SOURCE: Carruthers, Mary. “Clerk Jankyn At Hom to Bord / With My Gossib.” English Language Notes 22, no. 3 (March 1985): 11-20.

In the following essay, Carruthers refutes many commonly held assertions about the nature of the Wife of Bath's relationship with Jankyn. By analyzing fourteenth-century English usage, Carruthers identifies Jankyn as the relative of a close friend (one who is godparent to one of Alisoun's children), not as a stranger who merely boards in town. Through this interpretation, Carruthers argues, the Wife's change from manipulating spouse to manipulated spouse has richer irony.

In her fond description of past jolitee, the Wife of Bath recalls with particular pleasure her young fifth husband:

He som tyme was a clerk of Oxenford, And hadde left scole, and wente at hom to bord With my gossib, dwellynge in oure toun; God have hir soule! hir name was Alisoun. 

(D. 527-530)¹

Interpretive consensus concerning the circumstances...