Some of my notes from my Chaucer class today:
In the Last Will and Testament of Edmund Denny (handout) it states that if the wife marries again the property goes to Denny and her's son. So, if the Wife of Bath had had children, she might not have been able to accumulate the wealth she did by the fifth husband This may be a good argument for her not having children. Especially since she married Janekyn for love and not for money, she must have been independently wealthy from some of her husbands. I guess she could have still had children, maybe from an earlier marriage, but then not from the others. She would have still had wealth and yet lost some from one husband to one of her children. Were all the Wills made like this? Maybe she could have still had children and yet kept the money? Especially if they were all younger children. But I don't think it makes sense with her character that she would have had children.
The question of whether she was literate I think is still up in the air. I lean towards her not being. First, Janekyn read to her from the "Book of Wicked Wives." Second, she did tear the book and then order him to throw it in the fire. I'm not sure, as angry as she was at the book, she would have condoned this if she was literate.
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