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The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 1, Poetry - Volume 1

Note 24 — THE WIFE OF BATH.

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No Englishwoman would talk of laying her husband in his urn, not to mention that the phrase is a mixture of incongruous ideas, the "laid" being applicable to burial, and the "urn" to burning. When the wife of Bath speaks of her departed husband she says,

He is now in his grave and in his chest.

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