Geoffrey Chaucer, The Legend of Good Women

Carolyn Collette (Mount Holyoke College)

Ed. by David Fuller, University of Durham
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.02: English Writing and Culture: High and Late Medieval, 1066-1485.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Rory Critten (Université de Lausanne), David Fuller (University of Durham), Natalie Hanna (University of Liverpool), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast), Jamie McKinstry (University of Durham), Sarah Peverley (University of Liverpool), Sebastian Sobecki (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 1372 - c. 1386

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poem collection
Story Collection

Resources

Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women, widely regarded as the most problematic of his dream visions, exists in thirteen manuscript witnesses which contain nine surviving narratives and two versions of the prologue from what was once a larger work, according to Chaucer’s own words (see Cowen and Kane). He referred to the poem both as “the Seintes Legende of Cupide” (MLT, 61) and “the Book of the XXV. Ladies” (Ret, 1086), names superseded in modern editorial practice which has established the title by which we refer to the poem today.

A palinode written in response to the tragic story of the double sorrow of Troilus and Criseyde, the poem announces that its purpose is to tell tales of …

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2085 words

Citation: Collette, Carolyn. "The Legend of Good Women". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 May 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=375, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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