he wife dominance, according to the hag, their lives would not have ended as they did. The hag prays at the end of the Wifes tale that Jesus cut short the lives of those wholl not be governed by their wives, And grace toverbide hem that we wedde. / And eek I praye Jesu shorte hir lives / That nought wol be governed by hir wives(281.1266-1268)*. In her prologue The Wife of Bath says she gained sovereignty over each of her husbands, And thus of oo thing I avaunte me: / At ende I hadde the bet in eech degree, / By sleighte or force, or by som manere thing, / As by continuel murmur or grucching; / Namely abedde hadden they meschaunce: / There wolde I chide and do hem no plesaunce; / I wolde no lenger in the bed abide (262-263.409-415). She gained control by using any and every technique she knew, which includes the withholding of pleasure, which we see in line 414 above. Instead of her husbands living a long life which her tale suggests in lines 1266 - 1268 by asking that Jesus take the lives of those husbands that are not controlled by there wives, the Wife of Bath gains sovereignty and they still die? Hardly, This parallel brings up the question of what really happened to husbands one through four, and is husband number five sitting at home or has he also found himself six feet under? Is it a coincidence that she came home from her last pilgrimage to find husband number four dead. The idea that those men who do not allow themselves to be ruled by there wives should come to an early death is enough proof that the Wife took care of those husbands that did not follow her wishes. If one did not allow this control the Wife decided he should die and she then was free to marry again and start the cycle again. Since it is better to marry than to burn with passion. We also see sovereignty is the one thing that all women want from their husbands, in the tale the Wife tells. Why does she tell this tale? Well lets see? We have a man who displays his...
