The Wife of Bath's Tale

choi

(1) The fictional (character) "Wife of Bath" is a widow who had married five times when she took part in a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral in Medieval England.

(2) Here is a synopsis (meaning summary) of the tale.
(a) Summary: The Wife of Bath's Tale. Spark Notes, undated
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-canterbury-tales/section10/
, which begins with "In the days of King Arthur, the Wife of Bath begins * * * "

Click "Wife of Bath" in that clause -- or click "Characters" tab in the top horizontal bar (the above URL is "Summary" tab in the top bar) -- and you reach
(b)
(i) The Wife of Bath (under the heading "Characters")
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/t ... r/the-wife-of-bath/
("One of two female storytellers (the other is the Prioress), the Wife has a lot of experience under her belt. She has traveled all over the world on pilgrimages, so Canterbury is a jaunt compared to other perilous journeys she has endured. Not only has she seen many lands, she has lived with five husbands. She is worldly in both senses of the word: [cosmopolitan (at least sophisticated) and love and sex] * * * Rich and tasteful, the Wife's clothes veer a bit toward extravagance [according to Prologue of the Wife of Bath's Tale] * ** she hails from Bath, a major English cloth-making town in the Middle Ages [which competed with great European exporters of cloth, which were mostly in the Netherlands and Belgium (eg, Ypres (which is French name that was later adopted by English) + Ghent); Bath is now for tourism, no longer in manufacturing] * * * Through her experiences with her husbands, she has learned how to provide for herself in a world where women had little independence or power. The chief manner in which she has gained control over her husbands has been in her control over their use of her body. The Wife uses her body as a bargaining tool, withholding sexual pleasure until her husbands give her what she demands")

• jaunt (n; origin unknown): "a usually short journey or excursion undertaken especially for pleasure"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jaunt
(ii) "The Wife of Bath name signifies that she is from the city of Bath located in southwestern England. Her title as 'Wife' [though she was in fact a widow] relates to her role as a woman. During Chaucer's time, women were defined by their relationships to men rather than according to her own accomplishments." from the Web (dated Feb 4, 2022).
(c) Jankyn
https://www.shmoop.com/study-gui ... ths-prologue/jankyn

(3) The Wife of Bath's Tale
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wife_of_Bath%27s_Tale
("is among the best-known of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It provides insight into the role of women in the Late Middle Ages * * * She calls herself both Alyson [spelling in Modern English; the spelling in The Canterbury Tale is Alisoun] and Alys in the prologue")
(a) There is no need to read the rest of this Wiki page.
(b) Per Dictionary of American Family Names (by Oxford University Press), The English and Scottish surnames Allison and variant Alison are similar to English surname Ellison (and its variant Elison) are " from the Middle English personal name Ellis (Old Testament Elijah) + -son."

(4)
(a) I live in a homeless shelter where a year of two ago, a paperback book "The Canterbury Tale" was brought there (by management), among other books. I read several stories in a night, because other homeless people might took any book away and did. That book was published by Penguin with the cover
https://www.amazon.com/Canterbur ... ucer/dp/0140424385/
, and translated (from Middle English )not shown in the book) to Modern English) by Nevill Coghill
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevill_Coghill
(1899 – 1980; Englishman)
(b)
(i) His first name does not have e at the end.
(ii) Neville (name)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_(name)
(is "derived from 'new town' in Norman and French word. As a given name, it is chiefly used in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Ireland.")
(iii) The English and Irish surname Neville "(of Norman origin): habitational name from Neuville in Calvados or Néville in Seine-Maritime[,] France[;] both so called from Old French neu(f) new (from Latin [adjective masculine] novus [new]) + ville settlement."
(iv) French-English dictionary:
* nouveau (adjective masculine; from Latin [adjective masculine] novellus [new]): "new"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nouveau
   ^ Both adjective masculine, novellus is the diminutive of novus. See
      Walter Peterson, Latin Diminution of Adjectives. Classical Philosophy XI 426, 449 (1916; XI meaning volume 11)
      https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/358864
      ("19. Since youth and small size often go together, and all true diminutive suffixes consequently often mean 'young,' the addition of a diminutive suffix to an adjective which itself conveys the notion of youth is identical in principle with its addition to words meaning 'small,' and the same can be said of the emphasizing of the notion of weakness by a diminutive suffix, since weakness is often caused by small size or youth and intimately associated with these ideas. Of diminutives of adjectives meaning 'young' there are the following examples: juvenculus: juvencus 'young' * * * novellus: novus 'new, young' ")
* ville (noun feminine; from Latin [noun feminine] villa country house [or villa]. Doublet of villa): "town, city"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ville
   ^ English noun villa came from Latin via Italian. In English, French and Italian, the spelling is the same: villa (which is noun feminine in both French and Italian).


(5)
(a) The Canterbury Tale is locked behind paywall.
(b) Here is a free copy of The Wife of Bath's Tale (translated by Nevill Coghill), presented by Pottstown School District.
https://www.pottstownschools.org/Downloads/Wife%20of%20Bath2.pdf
(i) You see, the translation is rhymed.
(ii) Pottstown, Pennsylvania
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottstown,_Pennsylvania   
(was named "in honor of its founder, John Potts It is * * * 40.4 miles (65.0 km) northwest of Philadelphia")

The English surname Potts or its variant Pott "denot[es] a Pot(t)'s son[,] relative or servant."
(iii) The Pardoner. Spark Notes, undated (under the heading "Characters")
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/t ... acter/the-pardoner/