Chaucer's “Troilus and Crisedey”

NET/SLET/TRB STUDY GUIDE
Date: 21.2.2018, Subject:English

This is Chaucer's long epic poem of 8239 lines in rhyme royal completed in 1380s.  It's based on Boccaccio's “Il Filostrato” but Chaucer has reduced the eight books of Boccaccio into 5 books.

Book one begins with the poet’s address to the Fury Tisiphone with a prayer for the lovers who are going to be doomed.  The story begins with the setting of the siege of Troy by the Greeks.  Calkas, father of Cressida foresees the fall of Troy, abandons Troy and joins the Greek camp. Cressida seeks  protection from Hector, the leader of Trojan army and brother of Troilus who are sons of the king of Troy Priam.  Troilus mocks at love and lovers and the God of love grows angry with him and strikes him with irreconcilable love for Cressida whom he sees in the temple of Pallas Athena. He is entangled in love and Pandaras, uncle of Cressida makes a plan for his proposal to Cressida.

Book II starts with an address to Muse of History, Clio.  It is Pandaras who urges Cressida to consider the love of Troilus, otherwise he will commit suicide along with Troilus.  Cressida watches the parade of Troilus through window and muses over the advantages and disadvantages of having love affair. She is in need of protection but at the same time Troilus would mean loss freedom to her. However, in her dream, she witnesses a great white eagle(representing Troilus) that takes her heart and replaces with his own. Pandaras arranged for a meeting for the lovers in the house of Deiphebus, elder brother of Troilus where for the first time Troilus and Cressida meet each other and deeply love-struck.

Book III commences with an address to Venus, the goddess of Love and to the muse of epic poetry Callio.  Now the love develops into a great extent with the plan of Pandaras who urges both to write several letters and respond quickly.  He also invites Cressida on a rainy night for a dinner and makes her stay at his home. He sends Troilus to the same bed chamber and leaves them to spend the night together in bed.  Later he also warns Troilus of the wheel of Fortune that always rotates and may turn against him soon.

Book IV has its opening with an address to Mars, god of war and the furies.  Calkas urges the Greeks to exchange Antenor, a woman prisoner of war for his daughter Cressida.  Both the lovers are upset to hear this.  Hector and Troilus object this.  Troilus also rejects the idea of Pandaras to embark a new love affair with another girl or to elope with Cressida.  Troilus muses over fate whether human choice is an important element in determining one's fortune.  Cressida meets him in a temple and faints with emotion.  By mistaking her to be dead, Troilus tries to stab himself but Cressida awakens and stops him. (A similar scene is present in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet).  Cressida promises him that she will deceive her father in enemy's camp and return to him in ten days.  Troilus parts with her with a sense of foreboding to their reunion.

Book V describes the changes in the mind of Cressida who is now short and uninterested in her replies to Troilus in letters.  Diamedes, the Greek warrior also makes a proposal to her.  On the tenth day, Cressida does not return to Troilus but accepts the love of Diometes who assures to offer protection to her now. Troilus is so upset and in his dream, he sees a boar taking away Cressida from him. The meaning of this dream is unfolded by Cassandra, sister of Troilus that the boar in the dream is none other than new lover of Cressida but Troilus refuses to accept this. Later the boat of Diometes is sized and Troilus finds the brooch gifted to Cressida in the boat and realizes her betrayal.  The Trojan war begins. Troilus vows to kill Diometes in the war but he himself is killed by Achillus.  After death, Troilus is taken to the eighth sphere in the sky and learns the lesson of transience of earthy joys. Thus the story ends with the tragic end of Troilus.

Chaucer makes an apology to the readers for presenting a woman with such a bad reputation. What happened to Cressida and her unfaithfulness? Chaucer does not tell. But the Scottish poet of the 15th century Robert Henryson in his “the Testament of Cresseid” describes the events after her betrayal -how she is abandoned by Diometes, cursed by Venus with leprosy ad begs for alms.  So many critics have found Henderson’s poem as an epilogue to Chaucer's Troilus and Crisedey.   The poem is based on the phrase –“all that is good should come to an end one day.”  Shakespeare has also written a similar one “Troilus and Cressida”  but Cressida in Chaucer presents a realistic view of woman who is equal to man in the medieval period.  But Shakespeare’s Cressida is viewed as an object by Troilus rather than as a human being in the male dominated Elizabethan period, as interpreted by
Raveena Shurgil.