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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] * >* > * >**********************************************