The Legend of Good Women (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Type of Work: Poetry
- Principal Characters: Chaucer, Cupid, Alceste, Cleopatra, Thisbe, Dido, Hypsipyle, Medea, Lucretia, Ariadne, Philomela, Phyllis, Hypermnestra
- Genres: Poetry, Narrative poetry, Palinode
- Subjects: Love or romance, Dreams, Flowers, Women, Kings, queens, or royalty, Legends, Greek or Roman times
The Legend of Good Women, a poem recounting the stories of women from history and myth who were martyrs to love, is written in the tradition of medieval love poetry. Unlike Geoffrey Chaucer’s masterpieces, Troilus and Criseyde (1382) and The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400), this work only occasionally rises above the limitations imposed by the artificial conventions of the times and is, therefore, somewhat inferior to these other works. Chaucer’s greatness as a poet resulted not so much from his ability to perfect the current modes of writing as from his capacity...
[The entire page is 1772 words long]
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