mixed uncomfortably with comedy, and the legends are all somewhat similar with little of the characterisation which is key to The Canterbury Tales. Some scholars have conjectured that the work is deliberately poorly written and the work is actually a satire against women although this is not widely agreed with. Another idea is that it is a satire on the idea of taking stories of classical origin and twisting them to give them contemporary moral meanings. This would suggest that the poem is not only an early use of heroic couplets but also one of the first mock-heroic works in English. The nature of the poem with its separate legends makes dating it difficult but it is clearly placed between Troilus and the Tales around 1386/1388. Chaucer seems to have returned to the work a decade later to rewrite the prologue, but the latter text, which survives in only one manuscript, is generally considered inferior to the original. Tennyson used the poem as theme for his own poem A Dream of Fair Women. Legends The poet recounts ten stories of virtuous women in nine sections: Cleopatra, Thisbe, Medea, Phyllis, Hypsipyle, Ariadne, Lucretia, Philomene, Hypermnestra, Dido. The work is similar in structure to the later Monk's Tale and like that tale, and many of his other works, seems to be unfinished. Chaucer's sources for the legends include: Virgil's Aeneid, Vincent of Beauvais, Guido delle Colonne's Historia destructionis Troiae, Gaius Julius Hyginus' Fabulae and Ovid's Metamorphoses and Heroides. The Legend of Cleopatra: Mark Anthony leaves his wife (the sister of Octavian) in search for another wife. He finds Cleopatra and falls in love with her. They get married and have a great feast but shortly after the feast Mark Anthony learns that Octavian is still angry and is sailing to meet him. Cleopatra and Mark Anthony sail out and meet Octavian. Mark Anthony is defeated in battle so to save his reputation he stabs himself. Cleopatra hears of the death of Mark Anthony and mourns his death extensively. She had sworn that whatever happened to him, would happen to her. So she filled a pit next to Mark Anthony’s shrine with poisonous snake and laid herself into a final rest next to him. The Legend of Thisbe: Thisbe and Pyramus love each other dearly. However, they are not able to be together. They talked through the crack in the wall that separated