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Tuesday, Oct. 18 Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale. Wife of Bath. Her Story. Who said this?.
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Who said this? • Virginitee is greet perfeccion, Virginity is great perfection,106 And continence eek with devocion, And continence also with devotion,107 But Crist, that of perfeccion is welle, But Christ, who is the source of perfection,108 Bad nat every wight he sholde go selle Did not command that every one should go sell109 Al that he hadde, and gyve it to the poore, All that he had, and give it to the poor,110 And in swich wise folwe hym and his foore. And in such wise follow him and his footsteps.111 He spak to hem that wolde lyve parfitly; He spoke to those who would live perfectly;112 And lordynges, by youre leve, that am nat I. And gentlemen, by your leave, I am not that.113 I wol bistowe the flour of al myn age I will bestow the flower of all my age114 In the actes and in fruyt of mariage. In the acts and in fruit of marriage.
G. L. Kitteredge on Wife’s Tale • “The wife proceeds, with infinite zest, to give the history of her married life, unfolding, as she does so, another heretical doctrine of a startling kind, which, in fact, is the real subject of her discourse. This is nothing less than the dogma that the wife is the head of the house. Obedience is not her duty, but the husband’s. Men are no match for women, anyway. Let them sink back to their proper level, and cease their ridiculous efforts to maintain a position for which they are not fit. Then marriages will all be happy. She supports her contention with much curious learning derived, of course, from her fifth and latest husband, who was a professional scholar; and she overbears opposition by quoting her own experience, which is better testimony than the citation of authorities. She had always had her own way. Sometimes she cowed her husbands, and sometimes, she cajoled them, but none of the five could resist her government. And it was well for them to yield. This is happy marriage.”
Kitteredge continues • “Who should know so well as she? Once, indeed, she rises almost to sublimity, as she looks back on the joy of her life: • But, Lord Crist! Whan that it remembreth me • Upon my yowthe, and on my jolitee, • It tikleth me aboute myn herte roote • Unto this day it dooth myn herte boote • That I have had my world as in my tyme. (469-73)
Ways to analyze any text, applied to Wife of Bath’s Tale – Rape/ Loving Sex, Youth/ Age, Male/ Female, Obedience/ Control, etc.
Kitteredge concludes • “This is one of the great dramatic utterances of human nature, as the Wife of Bath is one of the most amazing characters that the brain of man has ever yet conceived.”
Green Knight • Life – Not Death - Green Knight is both • But by the end Sir Gawain has gained this status of “Not Death” • Not Death/ Not Life – the enchanted castle of Sir Bertilak?
Imagery – trace an image through the text • Books: • 1st line: Her experience vs. “authority” = books • Bible (wedding at Cana • Story of the Samaritan woman • “That gentil text can I wel understonde” • Solomon, Lameth, Abraham, • Clerk tries to rule her by books • “Why that I rente out of his book a leef” • “That I was beten for a book, pardee” • 791 “Al sodeynly three leves have I plight • Out of his book, right as he radde, and ede”
Oppositional categories – Who is caught in between? • Power Weakness • Rape Love • Books Experience / oral tales • Age Youth • Male Female • Money Poverty • Answers Questions • Catholic Church Pagan practices
Overlay onto an older story (or younger) • Wife of Bath’s story vs. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight • Decapitation is an issue • Both cannot return to Round Table until they have achieved death/ knowledge • Both wander into the land of magic • Both are controlled by older women (G by aunt Morgan le Fey and hero by the hag) • Both are put in bed with women, where sex should happen • Then what?
Frames • Connections between Wife of Bath’s Prologue and her story • Connections between the whole of the Canterbury Tales and her story • Connections between audience and Wife • Connections between audience and Tale • Connections between audience and reading
Interpolated Stories • Midas - the story in Ovid, • Also, there is no wife. The person who knows the story is his BARBER. Why wife? • A reed grew up there which whispers his story to the world. • The truth will out. • How do you think that reflects back on the tale of the young man and the old hag?
Metaphors • Green Knight’s color and ability to survive beheading • Green girdle • Kisses • Deer/ Boar/ Fox • Pentangle • Gold in Beowulf • Bones held by Pardoner
What could you answer for the midterm? • Who said this? • Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote When April with its sweet-smelling showers2 The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, Has pierced the drought of March to the root,3 And bathed every veyne in swich licour And bathed every vein (of the plants) in such liquid4 Of which vertu engendred is the flour; By which power the flower is created;
Who said this? • "Lordynges," quod he, "in chirches whan I preche, "Gentlemen," he said, "in churches when I preach,330 I peyne me to han an hauteyn speche, I take pains to have a loud voice,331 And rynge it out as round as gooth a belle, And ring it out as round as goes a belle,332 For I kan al by rote that I telle. For I know all by rote that I tell.333 My theme is alwey oon, and evere was -- My theme is always the same, and ever was --334 Radix malorum est Cupiditas. 'Greed is the root of all evil.'
Who told this story? • "Now lat us sitte and drynke, and make us merie, "Now let us sit and drink, and make us merry,884 And afterward we wol his body berie." And afterward we will bury his body."885 And with that word it happed hym, par cas, And with that word it happened to him, by chance,886 To take the botel ther the poyson was, To take the bottle where the poison was,887 And drank, and yaf his felawe drynke also, And drank, and gave his fellow drink also,888 For which anon they storven bothe two. For which straightway they died, both of the two.
Short essay/ chart questions • Is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight an epic or chivalric romance? • What does Sir Gawain and the Green Knight mean? • Lanval, which was written over 200 years before SGGK, shows a very different side of the Knights of the Round Table – or does it? • Which type of criticism seems to you to be the most useful in your readings (whatever your favorite type of literature)? • If you were teaching “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath,” would you feel as if you were teaching a Middle Ages text or something from the Early Modern Period? • To you, which seems most interesting and significant in Beowulf: the structure with its emphasis on death and failure OR the vividly described battles against monsters OR the heroes and monsters themselves?
