Note 5 — THE WIFE OF BATH.
Reading edition
In the original,
I shall say sooth of husbands that I had, As three of them were good, and two were bad.
She meant that the two were rebellious in comparison with the three who were her slaves; for in speaking of the entire five, at the commencement of the prologue, she added,
And all were worthy men in their degree.
Pope has fallen into an inconsistency. He states that the three old husbands were those who "were just tolerable." Yet when he comes to describe the youngest of the two, whom he here calls "bad," he makes the wife of Bath exclaim,
Now for my fifth loved lord, the last and best,
In Chaucer she distinctly denies that he was the best, but says she loved him best, and proceeds to explain the reason, which is that women always value those most who treat them with harshness or indifference.