Troilus and Criseyde is Geoffrey CHAUCER’s longest
complete poem, at 8,239 lines of RHYME ROYAL
stanzas, divided into five books. Written in the
mid- to late-1380s, soon after The KNIGHT’S TALE
and his translation of BOETHIUS’s CONSOLATION OF
PHILOSOPHY (the Boece) and immediately prior to
his LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN, Troilus is Chaucer’s
most polished composition, much more so than
the unfinished CANTERBURY TALES, and is the mature
and serious poetic work on which Chaucer
probably thought his reputation would ultimately
rest. The work tells the unhappy story of Troilus,
prince of Troy, and his failed love for the beautiful
young widow Criseyde, presented against the background
of the Trojan War.
The kernel of the story of Troilus and Criseyde
was included in BENOÎT DE SAINTE-MAURE’s 12thcentury
poem, the Roman de Troie. Benoît’s ROMANCE
was translated into a Latin prose version
called Historia destructionis Troiae by Guido della
Colonne (1287), a text that inspired BOCCACCIO to
turn the Troilus story into a complete tale of its
own. Chaucer’s immediate source for the tale was
Boccaccio’s youthful poem called Il FILOSTRATO
(The love-struck, ca. 1338). Boccaccio’s story is
shorter and less complex than Chaucer’s: In it
Troilo falls in love with Criseida, and the lady’s
cousin, Troilo’s friend Pandaro, easily convinces
Criseida to become the prince’s lover. Forced to
leave Troy in the end to join her father, who has defected
to the Greek camp, Criseida betrays Troilo,
falling in love with the Greek warrior Diomede.
Chaucer deepens and fleshes out the story,
partly by including serious philosophical reflections
drawn from Boethius, and partly by creating
much more complex characters for Criseyde and
for Pandarus in particular, but also for the Narrator
himself, who appears as a fourth major character
in the poem. Criseyde is an intelligent,
articulate, and independent woman, but one
whose fears for her own safety compel her to
choose the easiest path; she is one whose love is
real, but who chooses self-preservation over unflinching
fidelity. Pandarus, still Troilus’s friend but
made by Chaucer into the uncle and guardian of
Criseyde, has more complex responsibilities and
loyalties than Boccaccio’s Pandaro. Pandarus is a
master of persuasive sophistry, of self-deprecation
and good humor, who seems to want the best for
both lovers. His banter is the chief source of
humor in the poem, but his motives are complex
and ambiguous. The Narrator presents himself as
an unsuccessful lover who tells this story to help
other lovers. Constrained to follow the story as
told by his imaginary source called Lollius, the
Narrator is enamored of his own creation in
Criseyde, and labors to put everything she does in
the best light.As for Troilus himself, he is the character
that Chaucer changes the least: He is a noble
and scrupulously true lover, the servant of his lady
in the manner of a COURTLY LOVER, but he is indecisive,
fatalistic, passive, and self-pitying, and
hence easily manipulated by others. One of the
most admired aspects of Chaucer’s poem is what
critics have, somewhat anachronistically, considered
the psychological realism of its characters. For
many scholars, Chaucer’s poem is one of the important
forerunners of the modern novel.
Book I of the poem begins as the astrologer
Calchas, Criseyde’s father, foresees the doom of
Troy, and in fear leaves the city. Left alone and the
daughter of a traitor, Criseyde begs Prince Hector
for his protection, which he grants. Later, at a festival,
the younger prince Troilus scoffs at all lovers,
until, catching sight of Criseyde, he is instantly
overcome by love of her. Suffering from the pains
of love, he goes to bed, where he remains frozen
by lovesickness. Pandarus visits him and discovers
the truth, promising to visit Criseyde himself.
Book 2 is perhaps the most admired section of
the poem. It begins with Pandarus’s visit and conversation
with Criseyde, a brilliant dialogue in
which we see each trying to outwit and outguess
the other in a dazzling verbal sparring match. This
is followed by a remarkable interior monologue in
which Criseyde weighs her options, trying to decide
whether to accept Troilus’s attentions.When
she inclines toward acceptance, Pandarus creates
an elaborate ruse by which, playing on her fears, he
convinces Criseyde that she is in danger and needs
the protection of some powerful nobles of the
town, including Troilus. When she meets with
Troilus in Book 3, she agrees to accept his service.
After some time, through another of Pandarus’s
machinations, the lovers are finally brought to bed
together in Pandarus’s own house—Troilus,
swooning at the critical moment, must be picked
up and placed in Criseyde’s bed by Pandarus.
Book 3 ends with Troilus on top of Fortune’s
Wheel; in Book 4, the wheel begins its downward
turn. During a prisoner exchange, the Greeks, in
gratitude for Calchas’s encouraging support and
at his request, demand Criseyde in exchange for
the Trojan Antenor. Devastated, the lovers meet
one last time. Rejecting Pandarus’s ignoble plan
to run away with Criseyde, Troilus is hesitant to
accept Criseyde’s alternative—her promise that
she will find a way to escape her father and return
to Troy within 10 days. As Book 5 opens,
Troilus is present at the formal exchange of prisoners,
and the Greek Diomede acts as Criseyde’s
escort to the enemy camp. Diomede immediately
begins to woo Criseyde. While Troilus pathetically
awaits his beloved at the gates of the city
through the 10th day, Criseyde has essentially determined
not to try to escape: Her fears and her
instinct for self-preservation above all have overcome
her love and good intentions, and she eventually
accepts Diomede as her new lover—though
the Narrator will not go so far as to say she gave
him her heart. When Troilus sees a broach on
Diomede’s armor that had been his gift to
Criseyde, he realizes her betrayal. He enters battle
ferociously, hoping to either kill Diomede or
die himself to end his misery. But Achilles quickly
puts an end to his life.
The poem ends with a long passage called the
Palinode, in which Troilus ascends to the eighth
sphere, from which he looks back upon the earth
and laughs at his own attachment to the vain things
of the physical world. The Narrator advises his readers
to learn from Troilus’s lesson, and to place their
faith not in the fickle Fortune that governs this
world, but in the stability of God. Critical discussions
of Chaucer’s poem have often centered on the
appropriateness of this ending to the rest of the
poem, since it seems to contradict much of the
poem’s emphasis on the value of earthly love. Scholars
have also discussed the nature of love in the
story, and Chaucer’s apparent attitude toward the
medieval idea of courtly love:Most would hold that
Chaucer was more interested in the reality of the
psychological complexities of love than in the artificial
“codes” of conventional courtly love poetry. Of
course, the characters of Criseyde and Pandarus
have also excited a good deal of critical commentary.
Another important question raised by many
critics concerns the pervasiveness of Fortune, fate,
and predestination in the poem. This concern is
reinforced by many of the Boethian passages in
the text, most notably a long soliloquy by Troilus
in Book 4 in which he concludes that “all that
comes comes by necessity.” Even the Narrator feels
the pressure of this determinism, as he bemoans
the fact that he is forced to follow his source and
present Criseyde’s unfaithfulness. And all is set
against the backdrop of a Troy the reader knows to
be doomed to fall. The question of how much free
will was involved in Troilus and Criseyde’s love
may itself be answered in the controversial Palinode,
which does imply that human beings have the
freedom to turn from worldly vanity.
Troilus and Criseyde was popular in its own
time, surviving in 16 manuscripts and a number of
fragments, plus three early printed editions. One of
the manuscripts (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,
MS. 61) contains a remarkable miniature
frontispiece of Chaucer reading the poem to the
court of RICHARD II and ANNE OF BOHEMIA. The
poem remains the most widely read and admired
of Chaucer’s poems after The Canterbury Tales.
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