The Wife of Bath’s Prologue

The Wife’s description of her fourth husband through the end of her prologue Fragment III, lines 452–856

Summary

The Wife of Bath begins her description of her two “bad” husbands. Her fourth husband, whom she married when still young, was a reveler, and he had a “paramour,” or mistress (454). Remembering her wild youth, she becomes wistful as she describes the dancing and singing in which she and her fourth husband used to indulge. Her nostalgia reminds her of how old she has become, but she says that she pays her loss of beauty no mind. She will try to be merry, for, though she has lost her “flour,” she will try to sell the “bran” that remains. Realizing that she has digressed, she returns to the story of her fourth husband. She confesses that she was his purgatory on Earth, always trying to make him jealous. He died while she was on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

＜巴斯太太＞的故事敘述她與五任丈夫的故事。前面三位先生對她非常好，但是第四個先生對她非常粗魯而且還擁有一個情婦(454)，然而她仍然深深地留戀著當時她的年輕貌美及與當他縱情跳舞的愉悅情景。她的鄉愁不斷地提醒著她變的有多老,但她不在意地為此奉上她的年輕年華，而且仍舊保持愉悅，雖然她已經失去她的“粉”，但是她試著維持她現有的一切。在故事有點偏離主題下，她又把主題拉回到要討論的第四任丈夫身上。她承認過去她曾是他在世上的苦難，因為她常做一些讓他忌妒的事。可幸的是，當她在前往耶路撒冷朝聖的路中，主讓他死去了。

Of her fifth husband, she has much more to say. She loved him, even though he treated her horribly and beat her. He was coy and flattering in bed, and always won her back. Women, the Wife says, always desire what is forbidden them, and run away from whatever pursues or is forced upon them. This husband was also different from the other four because she married him for love, not money. He was a poor ex-student who boarded with the Wife’s friend and confidante.

對於第五個老公，巴斯太太可就話匣子打開停不了。雖然他對她很糟糕甚至鞭打她，但是她還是愛他，在床地間，雖然他有時很靦腆但還很有一套，能討她歡心。巴斯太太說：「女人總是妄想著得到不能得到的東西，而且她們會盡量逃避她們所不想做的事。」她的第五任老公和之前的老公很不一樣，是一位窮學生，因租賃巴斯太太知心好友的房屋而相識，他們是因愛情而結合而非金錢。

When she first met this fifth husband, Jankyn, she was still married to her fourth. While walking with him one day, she told him that she would marry him if she were widowed. She lied to him and told him he had enchanted her, and that she had dreamed that he would kill her as she slept, filling her bed with blood, which signifies gold. But, she confides to her listeners, all of this was false: she never had such a dream. She loses her place in the story momentarily, then resumes with her fourth husband’s funeral. She made a big show of crying, although, she admits, she actually cried very little since she already had a new husband lined up.

當他認識了第五任老公時，她還是第四任老公的妻子。有一天當她和他走在一起時，她告訴他如果她變成寡婦便可以嫁給他。她以言語蠱惑他並告訴他她的心已經被他迷住了，還有她在睡夢中被他殺死，血跡遍佈整張床，在夢裡血象徵財富。然而，她對觀眾透露這一切都是假的：她從沒做過那樣的夢。故事又回到她第四個老公葬禮中，她演了一齣很假的哭戲，她承認她實在不怎麼難過，因為她等待與新老公在一起的時刻已經等很久了！

As she watched Jankyn carry her husband’s casket, she fell in love with him. He was only twenty and she forty, but she was always a lusty woman and thought she could handle his youth. But, she says, she came to regret the age difference, because he would not suffer her abuse like her past husbands and gave some of his own abuse in return. He had a “book of wicked wives” she recalls, called Valerie and Theofraste. This book contained the stories of the most deceitful wives in history. It began with Eve, who brought all mankind into sin by first taking the apple in the Garden of Eden; from there, it chronicled Delilah’s betrayal of Samson, Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon, and other famous stories. Jankyn would torment the Wife of Bath (whom we learn in line 804 is named Alisoun) by reading out of this book at night.

當她看到她的第五任老公詹金扛著她老公的棺材那一刻，她又墜入愛河了。當時他才２０歲但她已經４０歲了，性慾還很強所以她認為還有辦法搞定那年輕小伙子。不過她卻表示她非常懊悔年紀上的差距，因為他不像過去幾任老公ㄧ樣乖乖地就範，而且還會反過來修理她一番。她想起來當時他有一本“邪惡老婆之書”叫做Valerie and Theofraste，內容包含歷史上最邪惡的老婆，從夏娃開始，在伊甸園中她受蛇的誘惑，咬了蘋果，致使人類犯錯;此外還有記錄著妲麗拉如何欺騙大力士參商剪了他的頭髮，可萊特奈思妲如何與情夫合謀殺害自己的丈夫亞克曼農等有名的故事。在夜裡詹金喜歡閱讀這本書來讓巴斯太太(從804行中我們知道她的名字叫亞麗神)受苦。

One evening, out of frustration, the Wife tears three pages out of the book and punches Jankyn in the face. Jankyn repays her by striking her on the head, which is the reason, she explains in line 636, that she is now deaf in one ear. She cries out that she wants to kiss him before she dies, but when he comes over, she hits him again. They finally manage a truce, in which he hands over all of his meager estate to her, and she acts kindly and loving.

某晚，巴斯太太內心極感到極大的挫敗感，因此撕破了三頁的“邪惡老婆之書”，並且還打了詹金一把掌，詹金也以牙還牙地打了她的頭，這就是書中636行裡說她一邊耳朵聽不到的原因。她不斷地痛哭地表示想要在她死之前能夠親吻她老公，但當他走到她身邊時她又狠狠地打了他。最後他們終於達成和解：詹金將他那不值錢的房地產過繼給她，而巴斯太太也重新對丈夫表現出深情及體貼的一面。