The strong feeling on the Chaucer list is that this is urban legend.
There's nothing I've ever seen to support it. I think "rule of thumb" has
more to do either with makeshift measurement by carpenters without a ruler
or with weavers measuring a skein from shoulder to thumb.
-----Original Message-----
From: W.L. Godshalk <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 4:59 PM
Subject: Re: Wife-beating in the Wakefield Noah
>You've all heard of the rule of thumb, i.e., mustn't beat your wife with a
>stick larger in circumference than your thumb. Was this a legal rule or an
>urban myth? Some years ago this question was debated at some length (I
>believe on a history discussion list), and, as far as I could tell, no
>consensus was reached by the debaters. I was and am skeptical, but others
>seem sure that such a rule was operative in early modern England.
>
>Yours, Bill Godshalk
>
>
>**********************************************
>* W. L. Godshalk
*
>* Professor, Department of English *
>* University of Cincinnati *
>* Cincinnati OH 45221-0069 * Stellar Disorder
>* [log in to unmask] *
>*
> *
>**********************************************
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