Martin Spitznagel

October 17, 2003

Presents

“The Wife of Many Baths” The Wife of Bath responds to the Miller’s Tale

Whan folk had laughed their fill at this nice pass

Of Absalom and clever Nicholas,

Then divers folk diversely had their say;

And most of them were well amused and gay.

None more than Lady Alice, Wife of Bath,

Much to the Miller’s surprise, as he hath

Assumed his tale would spite a lady fair

(For he thought the Wife had grace to spare

With seemly manner and matter of dress,

She suspected of her no heathenness).

‘Surely,’ quod she, ‘let now our dear Clerk mind

to speak not a word of ladies unkind,

That Venus falls when Mercury is raised;

therefore no woman by a clerk is praised!

I tell thee, Miller, that I like thine tale,

Yet proffer it backwards as a sour ale

For hende Nicholay is Alisoun’s foil,

And fire eternal brings my blood to boil

When man make him prince and her a pauper;

I have half a mind to tell thee proper

About ladies grabbed for and by their queynte,

(For I know of such things, nay, I’m no Saint).

I laugh with thee in poor Absalom’s plight,

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A sallow, shallow, pitied ‘Knight,’

For Men, whose wanton hearts love too courtly

Never love a lady more than shortly!”

At that, our good Host declared quite loudly,

‘Surely, madam fair, you speak out proudly,

Your wit is splendorous as Ephesus,

but now, I prithee, to speak thine thesis!’

‘With your grace,’ the Wife duly responded,

‘I pray mine argument and I be bonded;

I contend Alison be justified

In theft of an ignorant husband’s pride,

That Absalom’s misplaced and courtly kiss

Was empty, courtly love gone far amiss,

And Nicholay, sharp as an elven blade,

Took Alison’s flower with no off’ring made;

Victims, the lot of them, vanity’s bride,

Thine tale a ribaldric hom’ly on pride!’”¹

‘A man should wed according to estate,

For youth and age are often in debate.

But now, since he had fallen in the snare,

He must endure, like other folk, his care.’

‘Well spoke ye,’ quod the Wife to the Miller,

‘And right so, for John should have known better;

The poor cuckold’s luck against age and zest

And young men who fancy his bride’s sweet chest

Dwindled to a trickle ere it began,

As much is obvious; see it who can!

(1) Dr. McDaniel, Ribaldry as Homily: Chaucer's Miller's Tale Shows Social Dynamic

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I say men cannot keep a castle wall

that’s long assailed on all sides, and by all;

That God should save those whose lives are stricken

By the lusty clucking of their chicken

After young roosters fair and full astride,

They’ve themselves to blame for loss of their bride!

You should not follow more than would a gnat.

I say that Alison was like a cat;

For if one care to singe a cat's furred skin,

Then would the cat remain the house within;

And if the cat's coat be all sleek and gay,

She will not keep in house a half a day,

But out she'll go, ere dawn of any day,

To show her skin and caterwaul and play.¹

And be the other cat named Nicholay,

By God, poor John, you are had, by my fey!

For a man who’s worthy of maiden’s blood

Should have good knowing of Noah’s great flood,

And not entertain a clerk’s simple tricks

That conjure the Devil from fire and sticks!

Pride, I say, is what be all here to blame,

For though men maken ernest of a game,

Vanity, John, is the sharpest-edged sword;

You want yourself post-deluvian Lord²,

Thinking God only you would choose to save!

‘But Robin must not know of this, your knave,

Ask me not why, for though you do ask me,

I will not tell you of God's privity.

(1) The Wife of Bath’s Tale (ln.348-54)

(2) Dr. McDaniel, Ribaldry as Homily: Chaucer's Miller's Tale Shows Social Dynamic

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Suffice you, then, unless your wits are mad,

To have as great a grace as Noah had.

Your wife I shall not lose, there is no doubt,

Go, now, your way, and speedily about.’¹

Poor John, as all men are wont to believe

That God’s spoken word can never deceive,

When preached aloud even by a hende clerk,

Than more often but does the Devil’s work.

And so John, in his false fervor and faith,

Who’d thinketh a shadow an evil wraith,

‘Lo, what a great thing is renewed faith found!

Men die of imagination, I'll be bound’²

“As you said,” quod the Wife to the Miller,

Feigning a smile like festering eschar.

“But yet I pray of all this company

That if I speak from my own fantasy,

They will not take amiss the things I say;

For my intention's only but to play.”³

And so I contend that fair Alison,

Whose name and mine are nearly the same one,

Be rightly done with her first husband old,

Whose pride and lack of wit left him cuckold,

Most well-deserved is her leave from his way,

And now I’ll speak of this man, Nicholay!

(1) Miller’s Tale (ln.3555-3562)

(2) Miller’s Tale (ln.3612)

(3) Wife of Bath’s Tale (ln.190-3)

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"A clerk has lazily employed his while

If he cannot a carpenter beguile."¹

Hende Nicholay is a full worthy clerk,

Whose Mercury mind is sharp as a dirk;

Full well does he veil his feigned infection,

Quietly plans his bid for affection;

The plan is set and all is in motion,

John the Carpenter awaits the ocean;

Nicholay in confidence makes his ruse,

The trap be now set, and he lights the fuse.

Now I asketh thee, what well I would see,

That hende Nicholay acts with ribaldry,

Fair Alison responds in kind and joins,

At once his hands are all through her loins!

Lo, Nicholay’s pride draws Alison near,

Away and unleashed of jealousy’s fear,

Where I have worked so hard to be steadfast

And preserve love in life that could last,

If for money and property by fey,

Land and good food outlasts sex any day!

For the latter buys the former and well,

‘Let gain who may, for everything's to sell.’²

Let Nicholay with wit be the victor,

Let Alison be lamb at the altar;

Nicholay’s pride is his vanity’s bride,

Best be to cast lingering doubts aside;

(1) Miller’s Tale (ln.3299-00)

(2) Wife of Bath’s Tale (ln.414)

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Who painted the Lion? Tell me who?¹

Each has a turn with the whip, and some two,

Both man and woman fight for it in turn,

And yet all of us answer to Saturn,

So best to let win who may and move on

To speak about young and fair Absalom!

I have never once, not since I was twelve,

Felt more like striking a man with a helve

Than when you spoke of Absalom’s pure heart;

I laughed with joy when he received his fart!

‘This Absalom, who was so light and gay,

Went with a censer on the holy day,

Censing the wives like an enthusiast;

And on them many a loving look he cast,

Especially on this carpenter's goodwife.

To look at her he thought a merry life,

She was so pretty, sweet, and lickerous.

I dare well say, if she had been a mouse

And he a cat, he would have mauled her some.

This parish clerk, this lively Absalom.’²

So sayest of Absalom, I’ll give thee that,

Wise or not, he makes a full-worthy cat!

For never a more adulterous letch

or whorehound, or wastrel, or vile a retch,

Than be the courtly lover’s mission true:

To a good woman’s hard efforts undo!

He saunters on with combed and matted hair

(1) Wife of Bath’s Tale (ln.692)

(2) Miller’s Tale (ln.3339-47)

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So blonde you’d guess he’d slain and bore a hare

Upon his head, with rosy cheek and face

And voice of silver with a woman’s grace;

The idol of a God’s surest reflection

In Absalom’s spirited perfection,

By Jesus, but when will men learn,

Hidden desires need you to discern.

‘We women have, if I am not to lie,

In this love matter, a quaint fantasy;

Look out a thing we may not lightly have,

And after that we'll cry all day and crave.

Forbid a thing, and that thing covet we;

Press hard upon us, then we turn and flee.

Sparingly offer we our goods, when fair;

Great crowds at market for dearer ware,

And what's too common brings but little price;

All this knows every woman who is wise!’¹

Consider Alison and Nicholay,

And the forbidden fruit they shared this day,

Would it have tasted as sweet as a peach

Were it proper or courtly within reach?

A thing of men only, courtly love be,

Whose desire, veiled in meek and homely

Patronizing advances of sordid,

Rapacious lust and greed, pray, God forbid!

At least Nicholay was forward and true,

Rendering Alison from her ado

With John the Carpenter and his new ark,

Absalom outside singing to a lark,

(1) Wife of Bath’s Tale (ln.515-24)

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The doldrums of marriage unfairly pressed,

Relieved by the Clerk and his Almagest!

Considering the nether kiss misplaced,

Where the troubadour is rightly defaced

With a bearded prank and a love perturbed,

Encounter of courtly passion disturbed,

I make no surprise this should happen;

I’m no stranger to cunt as a weapon,

There would give them no pleasance and would chide;

I would no longer in the bed abide.

I liken it, also, unto wildfire;

The more it burns, the more it has desire

To consume everything that burned may be,

And having burned all, moves to the next tree.¹

Absalom’s fastidiousness and code

Hath got him nowhere nearer her abode

Than were he a sickly dog or threstral;

Celestial love made too terrestrial,

His errant pride and courtly tradition,

Malefaction of degeneration,

Its dusty pillars and failed foundation,

Veiled in aroma of a carnation

Handed too freely to a love unearned,

The nether eye and beard too late discerned;

What comes to troubadours be only strife

For marriage hard is love’s only long life,

And love quickly gained is love shortly lost,

So beware, young loves, of the courtly cost!

Here Ends the Prologue of Many Baths

(1) Wife of Bath’s Tale (ln. 373-6)

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WORKS CITED

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Riverside Chaucer. Ed. Larry Benson. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co; 3rd edition (February 1987) Exhaustive tome of valuable insights and, of course, the Tales.

Jokinen, Anniina. “Geoffrey Chaucer.” 2002 < http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/chaucer.htm> Wonderful website with excellent translations of the Tales and collections of essays. Lambdin, Laura C. and Robert T. Chaucer’s Pilgrims: An Historical Guide to the Pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales. New York: Praeger Publishers; (May 1999) Offered valuable insight into Wife of Bath’s perspective and toughness as single wealthy woman at a time when this was highly uncommon. McDaniel, Dr. “Ribaldry as Homily: Chaucer’s ‘Miller’s Tale’ Shows Social Dynamic” 2002 http://www.nortexinfo.net/McDaniel/chaucer.htmFantastic essay that helped me choose and support the thesis of this paper. President and Fellows of Harvard College. “The Geoffrey Chaucer Website Homepage.” 2003 < http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/> Staple for inter-linear translations and history.

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