Proverbs and the Authentication of Convention in 'Troilus and Criseyde'

Author / Editor
Taylor, Karla.

Title
Proverbs and the Authentication of Convention in 'Troilus and Criseyde'

Published
Stephen A. Barney, ed. Chaucer's Troilus: Essays in Criticism (Hamden, Conn.: Shoestring Press, 1980), pp. 277-96.

Description
In conflating love and poetics in TC, Chaucer uses proverbs both to validate truth and to express the limitations of traditional language. The attempt to secure stability through this language and the failure of the attempt are part of Chaucer's deliberate strategy.
The conventional language, depicting love as a religious experience and a hunt, is to be seen as different from love itself; and Chaucer finally dissociates himself from the equivocal language of this world which confuses words with reality.

Alternative Title
Chaucer's Troilus: Essays in Criticism.

Chaucer Subjects
Troilus and Criseyde.