Three Chaucerian Widows: Tales of Innocence and Experience

Author / Editor
Wood, Chauncey.

Title
Three Chaucerian Widows: Tales of Innocence and Experience

Published
Juliette Dor, ed. A Wyf Ther Was: Essays in Honour of Paule Mertens-Fonck (Liege: University of Liege, 1992), pp. 282-90.

Description
The Wife of Bath's preference for experience, marriage, and governance contrasts with the displays of innocence, chastity, and submissiveness by the Prioress and Second Nun. The triumphs of the Wife and of the "lusty bacheler" are losses, while "the losses of the 'litel clergeon' and of St. Cecilia . . . are triumphs."

Alternative Title
Wyf Ther Was.

Chaucer Subjects
Wife of Bath and Her Tale.
Prioress and Her Tale.
Second Nun and Her Tale.