11 - Cleopatra: legend of Cupid's saint

Summary

Because its heroine has as unsavoury a reputation as Medea, we might expect to be able to interpret the Legend of Cleopatra in a similar fashion, in essence, by a simple comparison of Chaucer's version with other accounts. But this is not the case — since we are not entirely sure what Chaucer's source was, and since we are much less certain what his audience would have known about the subject. It is important to look at this Legend, as it begins the series of ‘good’ women, and as in both Prologues the God of Love stipulates that Cleopatra is what he means by a good woman (F 560, 566/G 542), and what he means by a saint or martyr of love. In addition, in Cleopatra the poet appears to be following closely the God of Love's command to be brief, because there are many stories to be treated:

At Cleopatre I wol that thou begynne …

Suffiseth me thou make in this manere:

That thou reherce of al hir lyf the grete,

After thise olde auctours lysten for to trete.

For whoso shal so many a storye telle,

Sey shortly, or he shal to longe dwelle.

F 566–77

Here is another example of the familiar ambiguity of the Legend.