{"id":1393161,"date":"2016-09-13T11:00:47","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T15:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.sparknotes.com\/?p=1393161"},"modified":"2019-02-08T11:33:15","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T16:33:15","slug":"everything-i-know-about-dating-i-learned-from-the-wife-of-baths-prologue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/everything-i-know-about-dating-i-learned-from-the-wife-of-baths-prologue\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything I Know About Dating, I Learned from the Wife of Bath&#8217;s Prologue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/wifeofbathdatingadvicesep13_LargeWide.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"701\" height=\"394\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know a lot about dating\u2014I know it involves holding hands, and making out, and heroically sacrificing yourself for the other person if the situation calls for it, but beyond that I&#8217;m coming up empty.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s for this reason, and this reason alone, that I am glad I had \u00a0the \u00a0Wife of Bath&#8217;s prologue foisted upon my person while I was in high school. Sure, it&#8217;s written in the \u00a0incomprehensible gibberish otherwise known as Middle English\u2014a language that didn&#8217;t even have the common courtesy to use the letter &#8220;j&#8221; yet\u2014but hidden within all that gibberish was some wisdom of the ages RE: dating and relationships, such as&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>1. Men are a dime a dozen.<\/p>\n<p>2. All women are called Allison.<\/p>\n<p>3. Old men make for boring lovers but are very easy to blackmail.<\/p>\n<p>4. When somebody loves you, you should try to establish merciless and unyielding control over their finances.<\/p>\n<p>5. Virgins are good, but having sex and making more virgins is also good.<\/p>\n<p>6. Only prostitutes ride horses.<\/p>\n<p>7. You can never have too many husbands.<\/p>\n<p>8. You should definitely tell people about your sex life to win a storytelling contest.<\/p>\n<p>9. The best quality in a potential spouse is &#8220;has lots of money.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>10. When someone treats you poorly, that&#8217;s how you know they&#8217;re a keeper.<\/p>\n<p>11. It&#8217;s better to be in a relationship than to be on fire.<\/p>\n<p>12. When your significant other dies, make sure you have another one lined up and ready to go.<\/p>\n<p>13. Bonus points if you meet him at the funeral.<\/p>\n<p>14. What a bunch of dead white guys did with <em>their<\/em> life should have no bearing on what you do with <em>your<\/em> life, particularly if what you&#8217;re doing with your life is HAVING TONS OF SEX.<\/p>\n<p>15. But also? There&#8217;s nothing wrong with abstinence.<\/p>\n<p>16. Don&#8217;t let anyone shame you for your sex life.<\/p>\n<p>17. King Solomon himself had a sex life and there&#8217;s no reason we shouldn&#8217;t all have a good laugh about it.<\/p>\n<p>18. Always misinterpret \u00a0the Bible to make points.<\/p>\n<p>19. There is no relationship problem that bribery and extortion cannot solve.<\/p>\n<p>20. Owning goats is a very attractive quality in a person.<\/p>\n<p>21. Words like &#8220;bacon&#8221; and &#8220;candle&#8221; make great euphemisms.<\/p>\n<p>22. A wise man doesn&#8217;t worry about how successful others are, which means you can have sex with other people and your husband can&#8217;t be mad about it so \u00a0long as you are also having sex with him.<\/p>\n<p>23. It&#8217;s always good to describe your relationship with phrases like \u00a0&#8220;tribulation\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6upon his flesh.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>24. Always throw your husband&#8217;s books into the fire.<\/p>\n<p>25. No one has ever died of not having sex, but who wants to take that chance?<\/p>\n<p>26. Openly advertise the fact that you&#8217;re on the hunt for your next husband. Suggest that there is never a moment where you are not on the hunt.<\/p>\n<p>27. There&#8217;s nothing that brings people together quite like a good bawdy tale about pleasures of the flesh.<\/p>\n<p>28. \u00a0Do what you want. Like who even cares.<\/p>\n<p>29. Life experience is the best \u00a0teacher.<\/p>\n<p>30. Men named Jankyn make the worst \u00a0husbands, but also the \u00a0<em>best<\/em> \u00a0husbands, you know what I mean?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t know a lot about dating\u2014I know it involves holding hands, and making out, and heroically sacrificing yourself for the other person if the situation calls for it, but beyond that I&#8217;m coming up   <a class=\"continue-reading\" href=\"#\"><span class=\"continue-text\">continue reading<\/span><svg class=\"continue-icon\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" alt=\"\">\n    <path fill=\"#007acd\" fill-rule=\"nonzero\" d=\"M13.442 5.558L19.885 12l-6.443 6.442-.884-.884 4.934-4.934L4 12.625v-1.25l13.492-.001-4.934-4.932.884-.884z\"><\/path>\n  <\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[7957,628,2335,22949,22945,22946],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393161"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1393161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1393161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1393161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1393161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}