And know that it never befel so, but thus the tale runs and I may nor correct nor alter it, for a wiser than I hath made it.
And forgive me that the story speaks (in my opinion) of too great cruelty and beyond reason.
God keep me from trying you thus under colour of false simulations…. Here is what the Menagier has to say to his young wife on the same subject:Īnd I, who have put here only to teach you, have not put it here to apply it to you, for I am not worthy thereof, and I am not a marquis and I have not taken you as a beggar, nor am I so foolish, so conceited or so lacking in sense that I know not that ’tis not for me to assault nor to assay you thus, nor in like manner. His creation of the Wife of Bath was an even more pointed commentary. As of Grisildis pacient and kynde, Lest Chichivache yow swelwe in hire entraille!…
