The longest and finest of Chaucer's poems of this period, 'Troilus and
Criseyde' is based on a work of Boccaccio; here Chaucer details with compelling power the sentiment and tragedy of love, and the psychology of the heroine who had become for the Middle Ages a central figure in the tale of Troy.
From this perspective Amtower's later chapters explore "The Ethics of Reading" and "Textual Subjects" as represented in Chaucer's House of Fame, Troilus and
Criseyde (particularly in the figure of Cassandra), and Canterbury Tales (particularly in the responses towards texts offered by the Prioress and the Wife of Bath).
Entries by a team of twenty-three American scholars are arranged alphabetically: they begin with the Breton philosopher, Peter Abelard and end with 'Zanzis' (perhaps Zauzis) to whom Chaucer refers in Troilus and
Criseyde. Each entry has a selected bibliography and entries are cross referenced.
Meanwhile, in the seclusion of his study at Cheltenham College, the boarder gives no inkling of boredom as he wrestles with Troilus,
Criseyde and the unfinished Canterbury Tales - the three most acclaimed works of English poet Geoffrey Chaucer.
THE epilogue of Chaucer's Troilus and
Criseyde has always attracted much attention.
Niebrzydowski provides a thorough introduction to the Welsh adaptation of the Troilus and
Criseyde story, showing how the text amalgamates aspects of Chaucer's and Henryson's retellings.
Wolfe appropriately refers to Caxton's Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye and Chaucer's Troilus and
Criseyde as "two medieval retellings of Trojan legend that debate the ancient originals on which they are modeled" (299), but does not mention that the former was the first book printed in English (Bruges, 1473) and the latter among the very first printed in England (Westminster, 1483).
The earliest known use of the English word fury in print is found in Chaucer's late 14th-century poem "Troilus and
Criseyde," and the earliest known reference in print to the Greek goddesses as furies appears slightly later in Chaucer's "The Legend of Good Women."
Geoffrey Chaucer in the 1380s penned an oft-used phrase in his poem Troilus &
Criseyde set in the backdrop of the Siege of Troy.
It is a well-known fact that Henryson's Testament of Cresseid is based on Chaucer's Troilus and
Criseyde, a poem which--despite its neat five-book division--has been perceived as lacking a definite ending, and thus incomplete.