 | Thomas R. Lounsbury - 1891 - 546 pages
...thorough keeping with the feelings and opinions of the speaker to whom it is attributed. The nc . . . but has the force of" only." The dishonor of a woman...she represented the friars as specially addicted to licentiousness. Yet, in a few of the manuscripts,4 including the Harleian, the last line reads as follows:... | |
 | Geoffrey Chaucer - 1894 - 560 pages
...(Studies in Chaucer, i. 257) adopts the reading here given, but interprets it thus : — ' The dishonour of a woman is, in the eyes of the Wife of Bath, to be reckoned not as a crime, but as a peccadillo.' (See the whole passage.) The subject will hardly bear further discussion ; but it is impossible to... | |
 | Geoffrey Chaucer - 1894 - 558 pages
...(Studies in Chaucer, i. 257) adopts the reading here given, but interprets it thus : — 'The dishonour of a woman is, in the eyes of the Wife of Bath, to be reckoned not as a crime, but as a peccadillo.' (See the whole passage.) The subject will hardly bear further discussion ; but it is impossible to... | |
 | Geoffrey Chaucer - 1905 - 344 pages
...of the speaker to whom it is attributed. The tie . . . but has the force of " only." The dishonour of a woman is, in the eyes of the Wife of Bath, to...she represented the friars as specially addicted to licentiousness.' — Studies in Chaucer, Vol. I. p. 257. This interpretation is supported by the authority... | |
| |
The sting of this covert attack upon the friars lies in the last line. It is eminently characteristic of the poet's manner, and is in thorough keeping with the feelings and opinions of the speaker to whom it is attributed. The ne . . . but has the force... 