SOURCE: Thomas, Susanne Sara. “What the Man of Law Can't Say: The Buried Legal Argument of The Wife of Bath's Prologue.” Chaucer Review 31, no. 3 (1997): 256-71.

In the following essay, Thomas draws a correlation between Alisoun's adamant defense of her rights concerning her body and a mock legal case.

In the Prologue to her Tale the Wife of Bath argues that Paul gave wives authority over their husbands. She summarizes her argument thus:

I have the power durynge al my lyf Upon his propre body, and noght he. Right thus the Apostel tolde it unto me, And bad oure housbondes for to love us weel. Al this sentence me liketh every deel. 

(D 158-62)¹

There is some ambiguity in the Wife's reference to Paul's words as a “sentence,” a term which in Middle English has a number of meanings, including an opinion, a doctrine, a judgment rendered by God...