Eek wel I woot, he seyde myn housbonde
Sholde lete fader and mooder and take to me.
But of no nombre mencion made he,
Of bigamye, or of octogamye;
Why sholde men thanne speke of it vileynye?
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. The hypocritical double standard applied to men and women in the area of relationships and marriage is attacked here. The Wife of Bath argues that the five men who each in turn were allowed by God to ask for her hand in marriage and God made no mention of number, of marrying two or marrying eight. So why should men then speak evil of her for marrying them.