Name Sirapat pongpan 573080982-1
The wife of bath’s tale
There was a Knight in King Arthur’s time who raped a fair young maiden. King Arthur sent a decree out that the Knight must be brought to justice. When the Knight is captured, he is condemned to death, but the Queen intercedes on behalf of the Knight and asks the King to allow her to pass judgment on the Knight.
The queen, she said to the knight. “ You shall live, if you can tell me the answer to this question. The queen ask the knight, What does a woman want most of all ?
I will give you a year and a day to find out the answer. If you cannot find it, you must die.”,
The knight thanked her, but he rode away very sadly. He said, “The queen has asked a very hardy question. How can I find the answer?”
The Knight spent this time roaming from place to place questioning women. He asked many people. “What does a woman want most of all?” He got many answers.
A man said, “ Women like jewels and money more than anything else.”
One woman said, “ They want to be happy. That’s all they want.”
Some say they want wealth, others happiness, others to be gratified and flattered. Everywhere he heard different answers.
Many of the answers seemed to be very good, but none of them seemed to be the right one. At last a year had passed.It is time for him to return to the Court and he is depressed for he does not have a good answer
The knight had to go back and take his answer to the queen. The poor knight thought: “What shall I say? I have tried so hard. Must I really die?”
Outside the castle, Just then he came to the great wood, he sees twenty four maidens dancing and singing, but when he approaches they disappear as if by magic, and all that is left and Only one very old, very ugly woman sat there now. When he came nearer, she stood up and came to him. The Knight explains the problem to the hag.
"I will lose my life if I cannot find the answer to the question. What does a woman want most of all? If you can tell me, I will pay you well.”
“Give me your hand,” she answered. “You must do the first thing that I ask you. Promise! Then I will tell you the right answer",
The knight said: “I promise to do the first thing that you ask me to do.”
She spoke very quietly into his ear. “That, “ she said, “is the answer to your question.”
Then they went along together to meet the queen and all the lords and ladies go to the meeting place.
The Queen asks the question again, and the Knight responds that women most desire sovereignty over their husbands. All the women of the Court agree that this is a valid answer.
The Knight is acquitted.
The old crone enters saying that she supplied the answer for the Knight and she now requests that he marries her. The Knight, in agony, agrees.
On their wedding night the hag is upset that the Knight doesn’t attend to his new bride, but her ugliness and low breeding repulse him. She reminds him that her looks can be an asset because she will be a virtuous wife to him because no other men would desire her. She asks him what he would prefer – an old ugly hag who is loyal, true and humble or a beautiful woman whom he would always have doubts about concerning her faithfulness? The Knight responds by saying that the choice was hers. The hag is pleased. She has won mastery over her husband, and she asks the Knight to kiss her. She says, “You will find me a fair and faithful wife”. The Knight turns to look at the hag again, but now finds a young and lovely woman.
They live blissfully ever after, the wife being in control.
That is the end of my story. May God send us husbands who are young and loving, and may be able to make them whatever we wish. Men should do what their wives tell them do. And they should not be too careful with their money.