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| “ | He saugh a mayde walkynge hym biforn Of which mayde anon, maugree hir heed, By verray force, he rafte hire maydenhead; |
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| ~ The Wife of Bath's explanation of how the knight raped the maiden. |
The knight is the main antagonist of The Wife of Bath's Tale, a book within Geoffrey Chaucer's late 12th Century work The Canterbury Tales.
He is a knight in the court of King Arthur who is found guilty of rape, and must atone for his transgression but answering "what thyng is it that wommen moost desiren? [what thing is it that women most desire?"].
In the 1998 BBC production, he was voiced by the late John Fortune.
Personality[]
The knight is a misogynist who holds much contempt for women and their autonomy. He is a greedy and primitive person who responds only to his impulsive desires. He wears his status proudly but is a coward when it comes to the loss of his life, and evidently will do anything to stop his life from worsening.
He is shown to care a lot about superficial traits in women such as their youth and believes they should not have the upper hand or sovereignty.
Physical appearance[]
In the BBC Wales adaptation, the knight is depicted as a Caucasian man with greying hair and a moustache.
Biography[]
Background[]
The knight comes from the The Wife of Bath's Tale, a story delivered by the fictional Wife of Bath who appears in The Canterbury Tales. He is a knight in the court of King Arthur.
The Wife of Bath's Tale[]
After the wife finishes her lengthy prologue about her multiple marriages, she tells a tale of the times of King Arthur. An anonymous knight rides upon his horse, where he spies a young woman on the riverbank. The knight dismounts from his horse and rapes her. The woman uses the assize court of King Arthur, who deposes the trial to his wife, Queen Guinevere. Guinevere states she will spare his life only if he can answer the question of what it is women desire most.
Guinevere gives the knight 12 months and 1 day, whereby if he does not answer the question to her satisfaction she will behead him. The knight sets off around the kingdom to find an answer. However, the knight struggles to find any agreeable answer and begins to lose hope. The knight is told a multitude of answers of what women desire most, including riches, honour, gaiety, clothing, sex, changing partners, satisfaction, company, solitude and flattery.
None of these answers satisfy the knight, but he does hear of some who believe it is autonomy and recognition of female intelligence. Hopeless, the knight starts to ride back to Camelot, but becomes lost and entranced by a group of dancing women. As the knight approaches to ask his question, the women disappear, and an old woman emerges from the green.
The knight pleads to the old woman to tell him an answer to his question or else he will die, and agrees to give him an answer so long as he promises to do the very next thing she asks of him. The knight agrees and is told that it is autonomy and free will from patriarchal restraint that women desire most. Pleased with the answer, the knight thanks the old woman and returns to Camelot.
In court, the knight offers his answer to Guinevere who accepts it. The old woman arrives at the trial and tells the court she gave him this answer on the condition he would do the next thing she asked of him, and demands he must take her as his wife. The knight pleads the woman think of a new demand, disgusted and woeful at the suggestion, and takes it as an affront to his family to be so degraded.
However, these requests fell on deaf ears, and the knight realised he must marry her to save his life. The knight treats his new wife with resentment and contempt, and explains to her that she is so hideous and common that he could not help be unhappy. The wife finds this superficial, and reasons with him that if religion is of such importance to him that nobility should not matter if the pair knowingly love each other. To exemplify her point, she offers the knight the ultimatum of being either an old, faithful and loving wife, or a young, beautiful but adulterous wife.
The knight, so tormented by his paradox, lets the old woman chose, allowing her to have the upper hand in the marriage.