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The Franklin
The Wife of Bath comes from the town of Bath, which is on the Avon River. She is a seamstress by trade but a professional wife by occupation: she has been married five times and presents herself as the world’s expert in matters of marriage and the relations between men and women. Chaucer describes her as large, gap-toothed, and dressed in red clothing, which is traditionally the color of lust. The Wife of Bath is a force of nature, a larger-than-life character who is not afraid to push her way to the front and state her opinions.
The Wife of Bath Quotes in The Canterbury Tales
The The Canterbury Tales quotes below are all either spoken by The Wife of Bath or refer to The Wife of Bath. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Wife of Bath’s Prologue
Quotes
Experience, though noon auctoritee
Were in this world, is right ynough for me.
Related Characters:
The Wife of Bath (speaker)
Related Themes:
Men may devyne and glosen, up and doun,
But wel I woot, expres, without lye,
God bad us for to wexe and multiplye,
That gentil text kan I wel understonde.
Related Characters:
The Wife of Bath (speaker)
Related Themes:
By God! if women hadde written stories,
As clerkes han withinne hire oratories,
They wolde han writen of men moore wikkednesse
Than all the mark of Adam may redresse.
Related Characters:
The Wife of Bath (speaker)
Related Themes:
And whan I saugh he wolde never fyne
To reden on this cursed book al nyght,
Al sodenly thre leves have I plyght
Out of his book, right as he radde, and eke
I with my fest so took hym on the cheke
That in our fyr he fil bakward adoun.
Related Characters:
The Wife of Bath (speaker), Jankyn
Related Themes:
The Wife of Bath’s Tale
Quotes
And eek I praye Jhesu shorte hir lyves
That noght wol be governed by hir wyves,
And olde and angry nygardes of dispence,
God sende hem soon verray pestilence!
Related Characters:
The Wife of Bath (speaker)
Related Themes:
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The Wife of Bath Quotes in The Canterbury Tales
The The Canterbury Tales quotes below are all either spoken by The Wife of Bath or refer to The Wife of Bath. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Wife of Bath’s Prologue
Quotes
Experience, though noon auctoritee
Were in this world, is right ynough for me.
Related Characters:
The Wife of Bath (speaker)
Related Themes:
Men may devyne and glosen, up and doun,
But wel I woot, expres, without lye,
God bad us for to wexe and multiplye,
That gentil text kan I wel understonde.
Related Characters:
The Wife of Bath (speaker)
Related Themes:
By God! if women hadde written stories,
As clerkes han withinne hire oratories,
They wolde han writen of men moore wikkednesse
Than all the mark of Adam may redresse.
Related Characters:
The Wife of Bath (speaker)
Related Themes:
And whan I saugh he wolde never fyne
To reden on this cursed book al nyght,
Al sodenly thre leves have I plyght
Out of his book, right as he radde, and eke
I with my fest so took hym on the cheke
That in our fyr he fil bakward adoun.
Related Characters:
The Wife of Bath (speaker), Jankyn
Related Themes:
The Wife of Bath’s Tale
Quotes
And eek I praye Jhesu shorte hir lyves
That noght wol be governed by hir wyves,
And olde and angry nygardes of dispence,
God sende hem soon verray pestilence!
Related Characters:
The Wife of Bath (speaker)
Related Themes:
