Browse Items (15544 total)

Argues that changes Chaucer made to his source, Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy," in TC 4.957-1078 "emphasize Troilus' eagerness to shun responsibility by denying the very possibility of human freedom," saving "him from the need to act."…

Identifies antecedents to Troilus's address to Criseyde's empty palace and his reference to its doors (the rhetorical topos "paraclausithyron"), comparing Chaucer's and Boccaccio's versions of the scene, discarding suggestions of astrological…

Troilus's final speech in Book IV includes three of the only four proverbs he uses, suggesting a new-found "auctoritee." Troilus casts off idealism, speaking for the first time as a cynic and unhappy prophet. The Troilus who allows Criseyde to…

Allusions to Christian heaven and hell suggest the inadequacy of the love of Troilus and Criseyde. Troilus's end, contrary to his Boethian source, indicates that he has no free will. It is unlikely that he achieves either Christian or pagan…

Examines Troilus's love malady in TC in terms of medieval psychology, arguing that his fixation with Criseyde produces melancholy, a "lack of contact between mind and reality," and a loss of the desire to live. Focuses on Troilus's dream of Criseyde…

Allegorical traditions of the Mars and Venus myth were adopted and elaborated upon in the Middle Ages to demonstrate that "passion for woman encroaches upon the masculine cares of war," as in Troilus's shifts from warrior to lover. In the Epilogue…

Translation of TC in Romanian rhyme royal stanzas, based on the text of Albert C. Baugh (1963), with preface and end-of-text notes and commentary by Duțescu. Includes b&w illustrations from ancient Mediterranean art, medieval manuscripts, and…

Medieval medical writers regarded love-sickness quite seriously as a disease, a form of madness. Chaucer's extensive use of medical terminology in TC renders his treatment of the lover's affliction more clinical, analytical, and critical than is…

Reads "goter, by a pryve wente" (TC 3.787) literally--a passageway that passes a latrine--and comments on the poetic functions of Troilus's approaching Criseyde's bedroom by this means. The passage characterizes Pandarus's house as up-to-date and…

The verb "troiledest" ("deceived"; "Piers Plowman," C, xxi, 321), a "hapax legomenon" introduced in 1393 when TC was at its most popular, may be a reference to the treachery recorded in Chaucer's poem. Langland uses it to refer to Satan's temptation…

Translation of TC into Polish. Item not seen; description from WorldCat.

Translation of TC into Hungarian. Item not seen; description from WorldCat.

Argues that Troilus "establishes the meaning of the events" in TC by "contemplating and exposing" their inner significance. His thoughts convey the "theme of bondage" through the imagery and language of constraint (prison and confinement, snares and…

Examines TC 4.958-1078, comparing the context of these lines with that of their source in Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy. The Christian import of the poem's closing lines is implicit in TC 4.

Throughout TC Chaucer uses the social play of "luf-talkying" as a vehicle for irony and as a means of establishing man's inability to attain an ideal. Troilus plays the love game too earnestly and so is both truly comic and, in terms of final…

Questions whether Troilus has gained wisdom by the end of TC and explores what is evident as true wisdom in PF. Although Troilus's laughter indicates his contempt for the world, the hero does not realize fully the hierarchical nature of love that is…

Attributes the metaphors of blindness and light in TC to the direct influence of Statius's "Thebaid" (unmediated by the "Roman de Thébes"), suggesting that the pattern of imagery culminates in Troilus's comparison of himself to Oedipus (TC 4.300).

In TC 3, Chaucer evokes the geography and atmosphere of Dante's "Inferno," while in Pandarus's actions he evokes Virgil's role as guide through hell. These associations provide a context for "judging Troilus's position at the poem's centre" and…

The influences of Boethius, Dante, and Petrarch ("Canzoniere") on TC are not fully evident to readers unfamiliar with these sources because Chaucer nowhere indicates what he is doing. Such secrecy renders interpretations of his text complex.

Repeated imagery of falconry's mew, derived from typology and folklore, symbolize the poem's vision of mutability in human affairs. Especially as they relate to the character of Troilus, these images represent the Neo-Platonic notion of the soul as…

Windeatt assesses the uncertainties and experiences of love in TC and considers aspects of Chaucer's humanism and experimentalism. Rather than condemning worldly love, TC explores its many variations.

Item not seen, reported in WorldCat which indicates that this German translation of TC is accompanied by notes and an afterword by Walter F. Schirmer.

Adapts TC for the stage in modern prose, with Production Notes, a dramaturgical Introduction, and stage directions in the modern-English text. Michael B. Herzog's "Music Score" (n.p.; at end of text) provides musical scores for four lyrics in the…

Studies the "three narrative parallels" of TC which complement the story and unify the theme: the "cosmic drama, the fall of Troy, and the performance of the narrator."

Written in the early fifteenth centruy, the Corpus Christi TC,one of the sixteen manuscripts of the poem, is probably the earliest extant copy of TC. Parkes gives a paleographical description of the manuscript; Salter, an iconographical study of the…