Product Type
Condition
Binding
Collectible Attributes
Seller Location
Seller Rating
Published by The Macmillan Company, 1923
Seller: GloryBe Books & Ephemera, LLC, Deforest, WI, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Good. Pages tanned otherwise Good. NOT A FORMER LIBRARY BOOK.
Published by Frederick Leypoldt, Philadelphia, 1864
Seller: Yesterday's Gallery, ABAA, East Woodstock, CT, U.S.A.
First Edition
1st Edition. First American Edition. 12mo. Tan fabric with faded title plaque tipped to spine. Gift inscription to front endpage. The Legend of Good Womenis apoemin the form of adream visionbyGeoffrey Chaucer. The poem is the third longest of Chaucer's works, afterThe Canterbury TalesandTroilus and Criseydeand is possibly the first significant work inEnglishto use theiambic pentameterordecasyllabiccoupletswhich he later used throughout theCanterbury Tales. This form of theheroic couplet would become a significant part ofEnglish literatureno doubt inspired by Chaucer. The prologue describes how Chaucer is reprimanded by the god of love and his queen, Alceste, for his works?such asTroilus and Criseyde?depicting women in a poor light. Criseyde is made to seem inconstant in love in that earlier work, and Alceste demands a poem of Chaucer extolling the virtues of women and their good deeds. The poet recounts ten stories of virtuous women in nine sections. The legends are:Cleopatra,Thisbe,Dido,Hypsipyle,Medea,Lucrece,Ariadne,Philomela,PhyllisandHypermnestra. The work is a similar structure to the laterMonk's Taleand like that tale, and many of his other works, seems to be unfinished. Chaucer's sources for the legends include:Virgil'sAeneid,Vincent of Beauvais,Guido delle Colonne'sHistoria destructionis Troiae,Gaius Julius Hyginus'FabulaandOvid'sMetamorphosesandHeroides. Good. Sunning to covers and spine. Overall warping to book shape. Stain to spine. Sunning to page edges. Discoloration to endpapers.