《贞女传奇》的得与失

The Legend of Good Women: Achievements and Defects

《贞女传奇》在乔叟的创作发展和英国文学史上都具有特殊意义。它是14世纪英国文学中为数不多的佳作之一,特别是其“引子”,既继承了宫廷爱情的诗歌传统,又进行了创新,使“爱情之园”成为喜剧性冲突的场所,实为当时英国文学所仅有。同时,诗人在“引子”里还表达了他注重现实的创作思想,这在英国文学史上也有一定意义。但《贞女传奇》是一部过渡性作品,表现出乔叟在转入新的创作方向时存在的一些问题。它的得与失在一定程度上为《坎特伯雷故事》的创作做了准备。另外,这是第一部用英雄对句写成的英语诗作,对这种诗歌体裁后来的发展产生了相当影响。

The Legend of Good Women has its special significance in Chaucer＇ s writing career and English literary history. It is one of the valuable English works in the 14th century and, especially, its “Prologue”both inherits the courtly love poetry tradition and transcends it, turning the “garden of love” into a place of comic conflicts, which is absent in contemporary English literature. Chaucer also expresses his realist views in it. But the poem is also a transitional work with some defects. However both its achievements and defects to some extent prepare for Canterbury Tales. Besides, it is the first English poem of the heroic couplets and has significantly influenced this poetic form in its later development.