Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale" Quiz

On what does the Wife of Bath base her claim to "[e]xperience" (line 1)?

her five "housbondes"

Shunning the often misogynistic claims of contemporary bookish and clerical authority, the Wife of Bath embraces "[e]xperience" as the critical term that allows her "[t]o speke of wo that is in mariage" (line 3).

What other kinds of authority does the Wife of Bath cite in addition to "[e]xperience"?

the Apostle Paul, who wrote, "It is better to marry than to burn"

the examples of biblical patirachs such as Abraham, who had more than one wife

the Pardoner, the Knight, and the Friar

In the Prologue to her Tale, the Wife of Bath speaks of Solomon's pleasure in his many wives (lines 35-43); she cites Paul's statement from 1 Corinthians 7:9 that "it is better to marry than to burn" (line 58); and she considers the polygamy of biblical patriarchs including Abraham and Jacob at lines 61-64. The Wife of Bath, while she is not a learned cleric, thus does make use of some of the same kinds of learned and biblical authority that a cleric might, but for the opposite purpose: she refutes arguments against marriage and against pleasure in sex within marriage.

What qualities of character does the Wife of Bath claim when she declares, "For certes I am al Venerien / In feeling, and myn herte is Marcien" (lines 615-616)?

She is lusty and loving (like Venus) and strong of (like Mars)

The Wife of Bath claims to have been born under the constellation Taurus, a sign in which Venus is dominant, and with Mars in the ascendant. Her birth constellation has influenced her very nature, she argues.

At certain points when the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale are interrupted, the reader becomes aware of the framing narrative (the pilgrimage). What other characters from The Canterbury Tales interrupt the Wife of Bath?

the Host, the Friar, the Pardoner, and the Summoner

The Host, the Friar, the Pardoner, and the Summoner all interrupt the Wife of Bath, though the Host's intervention is in aid of quelling the growing argument between the Frere [Friar] and the Somnour [Summoner] (lines 835-62). The Pardoner's interruption occurs earlier, at lines 169-93.

What causes the Wife of Bath's deafness in one ear?

a blow from her fifth husband's fist

The Wife of Bath explains to the company of pilgrims that this deafening blow to her ear was given by her fifth husband (whom she married for love, not money, as she notes in line 532) when she "rente out of his book a leef" (line 673). The book, which so frustrates the Wife of Bath that she is led to attack it, is a "book of wikked wives" (line 691) that details all the sins of women, from Eve's original sin onward.

In the Prologue to her Tale, the Wife of Bath asks the company:

Who painted the leon, tel me who?

By God, if wommen hadden writen stories,

As clerkes han within hir oratories,

They wolde han writen of men more wikkednesse

Than al the merk of Adam may redresse. (lines 698-702)

Which of the answers below best summarizes the content of her query?

If women wrote as many stories about men as clerks have about women, they would reveal more male wickedness than the whole male sex could redress

The Wife of Bath's emphasis on redress for the wrongs inflicted upon women by men, and on the authority of the tale-teller to shape the narrative, are both important in her Tale.

The Wife of Bath begins by establishing the setting of her Tale as "th'olde days of the King Arthour" when "[a]l was this land fulfild of faïrye" (lines 1, 3). Why are there no more fairies in Britain in the present?

There are so many friars wandering and blessing the lands, fairies have no place there.

The opening of the Wife of Bath's Tale employs this mention of fairies in the time of King Arthur and his Round Table to explain the marvelous events that transpire over the course of the tale.

What crime is committed by the knight who is the protagonist in the Wife of Bath's Tale?

rape

The knight rapes a young main (lines 888-94), and for this crime, he is sentenced to death (line 897-97), unless he can fulfill a quest set him by the queen.

What quest does the queen set the knight?

The knight must find out what women most desire.

As Chaucer writes in lines 908-18, the queen gives the knight a year and a day to seek out an answer to the question, "What thing it is that wommen most desiren" (line 911), or suffer death.

The loathly lady whom the knight meets in the forest tells hime that all that women really want is

"maisterye" [mastery]

As the knight then tells the queen, "Wommen desire to have sovereinetee / As wel over hir housbonde as hir love, / And for to been in maistrye him above. / This is youre moste desir though ye me kille. / Dooth as you list: I am here at youre wille" (lines 1044-48). The knight's exposition of this hard-earned truth shows just how well he has learned this lesson, for he offers it to his "lige lady" (line 1043) queen submissively, demonstrating her mastery, humbly concluding, "I am here at youre wille."

What choice does the loathly lady offer the knight, once they are married?

an ugly, old, but faithful wife or a young, fair wife who will cuckold him

"'Chees now,' quod she, 'oon of thise thinges twaye: / To han me foul and old til that I deye / And be to you a trewe humble wif, / And nevere you displese in al my lif, / Or elles ye wol han me yong and fair, / And take youre aventure of the repair / That shal be to youre hous by cause of me— / Or in some other place, wel may be" (lines 1225-33).

What is the knight's choice?

He chooses to let his wife choose.

The knight sighs, but then says, "My lady and my love, and wif so dere, / I putte me in youre wise governaunce: / Cheseth youreself which may be most pleasaunce / And most honour to you and me also" (lines 1236-39). In short, in letting his wife make the choice and submitting to her judgment, the knight accords his wife the "maistrye" (line 1242) that she desires. In recompense for his consideration, the loathly lady then magically transforms herself into a fair young wife, and the couple lives happily ever after.