The Problem with Two Prologues
The story itself has two alternate prologues Chaucer authored for the story. The prevailing theory is that the contemporary criticism of the story following its release motivated Chaucer to sanitize or edit his prologue to be more fitting for the audience at hand. With Queen Anne in power, the topic of feminism was very much a hot button issue. Chaucer’s motivation for authoring the work in the first place is understood as a penance of his previous and unflattering depictions of women in his society. This factor could have had a strong influence on Chaucer to edit his original take.[1]
There is a shorter and a longer of the two, and nobody can definitively assess which is the original and which is the edited. The context of the story, and the subject matters relations to the other works of Chaucer tells us that it was most likely penned sometime in the midpoint of his career.[2] The authorship of the story is not known to an exact date, but the existence of these two prologues has helped to determine the specific period in Chaucer’s career that the story was likely written, it has a practical significance in decoding Chaucer's career. The lack of information surrounding the stories publication and mysterious origins has influenced critics over the years to debate not only which of the two is the original version but also which is the superior one for the story.
Contemporary English criticism and analysis of these two prologues has traditionally focused on the opening paragraphs of both versions, since the first half of both poems are largely identical. Some critics point to the stories purpose in its shared details between both versions of the prologue as the indicator of the story as a sort of “Ladies Handbook” based on the stories and characters admirable femininity.[1] In the prologue itself, Chaucer states how its authorship was motivated by his previously ill portrayal of women in his other works.[3] Other critics take this sentiment of penance as the real indicator as to which of the two works is the original as well as the superiorly honest. If this were true, then the original version of the prologue would most likely be the more brutally honest of the two, perhaps the longer less edited version. It has been argued that his continued unfavorable portrayal of his stories purpose in this prologue caused him to edit it down.[4] So, it's largely subjective what the reader will take the story as with these two differing contexts. Was Chaucer simply trying to sanitize his public image or was he really admentally motivated in creating a companion text for women to utilize? And, if so, how did these sentiments motivate the editing process? These are the essential questions that drive the critical conversation.
The last essential detail of the debate between both prologues lies in the purpose of an analysis of the two, critically, or practically. Lowes argues that the only real purpose we can get out of both versions of the prologue is to help determine the specific details and supposed authorship of The Legend of Good Women or other Chaucerian tales, and that is rather useless to debate which version is superior since they are largely identical in the first place. Other critics like Goddard, are interested in the person of Chaucer or his individual character. Was he really as good willed as he comes off in his work or was he really just pandering to his critics? This rift in criticism and analysis has largely dominated the existing critical spheres and permeated nearly decades of debate surrounding the story. Alternatively, other scholars have attempted to scatologically categorize these arguments and debates into definitive references of the ongoing conversation itself.[2] The most recent additions to the conversation more or less look like this, compendiums of the past critical analysis and prevailing hypothesis with a new theory presented at the conclusion.
Importance of Women to the Poem
Women play an important role in Chaucer’s collection of legendary stories, The Legend of Good Women. Not only do women make up the majority of the characters in the poem, but it is also thought that women form a large part of the audience for this poem as well.
The most clear depiction of the importance of women to this piece would be the ten female characters: Cleopatra, Thisbe, Dido, Hypsipyle, Medea, Lucrece, Ariadne, Philomela, Phyllis and Hypermnestra. All of these female characters are taken from classical legends and mythology, which Chaucer decides to retell in his own poem. Nicola F. McDonald notes that throughout the narratives, Chaucer makes reference to his predominantly female audience and even questions them in the piece itself. These pagan mythological characters whose stories all include love and betrayal could serve as warnings and cautionary tales to the poem’s female readers.[5] McDonald also speculates that some of the text might serve as “motherly advice” to young women on how they should act and think properly during that time period which would also support the idea that this poem was meant for a female audience.[5]
Because it was controversial during that time period to show individualism, especially for women, Chaucer’s style of writing in The Legend of Good Women could be read as both conservative and radical depending on who was reading it. Although this series of poems seems to be about the legends of these women and their difficulties with love, it has a political undertone that points to the controversial topic of individualism. Helen Phillips writes that Chaucer uses a specifically “amorous” tone in these poems to veil this controversy, while adding in political jargon to these otherwise unpolitical stories to still suggest this underlying topic.[6] Most likely the female audience would have read this story as a satire rather than as an informational story on how they should act, which is how the male audience would have read the poem. So, the women played an important role in interpreting this piece in the way that Chaucer intended.
