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.