Wife of Bath Quotes

"Experience though noon auctoritee were in this world, were right ynogh to me"

"How many mighte she have in mariage"

"God bad for us to wexe and multiplye, That gentil text can I wel understonde"

"Of fyve husbondes scoleiying am I"

"To be wedded is no sinne"

"Bet is to be wedded than to brinne"

"I wol bestowe the flour of myn age"

"she fynde som man hire to chepe"

"Thouo seyest, right as wormes shende a tree, right so a wyf destroyeth hire housbonde"

"God bad for to wexe and multiplye"

"To be refreshed half so ofte as he"

"For office and for ese"

"I nil envye no virginitee"

"I wol use myn instrument as frely as my Makere hath it sent"

"The three men were gode, and riche, and olde"

"I laughe whan i thinke how pitously a-night I made hem swinke"

"A likerous mouth moste han a likerous tayl"

"Have though y-nogh, what that thee recche or care how merily that othere folkes fare?"

"Ye wise wyves, that kan understonde"

"A wys womman wol biyse hire evere in oon"

"For half so boldely can ther no man swere and lyen as a womman can"

"Som folk desiren us for richesse, somme for oure shape, and somme for oure fairnesse"

"For as a spaynel she wol on him lepe"

"We love no man that taketh kepe or charge wher that we goon"

"Thou lykenest eek wommanes love to helle"

"For al swich wit is yeven us in our birthe"

"A man is more resonable"

"In wommen vinolent is no defence, this knowen lecchours by experience"

"It is impossible that any clerk wol speke wel of wyves"

"If wommen hadde writen stories...They wolde han writen of men moore wikkednesse than all the mark of Adam may redresse"

"Right thusthe Apostle tolde it unto me"

"Apostle...but conseilling is no comandement: he putte it in oure owene jugement"

"housbonde...which shal be both my dettour and my thral" (debtor and slave)

"th'Apostle tolde it unto me, and bad our husbondes for to love us weel"

"I laughe whan i thynke how pitously a-nyght I made hem swynke"

"I hadde hem hoolly in myn hond"

"I governed hem so wel after my lawe that ech of hem ful blisful was"

"Be maister of my body and my good"

"A man is more resonable"

"I sette noght an hawe of his proverbes"

"Who peyntede the leoun, tell me, who?"

"By maistrie, al the soverayntee"

"After that day we hadden never debaat"

"this book of wikked wyves"

"I have pyked out the beste, both of here nether purs and of here cheste"

"nat every vessel al of gold: Somme been of tree, and doon hir Lord servyse"

"it is a greet meschief to wedde a povre womman, for costage"

"if she be riche and of heigh parage thanne seistow it is a tormentrie"

"Oxen, asses, hors and houndes"

"The keyes of my cheste awey fro me? It is my good as wel as thyn pardee"

"...be maistre of my body and of my good"

"If we make us gay with clothing and with precious array, that is the peril of our chastitee"

"...Til he had maad his raunsoun onto me; thanne wolde I suffre hym do his nycetee"

"With empty hand men may none haukes lure. For wynnyng wolde I al his lust endure"

"It nys but wast to burye hem preciously"

"My fifthe husbonde...which that I took for love and no richesse"

"Yet herde I nevere tellen in myn age upon this nombre diffinicioun"

"I wold bistow the flour of al myn age in the actes and in fruit of mariage"

"Teche us younge men of youre praktike"

"And yet in bacon (old men) hadde I nevere delyt"

"Whan that it remembreth me upon my yowthe, and on my jolitee, it tikleth me aboute myn herte rot"

"But age, allas, that al wole envenyme, hath me biraft my beautee and my pith"

"He was, I trowe, twenty winter old, and I was fourty"

"Right thus Apostel tolde it unto me, and bad oure housbondes for to love us weel"

"They had me yeven hir gold and hir tresoor...to wynne hir love"

"They loved me so wel, by God above"

"The moore it (love) brenneth, the moore it hath desir to consume every thyng that brent wol be"

"Yet tikled it his herte, for that he wende that I hadde of hym so greet chiertee"

"But in oure bed he was ful fresh and gay"

"I trowe I loved hym beste, for that he was of his love daungerous to me"

"Wayte what thyng we may nat lightly have, thereafter wol we crie al day and crave