Baird-Lange, Lorrayne Y.
Paul Strohm and Thomas J. Heffernan, eds. Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Proceedings, No. 1, 1984 (Knoxville, Tenn.: New Chaucer Society, 1985), pp. 245-66.
The slandered Trotula as Dame Trote, or as a "trot," serves as a "type" of the Wife of Bath, personification of medieval misogyny, both medical and clerical.
McDermott, Ryan.
Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2016.
Studies the medieval and early modern theory of tropological, or moral, sense of Scripture. Argues that tropology can be "theory of literary and ethical invention" as a way to interpret the Bible. Includes brief discussions of Langland's and…
Heinrichs, Katherine.
English Studies 76 (1995): 209-14.
Allusions to the Fall appear in at least half of the tales in CT, but a full tropological reading occurs only in ParsT (10.330), where the allegory explains that "the image of God in man guarantees our ability to rise after a fall."
Rouse, Margitta.
Anne-Katrin Federow and Kay Malcher, eds. Troja Bauen: Vormodernes Erzählen von der Antike in Comparatistischer Sicht (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter,
2021), pp. 203-26.
Explores ellipsis, ekphrasis, lists, allusions, and their combinations as techniques and thematic devices in HF. Focuses on "elliptical ekphrasis" of source material as axiological choice, and as a method of literary generation and renewal, with…
Federow, Anne-Katrin, and Kay Malcher, eds
Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2021.
Thirteen essays by various authors on representations of Troy and the Trojan War in medieval works, with an introduction by the editors. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Troja Bauen under Alternative Title.
Compares Chaucer's and Boccaccio's treatments of Troilus's looking at Criseyde in the temple. Governed by the laws of medieval optics, Troilus's gaze imprints Criseyde's image in his heart. In the image of the mirror, Chaucer portrays Troilus's…
Martin, Molly A.
Tison Pugh and Marcia Smith Marzec,eds. Men and Masculinities in Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde" (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2008), pp. 132-47.
In medieval optical theory of intromission and in medieval romances, gazed-upon objects are understood to be more active than they are in modern theorizing of scopophilia. Tracing interdependencies of the romance genre and the masculine gaze in TC,…
Explores the "temporal perspectives" of futurity in TC, combining an Augustinian conceptualization of time with Michel de Certeau's spatial notion of "strategy," looking closely at three perspectives that are posed in the poem and undermined in Book…
Brewer, Derek.
Peter G. Beidler, ed. Masculinities in Chaucer: Approaches to Maleness in the 'Canterbury Tales' and 'Troilus and Criseyde' (Cambridge; and Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 1998), pp. 237-52.
According to Chaucer's conception of "manhood," as distinct from the somewhat anachronistic term "masculinity," Troilus is to be seen as "manly" and virtuous in his behavior, as well as worthy of the reader's sympathy. He is an "idealized and…
Taylor, Ann M.
Papers on Language and Literature 15 (1979): 357-69.
Chaucer presents Troilus' appeal to Criseyde as ominous in its accuracy, sincere in its passions, yet faulty in its rhetoric. Troilus fails to appear confident, to inspire Criseyde's good will; through faulty emphasis he loses the effect of his plan…
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."…
Bloomfield, Morton W.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 73 (1972): 15-24.
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…
Rutherford, Charles S.
Papers on Language and Literature 17 (1981): 245-54.
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…
Vitto, Cindy L.
Medieval Perspectives 4-5 (1989-90): 217-27.
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…
Storm, Melvin
Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 12 (1982): 42-65.
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…
Duțescu, Dan, trans.
Bucharest: Editura Univers, 1978.
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…
Gamble, Giles Y.
Studia Neophilologica 60 (1988): 175-78.
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…
Robins, William.
Robert Epstein and William Robins, eds. Sacred and Profane in Chaucer and Late Medieval Literature: Essays in Honour of John V. Fleming (Buffalo, N. Y.: University of Toronto Press, 2010), pp. 91112.
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…
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…
