The Wife of Bath's Prologue

nonce-the present

She insists that  since men can marry more than once, women should be allowed to do that, too.

It is better to marry and be faithful than to commit fornication or adultery.

wight-human

bigamy-having 2 husbands while both are still alive and having not divorced one of them

103-5: Not all women are virgins.

sundry-diverse

The three reasons for genitalia are urination, differentiation, and procreation.

143: Christ is described as a maid, like Theseus and Nicholas. All three of them can be considered perfect gentle knights.

thrall-slave

She has power over her husbands' bodies because she denies them sex.

The host, after hearing this, says he would rather not marry. There is a conflict because both the man and woman in a marriage desire control. He wants her to teach the young men her ways so they can gain control over their wives.

pique-to injure pride or vanity

The first three husbands were good because they were old, rich, and eventually submissive to her will.

pardie-indeed

swink-labor

The prize of bacon motivated couples to stay at peace. However, the wife of Bath never won the bacon, so it can be assumed that she and her husbands argued in their nascent marriages. It set a tone of female dominance because the bacon was a phenomenal prize to seek, and so the husbands probably would try not to argue with her.

She accuses them of sleeping around, then makes up stories that they "told" while they were drunk.

dalliance-flirting

dotard-a senile old person

She refuses to be dominated.

niggard-miser

Men believe that if their wives are dressed well and lavishly that it presents a danger to their chastity.

She uses a beautiful and ugly cat as a metaphor for cheating and faithful women.

380-3: Women destroy their husbands from the inside out.

She becomes so paranoid about Jenkin that she spies on him and eventually kills him by denying him sex and giving it to him all at once.

lickerish-greedy, gluttonous 

pith-essence, vital substance

480-1: Her virginity is gone, so all she has is metaphorical barley bread.

She loved her fourth and fifth husbands because they were good in bed, although they were hard to control.

fifth husband is young, taken for love

530-4: This passage mentions "a student at Oxford" and boarded with a woman named Alison. Are these the same Nicholas and Alison from "The Miller's Tale?"

Both the Wife of Bath and the clergy act holy without any faith. They also distort Scripture passages to fit their arguments.

She slept around while her fourth husband was in London during all of Lent.

She acted extremely sad when he died, but she was not sad at all.

Jenkin had the audacity to read to her and read about the lives of wicked wives in her presence, so she tears a page out of the book.

ascendant-position of authority

durst-past tense of dare

Jenkin and she fight, but she gets in the last punch.

wreak-cause

Jenkin submits to her will because he knows it is better than fighting her, and she has remained faithful to him ever since.

She loves him because she got what she wanted: control.