Canterbury Tales Old Age Quotes

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.

He was, I trowe, twenty wynter oold,
And I was fourty, if I shal seye sooth;
But yet I hadde alwey a coltes tooth.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. After being married to a succession of old men, the Wife of Bath now claps her eye on and lusts after the young, 20-year-old Jankin, who attends the funeral of her fourth husband. Although at forty she is old to Jankin, she says that she had always a colt’s tooth – metaphor for youthful and lusty desires.

The clerk, whan he is oold, and may noght do
Of Venus werkes worth his olde sho,
Thanne sit he doun, and writ in his dotage
That wommen kan nat kepe hir mariage!

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. When a clerical writer is old and and is incapable of using his "olde sho" (old shoe as in penis) to perform sex, he sits down and in his old age writes that women cannot keep their vow of marriage. The Wife of Bath is challenging the clerical writer’s anti-women view and reduces it to simply jealousy.

Of latter date, of wyves hath he red
That somme han slayn hir housbondes in hir bed,
And lete hir lecchour dighte hire al the nyght,
Whan that the corps lay in the floor upright.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. Jankin carries on with his anti-feminist book readings to his wife Alison, Wife of Bath. This time about the gruesome tales of wives who had slain their husbands in their beds, and had sex with their lecher all night while their husband’s corpse lay on the floor alongside.

But certeinly, er he cam fully there,
Vanysshed was this daunce, he nyste where.
No creature saugh he that bar lyf,
Save on the grene he saugh sittynge a wyf –
A fouler wight ther may no man devyse.
Agayn the knyght this olde wyf gan ryse.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. The Knight sees twenty-four young maidens dancing and singing near a forest’s side. But when he ventures towards them hoping to learn some wisdom of what a woman desires, the dancing maidens vanish and sitting on the green is an ugly old wife – the Loathly Lady (or hag). She rises at the Knight’s approaches.

But al for noght; the ende is this, that he
Constreyned was; he nedes moste hire wedde,
And taketh his olde wyf, and gooth to bedde.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. After trying to wriggle out of it, the Knight has has no choice but to to like it or lump it and marry and bed the Loathly Lady, much to his distaste. There is a certain poetic justice and irony in the fact that a Knight who raped a young virgin finds himself obliged to have sex with an ugly old hag.

Greet was the wo the knyght hadde in his thoght,
Whan he was with his wyf abedde ybroght;
He walweth and he turneth to and fro.
His olde wyf lay smylynge everemo.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. The Loathly Lady’s demand for the Knight to marry her for saving his life inflicts a novel kind of punishment on the Knight for his rape. In an ironic reversal of fate, the Knight now becomes the victim, and the old hag his aggressor and tormentor. When they retire to the marriage bed she can’t stop smiling, while he twists and turns and wallows in woe.

Now, sire, of elde ye repreve me;
And certes, sire, thogh noon auctoritee
Were in no book, ye gentils of honour
Seyn that men sholde an oold wight doon favour
And clepe hym fader, for youre gentillesse;
And auctours shal I fynden, as I gesse.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. The Knight scorns his wife for being old, and here she reminds him that gentlefolk of honor such as he say that men should be courteous to an old person. She is effectively telling him that he is not noble or a gentleman.

Now ther ye seye that I am foul and old,
Than drede you noght to been a cokewold;
For filthe and eelde, also moot I thee,
Been grete wardeyns upon chastitee.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. In the Wife of Bath’s story, the old hag tells the Knight that he needn’t fear being a cuckold because ugly old wives are not desirable, age being a great guardian of chastity. This is rather ironic, as older age doesn’t seem to stop the Wife of Bath desiring and having sex.

"Chese now," quod she, "oon of thise thynges tweye:
To han me foul and old til that I deye,
And be to yow a trewe, humble wyf,
And nevere yow displese in al my lyf,
Or elles ye wol han me yong and fair,
And take youre aventure of the repair
That shal be to youre hous by cause of me,
Or in som oother place, may wel be.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. The Loathly Lady presents the Knight with a choice. He may have her as an ugly and old until she dies, and she will be a true, humble wife, who will be faithful to him. Or he can have her a young and fair wife and take the chance that she may cuckold him.

My lady and my love, and wyf so deere,
I put me in youre wise governance;
Cheseth youreself which may be moost plesance
And moost honour to yow and me also.
I do no fors the wheither of the two,
For as yow liketh, it suffiseth me.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. For the first time the Knight chooses the chivalrous approach with a woman and shows proper consideration for her. He allows his hag wife to choose whether she should remain old and faithful, or be young and fair and take his chance that she could be unfaithful. What pleases you is enough for me, he tells her, as he surrenders to the "wise governance" of a woman.

And eek I praye Jhesu Crist us sende
Housbondes meeke, yonge, and fressh abedde,
And grace t’ overbyde hem that we wedde;
And eek I praye Jhesu shorte hir lyves
That noght wol be governed by hir wyves;
And olde and angry nygardes of dispence,
God sende hem soone verray pestilence!

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. The Wife of Bath Alison prays to Jesus to send husbands who are meek, young and vigorous in bed. She prays also that wives outlive their husbands. And for husbands who won’t be governed by their wives, she asks God to shorten their lives. And those who are old and miserly, she asks God to send them pestilence!

"Brother," quod he, "heere woneth an old rebekke
"Brother," said he, "here dwells an old crone
That hadde almoost as lief to lese hire nekke
As for to yeve a peny of hir good.
I wole han twelf pens, though that she be wood,
Or I wol sompne hire unto oure office;
And yet, God woot, of hire knowe I no vice.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Friar’s Tale. The greedy Summoner hatches a plot with the Devil to blackmail an old widow woman with a threat to summons her on trumped up charges before the ecclesiastical court, unless she pays him twelve pence. He admits that she is not guilty of any vice that he knows of.

To take a wyf it is a glorious thyng,
And namely whan a man is oold and hoor;
Thanne is a wyf the fruyt of his tresor.
Thanne sholde he take a yong wyf and a feir,
On which he myghte engendren hym an heir,
And lede his lyf in joye and in solas,
Where as thise bacheleris synge "allas,"
Whan that they fynden any adversitee
In love, which nys but childyssh vanytee.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Merchant’s Tale. This passage is part of a long bitterly ironic speech at the beginning of the tale eulogizing marriage. The unhappily wed Merchant in his mock eulogy describes it as a glorious thing to take a wife. He recommends that especially when a man is old like January he should marry a young wife to produce an heir for himself and lead a life of joy and pleasure. The woman is essentially a sexual device and supplier of heirs. But that kind of thinking sounds flawed and the marriage of an old man and a young wife does not in itself seem an ideal situation. Look what happens to old January.
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