.
" I am al Venerian In feelinge, and my herte is Marcien.".
Venus was the god of love and indicated a passionate nature; Mars was the god of war and explains her tendency to fighting her husbands. She explains that her feelings are passionate and loving but her heart and sole are warlike and strong. Her divided temperament is shown in the Wife by her driving impulse for "maisterie" and her inability to be content with her fine clothes and garments. Which she has plenty of this is explained by her explanation of her star sign.
"Myn ascendent was Taur, and Mars therinne".
Her marriage to three older men can be seen, as a calculated way to get rich without actually earning it is also effective. When she was young she used her beauty to marry an older richer man who she knew would die before her. She then had money which would attract other husbands who were rich but she still might have retained some of her youthful beauty and married two more old rich men whom she survived. Beauty attracted them at first but not her money will attract men where her beauty might now no longer suffice. She admits that she treated her old husbands with a cold and calculated attitude in her prologue. .
"Thou seyest, right as wormes shende a tree, .
Right so a wyf destroyeth hire housbonde.".
Her marriage to the three older men seems to be purely a financial matter but she used it to try out her theories and gain "maisterie". Having gained "maisterie" over her three older and weaker husbands who she married for wealth she then marries for love and attempts to gain "maisterie" over Jankin. .
She has a forth husband before Jankin who was a "revelour" and had a quieter mistress on the side this presented the Wife with a challenge. She destroyed her forth husband she made his life "purgatorie" a living hell, which she now hopes he has gone to heaven for. .
"By God! In erthe I was his purgatorie,.
For which I hope his soule be in glorie.
