The Canterbury Tales The Wife of Bath ENGL 411 HO

Matching I _______1. Who says “I was about to take a wife, . . .”? Pardoner 4 _______1. Who says “I was about to take a wife, . . .”?   _______2. Who says “I’ve been an expert as a wife, That is to say, myself have been the whip.”? _______3. Who replaced the faries? _______4. Who intervenes on the knight’s behalf? _______5. How long does the knight have to find the answer to the queen’s question?  Wife of Bath 12-13 Friars 47-48 Queen 70-74 1 year & 1 day 85-86

Matching I continued Midas 130-131 _______6. Who grows “splendid pair of ass’s ears”? _______7. In Ovid’s version, who told Midas’s secret? _______8. Who helps the knight by giving him the correct answer? _______9. Who is the king in the Wife of Bath’s tale? Barber *158 Crone 197 Arthur 57-58/269

Matching II – Lines 285-390 Knight 285-287 _______10. Who believes “gentle birth . . . descends from ancient wealth . . .”? _______11. Who believes that one who “loves to work for virtuous ends . . .” is a gentleman? _______12. Who believes lacking material goods means poverty?   _______13. Who says the “truly poor are those who whine and fret and covet what they cannot hope to get” and “The poor can dance and sing in the relief of having nothing to tempt a thief”? Crone 286-292 Knight 353,370,371/ 375-377 Crone 364-3661

Matching II – 285-390 continued Crone 338-340 _______14. “Who says “Gentility must come from God alone”?   _______15. Who “need not fear to be a cuckhold”? _______16. Who is “old and fouler than a fen (swamp)”?  Crone 390 Crone 389

Short Answer III 17. YES/NO – Circle the correct answer. Does the Wife of Bath want her audience to be offended at views? 18. (line 64) What crime did the knight commit?   19. (line 67) How does the king plan to punish the bad knight? 20. (lines 80-81) What is the knight’s quest? What question must he answer?    21. (line 82) What will happen to the knight if he can’t answer the queen’s question? No. Lines 29-30 “By very force he took her maidenhead. The King condemns the knight to loose his head. To answer what it is that women want most from a man. “Beware the axe and say as I require.”

Short Answer III continued (lines 100-114) List 5 things women say they want. A. B. C. D. E.   Do exactly as they please (freedom). 112 Dance attendance, make a fuss. 109 No one to reprove them of their faults/lies. 113 Cossetted and flattered.J106-108 Be called good and wise. 114 Oft be widowed and remarried. 104 Wealth and treasure. 101 Honor, jollity & pleasure. 102 Gorgeous cloths, fun in bed. 103

Short Answer III continued   23. (lines 214-216) What does the knight say women want most? 24. (lines 230-231) What does the old lady (crone) ask the knight in return for saving his life? 25. (lines 257-258) Why does the knight stay “hidden like an owl”? The self-same sovereignty over her husband as her lover. To take her as his wife. Wife looked foul and he is miserable because he know he must marry the crone.

Short Answer III continued 26. (lines 276-277) List three reasons the knight doesn’t want the crone as his wife. A. B.   C.   27. (lines 395-399) What choice does the old woman offer the knight? 28. (lines 406-407) What is the knight’s decision about his choice? 29. (lines 425-427) What happens to the old crone? She is old and so plain. She is poor. She is low bred. Be old and ugly until death, but be true/loyal OR Be loyal, ture, humble wife who will never displease you . He leaves the decision to his wife. She becomes young and lovely and rich in charms.

Literary Element: Couplets ____ 6. A couplet is two consecutive lines of poetry that a. contain similar symbols b. include metaphors linked by the word and c. rhyme d. have alliteration ____ 7. Which of the following quotations from “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is a couplet? a. “In honor to us both, I don’t care which; / Whatever pleases you suffices me” b. “The knight thought long, and with a piteous groan / At last he said, with all the care in life” c. “His heart went bathing in a bath of blisses / And melted in a hundred thousand kisses” d. “May I go howling mad and take my life / Unless I prove to be as good and true” C