The Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath's Prologue Lines 487-508 Summary

  • I was really mad that my husband enjoyed having sex with anyone else. But I got back at him for that; I made him a cross of the same wood.
  • I didn't get back at him by actually cheating on him. Instead, I behaved so familiarly with people that I gave him a taste of his own medicine.
  • I was his purgatory on earth, enveloping him in anger and jealousy. For which reason, I hope his soul's gone to glory.
  • He complained often about how I tormented him. No one but he, me, and God know how much I made him suffer.
  • He died when I came back from Jerusalem.
  • He's buried under the cross, but his tomb is not fancy; it would have been a waste of good money to bury him expensively.
  • May he fare well, and may God rest his soul. He's now in his coffin in the grave.