'Allas, allas! That evere love was synne': Excuses for Sin and the Wife of Bath's Stars
- Author / Editor
- Craun, Edwin D.
'Allas, allas! That evere love was synne': Excuses for Sin and the Wife of Bath's Stars
- Published
- Edwin D. Craun, ed. The Hands of the Tongue: Essays on Deviant Speech (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 2007), pp. 33-60.
- Description
- Reads the Wife's comments on her constellation (WBP 3.609-23) in light of late medieval pastoral commentary on astral determinism as an excuse for sin. The Wife mocks male-authored confessional speech but embraces male-authored astrological discourse uncritically, indicating that her agency is limited.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Wife of Bath and Her Tale
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.