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Jankyn
The unnamed knight in the Wife of Bath’s tale is a foolish, overly lusty bachelor who breaks the code of chivalry when he rapes a maiden in the woods. He is sent by the queen on a quest to learn his lesson. Once he proves himself by discovering the answer to the question of what women want and then by answering the old woman’s question correctly (that is, by letting her decide), he is rewarded by getting to have his cake and eat it too: the old woman turns into a beautiful and faithful wife.
The knight Quotes in The Canterbury Tales
The The Canterbury Tales quotes below are all either spoken by The knight or refer to The knight. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Wife of Bath’s Tale
Quotes
Wommen desiren to have sovereynetee
As wel as over hir housbond as hir love
And for to been in maistrie hym above.
Related Characters:
The Knight (speaker), The knight
Related Themes:
For gentilesse nys but renomee
Of thyne auncestres, for hire heigh bountee,
Which is a strange thing to thy persone.
Thy gentilesse cometh fro God alone.
Thanne comth our verray gentilesse of grace;
It was no thing biquethe us with our place.
Related Characters:
The old woman (speaker), The knight
Related Themes:
Get the entire The Canterbury Tales LitChart as a printable PDF.
The knight Quotes in The Canterbury Tales
The The Canterbury Tales quotes below are all either spoken by The knight or refer to The knight. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Wife of Bath’s Tale
Quotes
Wommen desiren to have sovereynetee
As wel as over hir housbond as hir love
And for to been in maistrie hym above.
Related Characters:
The Knight (speaker), The knight
Related Themes:
For gentilesse nys but renomee
Of thyne auncestres, for hire heigh bountee,
Which is a strange thing to thy persone.
Thy gentilesse cometh fro God alone.
Thanne comth our verray gentilesse of grace;
It was no thing biquethe us with our place.
Related Characters:
The old woman (speaker), The knight
Related Themes:
