SovereigntyInMarriageInCanterburyTales
From Wyclif
[edit] Sovereignty within Marriage as Illustrated by The Canterbury Tales
While discussing the various aspect of marriage, one can not forget the topic of sovereignty within marriage. Bartholomaeus Anglicus’s description of an ideal wife says that a good wife should be “busy and devout in god’s services, meek and obedient to her husband, gentle in word and deed with her servants.” The Medieval marriage was one of inequality, and Medieval wives were expected submit to their husband's authority and produce male children. Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s prologue and tale focus on the approach of granting females sovereignty within marriage. The Wife’s unusually forward thinking argument sparks a conflict among the pilgrims and results in a rebuttal tale from the Clerk.
The Wife of Bath begins her prologue by touting her own vast personal experience within the confines of marriage (five husbands and her eye is out for the sixth!). She denounces her critics by saying, “How manye myghte she have in mariage?/ Yet herde I nevere tellen in myn age/ Upon this nombre diffinicioun” (3.23-25). The Wife attempts to add validity to her expertise by imitating Churchmen and scholar’s use of quotations. She believes in sexual relations for pleasure and says, “But wel I woot, express, without lye/ God Bad us for to wexe and multiplye;/ that gentil text kan I wel understonde” (26-29). The Wife manipulates the bible to promote her own views, and unfortunately she misunderstands or misquotes much of what she says. The Wife is proud of her status as a “wikked wyf.” She openly brags of using a combination of nagging and sweetness, in addition to her sexuality, to confuse her husbands, and thereby, control them.
The Wife of Bath’s Tale features a knight of King Arthur’s court who comes upon a pretty maiden one day and rapes her. His punishment is to be death, but the queen and her ladies ask Arthur to surrender his fate to them. Arthur acquiesces, and the queen issues the following challenge, “I grante thee lyf, if thou kanst tellen me/What thyng is it that wommen moost desiren./Be war and keep thy nekke-boon from iren!” (910-912). The Knight wanders the country for a year to find the answer, and everyone tells him something different. His journey leads him to an old woman who offers to give him the answer he seeks if he promises to do the first thing she asks of him in return. The knight desperately agrees, and before the queen and court, the knight decrees that what "Wommen desiren to have sovereynetee/ As wel over hir housbond as hir love” (1044-1045). The woman agree that this is true, and in that moment, the old hag who helped him steps forward and asks that he marry her in payment for the answer. The knight balks, but in the end they are married and sent off to bed. Once there, the knight is sulking and crying that he is horrified to have such an ugly peasant for a wife. Wherein, his wife asks if he would rather have her be beautiful and young and become a cuckold, or he can have her ugly, good and loyal. He mulls it over and decides that she should choose as she sees fit. Since he learned from his quest and gave her what she wanted, sovereignty, she becomes beautiful, good and obedient. The Wife ends with a plea that Jesus send women husbands that are handsome, young, good in bed, and short-lived.
The Clerk’s Tale is considered to be a clear rebuttal to the Wife’s call for female sovereignty. In The Clerk’s Tale there is an Italian marquis named Walter who refuses to marry. His people convince him to on one condition, Walter plans to choose his own wife and everyone must accept her regardless of her class or wealth. He says,“ That what wyf that I take, ye me assure / To worshipe hir, whil that hir lyf may dure, / In word and werk, bothe heere and everywheere, / As she an emperoures doghter weere” (4.165-168). Walter chooses Griselde, the daughter of Janicle who is the poorest man in area. Before the wedding however, Griselde must first promise to be loyal and give in to Walter in all things. The people love her for her beauty, courage, charity, wisdom, and mercy. Walter and Griselde have a baby girl, and Walter decides to test her by saying the people doubt the baby’s nobility and want it dead. Griselde is heartbroken but says only, “Lord, al lyth in youre plesaunce,/ My child, and I, with hertely obeisaunce/ Been youres al, and ye mowe save and spille/ Youre owene thyng, werketh after youre wille” (501-504 ).
In reality, the baby is sent to live with Walter’s sister, a Countess in Bologna. Time passes, the couple has another baby and again Walter tests her, claiming the same reason as before. Again, Griselde submits to Walter’s demands, simply requesting that the baby have a proper burial. Walter’s final test was to fake a papal bull allowing him to void his marriage and remarry. Griselde is told to leave the castle, and Walter even denies her request for clothing and makes her walk home in her underclothes. Since, she submitted meekly to his every demand, Griselde is fetched home, reinstated as Walter’s wife, and reunited with her children. The moral of this story is the Clerk’s belief that Griselde should act as an admittedly unattainable ideal and that women should strive to be just as loyal and obedient. In the Clerk’s defense, he is not alone with the belief that men are the head of a woman. Chaucer’s own Parson, the Bible, and Angilcus, among others agree that sovereignty belongs to the male.
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