Lordynges, right thus, as ye have understonde,
Baar I stifly myne olde housbondes on honde
That thus they seyden in hir dronkenesse;
And al was fals, but that I took witnesse
On Janekyn, and on my nece also.
O Lord! The peyne I dide hem and the wo,
Ful giltelees, by Goddes sweete pyne!
For as an hors I koude byte and whyne.
I koude pleyne, and yit was in the gilt,
Or elles often tyme hadde I been spilt.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. The deceitful and abusive Wife of Bath boasts about how she lied to her first three husbands about what they said while drunk in order to make them feel guilty. Alison admits inflicting pain and woe on them, though they were entirely guiltless. Like a horse, she could bite and whinny. She could complain, yet be in the wrong.