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The Wife of Bath's Prologue
"If there were no authority on earth Except experience, mine, for what it's worth, And that's enough for me, all goes to show That marriage is a misery and a woe; For let me say, if I may make so bold, My lords, since when I was but twelve years old, Thanks be to God Eternal evermore, Five husbands have I had at the church door Yes, it's a fact that I have had so many, All worthy in their way, as good as any.... Welcome the sixth, whenever he appears. I can't keep continent for years and years. No sooner than one husband's dead and gone Some other Christian man shall take me on, For then, so says the Apostle,' I am free To wed, o' God's name, where it pleases me. Wedding's no sin, so far asI can learn. Better it is to marry than to burn.... Show me a time or text where God disparages, Or sets a prohibition upon marriages Expressly, let me have it! Show it me! And where did He command virginity? I know as well as you do, never doubt it, All the Apostle Paul has said about it; He said that as for precepts he had none. One may advise a woman to be one ; Advice is no commandment in my view. He left it in our judgment what to do.... And as for being married, he lets me do it Out of indulgence, so there's nothing to it In marrying me, suppose my husband dead; There's nothing bigamous in such a bed... "I grant it you. I'll never say a word Decrying maidenhood although preferred To frequent marriage; there are those who mean To live in their virginity, as clean In body as in soul, and never mate. I'll make no boast about my own estate. As in a noble household, we are told, Not every dish and vessel's made of gold, Some are of wood, yet earn their master's praise, God calls His folk to Him in many ways. To each of them God gave His proper gift, Some this, some that, and left them to make shift. Virginity is indeed a great perfection, And married continence, for God's dilection, But Christ, who of perfection is the well, Bade not that everyone should go and sell All that he had and give it to the poor To follow in His footsteps, that is sure. He spoke to those that would live perfectly, And by your leave, my lords, that's not for me. I will bestow the flower of life, the honey, Upon the acts and fruit of matrimony. ". . . I'll have a husband yet Who shall be both my debtor and my slave And bear his tribulation to the grave Upon his flesh, as long as I'm his wife. For mine shall be the power all his life Over his proper body, and not he, Thus the Apostle Paul has told it me, And bade our husbands they should love us well; There's a command on which I like to dwell . . . 1. Apostle, St. Paul. In the passages that follow, the Wife quotes scripture freely but not always accurately to support her arguments. 2. One, that is, a virgin |
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English IV |