But by that ilke Lord that for us bledde,
For his honour, myself for to arraye,
A Sonday next I moste nedes paye
An hundred frankes, or ellis I am lorn.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Shipman’s Tale. The merchant’s wife reveals to the monk that she owes a debt of one hundred francs for clothes that she bought which her miserly husband denies her. The debt is due and if she does not pay and her husband finds out, she is lost, she tells him. The wife admits that she is a lover of fine clothes that do honor to her husband.