Chaucer's Way with a Proverb: 'Allas! Allas! That Evere Love Was Synne'

Author / Editor
Utley, Francis Lee.

Title
Chaucer's Way with a Proverb: 'Allas! Allas! That Evere Love Was Synne'

Published
North Carolina Folklore Journal 21 (1973): 98-104.

Description
Connects the lament in WBP 3.614 with the more familiar proverb "Lechery is no sin," recurrently used by traditional "demonic" figures in early literature. The Wife's use is richer with "complex ironies."

Chaucer Subjects
Wife of Bath and Her Tale
Style and Versification