'To Speke of Wo that Is in Marriage': The Marital Arts in Medieval Literature
- Author / Editor
- Palmer, Barbara D.
'To Speke of Wo that Is in Marriage': The Marital Arts in Medieval Literature
- Published
- Douglas Radcliffe-Umstead, ed. Human Sexuality in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (University of Pittsburgh: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1978), pp. 3-14.
- Description
- Evidence about medieval marital relationships appears in "auctoritee"--Church and civil records--and in "experience" reflected in literature. Legal and penitential documents depict an astounding range of sources of marital conflict, especially sexual transgressions. Medieval literature, from lyrics such as the "chansons de mal mariee," to CT, to "Piers the Plowman" and the drama cycles, generally focuses on infidelity and shrewishness as two principal sources of marital discord.
- Contributor
- Radcliffe-Umstead, Douglas,ed.
- Alternative Title
- Human Sexuality in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Wife of Bath and Her Tale.