The Wife of Bath, pictured in the Ellesmere Chaucer manuscript, ca. 1400There are 32 pilgrims who set out on the journey that frames Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” with two more coming along later. Many of these are mere cyphers (like the five guildsmen, not differentiated), but 23 get brief descriptions in the “General Prologue,” and the same number get to tell tales. Only three of the 34, however, are female—the Prioress, her accompanying Nun, and the Wife of Bath—and though they all tell a tale, only the first and last receive a detailed description. This marked gender underrepresentation is very largely redressed by the Wife of Bath, who has stolen the show from Chaucer’s time to now, and become (nearly) everyone’s favorite character.

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