'Verray goddes apes': Troilus, Seynt Idiot, and Festive Culture

Author / Editor
Parson, Ben.

Title
'Verray goddes apes': Troilus, Seynt Idiot, and Festive Culture

Published
Chaucer Review 45 (2011): 275-98.

Description
Chaucer draws upon the festive tradition of mock saints early in TC to poke fun at "the pretensions of 'fin amor'"; as the poem progresses, the inversions of carnival come to represent "a necessary part of being a lover." By the time Troilus laughs at the world and all its woes, festivity's alternative perspective has become equated with transcendence.

Chaucer Subjects
Troilus and Criseyde