WOB Prologue and Tale AO3 Context

why is king salomon a useful figure for the wife to reference in the prologue?

• bible claims that saloman had 700 wives and 300 concubines

• these women were accused of encouraging his idolatry

• important figure in judaism, christianity, and islam

• Either fails to mention or does not know herself that King Salomon’s multiple marriages were immoral in the Bible - WOB as reinforcing antifeminist rhetoric that women were illiterate and interpreted texts wrongly

when the wife uses the term ‘apostle’ whom is she referring to and why?

• paul - one of the 12 apostles

• he believed that women should be submissive and silent + emphasises the fact that a woman (eve) is the origin of original sin

why is lamech a useful figure for the wife to reference?

he was the first polygamist mentioned in the bible

he was also a descendant on cain (from the story of abel and cain, cain having killed his brother) = betrayal

why is galilee a significant place for the wife to reference?

• the place where jesus turned water into wine

• this miracle took place at a wedding

which 3 texts to the WOB’s claims that women hide their true selves until marriage come from?

3 anti-feminist texts:

• ‘miroir de mariage’

• st jerome’s ‘against jovianianus’

• ‘romance of the rose’

what does st. jerome’s ‘against jovinianus’ say regarding lines 143-144 ‘lat hem be breed of pured whete-seed, and lat us wyves hoten barley-breed’?

st. jerome argues to “eat barley (marriage) to avoid eating cow dung (sex)”

extended metaphor comparing virgins (whete-seed) to wives (barley-breed) → bread is what would nourish the husband, not the seeds (primal imagery)

who’s book does st. jerome quote often, and what is the name of the book?

theophrastus’ ‘golden book on marriage’

what are the four things referenced in proverbs 30:21 ‘under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up’?

1. a servant who becomes a king

2. a godless fool who gets plenty to eat

3. a contemptible woman who gets married

4. a servant who displaces her mistress

what is the double meaning of the work ‘pyne’, echoed throughout the prologue?

‘pyne’ → the torment and suffering she puts her husbands through

‘pyne’ → reference to jesus and the crucifix

• jesus is the innocent figure (husbands) suffering for the sake of other sins

what is the significance of the wife referencing metellius in her prologue?

• metellius beat his wife with a stick for drinking wine

• the wife argues that he wouldn’t be able to control her or make her stop

what is the significance of the wife referencing st joce in her prologue?

• st joce was well-known to a 14th century audience, especially the pilgrims

• he was the patron saint of pilgrims

what does ‘lamentations’ by matheolus (another anti-feminist text) say which the wife echoes in her behaviour?

• providing a purgatory on earth for her husbands → christ appears to the writer in a dream, describing marriage as purgatory

• as she is at her fourth husbands funeral and he is on the funeral bier, she is looking out for her next husband (Jankyn)

what is the significance of the wife saying ‘i rente out of his book a leef’?

in medieval europe there existed a ‘book curse’ in which if you tore a page out of a book, you would die an agonising death

what is the significance of the wife mentioning a proverb from the book ‘ecclesiastes’?

ecclesiastes → book from the old testament

main message = life is meaningless without religion and fear of god

what did medieval friars do?

• swore oaths of poverty, chastity, and obedience

• taught people about spirituality through preaching and service

• well-known for begging for money/charging for their services

why does the wife bring up friars?

• wife suggests that many friars were corrupt

• they were notorious for having sex with women in the neighbourhood

what 3 values was chivalry split into, that knights had to follow?

• duty to fellow christians

• duty to god

• duty to women

how does the wife tell ovid’s story of midas wrong?

• originally, midas tells his secret to his barber who then can’t keep it

• the wife makes it so that midas tells his wife the secret and she can’t keep it

how is the wife’s manipulation of ovid’s story of midas antifeminist?

• portrays women as untrustworthy

• matches the views of the church = women were degraded for being lustful traitors

use of the word ‘wight’

• Norse mythology → a wight was believed to be a reanimated corpse that guarded treasures it was buried with (supernatural, aligns with loathly lady motif)

• Talbot describes it as reiterating the ungodliness and impiety of women as it seeks to divert the character of the old woman from god

what conventional medieval tale is the wife’s tale based on?

gower’s ‘tale of florent’

what is the ‘loathly lady motif’?

a woman who appears unattractive/ugly but undergoes a transformation upon being approached by a man in spite of her ugliness

what is the literary device ‘occupatio’?

a rhetorical device where a speaker emphasises something by pretending to pass over it

what is the significance in referencing tullius hostillius?

he was a king of rome who rose from poverty → proves the loathly lady’s point about nobility (gentillesse)

where, when, and with whom did courtly medieval literature begin with?

southern France

toward the end of the 11th century

began with the troubadour poetry of Aquitaine

where do the origins of the loathly lady come from?

irish folklore

what religion was england in the medieval period?

catholic

when was the great plague and why did it incite people to challenge the social hierarchy?

1348 → it became obvious that everyone is able to work as population decreased + people should try and contribute to society

how old was the wife of bath in her first marriage?

12

what was the legal age of marriage for a girl in medieval times and what were the societal norms for moving in/marriage?

legal age of marriage = 12

most do not move in together until 14

most girls of good birth are married by 16

majority of population do not have financial means to set up a home until mid-20s

how old was alisoun when she got married and how would a medieval audience have seen this?

12 → medieval audience would still view this as quite young

increasingly paints wife as ‘other’, someone atypical to social norms

in what book of the bible did eve commit the original sin?

genesis 3:1

who was galen?

a 3rd century physician and philosopher

what did galen claim was the only way for women to become impregnated?

by reaching orgasm

how does galen’s opinion on women becoming pregnant implicate rape?

if a woman became pregnant as a result of rape then it would be surmised she enjoyed the experience

why could men not accuse their wives of beating them, but women could accuse their husbands?

no court would sympathise with a man that ‘cannot defend himself against his own wife’

what chapter of the old testament is the phrase ‘grow fruitful and multiply’ from?

genesis 1:1

when was the great plague and why did this affect people’s perceptions of social mobility?

1348 → made wider knowledge that everyone can work, regardless of where they fell on the social hierarchy, as population began decreasing

who were lollards?

a group of english christians who questioned the catholic church in the late 14th century

proto-protestant movement

how could the WOB be considered a lollard?

• they believed the Bible should be up to interpretation

• they questioned the catholic church

• they wanted to rid the church of corruption e.g. fraudulent pardoners/friars

what characterises the fabliaux literary genre?

crude, coarse, comedic, and often cynical writing, especially when discussing treatment of women

usually about adultery, trickery, and the dethroning of a patriarchal figure

typically amoral

what was the allegorical figure of ‘the old bawd’?

a promiscuous woman/prostitute

when was the ‘great schism’ and what was it?

1378 → 2-3 different people were claiming to be the real Pope

what is the significance of the great schism on the WOB’s argument?

cast doubt over the catholic church and its word → exposing the catholic church for its hypocrisy

what was chaucer’s wife’s name and why might she be significant when considering the theme of marriage?

phillipa → they often lived separately in his marriage, highlighting his knowledge that marriage was a practical necessity as well as for love/sex

feminist critique

prologue critiques the long tradition of misogyny

what book from the Old Testament says is that ‘the wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife’?

corinthians 7:4

what is a biblical exegesis?

interpreting/commenting on a text, particularly the bible or similar authorities

‘bet it is to be wedded than to brynne’

• corinthians 7:9

• suggests marriage is a preferable alternative than to burn with sexual desire

• advocated by the apostle Paul

antigamy

• detailed descriptions of the ways in which marriage is a danger to good Christians

• included in St. Jerome and Theophrastus’ works

asceticism

severe self-discipline and avoiding of all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons

what parts of theophrastus’ work does the wife pick up on and refute in her prologue?

• you are able to examine a bull, a horse, a dog, a slave, a wooden table, but not a wife before you wed her - she shows her vices only after she is wed

• if a woman is too beautiful, she will be surrounded by men; if a woman is too ugly, she will not be able to restrain herself

conjugal (marital) debt

• ‘statute holde’

• the marriage debt - a man and woman have a duty to fulfil each others sexual needs

• sex as a currency and marriage as a commodity

why would adultery be viewed as more serious for a man than a woman?

14th Century audience would have viewed adultery committed by a married man as more serious than that committed by a woman since the man, as the head of the household, was expected to exceed the woman in virtue

what class was the wife of bath of?

• merchant class

• accumulated wealth and land from her previous marriages

• she was clearly aware of her societal position in her domination over her husbands emotionally, physically, and sexually

significance of the tale being set in the time of king arthur?

• 5/6th century

• Arthurian legends formed the background to many chivalric romances