The Masks of Love in 'Troilus and Criseyde'

Description: Explores how Dante and Petrarch provide a "schema for understanding" the modifications Chaucer made to the view of love in Boccaccio's "Filostrato." The "Vita Nuova" offers a "hierarchy of love," analogous to that in TC even though Chaucer may not have known Dante's work. A more direct influence on Chaucer, "Patrarchist" formal conventions recur in TC and, moreover, the poem reflects Troilus's progress from such formulas (associated with Pandarus and, at times, with Criseyde) to a more fully "Petrarchan" comprehension of the nature, dangers, and value of love.

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