Of all Chaucer's extended narratives, The Legend of Good Women has proved most resistant to modern appreciation. At best, it is considered problematic; at worst, it is dismissed as a complete failure. Often it is found lacking in comparison to Troilus and Criseyde and The Canterbury Tales, works that immediately preceded and followed it. Now, however, a daring and wholly original thesis allows for a new and fuller appreciation of this troublesome poem.

While previous scholarship has treatedThe Legend as a text to be read, here, for the first time, it is considered as a script to be performed and listened to. Examination of The Legend in terms of its performability reveals textures and tonalities and exposes problems and special delights that heretofore have not received much if any critical attention.

In a detailed comparison of the two extant versions of the Prologue, Quinn argues that the F- version was not the discarded first draft of a literary production but a script created for live presentation before a courtly audience. Each of the surviving legends is then approached as a performance in which Chaucer's voicing and gestures clarify his purpose and enhance the poem's comedic aspects.

Quinn's interpretation of The Legend provokes investigation of the use of ""oral"" and ""written"" styles of narration in Chaucer's other works. The author extends his arguments to three of the Canterbury tales to show how oral performance theory could affect their interpretation as well.

This engaging and groundbreaking study will be of immediate interest to Chaucerians, medievalists, and critical theorists, as well as to students of oral performance theory, genre theory, and medieval narrative verse.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

William A. Quinn is associate professor of English at the University of Arkansas. He first became interested in the critical implications of oral performance as an undergraduate at Xavier University and later received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Ohio State University. Quinn is co-author of Jongleur: A Modified Theory of Oral Improvisation and Its Effects on the Performance and Transmission of Middle English Romance and has published numerous articles in such journals as Chaucer Review, Review of English Studies, Medium Aevum, and Viator.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:

Quinns analyses . . . Offer intriguing possibilities for critical reevaluations of this frequently maligned work. Especially useful for graduate students and faculty.--Choice