'half so boldely can there no man / Swere and lyen as
a womman kan.'
'We love no man that taketh kepe or charge / Wher that we goon'
Wommen desire to have
sovereynetee ... And for to been in
maistrie him above'
Marriage
'Experience, though noon auctoritee / Were in this
world, is right ynough for me / To speke of wo that
is in mariage'
'Welcome the sixte, whan that evre he shall!'
'By God in erthe I was his purgatorie / For which I hope his soule be in glorie'
'Though he had me bet on every bon, / He koude winne agayn my love anon'
'to him yaf I all the lond and fee'
'I pray Jhesu shorte hir lives / That
wol not be governed by hir wives ...
God sende hem soone verray
pestilence!'
Catholic Church
Corrupted 'auctoritee'
'For then th'apostle seith that I am free / To
wed, a Goddes half, where it liketh me'
‘A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband die, she is free to marry whom she will...
But she is better off as she is, that is my opinion’
'bet is to be wedde than to byrnne'
'conseilling is no commandment'
'Christ was a maide and shapen as a man'
'And yet with barly-breed, Mark telle kan, / Oure
Lorde Jhesu refreesed many a man'
'Thou shalt drinken of another tonne'
'I was aboute to wedde a wif. Allas! / What should I bye it on my flessh so deere?'
'limitours and other hooly frères... As
thikke as motes in the sonne-beem'
Vulgar Language
'In his own greece I made him frye'
Alisoun
'mine entent nis but for to pleye'
'I pray you, telleth me'
'ye wise wives'
'All this sentence me liketh every deel!'
'I swoor that all my walking out by nighte /
Was for t'espye wenches that he dighte'
'Win whose may, for all is for to selle'
'I ne owe hem not a word that it nis quit'
'it dooth mine herte boote / That I have had my world as in my time'
'But now, sire, lat me see, what I shall sayn? / A ha! By God, I have my tale ageyn'
Men
'How pitously a-night I made hem swinke!'
''With empty hand men may non haukes lure'
'In wommen vinolent is no defence / This knowen lecchours by experience'