The Shape of Chaucerian Tragedy

Author / Editor
Kaylor, Noel Harold Jr.

Title
The Shape of Chaucerian Tragedy

Published
Marcin Krygier and Liliana Sikorska, eds. Þe Laurer of Oure Englische Tonge. Medieval English Mirror, no. 5 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang), 2009, pp. 93-105.

Series
Medieval English Mirror, no. 5

Description
The five-book structure of TC is informed both by Dante's "Divine Comedy" and by Boethius's "Consolatio," a combination that adds to the text's ambiguity. Chaucer extends Dante's three-step journey from Inferno to Heaven by adding Troilus's downward movement, thus completing Fortune's turn. At the same time, Troilus's five books parallel the steps in Boethius's epistemology of knowledge: sensing (Book I), imagining (Book II), reasoning (Books III and IV), and knowing (Book V).

Contributor
Krygier, Marcin, ed
Sikorska, Liliana, ed.

Alternative Title
Laurer of Oure Englische Tonge.

Chaucer Subjects
Troilus and Criseyde
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations