Troilus' Farewell to Criseyde: The Idealist as Clairvoyant and Rhetorician

Author / Editor
Rutherford, Charles S.

Title
Troilus' Farewell to Criseyde: The Idealist as Clairvoyant and Rhetorician

Published
Papers on Language and Literature 17 (1981): 245-54.

Description
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 depart is the more self-aware Troilus who will eventually become the tragic, heroic figure of Book V.

Chaucer Subjects
Troilus and Criseyde.