End-stopped
The line contains a complete thought
'What yifte of God hadde he for alle his wives!'
Open line
While the line makes sense alone, another line completes it
'Where can ye seye, in any manere age,
That hye God defended marriage
By expres word? I pray yow, telleth me.'
Enjambment
When a line needs the next to complete it
'As wolde God it were leveful unto me
To be refreshed half so oft as he!'
Which styles are most common in Chaucer?
What effects can they have?
Read from lines 39-76
1. What word would you use to translate, 'mirie,' in line 42?
2. What could a, 'mirie fit,' refer to?
3. Summarise the wife's argument here (lines 40-43)
4. Can you think of any reason this argument may be flawed?
5. From line 44, the wife uses three end-stopped lines, before four open
lines. Why do you think she does this?
6. What is the difference between Lameth's, 'bigamie,' and the wife?
7. What word that describes Lameth shows that the wife in some ways
sympathises with those who criticise him?
8. What is the effect of the enjambment between lines 60 and 61?
9. What names does Alison use to describe God and St. Paul between lines
64 and 74?
10. What is the effect of this homely language?
11. Which word is key to the wife's argument between lines 63-67?
12. In what ways is her argument in lines 69 and 70 weak?
13. Explain her logical argument in 71 and 72?
14. Explain the juxtaposition between the four lines of the last two
questions.
15. Can the wife's final two lines be read as ironic? If so, how?
Use your answers to annotate your text
Paying close attention to language and tone,
write a critical appreciation of the lines studied
today, relating them to Chaucer’s methods and
concerns in The Wife of Bath's Prologue and
Tale as a whole.