Knowra Troilus and Criseyde Troilus and Criseyde Geoffrey Chaucer’s Middle English narrative poem tells of Troilus and Criseyde’s love during the Trojan War, its collapse after Criseyde is exchanged to the Greeks, and Troilus’s death.
Courtly love : A literary ideal of passionate, often secret love shaped by service, restraint, and social hierarchy. Troilus’s devotion follows conventions of courtly service and idealized passion.
Pandarus : A character in Chaucer’s poem who arranges the love affair between Troilus and Criseyde. His persuasion and planning make the lovers’ relationship possible.
Geoffrey Chaucer : An English poet of the fourteenth century whose works include The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde. He transformed earlier materials through a distinctive narrative voice and English verse.
The Canterbury Tales : Geoffrey Chaucer’s collection of stories told by pilgrims traveling to Canterbury. Its varied speakers contrast with the sustained, self-conscious narrator of this poem.
Tragedy : A dramatic or narrative form in which serious conflict leads to suffering, loss, or downfall. Troilus’s story moves from fulfilled desire toward death and a changed understanding of earthly love.
Trojan War : The legendary Greek siege of Troy, recounted in ancient epic and later medieval literature. The war supplies the political crisis that separates the lovers.
Criseyde : A Trojan woman in Chaucer’s poem who becomes Troilus’s beloved and is later exchanged to the Greeks. Her decisions under pressure drive the poem’s central change in fortune.
Il Filostrato : A narrative poem by Giovanni Boccaccio about Troilo, Criseida, and their love during the Trojan War. It is Chaucer’s principal source for the lovers’ plot.
The Testament of Cresseid : A sixteenth-century Scottish poem by Robert Henryson imagining Criseyde’s later life and death. Henryson extends Criseyde’s fate beyond the ending Chaucer gives her.
Boethian philosophy : A tradition of thought on fortune, providence, and free will inspired by Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy. The closing movement reinterprets earthly loss from a perspective beyond worldly desire.
Show all 28