Scala, Elizabeth.
Frank Grady, ed. The Cambridge Companion to "The Canterbury Tales" (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), pp. 105-20.
Explains how the Wife of Bath dominates not only her own material in WBPT, but also CT as a whole. Discusses generic expectations for the Wife and her handling of biblical and classical material, to demonstrate that she represents "an irreducibly…
Allen, Valerie, and David Kirkham,eds.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1998.
Middle English text of WBPT and the GP description of the Wife of Bath, with notes, glossary, and discussion questions on facing pages. Includes commentary on Chaucer's life, contemporary social issues (including pilgrimage), and the rest of CT.…
Winny, James, ed.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965.
Middle English edition of WBPT, with end-of-text notes and glossary. The Introduction (pp. 1-28) discusses sources, the relation of WBP to WBT, themes, etc., with additional comments on the text and Chaucer's usage. Includes Chaucer's Gent and a…
Winny, James, ed. Rev. ed. Sean Kane and Beverly Winny, eds.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Middle English edition of WBPT and GP description of the Wife of Bath, with end-of-text notes and glossary. The Introduction (pp. 1-32) discusses sources, the relation of WBP to WBT, themes, etc. Includes Chaucer's Gent and a selection from…
Piehler, Paul.
Hudson, Québec: Golden Clarion Literary Services, 1980.
Item not seen; the WorldCat records indicate that this is a reading by Piehler of WBPT in Middle English and that WBP and WBT were re-issued separately in 1986 and 2010.
Allen, Mark, and John H. Fisher, eds., with the assistance of Joseph Trahern.
Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, 2012.
Part 5a includes a new text and set of collations for WBPT, based on the Hengwrt MS, with variants from landmark manuscripts and scholarly editions; also includes a Critical Commentary (pp. 3-148) that surveys critical tradition topically, a Textual…
Tasioulas, J. A.
Harlow: Longman; London: York Press, 1998.
Study guide to WBPT that includes a plot synopsis, running commentary, and glosses (text not included, except for three passages for closer analysis). Also includes descriptions of the Wife's character, various themes and devices, sources and…
Summary (without text) and commentary on WBPT, arranged in sections, accompanied by glosses to Middle English phrases. Also includes a brief introduction to Chaucer, CT, and medieval antifeminism; commentary on characterization, the Wife's horoscope,…
Thomas, Paul R., dir,
Provo, Utah: Chaucer Studio, 1995.
Recorded at the Ninth International Congress of the New Chaucer Society, Trinity College, Dublin, 1994. Re-edited and digitally mastered as a CD-ROM by Troy Sales and Paul Thomas in 2003.
Examines the use of Abelardian "sic et non" analysis in Mel as a demonstration of the "futility of arguing from Authority." In Mel, the sense of futility may be inadvertent, but in WBP it results from conscious parody of authoritarian argument.…
Disbrow, Sarah.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 8 (1986): 59-71.
Arthurian romance in Chaucer's WBT becomes analogous to "old wives' tales" denounced by Scripture, Augustine and other patristic writers, and ParsT. The Wife's telling such a romance undermines her claim to be a notable preacher and associates her…
Schmidt, A. V. C.
Notes and Queries 212 (1967): 230-31.
Using evidence from WBPT, challenges D. S. Silvia's argument (N&Q 1967: 8-10; same title) that the Wife of Bath has lost interest in Jankyn and is looking for husband number six.
Argues that details in WBP indicate that Jankyn, the Wife of Bath's fifth husband, is alive at the time of the Canterbury pilgrimage, even though the Wife is already "seeking for a replacement for him."
Tinkle, Theresa.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 32 (2010): 67-101.
Surveys and assesses the manuscript glosses and notes to WBP, arguing that scribal commentary affirms the Wife's orthodoxy as an exegete. The glosses and notes in Oxford, New College 314 (Ne), and related manuscripts grant authority to her uses of…
Cotter, James Finn.
Papers on Language and Literature 7 (1971): 293-97.
Identifies the "sharp incongruity" between the Wife of Bath's remarks on her initial encounter with Jankyn (WBP 3.543ff.) and Lenten sermons and traditions, sharpened by the irony of the Wife's two references to the Lenten season.
Hanna, Ralph.
Journal of the Early Book Society 23 (2020): 141-73.
Investigates the "material conditions" that underlie the fictional book of "wikked wyves" described in WBP, 669-73, analyzing extant manuscripts that "most closely resemble Jankyn's volume" and have other Chaucerian and Oxonian associations. Explores…
Knoetze, Retha.
Scrutiny 2: Issues in English Studies in Southern Africa 20.2 (2015): 34-53.
Argues that WBPT provides "a serious defence of women," claiming that the Wife's ideas about "about mutuality and domestic partnership" in marriage "coincide with ideas which were developing in Chaucer's society as a result of social and economic…
Plummer, John F.
English Language Notes 18.2 (1980): 89-90.
As a number of bawdy lyrics attest, the comparison of the Wife's hat in GP (1.470-71) to a "bokeler" and "targe" suggest sexual and martial overtones. Through the intervening metaphor to joust/to have intercourse, both buckler and target signify what…
An Anglo-Norman piece in BL MS Harley 2253 copied about 1340 is analogous to WBP in tone, wit, and "outrageousness." Chaucer might have known this story of two women discussing the virtues of chastity versus sexual license. Includes text and…
