Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, Ladies at Court and the Female Reader

Abstract

The Legend of Good Women is undoubtedly Chaucer's most enigmatic poem. It is constructed on the model of saints' lives, but records the histories of markedly unholy pagan women. It promises to be a comprehensive legendary, but breaks off abruptly after only nine legends with the conclusive, yet incomplete, observation: "This tale is seyd for this conclusioun--" (2723). 2 It insists on the authority of written sources, yet diverges dramatically from the very authorities it cites. The narrator is vociferous in his expression of his complete and utter boredom, yet there is compelling evidence that the poet had a serious and ongoing interest in the project. 3 And, crucially, while recent scholarship sites Chaucer's audience in the male world of court bureaucracy and administrative officialdom, the narrative voice identifies its public as predominantly female. 4 The purpose of this article is to take up Chaucer's invocation to women, to place an eminently troublesome text in dialogue with its female audience. The analysis falls into two parts: a critical reading of the women in the Legend's implied audience followed by an examination of the fifteenth-century female readership to which the manuscripts attest.

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