The Wife of Bath in Afterlife by Bowden Betsy;

Author:Bowden, Betsy; [Bowden, Betsy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lehigh University Press
Published: 2017-09-21T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 8.4. Wife of Bath, orig. drawing by Chalmers (before 1721).

© The Trustees of the British Museum / Art Resource, NY

Figure 8.5. Wife of Bath, engraved for Urry edition (1721).

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

The horses of the Urry-edition Squire and Wife of Bath both wear bows at tail bases (figs. 8.2, 8.4, 8.5). Likewise the Urry-edition Reeve, parading his high-stepping stallion Scot, has taken the double precaution of tying there two bows.31 Passers-by are thus warned that these three pilgrims’ horses are apt to kick, even if unprovoked. A tail bow conveys the same warning to horse handlers today. To my knowledge, no past or current text mentions what might therefore qualify as “pure” folklore: a tradition passed only orally across the centuries. While folklorists have long since redirected scholarly issues away from orality as criterion, a tail bow marking a kicker does evince diachronic continuity with no apparent recourse to writing.

In Cambridge MS Gg.4.27, the Wife of Bath is riding sidesaddle with a “foot-mantel” covering both feet (CT I.472). The adaptations made by Chalmers incorporate more of Chaucer’s Middle English text, in that the General Prologue mentions also her visible shoes, hose, and spurs. As shown in the Urry edition, Alisoun’s exposed left foot rests on a planchette, while her right foot dangles from a knee hook (figs. 8.4, 8.5). The Urry-edition Prioress and Second Nun perch instead on sidesaddles constructed with only planchettes. This style is safe for walking or slow ambling on what is today called a “babysitter horse,” one that takes pride in taking care of novice riders. Chalmers’s Wife of Bath instead uses a sidesaddle style much favored by eighteenth-century equestriennes, because the right-knee hook allows a far more secure seat. Here Chalmers does commit anachronism; the style postdates Chaucer. According to John Stow, the same antiquary behind the 1561 Chaucer edition, this style of sidesaddle was invented for Catherine de Medici and was popularized in England by Queen Elizabeth I, who hunted to hounds over jumps until age seventy.32

The anachronistic sidesaddle, with both a planchette and a knee hook, is pragmatic for long-distance travel (figs. 8.4, 8.5). The rider can shift position, to ease muscles both human and equine. The legs of the Urry-edition Wife of Bath, outlined by gown folds, display Chalmers’s expertise at transferring three-dimensional body shapes onto a two-dimensional surface. Although many artists would take the easier path of letting a woman’s riding outfit billow a bit, the actual skirt of someone riding sidesaddle might well drape as shown by Chalmers. The spread legs of the Urry-edition Wife of Bath need not seem sexually suggestive, therefore—although they assuredly become so in William Blake’s reconceptualization of the 1721 pose (fig. 14.1).

Like the Wife of Bath’s comfortable sidesaddle, her peaked hat represents Chalmers’s thoughtful changes to his hard source. Cambridge MS Gg.4.27 shows the text’s “coverchiefs” (CT I.453) arranged into a massive turban. This pile-up appears unsafe for the road. A gust

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