The Legend of Good Women

“The Legend of Good Women” is a poem that takes the form of a dream vision by Geoffrey Chaucer. The poem is possibly the first significant work in the English language to make use of iambic pentameter. The poem recounts the stories of ten virtuous women of history and myth who were martyrs for love throughout nine sections. The ten women are Cleopatra, Thisbe, Dido, Hypsipyle, Medea, Lucrece, Ariadne, Philomela, Phyllis, and Hypermnestra. The poem is written in the tradition of medieval love poetry.

In the prologue, Chaucer expresses his delight at the arrival of spring, describing his roaming through the meadows. As he gallivants through the meadow, he hears songbirds overhead and spies flowers in full bloom. He is especially drawn to the daisy, which he says he can observe for hours without getting bored. One spring day, after his walk in the fields, he falls asleep and has a vision in which the god of love and the beautiful Alceste, dressed in the colors of a daisy, appear before him.

Cupid denounces the dreamer for having trespassed against the laws of love, in writing of Criseyde’s infidelity and translating the Romaunt of the Rose (c. 1370), which is filled with disparaging remarks about women. Cupid’s companion, Alceste, is the same one whom Hercules rescued from Hades after she gave her life to save that of her husband. Alceste rises to the dreamer’s defense, suggesting that he drew inspiration from the works of the writers before him and therefore has erred in ignorance and not malice. She suggests that the poet create a list of wives and maidens who have been faithful all of their lives, in order for him to regain Cupid’s favor.



According to the prologue, it was Chaucer’s intention to write twenty tales about good women. However, he ended up writing only eight, leaving the ninth unfinished. The theme of each tale is the fidelity of women in love. All of the women suffer, if not give their lives, for love. Within the text, they are all treated as admirable, even saintly, regardless of the potentially illicit nature of their romantic relationships. The women are often shown to suffer at the hands of men, who are portrayed as villainous.

The longest and perhaps the most compelling tale is that of Dido’s love for Aeneas. After Aeneas lands on the Libyan coast, his mother, Venus, instructs him to go to the court of Dido, the queen of Carthage. Dido offers him a warm welcome, feeling sorry for the disinherited hero who has taken such a long journey from Troy to be there. Her pity soon transforms into love, and she does everything within her power to comfort and entertain Aeneas.

One day, Aeneas, Dido, and her retinue are hunting when they are caught in a thunderstorm. Everyone rushes to take shelter, and Dido and Aeneas find themselves huddled in a cave. Aeneas seizes the occasion to profess his love for Dido, and although she protests at first, Dido eventually concedes and admits her own love for him. Aeneas proceeds to do everything he can to court Dido and win her affections, but after a while, he grows weary and makes plans to leave. When Dido notices his waning affections, she asks him what is wrong. He fabricates a story in which he has had a vision of his father, reminding him of his destiny to conquer Italy. Dido pleads with Aeneas to stay, but he ignores her, returning to his ships without her. As soon as she discovers his absence, she has her sister build a funeral pyre upon which she stabs herself, using Aeneas’s sword.



In constructing this tale, Chaucer draws directly from Vergil’s Aeneid, making only minor adjustments to the plot. Another tale in the poem draws from Ovid’s Fasti. In order to prove his wife’s loyalty, Collatinus offers to accompany Tarquin, the king’s son, to Rome to see her. They listen in without her knowledge, as she is in her chamber, fretting over her husband’s safety. Tarquin notices that Lucretia is very beautiful, and develops affection for her. His feelings increase until he is consumed with lust for her and makes a plan to return to seduce her.

Tarquin sneaks into Lucretia’s room at night, he threatens her with a sword and rapes her. Lucretia, determined that this travesty not negatively affect her husband, stabs herself to protect his honor.

Toward the end of the poem, it appears that the poet has grown weary of the subject. As he set out to relay tales of perfect women, he created for himself a very narrow model with which to create these characters. Having to summarize them, he found that the women lacked characterization. In his effort to keep the tales brief, they often read like little more than summaries.