The Legend of Good Women is a collection of stories written in the 1380s by Geoffrey Chaucer. It was composed between 1372 and 1386. It is the third-longest of Chaucer’s works, after The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde. It is difficult to date the poem. It is perhaps the earliest work of Chaucer in which he uses Iambic pentameter or decasyllabic couplet form, the staple of The Canterbury Tales. It is also a dream poem. The poet, in a dream, is tried in a pastoral court of love as one sinning against the God of Love. The interference of a good woman of legend named Alceste helps the poet, who promises to do penance for his literary misdeeds by writing a work composed of exemplary stories of good women who are true lovers. The poet intends to write a massive poem about the legendary good women, but unfortunately, only nine are extant. These are stories of Cleopatra, Thisbe, Dido, Hypsipyle, Medea, Lucrece, Ariadne, Philomela, Phyllis, and Hypermnestra.
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Cleopatra – Cleopatra, deeply devoted to Mark Antony, chooses to end her life nobly by the bite of an asp rather than face captivity after his death.
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Thisbe – Thisbe, in a tragic twist of fate, kills herself with Pyramus’ sword when she finds him dead, believing her to have been slain by a lion.
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Dido – Queen Dido, who lovingly shelters and supports Aeneas, is left abandoned and, stricken by despair, throws herself onto a funeral pyre.
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Hypsipyle – Hypsipyle, after helping Jason and bearing him sons, is cruelly forsaken when he sails away to seek another wife, betraying her trust and love.
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Medea – Medea, who used her magic to save Jason and secure the Golden Fleece, is later heartbroken when Jason repays her loyalty with betrayal and marriage to another woman.
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Lucrece – Lucrece, a paragon of Roman virtue, takes her own life after Sextus Tarquinius rapes her, choosing death to preserve her honor and spark political revolution.
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Ariadne – Ariadne, after helping Theseus escape the deadly labyrinth with her cleverness and love, is callously abandoned by him on the deserted island of Naxos.
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Philomela – Philomela, violated and silenced by her brother-in-law Tereus, bravely weaves her story into a tapestry to reveal his crime and seek justice.
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Phyllis – Phyllis, after faithfully awaiting the return of her lover Demophon, hangs herself in sorrow when he fails to keep his promise and never comes back.
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Hypermnestra – Hypermnestra, alone among her murderous sisters, spares her new husband Lynceus out of true love and loyalty, defying her father’s brutal command.
The Legend of Good Women seems a slight piece with his brief narratives of the unhappy fate of these women. This poem is influenced by the work of French love vision poets (especially Guillaume de Machaut), Vincent of Beauvais, Guido delle Colonne’s Historia destructionis Troiae, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Heroides. Thisbe’s story is perhaps the best. Maybe, Chaucer planned to make The Legend of Good Women his masterpiece, spending many valuable years of his life writing about the famous women who were true to love. But perhaps being sick of the theme of the stories or the plan of The Canterbury Tales growing in his mind he abruptly renounced it and started working on the prologue to The Canterbury Tales.