The Development of the Wife of Bath.

Published: MacEdward Leach, ed. Studies in Medieval Literature in Honor of Albert Croll Baugh (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1961), pp. 45-79.

Description: Proposes several "distinct stages" in Chaucer's development of the "magnificent individuality" of the Wife of Bath, focusing on his uses in WBP of source material drawn from Jerome, Theophrastus, Deschamps, and others. Assumes that the Man of Law originally told the "Tale of Melibee" and that the Wife originally told ShT--the narratives being reassigned when Chaucer developed the Wife first sketched in the GP but before he further shaped the character by assigning to her the WBT. Includes suggestions about how the development of the Wife affected themes and sequencing of other tales--ClT, MerT, NPT--and how the so-called "additional passages" of WBP deepen the character, and how glosses in the Ellesmere manuscript indicate intentions for further development.

Alternative Title: Studies in Medieval Literature in Honor of Albert Croll Baugh

Chaucer Subjects: Wife of Bath and Her Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Man of Law and His Tale
Clerk and His Tale
Merchant and His Tale
Shipman and His Tale
Tale of Melibee
Nun's Priest and His Tale