Thirteen essays on the development of the Troilus story from antiquity to the modern age, with emphasis on Chaucer and Shakespeare. For eleven essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for The European Tragedy of Troilus under Alternative Title.
Boitani, Piero.
Piero Boitani. The Tragic and the Sublime in Medieval Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 56-74.
Discusses links among eros, melancholia, and acedia as well as the tragic psychological dilemma of love in Petrarchan sonnets, Dante, and TC, especially in Chaucer's use of the Petrarchan sonnet "S'amor non e." The "oxymoronic essence" of TC allows…
Brewer, Derek.
Piero Boitani, ed. The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 95-109.
Encased in a larger, comic vision of "potential human freedom and happiness," Troilus's tragic misfortunes acquire new meaning in Chaucer's TC, which is neither comedy nor tragedy but a "curious mixture" of the two.
TC reflects heterodox or heretical outlooks and religious division in its depiction of love as religion, its prescribing a morality based on love, its metaphors of preaching, its celebration of love's power, and its notion of false felicity.
Cureton, Kevin K.
Studies in Bibliography 42 (1989): 153-84.
R. K. Root's theory of how the text of TC underwent authorial revision, thus resulting in a number of significant variants between the manuscript groups, has been challenged by Barry A. Windeatt (1984) and Ralph Hanna (1986).
Hanly, Michael Gerard.
Dissertation Abstracts International 49 (1989): 2213A.
Supporting Robert A. Pratt's theory in SP 53 (1956) that Chaucer drew on a French translation of Boccaccio, Hanly explores parallels, both verbal and thematic; the likelihood of Beauvau as translator; and the possibility of Chaucer's familiarity with…
Heinrichs, Katherine.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 11 (1989): 93-115.
Boccaccio's "Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta" and Machaut's "Jugement dou Roy de Behaingne" parody Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" as "a source of humor and as a means of characterization." Troilus's Boethian soliloquy (TC 4.960-1082) exploits…
Machan, Tim William.
English Language Notes 27.2 (1989): 10-12.
A comparison of TC 4.897-98 with Boccaccio's Italian suggests that more of the clause is Criseyde's quotation than is usually punctuated as such. Also, "sighte" may be a copying error for "right." The resulting text, corrected and repunctuated,…
Mann, Jill.
Piero Boitani, ed. The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 219-42. First published in Cambridge Quarterly 18 (1989): 109-28.
Chaucer's dialogue, poetic "stage directions," and expansion of the wooing scene make his TC more "Shakespearean," or dramatic, than Shakespeare's treatment of the story. Chaucer's heroine is brilliantly drawn to show her inner movement from true…
Natali, Giulia.
Piero Boitani, ed. The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 49-73.
Unlike earlier versions of the Troilus story, Boccaccio's "Filostrato" minimizes war and focuses on love. Yet, if Troilus is less epic and more verbally effusive than his predecessors, he still is not tragic. Boccaccio identifies with Troiolo early…
Near, Michael Raymond.
Dissertation Abstracts International 49 (1989): 3359A.
Characters' sense of identity emerges variously from the varying contexts in which the selves operate. In medieval literature, this sense of identity, allied to function rather than "object-self," is drawn through purpose; "his own romantic vision"…
Pulsiano, Phillip.
Julian N. Wasserman and Lois Roney, eds. Sign, Sentence, Discourse: Language in Medieval Thought and Literature (Syracuse, N. Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1989), pp. 153-74.
TC explores the "breakdown of language as a vehicle for truth and...knowledge." According to Augustine, language can be redeemed in the Incarnation. Chaucer conveys the "idea of language as a mirror of the divine, and through language we…
Reichl, Karl.
Piero Boitani, ed. The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 133-52.
In TC, philosophical terminology "provides a continual gloss on the text." A philosophical reading of the poem--free will versus determinism, fantasy versus reason--does not, however, detract from the poem's narrative, "an intensely moving story of…
Discusses Chaucer's narrative techniques in TC, focusing on two points of view: one intrinsic, in the relationship between the narrator and the story; the other extrinsic, between the narrator and the audience.
Shafik-Ghaly, Salwa William.
Dissertation Abstracts International 49 (1989): 3716A-3717A.
Shakif-Ghaly scrutinizes "Yvain" and TC for medieval "dispositio" through Genettian narratology and for "manifestatio" through Anglo-American theory. Despite differences between the texts, such an analysis brings out tensions of medieval authors and…
Torti, Anna.
Piero Boitani, ed. The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 171-97.
Lydgate, true to his sources--Guido and Chaucer--sets Criseyde's infidelity and Troilus's death in the framework of the Trojan War. Henryson, however, focuses on the "fatal destiny," guilt, and ultimate self-awareness of Cresseid, going beyond…
Windeatt, Barry.
Piero Boitani, ed. The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 111-31.
Drawing on classical and medieval sources, Chaucer's TC incorporates multiple genres, each representing its own view of experience. The resulting masterpiece is neither an epic, a tragedy, a romance, a chronicle, a lyric, nor an allegory but a rich…
Yoshimura, Koji.
Kansai University of Foreign Studies Journal 49 (1989): 19-42.
Shows that color expressions in TC are elaborately calculated to represent the characteristics of Troilus and Criseyde and that the color terms vary in almost every book.
Dean, James M.
Comparative Literature 41 (1989): 128-40.
Compares Chaucer's treatment of the Mars and Venus fables with Ovid's and with other medieval versions to demonstrate that Chaucer created Mars as a misguided commentator on his own story. Chaucer's audience, familiar with Jean de Meun's "Roman de…
Purdon, L. O.
Papers on Language and Literature 25 (1989): 216-19.
Chaucer's reference to "wod" in "Form Age" 17 not only suggests England's flourishing dyeing industry (lacking in the former age) but also alludes to abuses of that trade.
Allen, Valerie.
Review of English Studies, n.s., 40 (1989): 531-37.
The "first stok" of Gent 1 refers to God as the father of "gentilesse" of Gent 8, to Christ as its exemplar and model. The genealogical image operates as metaphor, pun, and paradox in the poem.
Purdon, Liam O.
Julian N. Wasserman and Lois Roney, eds. Sign, Sentence, Discourse: Language in Medieval Thought and Literature (Syracuse, N. Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1989), pp. 144-52.
Sted, which begins as a complaint, reveal the poet's "anxiety over the mutable condition of language."
Fisher, John H.
Chaucer Newsletter 11:1 (1989): 1, 4.
Presenting evidence set forth by Pamela Robinson, J. D. North, and D. J. Price, Fisher argues that Peterhouse MS 75.1 of "Equat" is a Chaucer holograph and suggests tantalizing biographical implications.
The "first survey of medieval English plant names to appear in print," Hunt's work covers 1,800 names, 500 not found in the OED, of interest to botanists and lexicologists as well as nonspecialists.
Baird-Lange, Lorrayne Y.,and Thomas A. Copeland, eds.
Youngstown, Ohio: Youngstown State University, 1989 (for 1988)
Twenty-one articles by various hands, including four articles on medieval women. The article by Baird-Lange, "Rutebeuf's 'Li Diz de l'Erberie': A Satire on Dame Trote and Her Tradition" (pp. 356-90), contains information on Trotula, a figure in…
