Single leaf, chancery folio (235 x 185 mm). Folio 255, 29 lines (58 total), bastarda 2:135 type. (Small corner tear with loss at margin, closed tear at foot, light soiling).

A LEAF CONTAINING A SIGNIFICANT PASSAGE FROM THE WIFE OF BATH'S PROLOGUE, beginning with the line "Eche man as hym liste to shifte" and ending with "And bad our husbondis forto love us weel" (comprising lines 104-161 of the Prologue). In this section of the Prologue, the Wife of Bath discusses virginity and religion ("Virginitee is greet perfection / And continence eek with devotion, / But Crist, that of perfeccion is well, / Bad nat every wight he sholde go seller / Al that he hadde, and gyve it to the poor, / And in swich wise folwe hym and his foore," ll.105-110). She argues that women were allowed to use sex for both procreation and pleasure, and contends that a married woman has power over her husband ("An housbonde I wol have -- I wol nat lette -- / Which shal be bothe my dettour and my thral, / And have his tribulacion withal / Upon his flessh, whil that I am his wyf. / I have the power durynge al my lyf / Upon his propre body, and noght he" ll.154-159). The Wife of Bath's Prologue is the longest in the Canterbury Tales, and is twice as long as the Wife of Bath's Tale. It touches on the themes of a woman's role in society in the Midde Ages.

THE FOUNDATIONAL TEXT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE: A LEAF FROM THE FIRST EDITION OF THE CANTERBURY TALES, PRINTED BY WILLIAM CAXTON, ENGLAND'S FIRST PRINTER. The leaf was originally from Lord Ashburnham's incomplete copy of the Canterbury Tales (sold at Sotheby's, May 1898), the Caxton Club acquiring 148 leaves for this edition. De Ricci's census of Caxtons 22; Duff 87; GW 6585; Goff C-431; ISTC ic00431000.

[With:] DUFF, E. Gordon. William Caxton. Chicago: The Caxton Club, 1905. 4to. Illustrated. (Dampstain at foot of title-page.) Original cloth-backed boards, printed spine label, uncut (spine sunned with a few small stains, some scuffs to boards). LIMITED EDITION, one of 150 copies, containing a leaf from Caxton's Chaucer loosely inserted in rear pocket.