How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Line). We used the line numbering found on Librarius's online edition.
Quote #7
And somme seen, 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 nice. (940 – 943)
By connecting women’s freedom to their desire to be free of reproof from vices, the narrator may be implying that women desire freedom from the constraints of morality, in particular. This idea would certainly be in keeping with those expressed in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue.
Quote #8
‘Plight me thy trouthe, here in myn hand,’ quod she, ‘The nexte thing that I require thee, Thou shalt it do, if it lye in thy might, And I wol telle yow, er it be nyght.’ ‘Have heer my trouthe,’ quod the knight, ‘I grante.’ (1015 – 1019)
Pledging troth was a sacred ritual in medieval romance. More than a simple promise, it was a binding-up of one’s own self to the will of another person. A huge part of a knight’s worthiness was tied up in his fidelity to the troths he had pledged.
Quote #9
Ful many a noble wyf, and many a mayde, And many a wydwe, for that they been wise, The queene hirself sittynge as a justise, Assembled been, his answere for to here; And afterward this knyght was bode apeere. (1032 – 1036)
The way this passage takes care to describe all the different kinds of women assembled to hear the knight’s answer emphasizes the way in which this judgment of the knight represents the judgment of all women of one who has assaulted one of their own.