How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Line). We used the line numbering found on Librarius's online edition.
Quote #4
Somme seyde, wommen loven best richesse,
Somme seyde honour, somme seyde jolynesse,
Somme riche array, somme seyden lust abedde,
And oftetyme to be wydwe and wedde.
(931 – 934)
Most of these accounts of what women most desire to make sense to us; wealth, honor, "jolynesse," or beauty, nice clothes, and good sex all seem like reasonable things to desire. But why might a woman want to be often widowed and wed? The Wife's biography provides the answer: an often-widowed woman accrued her husbands' property upon their deaths, meaning that she would be rich after a few marriages. Such a woman was actually a more desirable marital partner than a young maiden because of the property she brought with her to the marriage.
Quote #5
Somme seyde, that oure hertes been moost esed
Whan that we been yflatered and yplesed.
He gooth ful ny the sothe, I wol nat lye,
A man shal wynne us best with flaterye;
And with attendance and with bisynesse
Been we ylymed, bothe moore and lesse.
(935 – 940)
The Wife can't resist the opportunity to insert her own opinions into her tale. This section could read as a how-to manual for her husbands. In using the second person plural 'we' here, the Wife shows how she's relating to the women in the tale, and how the tale becomes yet another opportunity for her to talk about herself.
Quote #6
And somme seyen, how that we loven best
For to be free, and do right as us lest,
And that no man repreve us of oure vice,
But seye that we be wise, and nothyng nyce.
(941 – 944)
The idea that women most want to be free to do as they please is familiar to us from the Wife of Bath's Prologue, as is the assertion that women don't like to be reproved of their vices. In juxtaposing the two here, the Wife reveals how the aversion to correction might be related to the desire for freedom; women want to be free to do just they please, and forced adherence to a moral code inhibits this freedom.