Chaucer and St. Jerome: The use of 'Barley' in the 'Wife of Bath's Prologue'

Author / Editor
Wilson, Katharina M.

Title
Chaucer and St. Jerome: The use of 'Barley' in the 'Wife of Bath's Prologue'

Published
Chaucer Review 19 (1985): 245-51.

Description
Rather than the usually accepted "Adversus Jovinianum," Saint Jerome's letter to Pammachius is the probable source of the Wife's reference to barley (WBP 145). At best the result is an ambiguous vindication of--and at worst an attack on--the martial ideal.

Chaucer Subjects
Wife of Bath and Her Tale.