William Dunbar, The Tretis of the Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo [The Treatise of the Two Married Women and the Widow]

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Overview:

The Tretis of the Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo is the Scottish poet William Dunbar’s longest and, in some ways, most provocative poem. The artful and lewd Tretis explores the relationships between men and women, voyeurism and eavesdropping, appearance and conduct, romance and fabliau, gossip and confession, and orality and literacy. It both satirizes women’s duplicity and subverts male authority, and also evokes conflicting responses about which one of these is more central to the poem’s substance. The poem is written in alliterative long lines and combines elements of the medieval debate poem, the flyting, the chanson de mal mariée, and the mock confession (like Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Prologue). The straightforward plot recounts how a narrator seeking revelry on

2359 words

Citation: Matlock, Wendy A.. "The Tretis of the Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 November 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7976, accessed 28 March 2024.]

7976 The Tretis of the Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.