Chaucer's 'Legend of Lucrece' and the Critique of Ideology in Fourteenth-Century England
- Author / Editor
- Galloway, Andrew.
Chaucer's 'Legend of Lucrece' and the Critique of Ideology in Fourteenth-Century England
- Published
- ELH 60 (1993): 813-32.
- Description
- Although earlier Christian comment (especially Augustine's) blames Lucrece for being motivated by love of reputation, English chroniclers and the "classicizing" friars variously reworked her story. The views of Ridevall and Higden, reasserting Lucrece's virtue as culturally correct, underlie Chaucer's historicity and "proto-humanist" treatment.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Legend of Good Women.
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.