For God it woot, that children ofte been
Unlyk hir worthy eldres hem bifore;
Bountee comth al of God, nat of the streen
Of which they been engendred and ybore.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. We could be listening here to the Loathly Lady in the Wife of Bath’s tale! Walter has the very same thought as her, that all goodness comes from God and not from a person’s lineage by which they are conceived and born. For often children turn out to unlike their worthy parents and ancestors, he says, declining his nobles’ offer to select a high-born wife for him. This comment is ironic, in view of Walter’s cruel treatment of Griselda later in the story.