The Canterbury Tales
Get this No Fear to go!
The Wife of Bath’s Tale: Page 14
Original Text | Modern Text | |
400 |
And whan the knight saugh verraily al this,
That she so fair was, and so yong ther-to,
For Ioye he hente hir in his armes two,
His herte bathed in a bath of blisse;
A thousand tyme a-rewe he gan hir kisse.
And she obeyed him in every thing
That mighte doon him plesance or lyking.
| And the next morning when the knight saw that what she’d said was true—that she’d become a beautiful young woman—he grabbed her in his arm and showered her with a thousand kisses. And she obeyed him in everything that he asked of her. |
|
And thus they live, unto hir lyves ende,
In parfit Ioye; and Iesu Crist us sende
Housbondes meke, yonge, and fresshe a-bedde,
And grace toverbyde hem that we wedde.
And eek I preye Iesu shorte hir lyves
That wol nat be governed by hir wyves;
And olde and angry nigardes of dispence,
God sende hem sone verray pestilence.
| And that’s how they lived, in perfect happiness, for the rest of their lives. Jesus Christ, let us women marry husbands who are humble and young and good in bed. And let us women be fortunate enough to outlive our husbands too. And Jesus, please shorten the lives of the husbands who won’t take direction from their wives. And may God send a plague on all those old, abusive, cheapskate husbands out there! | |
|
HERE ENDETH THE WYVES TALE OF BATHE.
| THIS IS THE END OF THE WIFE FROM BATH’S TALE. |
