"My lige lady, generally," quod he,
"Wommen desiren to have sovereynetee
As wel over hir housbond as hir love,
And for to been in maistrie hym above.
This is youre mooste desir, thogh ye me kille.
Dooth as yow list; I am heer at youre wille."
In al the court ne was ther wyf, ne mayde,
Ne wydwe that contraried that he sayde,
But seyden he was worthy han his lyf.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. The answer to the queen’s riddle revealed to her and her female tribunal by the Knight: what women desire above all else. A question that would be echoed hundreds of years later by founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud in a letter to Marie Bonaparte. The Knight says that women want sovereignty and to have mastery over their husbands. This is precisely what Alison the Wife of Bath also said during her Prologue. The Knight’s response saves his bacon, all the women in the court agrees with what he has said and believe he is worthy to have his life.