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Chaucer's Legend of Good Women is a testament to the disparate views of women prevalent in the Middle Ages. Dr Percival contends that the complex medieval notion of Woman informs the structure of the poem: in the Prologue Chaucer praises conventional ideas of female virtue, while in the Legends he demonstrates a humorous scepticism, apparently influenced by a contemporary antifeminist tradition. The debate Chaucer thus promotes could be relied on to entertain many medieval readers, at the same time that it demonstrates the power of the vernacular translator/poet to handle language wittily and to do just as he pleases with the august texts of the past. This is a comprehensive account of the Legend's interpretative puzzles, which does not ignore the element of political writing, and adds to a close and nuanced reading of the text an examination of literary, historical, and social contexts.

Civilization, Medieval --- Mythology, Classical, in literature. --- Social history --- Women and literature --- Women in literature. --- Women --- Classical influences. --- History --- Mythology. --- Arts and Humanities --- Literature --- Chaucer, Geoffrey, --- Political and social views. --- Women (in religion, folklore, etc.) --- Woman (Christian theology) in literature --- Women in drama --- Women in poetry --- Civilization, Classical --- Chaucer, Jeffrey, --- Chʻiao-sou, Chieh-fu-lei, --- Chieh-fu-lei Chʻiao-sou, --- Choser, Dzheffri, --- Choser, Zheoffreĭ, --- Cosvr, Jvoffrvi, --- Tishūsar, Zhiyūfrī, --- CHAUCER (GEOFFREY), d. 1400 --- LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN, THE