THE WIFE OF BATH PDF

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“The Wife of Bath” The Canterbury tales was written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1387. He originally planned to write 120 tales but at his death he wrote only 24 tales. Canterbury Tales was one of the first works to be printed by Caxton. The tales are structured as a series of inter liked stories, told by a group of pilgrims who journeying to Canterbury. The whole cycle is prefaced by a General Prologue, in which there are the description of the pilgrims, that came all from different social classes. “ The Wife of Bath” is one of them. The wife of bath is one of the most important characters of Canterbury Tales, she came from Bath and she was an elegant and religious lady, we know that because from line 10 to 13 We can see " I dare swear that they weighed a full ten pound which, of a Sunday, she wore on her head. Her hose were of the choicest scarlet red, close gartered, and her shoes were soft and new " She was arrogant in fact in line 7-8 "And if one did, indeed, so wroth was she it put her out of all charity."

How we can see in the text at line 19, she liked to travel everywhere

and make new experiences. Chaucer tells us at the end of the tale that she also was egocentric : “In company well could she laugh her slurs.” IN this tale we can see the contrast between pious and profane elements, for example she used to give offerts to church every Sunday, she had journeyed to Jerusalem three times, she had been also at Rome and she had marriage in church, however on the other hand there are some profane elements, in fact we know that she had had five husbands and many lovers in her youth. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote Middle English in his Canterbury Tales so everyone could read it. Throughout the tale “ Wife of Bath “ we can see how Chaucer decided to use the irony, in line 16-17 “ With five churched husbands bringing joy and strife, not counting other company in youth.” He used irony probably to make more acceptable the figure of the protagonist, or maybe he told us that the pilgrims traveling more to discover new lands and meet new men rather than for religious purposes. The description of this pilgrim is very helpful to understand how she was both outwardly and inwardly. There are several physical appearances that help us to understand how sensual she was at that period of time; for example “gap-toothed was she”, "large hips" , "bold was her face", "red in hue". The structure of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is very

similar to Boccaccio’s Decameron, but between them there are lot of differences. In Boccaccio’s Decameron the characters are from the aristocracy and they are escaping from the plague, they tell to each other story in which the world is pictured as a world of pleasure, in contrast with the real world. In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales the pilgrims are from different social classes and the story have a functions more as a way of entertainment.

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l’impegno della corona a non imporre servizi, dazi e tassazioni troppo onerose per i feudatari e, comunque, di non imporre nuove tasse senza il consenso del consiglio comune del regno che doveva essere convocato con preavviso di quaranta giorni, decideva in base a una votazione e comprendeva gli arcivescovi, gli abati, i conti e i più importanti baroni (in base al principio: no taxation without rapresentation); l’impegno della monarchia a non spogliare gli uomini liberi delle terre e delle rendite per saldare i loro debiti; le libertà (amministrative e decisionali, potremmo dire con gergo moderno) proprie della città di Londra e di “tutte le altre città, borghi e villaggi”; il diritto, riservato ai mercanti di ogni nazionalità di entrare, uscire, soggiornare e circolare in Inghilterra per vendere e comprare merci secondo le regole del diritto consuetudinario; la proporzionalità tra i delitti e le pene in base al quale la monarchia si impegnava a non emettere mandati d’arresto o condanne all’esilio (contro uomini liberi e sempre escludendo gli appartenenti alle classi subalterne) prima di un regolare e tempestivo processo; principio dell’habeas corpus integrum in base al quale era garantito ai cittadini liberi un regolare processo prima che fossero imprigionati per i delitti imputati controllo e verifica del potere regio attraverso l’istituzione di una commissione di venticinque baroni che avrebbe avuto il diritto dichiarare guerra al re, con la partecipazione dei sudditi, qualora questi fosse venuto meno ai suoi obblighi; integrità e libertà della Chiesa inglese: principio contestato duramente da Papa Innocenzo III con una precisa e puntuale “scomunica” della Magna Carta...