Question One;
‘The Wife of Bath’s
Tale’ by Geoffrey Chaucer
The knight spots a
young maiden and rapes her, he is then told by the Queen that if he can find
out what it is the women desire most, in twelve months and a day, his life will
be spared. So the knight then begins to look for the answer. On the day which he
has to head back to the castle he comes across a women, “There can no man
imagine an uglier creature.” (line 999.)
She gives him the
answer, after making him swear that he will do the first thing she asks. He
goes back to the castle and tells them the answer. The ‘old wife’ then appears
and asks him to marry her and the knight begs “For God’s love, choose a new
request! Take all my goods and let my body go.” (Line 1060-1061.) He then
marries her privately.
He is clearly
distressed by her, “Thou art so loathsome, and so old also, and moreover
descended from such low born lineage.” (Line 1100-1101.) She says that she can
change these things about herself and explains the options and asks him what he
wants most. The knight then says, “My lady and my love, and wife so dear, I put
me in your wise governance; Choose yourself which may be most pleasure and most
honor to you and me also.” (Line 1230-1233.) After him saying this she says
that she has gained mastery over him. “For, by my troth, I will be to you both—this
is to say, yes, both fair and good.” And so she becomes young and beautiful and
he ‘bathes’ her in kisses.
‘King Arthur Meets
a Really Ugly Woman’
In Inglewood,
“There he met with a lady.
She was the ugliest
creature,
That man ever saw…
Her face was red,
Her nose running,
Her mouth wide, her
teeth all yellow.
Her eyes were
bleary, as large as balls,
Her mouth just as
large…
Like a barrel was
she made.
To recite the
foulness of that lady,
There is no tongue
fit.
She had ugliness to
spare.” (page 10) It gives more of a detailed description of just how ugly the
lady was than that of both the other texts on the ‘Loathly Lady’. The lady
tells King Arthur that his life is at risk and she is the only one who can
prevent his death. Arthur asks her what she means and promises to grant her all
she asks. She says, “You must grant me a knight to wed.” (page 11.)
Arthur then arrives
at Carlisle and meets with Sir Gawain and tells him his predicament. Gawain
then declares, “I shall wed her and wed her again,
Even if she be a
fiend.
Even were she as
foul as Beelzebub,
I would wed her, I
swear by the cross.” (Page 13.) King Arthur praises Sir Gawain for accepting to
marry the ‘ugly’ lady, Dame Ragnell.
Steeleye Span, ‘King Henry’
The lady comes into
the hall in which King Henry and his hunting party and celebrating. She is
described like; “Her head hit the roof-tree of the house,
He middle you could
not span,
Each frightened
huntsman fled the hall,
And left the King
alone,
He teeth were like
the tether stakes,
Her nose like club
or mell,
And nother less she
seemed to be,
Than a fiend that
comes from hell.” (Stanza 4, Page 17.) She then asks the King for meat and he
feds her his Horse, Greyhounds and Goshawk. After than she asks for a drink in
the hide of the horse, so he sews it together and gives her a drink of wine.
Then she asks for a bed of Heather Green, which he makes for her. She then asks
him to lay by her side and that she can become his wife. The king then complains
that one such as her should not lay next to him.
“Oh God forbid,
says King Henry,
That ever the like
betide,
That ever a fiend
that comes from hell,
Should stretch down
by my side.” (Stanza 10, Page 17)
But he does as she
asks and by morning she is the ‘Fairest lady that was ever seen.”
‘King Arthur meets
a really ugly woman’ and ‘King Henry’ both describe what the ‘Loathly Lady’
looks like when she is ugly. Whereas ‘The Wife of Bath’s Tale’ just says that
the lady is the ugliest ever seen.
In all three it
isn’t until the men ‘accept’ her that she becomes beautiful, or until they have
done all she has asked of him.
In all three the
men do, do as she ask but they also resist against her and her demands but in
the end do as she has asked.
Question 4;
Dictionary.com describes a conceit as; - Something that is conceived
in the mind; a thought; an idea. – an elaborate, fanciful metaphor especially
of a strained or far-fetched nature. – The use of such metaphors as a literary characteristic,
especially in poetry.
In Shakespeare’s Sonnet XVIII he is describing his lover
and comparing her to a summers day, saying “Thou art more lovely and more
temperate.” (Line 2) The while Sonnet is a metaphor comparing his love to
summer, saying that like the clouds cover the sun occasionally, she too can
become dark and ‘down’, “And often is his gold complexion dimmed.” (line 6). The
line “Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines.” This could mean that
sometimes she either burns with too much passion or anger.
Sonnet CXXX, is also almost completely a metaphor. It
almost seems that he is describing his lover as ugly with, “Black wires grow on
her head.” (line 4) and “Coral is far more red, than her lips red.” (Line 2)
but desite this he still loves her,
“And yet by heaven, I think my lover is rare,
She belied with false compare.” (lines 13-14)
The other sonnets in the critical reader also have examples
of the ‘fanciful metaphor especially of a strained or far-fetched nature.’
Andrew Marvell, ‘To His Coy Mistress’
“My vegetable love should grow,
Vaster than empries and more slow.”
We can define conceits as metaphors with over exaggerate the
feelings of the ‘lover’ to his love, often comparing them to things in nature,
like a flea or summer, or Ice and fire and so forth.
Question 5;
In my opinion the most striking/outrageous example would be
John Dunne, ‘The Flea’. I don’t really have much to say about it other
than; he states that they have pretty much already married because the flea has
bitten him and her meaning that both their blood is inside the little flea.
(I don’t know why this is all highlighted I couldn’t get
rid of it! And I was having a good giggle while reading the sonnets. ;))
