A collection of tales of betrayal; The Legend of Good Women, Geoffrey Chaucer

Why you might read The Legend of Good Women?

 

One of Chaucer's anthologies rather than a single story. This makes them a bite-sized way to get into reading Chaucer. While they have common themes they do each stand alone. It is not one of his most well-known pieces but it does give a different perception of some more classical tales. 

Synopsis of The Legend of Good Women

Spanning Cleopatra, Thisbe, Dido, Hypsipyle and Medea, Lucretia, Ariadne, Philomela, Phyllis, and Hypermnestra.  These are very different stories they have one thing in common. This ish that they praise the women and portray the men in a bad light. In most cases, the man is untrue to his woman. He does this by either seeking and finding another or by leaving her alone somewhere. 

Lucretia stands out as she is raped by one of her husband's men. She tells her husband and family about it. While asking their forgiveness concedes that they shouldn't forgive her. Having laid it out in front of her family she commits suicide with a dagger to the heart.

Hypsipyle and Medea are grouped together in most editions. This is due to them both being about women betrayed by Jason. In both cases, he is married to them but skives off out of the country to find another woman. Medea helps him with his quest for the golden fleece and is promised marriage for her help. While he does marry her he also leaves without returning.

In Cleopatra, Mark Antony leaves his wife in search of another. He ends up in Egypt and falls in love with Cleopatra. He hears that the brother of his wife is angry with him and coming to kill him. They meet out at sea and Mark Antony is defeated. He then kills himself out of humiliation. When Cleopatra heard of this she has a hole dug beside his grave. she then have it filled with snakes and lays in it to die beside him.

Reflections on The Legend of Good Women

Suicide due to humiliation is foreign to me as a modern western reader. This is not the first time I have come across it, however. I still find it a little disturbing as I was always taught to cherish life. This requires a mindset of death over dishonour. This is something we see more of today outside the west. 

Chaucer's handling of rape was interesting as well. He was very matter of fact about it but did not see the need to go into the details. He also attributes the situation to the man's lust. This may be a frank portrayal of the situation or it may be a nod to morality. That it's a sin of the mind that precedes a sin of the body.

His handling of women and making him the good in his stories are interesting for his time. Or at least in the way that the modern world sees the past. We see Women lauded for being true and doing their duty and we see the men as rascals. While in modern times we are about to throw down men's place at the head. This is a warning tale of just how fickle those heads can be. Male headship has its place but it needs checks and balances.

What others have to say about The Legend of Good Women

"But, he wonders, what is the point of cataloguing old stories everyone already knows and forcing them to fit into a predesigned moral grid? Chaucer never seems to enjoy single-minded views but always prefers multiple perspectives. Here he is forced to question the purpose of old stories being repeated, from tellers/translators and for listeners. " From Dr. Michael Delahoyde

Like much of Chaucer's oeuvre, Chaucer's Legend of Good Women cannot be certainly dated and survives only in an incomplete form. Both factors bear on the larger issues of the poem's interpretation. From Cambridge University Press

Comparisons with other texts

The Legend of Good Women retells some stories from Greek mythology and plays. Medea by Euripides covers similar content. Chaucer has summarised it down to just the acts of Jason against Medea and not her revenge. This gives Chaucers telling a very different focus and takeaway. Here Chaucer focuses on her positive attributes and Jasons negatives. Instead of showing how low she would also stoop. It is interesting that Chaucer chooses to retell known tales. This means that although he can spin it his audience does tend to know the outcome.

Troilus and Chrisyde is a  story of a single couple. By contrast, the Legend of Good Women is more of an anthology. Here Chaucer links together shorter poems on a single theme instead. In doing so he at times seems to almost repeat stories with just a few details changed. His writing of course is rather different but the bones of the stories are very similar

Conclusion

The Legend of Good Women is less known than his big-name collection, The Canterbury Tales. These cover the wrongs done by men and the upstanding nature of the women involved. It covers what we now consider hard topics such as suicide and rape but it does so in a matter of fact way. The bite-sized nature of the individual stories makes it an easier work of Chaucers to pick up.

Have you read The Legend of Good Women? If so what did you think of it? 
 
Want to read The Legend of Good Women but haven't? Please leave me a comment and let me know why you want to read it.

Hopefully, this post inspires you to take the time to look into it on your own journey of Self Education.

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