The Legend of Good Women: Context and Reception

Essays re-examining the Legend of Good Women, placing it in its cultural and historical context. The essays in this volume explore the context and reception of Chaucer's neglected The Legend of Good Women from a variety of late medieval cultural perspectives, verbal, political, and social, expanding our understanding of the web of poetic and cultural conventions in which the Legend was created and received. Topics addressed include the manuscript and print history of the poem (explored through performance theory, and in the context of erotic courtly games played by the aristocracy); the politics of Philippa of Lancaster's role in transmitting the flower and leaf topos from French literature into English; the connections between love and polity in the Prologue; the influence of stories of Amazons, Thebes, and Troy; and the ludic dimensions of the Legend. CAROLYN P. COLLETTE is Professor of English Language and Literature at Mount Holyoke College. Contributors: WILLIAM A. QUINN, JOYCE COLEMAN, ROBERT R. EDWARDS, NANCY BRADLEY WARREN, BETSY MCCORMICK, SIMON MEECHAM-JONES, JAMIE C. FUMO, NICOLA F. MCDONALD