Wykked Wyves and the Woes of Marriage

Katharina M. Wilson is Associate Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Georgia. Elizabeth M. Makowski is in the Department of History at Columbia University.

"The chief virtue of the study is that it makes accessible for the first time a huge and miscellaneous tradition which is absolutely crucial to medieval scholarship and to both medieval and general feminist studies. Because it is focused on texts, meticulously paraphrasing them, it provides a lucid witness to the facts of the tradition, to the prevailing winds of influence, and to the shifts in the tradition as the writer fits it to his personal cultural agendas. It is impressively researched and the logic of its historic and literary analysis is so impeccable that the contrast between pristine method and nasty content is sometimes delightful." — Elizabeth P. Armstrong, University of Cincinnati

• Acknowledgments Introduction I. Classical Antecedents Marriage law and custom in Imperial RomeMisogyny and mirth: Juvenal's Sixth Satire as prototype II. Ascetic Misogamy Eschatology, dualism, and virginity in the patrisitc periodSt. Jerome's Adversus Jovinianum as radical critique III. Philosophic Misogamy The great and lesser silence: The reemergence of anti-marriage literature in the twelfth centurySecularism and satire in the work of Abelard, John of Salisbury, Walter Map, Hugh of Folietto, Peter of Blois, and Andreas Fieschi IV. General Misogamy Canon Law, comedy, and clausura in the late Middle AgesWykked Wyves: A tradition reasserted in De conjuge non ducenda, Quinze joies de mariage, and the Wife of Bath's "Prologue" Conclusion Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Works Notes Index