'A Coverchief or a Calle': The Ultimate End of the Wife of Bath's Search for Sovereignty

Author / Editor
Ireland, Colin A.

Title
'A Coverchief or a Calle': The Ultimate End of the Wife of Bath's Search for Sovereignty

Published
Neophilologus 75 (1991): 150-59.

Description
Chaucer's awareness of analogues to WBT and its theme of sovereignty may be indicated by his use of the word "calle," 'head-dress' (WBT 1018), an early borrowing of the Irish "caille," 'veil,' a derivation of which came to mean "old woman" as well as "hag, witch."

Chaucer Subjects
Wife of Bath and Her Tale.
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.