"Bet is," quod he, "thyn habitacioun
Be with a leon, or a foul dragoun,
Than with a womman usynge for to chyde.
Bet is," quod he, "hye in the roof abyde,
Than with an angry wyf doun in the hous;
They been so wikked and contrarious.
They haten that hir housbondes loveth ay."
He seyde, "a womman cast hir shame away
Whan she cast of hir smok," and forthermo,
"A fair womman, but she be chaast also,
Is lyk a gold ryng in a sowes nose."
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. "It’s better to live with a lion or a ferocious dragon than with a woman who nags all the time." This is just one of a torrent of mysogynistic proverbs spewed out by Jankin, as he made his wife listen while he read extracts from his anti-feminist Book of Wicked Wives. But it becomes the last straw for the Wife of Bath who takes swift action after this humiliation.