Salisbury, Eve, ed., The Trials and Joys of Marriage (TEAMS Middle English Text Series. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications) Read this source online
Text name(s): Dame Sirith; Interludium de clerico et puella; The Wright's Chaste Wife; Ballad of a Tyrannical Husband; A Talk of Ten Wives on Their Husbands' Ware; Prohemy of a Mariage Betwixt an Olde Man and a Yonge Wife, and the Counsail; The Meaning of Marriage; The Tretis of the Twa Mariit Wemen and the Wedo; Didactic Prose and Exempla; Emperator Felicianus; How a Wife Employed a Necromancer to Cause the Death of Her Husband; How He Was Saved by a Clerk; Gesta Romanorum; Godfridus a Wise Emperoure; Of the Magic Ring, Brooch, and Cloth, Which an Emperor Left to His Son: How He Lost Them, and How They Were Recovered; The Punished of Adulterers or The Bawd and the Adulterers; Of Weddid Men and Wifis and of Here Children Also; Payne and Sorowe of Evyll Maryage; How the Goode Wife Taught Hyr Doughter; How the Goode Man Taght Hys Sone; In Praise of Women; Abuse of Women; The Trials of Marriage; Against Hasty Marriage; A Young and Henpecked Husband's Complaint; A Henpecked Husband's Complaint; Old Hogyn's Adventure; I Have a Gentle Cock
Number of pages of primary source text: 0
Author(s):
Dates: 1250 - 1550
Archival Reference:
Original Language(s):
- English - Middle English
- English - Scots
Translation:
- Original language included.
Translation Comments:
Geopolitical Region(s):
- British Isles
- England
- Scotland
County/Region:
Record Types:
- Literature - Prose
- Literature - Verse
Subject Headings:
- Literature - Other
- Family / Children
- Women / Gender
Apparatus:
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Introduction
Comments:
There are a wide range of texts in this volume, from short bawdy poems to long didactic treatises, some misogynist and some feminist. This edition includes extensive textual notes translating difficult Middle English words and sentences, as well as footnotes providing background information and context where needed. Like all TEAMS editions of Middle English, the Middle English spelling is regularized and uses the modern alphabet.
Introduction Summary:
The introduction discusses the history of view of marriage from Classical times to the end of the Middle Ages. Salisbury gives a definition of the genres of satire and fabliau and discusses how the texts in this volume fit into the tradition of these genres. She also tries to determine whether the anonymous texts were written by men or women. She then discusses the didactic works included here.
Cataloger: MK
