How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Line). We used the line numbering found on Librarius's online edition.
Quote #1
And happed that, allone as she was born,
He saugh a mayde walkynge hym biforn
Of whiche mayde anon, maugree hir heed,
by verray force he rafte hir maydenhed.
(891 – 894)
This passage emphasizes the way in which rape is domination of another human person by saying that the knight rapes the woman "maugree hir heed," or in spite of her "heed," where "heed" is a metonymy for desires. The knight further deprives the woman of power by taking her maidenhead, which was part of what a woman had to leverage on the marriage market. With her virginity taken from her in such a public manner, this woman is now likely unmarry-able.
Quote #2
'And suretee wol I han, er that thou pace,
thy body for to yelden in this place.'
(917 – 918)
Since the king has given the queen power of life and death over the knight, the power over his body technically belongs to her. By calling attention to this by saying not that the knight, but his body has to come back, this passage emphasizes how the knight's punishment is penance for having deprived another person of the power over her own body.
Quote #3
'Plight me thy trouthe, heere in myn hand,' quod she,
'The nexte thyng that I requere thee,
Thou shalt it do, if it lye in thy myght,
And I wol telle it yow, er it be nyght.'
'Have heer my trouthe,' quod the knyght, 'I grante.'
(1015 – 1019)
The plighting of one's troth to someone was a sign of binding oneself irrevocably to another's will, and one that was taken very seriously in medieval romances. The knight grants even more power to this gesture by agreeing to an open-ended promise; in effect, he is saying he will submit completely to the loathly lady's will at the moment of her request, whatever it may be.
Quote #4
'My lige lady, generally,' quod he,
'Wommen desiren to have sovereynetee
As wel over hir housbond as hir love,
And for to been in maistrie hym above.'
(1043 – 1046)
The knight's expression of women's desire for sovereignty is a powerful moment in the character development of the night. Because his crime was to forcibly deprive a woman of sovereignty over herself, his acknowledgment that women most desire sovereignty over their lovers is a step in his rehabilitation, as well as a chastening of him for his crime.
Quote #5
'This is youre mooste desir, though ye me kille.
Dooth as yow list, I am heer a youre wille.'
(1047 – 1048)
The knight's yielding of himself to the will of the queen might represent his internalization of the truth he has just spoken about women's desire for sovereignty.
Quote #6
'Mercy,' quod she, 'my sovereyn lady queene,
Er that youre court departe, do me right.
I taughte this answere unto the knyght,
For which he plighte me his trouthe there,
The firste thyng I wolde of hym requere,
He wolde it do, if it lay in his myght.'
(1054 – 1059)
This passage is rife with the language of power; the loathly lady refers to the queen as "my sovereyn," in a moment in which she asks the queen to use that sovereignty to grant her sovereignty. The knight has promised to do what the hag asks if it lays in his "might" or power. This moment represents a real test of the knight's ability to yield sovereignty to another, which he doesn't exactly ace.
Quote #7
The knyght answerde, 'Allas and weylawey!
I woot right wel that swich was my biheste!
For Goddesl ove, as chees a newe requeste!
Taak al my good, and lat my body go!'
(1064 – 1068)
In asking that the knight marry her, the hag really has asked for his body since, as we learned in the Wife of Bath's Prologue, a wife has sovereignty over her husband's body for his entire life. The knight recognizes this and asks the hag to 'lat my body go!' This language reminds us of the knight's crime, perpetrated upon a woman's body, and that the knight's punishment fits that crime.
Quote #8
'My lady and my love, and wyf so deere,
I put me in youre wise governance.
Cheese yourself, which may be moost plesance
And moost honour to yow and me also.
I do no fors the wheither of the two;
For, as yow liketh, it suffiseth me.'
(1236 – 1241)
This moment may represent the fulfillment of the knight's rehabilitation; from one who forcibly dominated a woman, he has become one who yields to the "wise governance" of a woman. It definitely represents his understanding of what women most desire. Whether feigned or sincere, his yielding to his wife is exactly what she wants, according to her.
Quote #9
'Thanne have I gete of yow maistrie,' quod she,
'Syn I may chese and governe as me lest?'
'Ye, certes, wyf' quod he, 'I holde it best.'
(1243 – 1245)
It seems to be important to the loathly lady that the knight make verbal acknowledgment of his yielding of "maistrie" in exactly those terms, which he delivers with his "Ye, certes, wyf." Curiously, from this point forward it doesn't seem to be so important that the wife continue to exert control over her husband (see below.)
Quote #10
'Dooth with my lyf and deth right as yow lest.'
[…]
And she obeyed hym in every thyng
that myghte doon hym plesance or likyng.
(1254, 1261 – 1262)
The knight's yielding of mastery to his wife prompts an even more extreme yielding of it on her part, with her offer to let her husband "dooth with my lyf and deth right as yow lest" and our narrator's assertion that, from that point forward, she obeyed her husband in everything. We can't help but feel this is something of a cop-out when it comes to the moral the story has supposedly been pushing; the ending seems to be saying that women only want their husbands to be willing to yield mastery to them, but don't actually desire it.
Quote #11
[…]. –and Jesu Crist us sende
Housbondes meeke, yonge, fressh abedde,
And grace t'overbyde hem that we wedde;
And eek I praye Jesus shorte hir lyves
That nat wol be governed by hir wyves.
(1264 – 1268)
Alleviating our discomfort at the ending in which the wife actually ends up yielding mastery to her husband, the Wife's familiar cry for sovereignty rings out at the end of the tale in asking for grace to overrule our husbands and the shortening of the lives of all those husbands who won't be ruled. The Wife, we know, would never give power back to her husband once he had yielded it!