A wyf! a, Seinte Marie, benedicite!
How myghte a man han any adversitee
That hath a wyf? Certes, I kan nat seye.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Merchant’s Tale. Discussing whether old bachelor January should marry, the Merchant who announced that he is married to a shrew, asks with bitter irony: how could a man have any adversity that has a wife? This foreshadows January’s own woes when he ends up marrying.