, which had been slight enough, that she was about to set forth, but
the miseries of those whom it is her boast to have worried into
obedience to her will. As Pope correctly renders the original, she
states that the pains referred to the smart she had inflicted on her
husbands; and, far from alleging that "dear-bought wisdom" had taught
her that matrimony to a woman was a life of suffering, she thanks God
that she has been married five times already, and declares that directly
her fifth mate is dead, she will marry a sixth.

When my husband is from the world i-gone,
Some Christian man shall wedde me anon.]

[Footnote 2: "Twelve" in the original.]

[Footnote 3:

Beside a welle Jesus, God and man,
Spake in reproof of the Samaritan:
"Thou hast i-had five husbandes," quoth he,
"And that ilk-man, which that now hath thee
Is not thine husband." Thus he said certain;
What that he meant thereby I cannot sayn,
But that I axe why the fithe man
Was not husband to the Samaritan?

The question is addressed to those who deny the validity of second
marriages, and she asks them to explain upon their theory why the fifth
man was not properly the husband of the Samaritan woman, when there is
the authoritative declaration of Scripture that he was.]

[Footnote 4: Pope alone is responsible for the second half of this line,
which in its present application has an unbecoming levity. There was a
pardoner in the company, a person who got his living by selling
indulgences, and by displaying the pretended relics of saints, who says
that he was about to marry, but that he shall abandon his intention now
that he learns what despotic authority wives exercise over husbands. The
wife of Bath, unabashed, informs him that what she has told is nothing
in comparison with that which is to follow:

Abide, quoth she, my tale is not begun.
Nay, thou shalt drinke of another tun
Ere that I go, shall savour worse than ale.
And when that I have told thee forth my tale
Of tribulation in marriage,
Of which I am expert in all my age,
That is to say, myself hath been the whip,
Then might thou choose whether thou wilt sip
Of thilke tunne that I shall abroach:
Beware of it ere thou too nigh approach.

These dramatic touches omitted by Pope give life to the piece, and
individuality to the characters.]

[Footnote 5: In the original,

I shall say sooth of husbands that I