This is a comparison of Alisoun’s tale of her 5th
husband, and her Tale.
Alisoun’s tale of her 5th
husband
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WOB’s Tale
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Alisoun spends much time talking about why lack of chastity is OK
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Starts by telling how Arthur’s Britain has been replace by Britain
where limitours accost women.
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Alisoun to 3 good husbands 257-262
Thow seyst, some folk desire us
for richesse,
Somme for oure shap, and somme
for oure fairnesse,
And some for she kan either
sing or daunce,
And some for gentillesse and
daliaunce,
Somme for hir hands and hir
armes smale—
Thus goth all to the devel, by
thy tale!
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I think this sounds like how the knight would have originally
evaluated women.
Also, compare first list of women’s likes that knight gets…
919—949
Richesse
Honour
Jolynesse
Rich array
Lust abed
Being widowed or wed
(compare next list with things antifeminists list as faults of women)
Flattery
Being free
Being thought wise
Be trustworthy
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265-302 —goes on to say “thou sayest” basically that ugly women are
always looking for sex, no man wants to suffer by having an ugly wife, and
women show their worst side after marriage
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Still matches knight’s first views.
998—knight starts seeing really ugly old lady
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503—finally introduces 5th husband
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882—introduces knight
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505-507—tells 5th hubby’s crime (very shortly after
introducing him
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884-888—tells knight's crime
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894-898—Guinivere asks for mercy
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904-905—knight gets sentence.
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530-542—tells how she tells all 4th hubby’s secrets to
best friend
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951-982—Midas story
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543-626—Alisoun and clerk meet while 4th hubby is gone all
the way to wedding #5
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632-636—the crime, ripping out a page, being hit, becoming deaf
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OK, bear with me, but there are some ways to connect this with the
rape of virginity. Taking hearing away, ripping pages away (neither of which
can be replaced). Bodily violence.
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Jankin’s stories….Alisoun is frozen unable to escape stories.
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Knight’s wanderings…Knight is unable to stay still but forced to
wander to hear stories
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669 —introduces Jankin’s book
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711—starts telling why she was beaten for a book
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715-774—Jankin’s list of bad female lovers and wives
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Also the list above from 919-949: lists of what women want, as
opposed to what women as evil objects are
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775-787—Jankin’s proverbs “bet is”--is this comparable to Alisoun’s “thou
sayest”?
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790-793—Alisoun rips out three pages and hits Jenkin on the cheke
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1055-1082--Loathly lady forces knight to marry her
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795-807—Jankin hits Alisoun and feels really bad
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1083-1212--Knight pouts in bed while lady lectures him on gentillesse
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808-809—Alisoun hits back
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1219—1227—Loathly lady gives knight the choice
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811-812
But at the laste, with muchel
care and wo,
We fille accorded by us selven
two.
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1228-1229—Knight thinks hard
But ate laste he seide in this
manere:
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813-814
He yaf me al the bridel in min
hond,
To have the governaunce of hous
and lond,
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1230-1231—
My lady and my love, and wif so
deere,
I put me in youre wise
governaunce.
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819-821—remember we said that this was the hubby giving her power but
also reminding her that their reputation was in her hands…
And that he seide, “Min owene
trewe wif,
Do as thee lust the terme of al
thy lif;
Keep thin honour, and keep eek
min estaat,”
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1232-1233—
Cheseth youreself which may be
moost pleasaunce,
And moost honour to yow and me
also.
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822-825—
After that day we hadden nevere
debaat.
God help me so, I was to him as
kinde
As any wif from Denmark unto
Inde,
And also trewe, and so was he
to me.
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1240-1244—
For, by my trouthe, I wol be to
yow bothe-
This is to seyne, ye, bothe
fair and good.
I pray to God that I mote sterven wood,
But I to yow be also good and
trewe
As evere was wif, sin that the
world was newe.
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826-827—
I pray to God that sit in
magestee,
So blesse his soul, for his
mercy deere!
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1257-end
Prays for young, meek husbands that wives can outlive. And to shorten
the lives of bad husbands with the plague.
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Wow, Meg- you put a lot of thought and work into this chart! This is so helpful. It is amazing (to use an overused word- sorry) to look at these passages side and side, and it does seem fair to infer that Chaucer wrote these two pieces (the prologue and the tale) in parallel.
ReplyDeleteThis is so cool! I never would have considered comparing the two side by side. I think my favorite parallel you point out here is the connection between the WOB telling her friend all her husband's secrets and the story of King Midas. It's almost completely the same and yet I didn't catch the similarity between those two instances.
ReplyDeleteI have been reading all of your blogs, and you are really good at mapping all this out so we can all see it in a simpler former, so thank you for that. I like that you were drawing parallels between the prologue and tale because I keep debating in my head whether they match or not, but it's easy to see when the information is side by side.
ReplyDelete