Nat Every Vessel al of Gold: Studies in Chaucer's 'Legend of Good Women'

Description: Reads LGW as a "double palinode" in which Chaucer explores the "variety and complexity of the feminine psyche" as expressed in his sources, Ovid and Boccaccio, and his own TC. Compares LGWP-F and LGWP-G to show that Chaucer increases the comedy and irony of the Prologue, and observes that in each of the legends he resists Cupid's "penance" by violating the rules imposed by the god and thereby subtly including Criseyde among his good women.

Chaucer Subjects: Legend of Good Women; Troilus and Criseyde; Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations