In the last chapter we saw that Criseyde behaved for the most part with great propriety, her conduct remaining very close to that recommended by the advice literature. Nevertheless, she ultimately transgressed by betraying Troilus. In the Prologue to the Legend of Good Women, Chaucer's portrayal of Criseyde invokes the wrath of the God of Love, who demands of him:

For the God of Love, the episode of Criseyde's betrayal amounts to the entire subject matter of Chaucer's book. All that preceded it is dismissed without comment. And Chaucer's sympathetic, morally complex, five-book portrayal of how the betrayal came about is summarised as speaking ‘wikednesse’. What is more, in the God of Love's view, Chaucer has not spoken ill of Criseyde alone, but of ‘wemen’ in general. In order to correct Chaucer's transgression, Alceste commands him to write a poem in penance that will also, in a sense, reverse Criseyde's transgression:

Where Criseyde's forsaking of Troilus was earlier termed ‘wikednesse’, goodness is now similarly implicitly equated to being ‘trewe in lovynge’.