Medieval Children Witness Their Mothers' Indiscretions: The Maid Child in Chaucer's Shipman's Tale

Description: Reading ShT in the context of fabliaux in which children witness their mothers' infidelity, Beidler recalls that the Tale was originally intended for the Wife of Bath. He argues that the placement of a prepubescent girl on the scene of another wife's "illicit" extramarital activities may be understood as a case of the wife's fulfilling a responsibility to teach her daughter by example "the ways a woman can get what she needs in the world."

Chaucer Subjects: Shipman and His Tale; Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations