Note 41 — THE WIFE OF BATH.
Reading edition
Pope's translation is mawkish, and his "adieu, my dear, adieu!" destroys the point of the story. The wife of Bath seconds the blow with reproaches instead of with terms of endearment, nor does she consent to be pacified until the clerk surrenders at discretion. Had she relaxed before her conquest was complete, she would have lost the opportunity of establishing her dominion. After the line, "Ere I be dead, yet will I kisse thee," Chaucer thus continues:
And near he came, and kneeleth fairadown, And saide, Deare sister Alisoun, As help me God, I shall thee never smite; That I have done it is thyself to wite; Forgive it me, and that I thee beseke; And yet oftsoon I hit him on the cheek, And saide, Thief thus muchel I me wreke Now will I die, I may no longer speak. But atte last, with muchel care and woe We fell accorded by ourselven two; He gave me all the bridle in mine hand To have the governance of house and land, And of his tongue, and of his hand also, And made him burn his book anon right tho.
"To wite" is to blame; "I me wreke" is "I revenge myself;" and "tho" is then. As soon as the poor clerk consented to have no will of his own, and to be governed like a school-boy by his master, the dame declares,
God help me so, I was to him as kind As any wife from Denmark unto Inde.
It must have been holiday time with him, notwithstanding, when the wife of Bath set out on one of her pilgrimages, and left him in peace at home.