Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer: TROILUS AND CRISEYDE (1382-86/7)
Chaucer's main finished work, nicely chiselled, in rhyme royal with five-foot lines in seven line stanzas with
an ababbcc rhyme scheme. Divided into 5 books.
1. Sources:
 Earlier medieval Troy books:
 Benoit de St Maure: Roman de Troie (c. 1165) focuses more on war, love story is only a couple of
pages long. Mainly interested in unfaithful Briseida.
 13th c. Guido delle Colonne: Historia destructionis Troiae, translation of Benoit's work.
 Boccaccio: Il Filostrato (1338) On the basis of Guido, emphasis to sensual love.
 Influenced Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida (1602).

 The Combination of the two perspectives: an antique story narrated by and for a Christian audience.
Pagan and Christian details live parallel, the unfamiliar pagan world is made to look like 14th c. England.
 Boethian philosophy: Boethius (470-525): The Consolation of Philosophy. Fortuna takes the place of the
antique gods (although the god of Love still is active). The questions of fate and necessity, of free-will
and divine Providence in Troilus' famous speech, the transience of human, earthly happiness told by
Criseyde, etc.
2. Genre: Courtly romance (matter of Rome) and medieval tragedy

 "Tragedye is to seyn a dite of prosperite for a tyme, that endeth in wrecchidnesse." (Boece II.pr.2)
 Tragedie is to seyn a certeyn storie
Of hym that stood in greet prosperitee,
And is yfallen out of heigh degree
Into myserie, and endeth wrecchedly.
(The Monk's Tale, VII. 1973-7)
 The plot follows the classical scheme: first up then down, when Fortuna turns the wheel. However, the
ending dissolves the classical type of tragedy: no real tragedy in medieval frame of thought.
3. Love. Both sides of love emphasised: heavenly-ideal and earthly- sensual, courtly and tragic. Love as
folly and folly as wisdom, finally love as vanity.
4. Dreams: important, Criseyde's dream, Troilus' dream, how to interpret them.
5. The narrator (Dieter Mehl): "the unreliable narrator", is not the poet himself. The narrator is one of
Chaucer's most original poetic inventions: almost as lively a character as the other ones.
 auctorial strategies: the way he direct our responses and controls the narrative situation.
 He creates the illusion of a personal relationship between the author and the reader
 unique: shares his literary concerns with his audience.
 Troilus becomes a book about writing books.

 Re-creates the sources: Invents fictitious books: he pretends to possess a copy of Lollius's book on the
war of Troy, although there is no such book, but keeps silent about Boccaccio, whose Il Filostrato was
his original source.
 Tradition keeps a central part in the book: the 'auctorité' or the 'olde bookes' are referred to again and
again, abruptly breaking the flow of narration.
1
 A complexity of genres: romance and tragedy, but we also have a wide variety of other genres included
into the texture of the poem:
 poems inserted: Antigone's song, the Alba of Criseyde, (The Alba = Dawn song, popular lyric form
of the period: Secret lovers must part at the arrival of dawn.) Troilus' songs,
 prayers that mainly Troilus addresses to different gods or to God Almighty,
 the letters they write to each other.
6. Characterization:
 Chaucer creates complex characters, the first "psychological novel".
 Troilus is the ideal knight, noble and carries almost all the prerequisites of the 'Fin amor'. Troilus'
behaviour on the basis of Andreas Capellanus: De Amore (c. 1185) or The Art of Courtly Love:
love is suffering, how to acquire love: nice figure, great character, extreme readiness to talk, how
to keep love: secrecy, how to increase love: meet rarely and with difficulties, pretend jealousy,
dream about him/her, effects of love: ennobles, even if it is unattainable; cleanses, what ends
love: unfaithfulness. Highest register of speech.
 Chaucer's refined parody: his exaggerations in both directions, in both woe and happiness: the
stereotyped behaviour of courtly love can be, after all, somewhat ridiculous.
 Pandarus is the friend and uncle, the go-between or matchmaker, the great manipulator and the great
orator. He creates and determines the plot, creates motivation for characters, and is a great knower of
human behaviour, of human psyche.
 Criseyde: the most developed character, with antagonistic and complementary traits, leaving the
interpretation of her figure open, to the reader: should we blame her or is she just a victim of
circumstances?

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Geoffrey Chaucer: TROILUS AND CRISEYDE (1382-86/7)

 Influenced Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida (1602).

2. Genre: Courtly romance (matter of Rome) and medieval tragedy

4. Dreams: important, Criseyde's dream, Troilus' dream, how to interpret them.

 Troilus becomes a book about writing books.

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