Chaucer and Courtly Love Once More--"The Wife of Bath's Tale" by George R. Coffman

Coffman, George R. Chaucer and Courtly Love Once More—“The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” Speculum, Vol. 20, NO. 1. (Jan., 1945), pp. 43-50.

In this article Coffman argues what when the Wife of Bath’s Tale is interpreted with reference to the tradition of courtly love, presented by Capellanus’s De Amore and the Courts of Love of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Tale shows how the traditions of courtly love are applied to life rather than to literary convention. Apart from summarizing the Tale and introducing his sources, Coffman’s article is devoted to displaying the incongruities of the courtly love tradition as they appear in the Wife of Bath’s Tale. Three examples he states include: the fact that the very Court of Love that by its own codes should have condemned the knight gives him salvation instead, the idea of nobleness of character shown by the epitome of gentilesse in the Loathly Lady and not the nobleness of position does not fit with the reality of feudal society, the Tale’s resolution presents a bond of love between husband and wife.