A man may do no synne with his wyf,
Ne hurte hymselven with his owene knyf.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Merchant’s Tale. January self-deceivingly says that a man cannot sin with his wife, no more than he can hurt himself with his own knife. His claim that legally he can do whatever he likes to his wife’s body shows him as a deluded and no noble knight. For him wives are there to provide sexual services for men as and when required.