Bennett, J. A. W.
Piero Boitani, ed. Chaucer and the Italian Trecento (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 89-113.
Chaucer rarely adopted inappropriate Danteisms from Boccaccio. Some of the differences between Chaucer's TC and KnT and Boccaccio's "Filostrato" and "Teseida" may be attributed to Chaucer's understanding and appreciation of Dante.
Boitani, Piero.
Piero Boitani, ed. The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 1-19.
In the earliest Troilus myths, Troilus is "not primarily a character but a 'function'": his murder early in the Trojan War is an "omen" of Troy's impending fall. In later works, Troilus's character is more fully developed, and his death--late in…
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…
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…
Benson, C. David.
Piero Boitani, ed. The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 153-70.
After Chaucer's TC, minor writers of the fifteenth, sixteenth,and early seventeenth centuries generally ignore "both the high passion and the tragedy of the lovers." The two type characters appear chiefly in brief allusions, "with none of Chaucer's…
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…
Antonelli, Roberto.
Piero Boitani, ed. The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 21-48.
Compares the treatment of love in the "Roman de Thebes," "Brut," and "Eneas" to that in Benoit's "Roman de Troie," a twelfth-century romance and apparently the first work to introduce Briseis-Cressida. A product of Anglo-Norman love debate, Benoit's…
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…
Boitani, Piero.
Piero Boitani, ed. The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 281-305.
Summarizes the treatment and evolution of the Troilus myth from antiquity to the modern age, focusing on plot, the ending, and themes of love and death.
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…
Andrew, Malcolm.
Piero Boitani, ed. The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 75-93.
Although critics have generally dismissed "Sir Gawain's" Troy frame as insignificant, it may offer a retrospective, ironic context for predicting the fall of Arthurian civilization. Chaucer's TC also uses "retrospective irony" to create "a rich and…
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.
Wallace, David.
Piero Boitani, ed. Chaucer and the Italian Trecento (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 141-62.
Boccaccio's "Amorosa Visione" and the Chaucer's BD and HF were deeply indebted to de Lorris, Machaut, and Dante, but Boccaccio was never comfortable with "court poems," while Chaucer used "cortesia" with subtlety and ease.
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…
Boitani, Piero.
Piero Boitani. The Tragic and the Sublime in Medieval Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1989), pp. 1-19.
Comparing the old man in Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" and the old man in PardT, Boitani explores the medieval "other" or "discarded image of the universe," which depends on a "hermeneutic openness" that makes the modern reader perceive the…
Boitani, Piero.
Piero Boitani. The Tragic and the Sublime in Medieval Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1989), pp. 20-55.
The Monk's "de casibus" tragedy poses a problem for the modern reader with an idea of tragedy that involves fallibility, sin, and error. Chaucer himself holds a more complex idea of tragedy than does the Monk. Chaucer's version differs from Dante's…
Dor, Juliette.
Pieter De Leemans and Clément Goyens, eds. Translation and Authority--Authorities in Translation (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016), pp. 143-53.
The Medieval Traslator/ Traduire au Moyen Age 16 (2017): 143-54.
Describes John of Trevisa's ideas about translating scientific and religious texts from Latin into English, commenting on similarities among these ideas, Wycliffite theory of translation, and Chaucer's approach in Astr.
Robinson, Peter
Pieter van Reenan and Margot van Mulken, eds., with the assistance of Janet Dyk. Studies in Stemmatology (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins, 1996), pp. 71-103.
Describes the value of cladistic analysis in generating multiple, flexible stemmata for texts, arguing that stemmata are useful for indicating what can be used as a best text for editing, not for establishing the text itself. Analyzes variants in…
