or in what place?

Therefore made I my visitatións

To vigilies,1941 and to processións,

To preachings eke, and to these pilgrimáges,

To plays of miracles, and marriáges,

And weared upon me gay scarlet gites.1942

These wormës, nor these mothës, nor these mites

On my apparel frett1943 them never a deal1944

And know’st thou why? for they were used1945 well.

Now will I tellë forth what happen’d me:

I say, that in the fieldës walked we,

Till truëly we had such dalliance,

This clerk and I, that of my purveyance1946

I spake to him, and told him how that he,

If I were widow, shouldë weddë me.

For certainly, I say for no bobance,1947

Yet was I never without purveyance1948

Of marriage, nor of other thingës eke:

I hold a mouse’s wit not worth a leek,

That hath but one hole for to startë to,1949

And if that failë, then is all y-do.1950

[I bare him on hand1951 he had enchanted me

(My damë taughtë me that subtilty);

And eke I said, I mette1952 of him all night,

He would have slain me, as I lay upright,

And all my bed was full of very blood;

But yet I hop’d that he should do me good;

For blood betoken’d gold, as me was taught.

And all was false, I dream’d of him right naught,

But as I follow’d aye my damë’s lore,

As well of that as of other things more.]

But now, sir, let me see, what shall I sayn?

Aha! by God, I have my tale again.

When that my fourthë husband was on bier,

I wept algate1953 and made a sorry cheer,1954

As wivës must, for it is the uságe;

And with my kerchief covered my viságe;

But, for I was provided with a make,1955

I wept but little, that I undertake.1956

To churchë was mine husband borne a-morrow

With neighëbours that for him madë sorrow,

And Jenkin, ourë clerk, was one of tho:1957

As help me God, when that I saw him go

After the bier, methought he had a pair

Of leggës and of feet so clean and fair,

That all my heart I gave unto his hold.1958

He was, I trow, a twenty winter old,

And I was forty, if I shall say sooth,

But yet I had always a coltë’s tooth.

Gat-toothed1959 I was, and that became me well,

I had the print of Saintë Venus’ seal.

[As help me God, I was a lusty one,

And fair, and rich, and young, and well begone:1960

For certes I am all venerian

In feeling, and my heart is martian;1961

Venus me gave my lust and liquorishness,

And Mars gave me my sturdy hardiness.]

Mine ascendant was Taure,1962 and Mars therein:

Alas, alas, that ever love was sin!

I follow’d aye mine inclinatión

By virtue of my constellatión:

That made me that I couldë not withdraw

My chamber of Venus from a good felláw.

[Yet have I Martë’s mark upon my face,

And also in another privy place.

For God so wisly1963 be my salvatión,

I loved never by discretión,

But ever follow’d mine own appetite,

All1964 were he short, or long, or black, or white,

I took no keep,1965 so that he liked me,

How poor he was, neither of what degree.]

What should I say? but that at the month’s end

This jolly clerk Jenkin, that was so hend,1966

Had wedded me with great solemnity,

And to him gave I all the land and fee

That ever was me given therebefore:

But afterward repented me full sore.

He wouldë suffer nothing of my list.1967

By God, he smote me onës with his fist,

For that I rent out of his book a leaf,

That of the stroke mine earë wax’d all deaf.

Stubborn I was, as is a lioness,

And of my tongue a very jangleress,1968

And walk I would, as I had done beforn,

From house to house, although he had it sworn:1969

For which he oftentimes wouldë preach,

And me of oldë Roman gestës1970 teach.

How that Sulpitius Gallus left his wife,

And her forsook for term of all his,

For nought but open-headed1971 he her say1972

Looking out at his door upon a day.

Another Roman1973 told he me by name,

That, for his wife was at a summer game

Without his knowing, he forsook her eke.

And then would he upon his Bible seek

That ilkë1974 proverb of Ecclesiast,

Where he commandeth, and forbiddeth fast,

Man shall not suffer his wife go roll about.

Then would he say right thus withoutë doubt:

“Whoso that buildeth his house all of sallows,1975

And pricketh his blind horse over the fallows,

And suff’reth his wife to go seekë hallows,1976

Is worthy to be hanged on the gallows.”

But all for nought; I settë not a haw1977

Of his provérbs, nor of his oldë saw;

Nor would I not of him corrected be.

I hate them that my vices tellë me,

And so do more of us (God wot) than I.

This made him wood1978 with me all utterly;

I wouldë not forbear1979 him in no case.

Now will I say you sooth, by Saint Thomas,

Why that I rent out of his book a leaf,

For which he smote me, so that I was deaf.

He had a book, that gladly night and day

For his disport he would it read alway;

He call’d it Valerie,1980 and Theophrast,

And with that book he laugh’d alway full fast.

And eke there was a clerk sometime at Rome,

A cardinal, that hightë Saint Jerome,

That made a book against Jovinian,

Which book was there; and eke Tertullian,

Chrysippus, Trotula, and Heloïse,

That was an abbess not far from Paris;

And eke the Parables1981 of Solomon,

Ovidë’s Art,1982 and bourdës1983 many one;

And allë these were bound in one volume.

And every night and day was his custume

(When he had leisure and vacatión

From other worldly occupatión)

To readen in this book of wicked wives.

He knew of them more legends and more lives

Than be of goodë wivës in the Bible.

For, trust me well, it is an impossíble

That any clerk will speakë good of wives,

(But if1984 it be of holy saintës’ lives)

Nor of none other woman never the mo’.

Who painted the lión, tell it me, who?

By God, if women haddë written stories,

As clerkës have within their oratóries,

They would have writ of men more wickedness

Than all the mark of Adam1985 may redress.

The children of Mercury and of Venus,1986

Be in their working full contrarious.

Mercury loveth wisdom and sciénce,

And Venus loveth riot and dispence.1987

And for their diverse dispositión,

Each falls in other’s exaltatión.1988

As thus, God wot, Mercúry is desolate

In Pisces, where Venus is exaltáte,

And Venus falls where Mercury is raised.

Therefore no woman by no clerk is praised.

The clerk, when he is old, and may not do

Of Venus’ works not worth his oldë shoe,

Then sits he down, and writes in his dotage,

That women cannot keep their marriáge.

But now to purpose, why I toldë thee

That I was beaten for a book, pardie.

Upon a night Jenkin, that was our sire,1989

Read on his book, as he sat by the fire,

Of Eva first, that for her wickedness

Was all mankind brought into wretchedness,

For which that Jesus Christ himself was slain,

That bought us with his heartë-blood again.

Lo here express of women may ye find

That woman was the loss of all mankind.

Then read he me how Samson lost his hairs

Sleeping, his leman cut them with her shears,

Through whichë treason lost he both his eyen.

Then read he me, if that I shall not lien,

Of Hercules, and of his Dejanire,

That caused him to set himself on fire.

Nothing forgot he of the care and woe

That Socrates had with his wivës two;

How Xantippe cast piss upon his head.

This silly man sat still, as he were dead,

He wip’d his head, and no more durst he sayn,

But, “Ere the thunder stint1990 there cometh rain.”

Of Phasiphaë, that was queen of Crete,

For shrewedness1991 he thought the talë sweet.

Fy, speak no more, it is a grisly thing,

Of her horrible lust and her likíng.

Of Clytemnestra, for her lechery

That falsely made her husband for to die,

He read it with full good devotión.

He told me eke, for what occasión

Amphiorax at Thebes lost his life:

My husband had a legend of his wife

Eryphilé, that for an ouche1992 of gold

Had privily unto the Greekës told,

Where that her husband hid him in a place,

For which he had at Thebes sorry grace.

Of Luna told he me, and of Lucie;

They bothë made their husbands for to die,

That one for love, that other was for hate.

Luna her husband on an ev’ning late

Empoison’d had, for that she was his foe:

Lucia liquorish lov’d her husband so,

That, for he should always upon her think,

She gave him such a manner1993 lovë-drink,

That he was dead before it were the morrow:

And thus algatës1994 husbands haddë sorrow.

Then told he me how one Latumeus

Complained to his fellow Arius

That in his garden growed such a tree,

On which he said how that his wivës three

Hanged themselves for heart dispiteous.

“O leve1995 brother,” quoth this Arius,

“Give me a plant of thilkë1996 blessed tree,

And in my garden planted shall it be.”

Of later date of wivës hath he read,

That some have slain their husbands in their bed,

And let their lechour dight them all the night,

While that the corpse lay on the floor upright:

And some have driven nails into their brain,

While that they slept, and thus they have them slain:

Some have them given poison in their drink:

He spake more harm than heartë may bethink.

And therewithal he knew of more provérbs,

Than in this world there groweth grass or herbs.

“Better (quoth he) thine habitatión

Be with a lion, or a foul dragón,

Than with a woman using for to chide.

Better (quoth he) high in the roof abide,

Than with an angry woman in the house,

They be so wicked and contrarioús:

They hatë that their husbands loven aye.”

He said, “A woman cast her shame away

When she cast off her smock;” and farthermo’,

“A fair woman, but1997 she be chaste also,

Is like a gold ring in a sowë’s nose.”

Who couldë ween,1998 or who couldë suppose

The woe that in mine heart was, and the pine?1999

And when I saw that he would never fine2000

To readen on this cursed book all night,

All suddenly three leavës have I plight2001

Out of his book, right as he read, and eke

I with my fist so took him on the cheek,

That in our fire he backward fell adown.

And he up start, as doth a wood lión,

And with his fist he smote me on the head,

That on the floor I lay as I were dead.

And when he saw how still that there I lay,

He was aghast, and would have fled away,

Till at the last out of my swoon I braid,2002

“Oh, hast thou slain me, thou false thief?” I said,

“And for my land thus hast thou murder’d me?

Ere I be dead, yet will I kissë thee.”

And near he came, and kneeled fair adown,

And saidë, “Dearë sister Alisoun,

As help me God, I shall thee never smite:

That I have done it is thyself to wite,2003

Forgive it me, and that I thee beseek.”2004

And yet eftsoons2005 I hit him on the cheek,

And saidë, “Thief, thus much am I awreak.2006

Now will I die, I may no longer speak.”

But at the last, with muchë care and woe

We fell accorded2007 by ourselvës two:

He gave me all the bridle in mine hand

To have the governance of house and land,

And of his tongue, and of his hand also.

I made him burn his book anon right tho.2008

And when that I had gotten unto me

By mast’ry all the sovereignëty,

And that he said, “Mine owen truë wife,

Do as thee list,2009 the term of all thy life,

Keep thine honoúr, and eke keep mine estate;”

After that day we never had debate.

God help me so, I was to him as kind

As any wife from Denmark unto Ind,

And also true, and so was he to me:

I pray to God that sits in majesty

So bless his soulë, for his mercy dear.

Now will I say my tale, if ye will hear.⁠—