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Wife of Bath

In: English and Literature

Submitted By sanyakapoor
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A Conjecture on the Wife of Bath's Prologue
Author(s): Richard F. Jones
Source: The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Oct., 1925), pp. 512-547
Published by: University of Illinois Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27702906
Accessed: 17-08-2015 10:45 UTC

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A CONJECTURE ON THE WIFE OF BATH'S PROLOGUE of Bath's the Wife
When
for the first reading Prologue time, I remember my surprise upon reaching line 193 to find continued for several hundred lines, whereas that the Prologue a tale to follow. With
I had expected each reading since, I in adjusting my expecta the same difficulty have experienced found. This repeated experience, tion to what I actually and I suspect it has come to all readers of Chaucer, in finally the matter.
The result is a theory cited me to investigate which holds that the first part of the Prologue through line
193 was originally
Pro
by the present preceded Shipman's a number of lines which were later omitted, and that logue plus to the present the whole served as a Wife's

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