Troilus and Criseyde (c.1380) TRANSLATION = “TRANS-VALUATION” of original BOCCACCIO IL FILOSTRATO Comments about sources: never mentions Boccaccio, even though he uses him more than anything else – lack of authority for a recent vernacular author. Mocking the idea that in order to be a good author you need to have an established source. A ‘PAYNTED PROCESS’ (II.424) rendering + re-expressing @ audience’s discretion “To encresse or maken dymnyucioun / Of my language” (III, 1335 – 6) Denser poetic texture → Ch is shining a light on the original bringing it from 2D to 3D by enhancing shadows and illuminating peaks – gesture + pace ‘IN-ECHED – added – FOR THE BESTE’ (III.1329) Ch alters framework within which story is presented: narrative voice is outside the experience of love and reflects instead on the personal experience of writing. The “bookish” added dimension makes reader appreciate style and language of text → affects our assessment of characters: e.g. Pandarus is a user and manipulator of language. Characterisation =/= modern. Speeches and actions overlaid for thematic / emblematic value: OUTWARDLY: PASSIVENESS of HERO: P to blame. Responsibility = more difficult to judge + more generally => ‘to deepen its readers’ sense of the difficulty of properly asserting human motives.’ BUT INWARDLY MORE INTENSE… PRESENT SOCIAL OBSERVANCE: Less privacy PUBLIC / PRIVATE secrecy. Manners. PAST Inc classical atmosphere – prayers to classical gods → “backwards texture”. In etched sense of how things have developed up to the present (e.g. Ovidian) FUTURE fate, predestination, foreboding and anticipation. Astrological allusion… (COMMITMENTS =/= TIME + DEATH) “GREATER PRAYERFULNESS” of Chaucer’s characters. ‘THING COLLATERAL’ BOETHIUS: 5 books, not “harder medicines”, philosophical sense that actions have reactions… SUFFUSED: in narrative way builds to Boethian sense that world has its priorities wrong. II/ Uses Boccaccio in various ways ONE: translates quite precisely – obv had it on his desk as he was writing – one of the first people in England to be reading this piece of modern Italian literature – father mixing with Italian merchants – courtly world – Ch sent on missions to italiy. Interesting position in society allows his to have access and understanding of Italian texts. TWO: even mirroring style in certain ways – nay – nay – 5th line ends with ‘renound’ – 4th line Boccaccio ends with ‘gloria’. THREE: take an episode and expand it. In TC there are “TWO” rides past – in Boccaccio it is clear that she knows she is being set up – and her response is very flirtatious. Hesitation, uncertainly and performance. From this short quotation you can already see that these are very different characters. PANDARUS: goes from being cousin → manipulative UNCLE – thee most important change – a master strategist. Criseyde becomes a much less knowing. TC have so much more emphasis on her interiority. The confusion of what is going on in her head.
T sees C in April; Bk II opens on May 3rd and continues in early May; consummation occurs sometime thereafter, but after Book III a break in time apparently occurs, for when C is exchanged Ch stresses that the snows have thrice melted since T and C first loved. By contrast, the action in Fil lasts from one spring until the next.
How to answer a commentary (rewrite this after having read through all notes) ●
How else could this have been portrayed? ○ Consider differences from sources ○ Look at pacing of action / thoughts
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