If the Wife of Bath and the Prioress, two characters from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, shared a conversation, what might they have said? The Wife is memorable for her unapologetic enthusiasm and recollection of how she came to have five husbands, while the Prioress’s behavior and appearance resembles a noble lady from a romance more than a member of the clergy. While it isn’t impossible that the Wife could have been married so many times, it is still remarkable, and she remains today a prominent (somewhat controversial) feminist literary icon.
This is the third post of Medieval A-musings, the official comic strip of Fordham’s Center for Medieval Studies! Stay tuned for monthly posts and follow us at our Instagram.