Alice of Bath's Astral Destiny: A Re-Appraisal

Abstract

That Chaucer modeled certain of the characters in the Canterbury Tales, perhaps playfully, on descriptions of physical and personality types found in various medieval quasi-scientific works is by now well known. For example, Walter Clyde Curry long ago recognized the Wife of Bath's connection with physiognomy manuals. 2 Yet Alice's kinship with personality types described in late medieval treatises on the fortunes of men and women 3 born in the various constellations is less widely recognized, and, indeed, since Curry's work, the indebtedness of the Wife's portrayal to popular science has excited surprisingly little scholarly interest. 4

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