"Five husbands … at the church door" In Chaucer's time, a wedding was performed at the church door and not inside the church or chapel.
Mark can tell The miracle of the loaves and fishes and the barley bread is actually John, not Mark (see John VI:9), but this is a slight error for a woman of the Middle Ages to make.
Ptolemy … almagest Ptolemy was a second century a.d. astronomer whose chief work was the Almagest. The Wife of Bath's quote shows that she is familiar with such a famous person.
Dunmow Fliatcah a prize awarded to the married couple in Essex who had no quarrels, no regrets, and, if the opportunity presented itself, would remarry each other. The Wife is still establishing the right of more than one marriage.
Argus … pull his beard a mythological giant with a hundred eyes whose duty was to guard a mortal (Io) whom Zeus loved. By Chaucer's time the word referred to any observant, vigilant person or guardian.
Three Misfortunes, Thinges Three reference to Proverbs xxx, 21-23.
quoniam a vulgar designation for the female pudendum, or vulva.
Venerien … Marcien astrological terms.
Ecclesiasticus, Ecclesiaste See xxv: 29.
Valerie and Theofraste a work attributed to Walter Map, a minor satirist who disparaged marriage. All the writers the Wife of Bath quotes have written something either antifeminist, satiric, or unpleasant about marriage.
Valerius, Tullius, Boethius, Seneca writers who espoused that gentility comes from within and not from outward appearances.
