Canterbury Tales Marriage Quotes

He hadde maad ful many a mariage Of yonge wommen at his owene cost - Friar in The Canterbury Tales

He hadde maad ful many a mariage
Of yonge wommen at his owene cost.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue. On first reading, it might appear that the Friar is a generous fellow, as this passage says that he has made many a marriage of young women at his own cost. But far from it! What is implied here that he arranges marriages for these young women because they are his mistresses and are pregnant, so breaking his vow of chastity. So much for the life of piety he is supposed to be leading!

He conquered al the regne of Femenye,
That whilom was ycleped Scithia,
And weddede the queene Ypolita,
And broghte hire hoom with hym in his contree
With muchel glorie and greet solempnytee,
And eek hir yonge suster Emelye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Knight’s Tale. After defeating the Amazons, Theseus takes their queen Hippolyta as his "prize" and marries her. He returns to Athens with Hippolyta and her young sister Emily amid much glory and great ceremony. This foreshadows how Emily will equally become the prize in a deadly battle for her hand between Palamon and Arcite.

And whan that Theseus hadde seyn this sighte,
Unto the folk that foghten thus echon
He cryde, "Hoo! namoore, for it is doon!
I wol be trewe juge, and no partie.
Arcite of Thebes shal have Emelie,
That by his fortune hath hire faire ywonne.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Knight’s Tale. Theseus, saying that he is the impartial judge, calls a half to the jousting competition. He announces Arcite as the winner and says that he bh his fortune will have the hand of Emily which he has won fairly.

The Firste Moevere of the cause above,
Whan he first made the fair cheyne of love,
Greet was th’effect, and heigh was his entente.
Wel wiste he why, and what thereof he mente,
For with that faire cheyne of love he bond
The fyr, the eyr, the water, and the lond
In certeyn boundes, that they may nat flee.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Knight’s Tale. Theseus explains why Emily must marry Palamon. "The First Moevere" is God, who has a plan and controls what may appear to be chance happenings in the world, says Theseus. The "fair cheyne of love" is what binds everything that exists – air, fire, water, earth – held together by divine power in an ordered and organized universe. Everything in its place in the world. Theseus says that Emily and Palamon have been mourning for too long, threatening to disrupt the fair chain of love, and they must marry and be happy to preserve the chain’s balance.

This carpenter hadde wedded newe a wyf,
Which that he lovede moore than his lyf;
Of eighteteene yeer she was of age.
Jalous he was, and heeld hire narwe in cage,
For she was wylde and yong, and he was old
And demed hymself been lik a cokewold.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. Carpenter John loves his new wife Alison more than his life. So much so that the jealous and paranoid guy keeps her locked up in the house fearful that she will cheat on him with other men. For she is young and wild and he is old and he believes that he is will be cuckolded.

A wyf he hadde, ycomen of noble kyn;
The person of the toun hir fader was.
With hire he yaf ful many a panne of bras,
For that Symkyn sholde in his blood allye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Symkyn’s wife came from "noble" kin, we are told, in that her father is the town parson. Not quite the nobility, but probably a social step up from the working class Symkyn. In describing a parson who fathers an illegitimate daughter as noble the author is really mocking him and being ironic. The parson also provided his daughter with a substantial dowry of many brass pans, a considerable financial incentive for Symkyn to marry her and move up in the world at the same time. Symkyn’s wife, whose name we are never told, is seen as a property to be owned.

She was yfostred in a nonnerye;
For Symkyn wolde no wyf, as he sayde,
But she were wel ynorissed and a mayde,
To saven his estaat of yomanrye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Being raised and educated in a nunnery, Symkyn’s wife had a privileged education that would be beyond the reach of many lower class girls. So she appears to meet Symkyn’s requirement that his spouse have a high rank. Ironically the only reason she was raised in a nunnery is that she is the illegitimate child of a priest, who at that time was forbidden to marry, have sex and have children.

This person of the toun, for she was feir,
In purpos was to maken hire his heir,
Bothe of his catel and his mesuage,
And straunge he made it of hir mariage.
His purpos was for to bistowe hire hye
Into som worthy blood of auncetrye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. The parson plans to marry his granddaughter to a higher class of family of noble ancestry. So he intends to make her his heir, to make her financially attractive. Those with money could finance a marriage with cash-poor members of the nobility, and this is what the parsont wants for granddaughter Molly.

Thanne sawe they therinne swich difficultee
By wey of reson, for to speke al playn,
By cause that ther was swich diversitee
Bitwene hir bothe lawes, that they sayn
They trowe that no "Cristen prince wolde fayn
Wedden his child under oure lawe sweete
That us was taught by Mahoun, oure prophete.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The Sultan of Syria desires to marry the woman he has fallen in love with but has never seen, Constance, daughter of the Emperor of Rome. But he gets bad news from his advisors, who say that a Christian emperor would never allow his daughter to marry a Muslim. They see the religious and cultural differences between Constance and the Sultan as an insurmountable barrier. Their advice turns out to be right and is foreshadowing of bad things to come from such a marriage.

I seye, by tretys and embassadrie,
And by the popes mediacioun,
And al the chirche, and al the chivalrie,
That in destruccioun of mawmettrie,
And in encrees of Cristes lawe deere,
They been acorded, so as ye shal heere.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The Muslim Sultan of Syria, in order to marry the Christian Constance, agrees to be baptized and for his nobles and vassals to become Christians also. The Pope is referenced as a mediator, and the treaty provides for the destruction of idolatry and the promotion of Christ’s law in the Sultan’s land. Not good news for Islam in Syria and the inevitable backlash to the marriage and destruction of the Islam faith there comes as no surprise.

Allas, what wonder is it thogh she wepte,
That shal be sent to strange nacioun
Fro freendes that so tendrely hire kepte,
And to be bounden under subjeccioun
Of oon, she knoweth nat his condicioun?
Housbondes been alle goode, and han ben yoore;
That knowen wyves; I dar sey yow na moore.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The Man of Law at first sympathizes with Constance’s weeping about leaving her family and friends and being sent to a foreign nation to be bound to a man she doesn’t know. But then he says she has little to complain about because husbands are all good, have been for years and wives know that. In Chaucer’s time women were considered subject to male authority and protection and were seen as the weaker sex.

O firste moevyng! Crueel firmament,
With thy diurnal sweigh that crowdest ay
And hurlest al from est til occident
That naturelly wolde holde another way,
Thy crowdyng set the hevene in swich array
At the bigynnyng of this fiers viage,
That crueel Mars hath slayn this mariage.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. As Constance begins her dangerous voyage for Syria, the Man of Law says that a cruel "firste moevyng" – God – drives the planets in the opposite way to their natural daily motion, making disaster inevitable. God’s move has set the heavens in such an arrangement that a malevolent Mars has killed this marriage, he adds. There is a sense of foreboding and a foreshadowing of tragic events to come here.

We shul first feyne us cristendom to take –
Coold water shal nat greve us but a lite! –
And I shal swich a feeste and revel make
That, as I trowe, I shal the Sowdan quite.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The Sultaness plans a number of deceptions as part of her play to pay back the the Sultan for converting to Christianity. First she and her supporters will present to become Christians, a little cold water in Baptism won’t upset them very much. Then she will arrange a great feast and celebration to honor her son the Sultan’s marriage, and she will take her revenge.

But who was woful, if I shal nat lye,
Of this weddyng but Donegild, and namo,
The kynges mooder, ful of tirannye?
Hir thoughte hir cursed herte brast atwo.
She wolde noght hir sone had do so;
Hir thoughte a despit that he sholde take
So strange a creature unto his make.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. King Alla and Constance decide to wed, but not everyone is happy with the happy couple, the King’s mother Donegild is strongly opposed to the match. She believes that it is an insult for her son to take so foreign a creature for his wife and queen.

Experience, though noon auctoritee
Were in this world, is right ynough for me
To speke of wo that is in mariage;
For, lordynges, sith I twelve yeer was of age,
Thonked be God that is eterne on lyve,
Housbondes at chirche dore I have had fyve.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. The Wife of Bath Alison says that she is a believer in experience rather than written authority. Having been married since the age of twelve and having had five husbands, she feels she is well qualified to speak on the woe that is in marriage. This is really ironic as most of the woe was inflicted by Alison on her suffering husbands! It also makes her something of a hypocrite when she says marriage brought her nothing but woe, and then goes on to thank God for having five husbands.

But me was toold, certeyn, nat longe agoon is,
That sith that Crist ne wente nevere but onis
To weddyng, in the Cane of Galilee,
That by the same ensample taughte he me
That I ne sholde wedded be but ones.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. In the time of Chaucer it was common enough thinking that a widowed woman should not marry again, but devote herself to celibacy or convent life. And the Wife of Bath says she has been told that since Christ went but once to a wedding, he taught that she should be wedded but once.

How manye myghte she have in mariage?
Yet herde I nevere tellen in myn age
Upon this nombre diffinicioun.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. A firm advocate of marriage, the Wife of Bath has had five husbands. So she cannot understand how Jesus can reprove the Samaritan woman at the well for having married five times, telling her the fifth man was not her husband. How many might she have in marriage, asks the Wife of Bath, insisting she has never heard a definition of this number.

Men may devyne and glosen, up and doun,
But wel I woot, expres, without lye,
God bad us for to wexe and multiplye,
That gentil text kan I wel understonde.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. Alison the Wife of Bath is sometimes viewed as the voice of the independent, liberated woman of her time. She challenges the male view on women’s relationships and marriage. She disputes the interpretation of the Bible that she should marry only once, saying that men interpret religious texts to suit their own views. Defending marriage as a legitimate life choice, and her own five marriages, she quotes God’s commandment in the Bible: "Be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28).

Eek wel I woot, he seyde myn housbonde
Sholde lete fader and mooder and take to me.
But of no nombre mencion made he,
Of bigamye, or of octogamye;
Why sholde men thanne speke of it vileynye?

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. The hypocritical double standard applied to men and women in the area of relationships and marriage is attacked here. The Wife of Bath argues that the five men who each in turn were allowed by God to ask for her hand in marriage and God made no mention of number, of marrying two or marrying eight. So why should men then speak evil of her for marrying them.

As wolde God it leveful were unto me
To be refresshed half so ofte as he!
Which yifte of God hadde he for alle his wyvys!
No man hath swich that in this world alyve is.
God woot, this noble kyng, as to my wit,
The firste nyght had many a myrie fit
With ech of hem, so wel was hym on lyve.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. Solomon’s sex life becomes a hot topic for the Wife of Bath. Having multiple wives, she appears to almost envy the merrymaking he enjoyed on his wedding nights. If only God would permit her to be refreshed half as often as Solomon was, she says irreverently.
Yblessed be God, that I have wedded fyve - Wife of Bath

Yblessed be God, that I have wedded fyve;
Of whiche I have pyked out the beste,
Bothe of here nether purs and of here cheste.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. Thanking God that she wedded five husbands and picked out the best, the Wife of Bath reveals what she looked for in each of them. Sexual potency ("nether purs" – scrotum) and wealth ("here cheste" – strongbox) were the two requirements. A husband had to provide her with sexual satisfaction and financial security.

Of fyve husbondes scoleiyng am I.
Welcome the sixte, whan that evere he shal.
For sothe, I wol nat kepe me chaast in al.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. Setting out her education record, the Wife of Bath’s says that she has five husbands’ schooling! And she welcomes the sixth, whenever he may appear. Does that amount to a Doctorate in Marital Affairs? In the Wife’s world of sexual morality, keeping chase (abstaining from sex) is not an option for her.

Whan myn housbonde is fro the world ygon,
Som Cristen man shal wedde me anon.
For thanne th’ apostle seith that I am free
To wedde, a Goddes half, where it liketh me.
He seith that to be wedded is no synne;
Bet is to be wedded than to brynne.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. In her argument for the right to another Christian man when husband number five dies, the Wife of Bath cites the Bible and Saint Paul. In 1 Corinthians 7:9, he says: "Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion." We don’t think Paul would agree with her interpretation of his views on sexual morality.
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