Geoffrey Chaucer

“ God calleth folk to him in sundry ways, and each hath of God his own gift, some this, some that, as it pleaseth God to bestow. Virginity is a great virtue, and continence eke, with religious folk. But Christ, that is the spring of perfection, bade not every wight that he should go sell all he hath, and give it to the poor, and in such wise follow him and his steps. He spake but to them that would live perfectly, and by your leave, lordings, I am not such. I will bestow the flower of my life in the acts and in the fruit of marriage. But I say not that men should have no care of chastity. ”

“ By God, if women had written stories, as clerks have within their cells, they would have written of men more wickedness than the whole race of Adam might amend. The children of Mercury be full adverse in their working to those of Venus. Mercury loveth wisdom and knowledge, and Venus loveth riot and spending. And because of their diverse temperament, each declineth in the other's exaltation ; and thus Mercury, God wot, is desolate in Pisces, where Venus is exalted; and Venus falleth where Mercury is uplifted; therefore no woman is praised of a clerk. ”

“ Thou sayest eke, if we make us gay with clothing and precious gear, that it is peril unto our chastity; and yet more, sorrow betide thee! thou must enforce thy speech, and say these words of the apostle, 'In habit made with chastity and shamefastness, ye women shall apparel you, and not in tressed hair and gay jewels, as pearls, nor with gold, nor rich clothes.' In accordance with this text and rubric of thine, I will not perform as much as a fly. Thou saidest I was like a cat; for if a man will singe a cat's skin, then will the cat alway abide in his house ”

“ And sayest it is a hard thing for to control a thing that no man will hold willingly. Thus sayest thou, old knave, when thou goest to bed. And that no wise man needeth to marry, nor any man that aspireth unto heaven; with wild thunder-clap and fiery lightning may thy withered neck be broken! Thou sayest that leaking roofs, and smoke, and chiding wives make men flee out of their own house. Ah! what aileth such an old man, ben'cite! to chide? Thou sayest, we wives will conceal our vices till we be fast wedded, and then we will show them; that may well be a rogue's proverb! ”

“ Ye should be all mild and patient and have a sweet, scrupulous conscience, sith ye so preach of Job. Be patient alway, sith ye can preach so well ; and unless ye be, certainly ye shall learn how fair a thing it is to live with a wife in peace. Questionless one of us two must bow, and sith a man is more reasonable than woman is, ye must be the one to submit. What aileth you thus to grumble and groan? By God, ye be to blame; I say you the sooth.' Such manner of words had we together. Now will I speak of my fourth husband. My fourth husband was a reveller ”

“ Lyma, late on an even, poisoned her husband, because she had grown to be his foe. Lucy wantonly so loved her husband that, to make him alway have her in mind, she gave him such a manner of love-drink that he died, ere it was morrow; and thus husbands ever have woe. ”

“ Forbid us a thing, and we desire it; press on us hard, and then we will flee. We grudge to spread out all our goods; great press at market maketh dear wares ; and too cheap is held at little worth ; every woman that is wise knoweth this.
"My fifth husband, God bless his soul! whom I took for love and not for riches, was sometime a clerk of Oxford, and had left school, and went home to board with my gossip, that dwells in our town, God have her soul! ”

“ Thus shall ye speak and beguile them, for there can no man swear and lie half so boldly as a woman. I say not this concerning wives that be wise, unless it be when they have forgotten themselves. A wise wife, if she knoweth her own good, shall make him believe the chough is mad, and take her own maid to witness. ”

“ I know you for a true wife, dame Alis.' We love no man that taketh heed where we go; we would be free.
"May he be blessed of all men, the wise astrologer Dan Ptolemy, that saith in his Almageste this proverb: 'Of all men his wisdom is the highest that recketh never who hath the world in his hand.' This proverb thou shalt construe thus: if thou have enough, why needest thou reck or heed how merrily other folk fare? For certainly by your leave, old dotard, ye shall have right enough of your due in good time. He is too great a niggard that will refuse a man leave to light a candle at his lantern ”

“ Better is It,' quoth he, 'to dwell high upon the roof than with an angry wife down in the house; they be so wicked and contrary, they hate aye what their husbands love.' He said, 'A woman casteth her shame away when she casteth off her smock,' and eke 'A fair woman, unless she be also chaste, is like a gold ring in a sow's nose.' Who can ween or conceive the woe and pain that was in my heart? ”

“ No man hath such now in this world. God be praised that I have wedded five, from whom I have plucked their best. Diverse schools make perfect clerks; diverse practice, in many sundry labours, maketh the workman thoroughly perfect; of five husbands am I the scholar. Welcome the sixth, whensoever he shall come. In sooth, I will not for aye keep me chaste. When mine husband is departed from the world, some Christian man shall wed me anon; for then, the apostle saith, I am free to wed, in God's name, where I list. ”

“ The clerk, when he is old and hath lost his amorousness, then sitteth he down and writeth in his dotage that women cannot keep their wedding-vows!
"But now to my point, pardee, why, as I was about to tell thee, I was beaten for a book. On a night, my lord and master Jankin, as he sat by the fire, read on his book first of Eve, by whose wickedness all mankind was brought to woe, for which Jesu Christ himself was slain, and redeemed us with his heart's blood. Lo! here may ye see it expressly written of woman, that she was the perdition of all mankind. ”

“ Some have driven nails in their husbands' brains while they slept, and thus they have killed them; some have given poison to them in their drink. He spake more harm than heart can conceive. And therewith he knew of more proverbs than there grow blades of grass in this world. ”

“ It is no sin, he saith, to be wedded; better is it to be wedded than to burn. What reck I though folk speak reproach of accursed Lamech and his bigamy. I wot well Abraham was an holy man, and Jacob eke as far as I know; and each of them had wives more than twain, and many another holy man also. When saw ye ever that high God at any time expressly forbade marriage? I pray you tell; or where hath he commanded virginity? I wot as well as ye, in sooth, that the apostle, when he spake of maidenhood, said that precept thereof he had none. A man may counsel a woman to be a maid ”

“ He knew more legends of them and histories than there be of good wives in the Bible. For trust well, it is an impossibility that any clerk will speak good of wives, unless it be of holy saints, but of any other woman never. ”

“ Thou sayest that oxen, asses, horses and hounds at diverse times be tested; and so be basins and wash-pails, pots, clothes and other goods, spoons and tools, and all such chattels, ere men buy them ; but of wives folk make no assay till they be wedded ”