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Hawking Your Wares examines the realities of being an independent trader of goods or services, to the backdrop of, perhaps the most beloved of all Chaucer’s characters, Alison, the Good Wife of Bath; the first fully realised, multi-dimensional creation of a fictional female character in English literature who wasn’t a vapid princess or a damsel in distress, a nun or a witch. Alison of Bath was a financially independent businesswoman, well-travelled, confident and entertaining. She questioned the misogynistic patriarchy of her day and was not afraid to criticise the prevailing religious writings that repeatedly sought to undermine women – writings, incidentally, that were much admired by her fifth husband. Artist, Deborah Donnelly and wholistic therapist, Valerie Lagrave talk about their work – its surprising use in hospitals – and surmise how things have changed since The Wife of Bath “who was so skilled at making cloth, she surpassed the famed weavers of Belgium and Holland”.
Written and produced by Bernie Dwan. Recorded and mixed by Declan McGlade. The series is made with the support of Coimisiún Na Meán’s Sound and Vision scheme, with the Television License fee. Recorded in Near FM studios, Coolock.
About the series
Devised and produced by Berni Dwan, and funded by Coimisiún na Meán, Charmers and Chancers: Chaucer’s Cheerleaders, is a five-part series that attempts to link five key medieval professions – military, religious, legal, medical, trading – as depicted in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, to women’s working lives today, and examine women’s participation in these professions down through the centuries. In the Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400, we meet thirty characters – only two of whom are women – The Prioress and the Wife of Bath – who agree to take part in a story-telling competition before setting off on pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Beckett, that troublesome priest who was murdered there by King Henry IIs knights in 1170.
In an innovative and entertaining way, the series will – at a time when the gender pay gap is still a reality and childcare remains a challenge for many women who work outside the home – juxtapose aspects of these five occupational areas between late medieval and post-modern by engaging 21st century female practitioners in discussion.
You heard the following tracks from Music, Ireland and the Sixteenth Century. All information on https://www.siobhanarmstrong.com/
Track 18: Callino Costurame – Intro and Outro music for all episodes
Track 17: Irish Ho Hoane – Heard in Episode 1, Whose Medieval Army?
Track 01: Felix Hyberniam – Heard in Episode 2, Cloistered Warriors
Track 23: A port – Heard in Episode 3 – Laying Down the Law
Track 25: Allmane – Heard in Episode 4 – Plague and Pestilence
Track 28: Mr Cornmake Allmane – Heard in Episode 5 – Hawking Your Wares
Friendly versions of Prologue and Tales can be found here:
The Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales
