Hello dear colleagues. Today, I am going to quote something from Chaucer, Geoffrey Chaucer. As you know, Chaucer is well-known for his great work, The Canterbury Tales. This work consists of 24 stories, narrated by different people on the way to the Cathedral of Thomas a Becket. But these stories are connected by each other. So the work is a long narrative poem. One of the stories is "The Wife of Bath's Tale". This tale consists of two parts, the prologue and the tale. The prologue's story is like Moll Flander's. It is about a lady who marries five times. The tale begins with a knight and a girl. The young girl is alone and the knight rapes her. "Kyng Arthour" decides that the knight will lose his head. Suddenly, the queen comes in and says to the king, no, do NOT behead him, and let me handle it.
The queene thanketh the kyng with al hir might,
And after this thus spak she to the knight,
She says to the knight, I'll ask you a question. The question is that what is the thing that women most desire?
Whan that she saugh hir tyme, upon a day;
'Thou standes yet,' quod she, 'in swich array
That of thy lyf yet hastow no suretee.
I grante thee lyf, if thou kanst tellen me
What thyng is it that women moost desiren.
She gives him a year and if he does NOT know the answer, he will lose his head.
Be war, and keep thy nekke-boon from iren!
And if thou kanst nat tellen it anon,
Yet wol I yeve thee leve for to gon
A twelf-month and a day, to seche and leere
An answere suffisant in this mateere;
And surete wol I han, er that thou pace,
Thy body for to yelden in this place.'
He goes round for a whole year asking people. He becomes an object of irony. Suddenly, he comes across an old woman. She is a witch. She says to him, I will give you the answer, but if the answer is correct and you save your head, I will ask you for one thing only and you have to honor it. He accepts and goes to the queen.
He says to the queen that women's most desire is POWER.
'Women desiren to have sovereynetee
As wel over hir housbond as hir love,
And for to been in maistrie hym above.
This is youre mooste desir, thogh ye me kille.
The queen says, you saved your head. The old woman stands up and says do NOT let him go your majesty. I gave him the answer.
She says to him, I want you to marry me. Then the knight says, You! Ugly old woman! No way. But the problem is that he gave her a promise. Then she says, I will give you two choices; I really can be one of two, I can be as I am, old and ugly, but I promise you to be faithful, or I can be young and beautiful, but you will see with your own eyes many men with me inside your house. Then, the knight goes on his kneels and says, you choose. Then she says, since you surrender and give me the power, I will be both, young and faithful.
Ok brothers and sisters. I gave you an abstract about "The Wife of Bath". I wrote all this just to quote the knight's answer, "
power", It is power that women want. This is Chaucer's opinion, and I share him the same opinion.
Ok now, will you tell us some quotations? Come one , I think it is nice and important topic, isn't it?
It is I, Odysseus.