1. Quotations from Troilus and Criseyde are from F. N. Robinson, The Works
of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2nd ed.; citations are by book and line number.
2. Critical opinion of the three lovers tends to be polarized. Some critics depict Criseyde
as a weak, lying woman who perfidiously betrays a morally virtuous Troilus. Some justify
Criseyde's actions and portray Troilus as rather more silly than "sely." Diomede generally is
categorized either as a very positive or as a very negative character, rarely as a balanced one. My
own critical stance treats Troilus as an ideal courtly lover who suffers the loss of earthly love as
proof of the transience of all earthly joys and sorrows and the permanence of heavenly bliss with
God. Criseyde becomes the means of Troilus's learning this lesson, but her guilt is ameliorated by
her circumstances. Diomede performs as an efficient pseudo-courtly lover who seizes opportunity
when it presents itself. Alice R. Kaminsky's Chaucer's Troilus and Creseyde and the Critics
summarizes the critical stances. See 121-38 for discussion of Troilus criticism, which "gives us a
flat, uninteresting knight, a sinner, a noble courtly or married lover, a courtly Boethius, a tragic
intellectual Hamlet-like figure, a comic fool, and a psychologically disturbed hero..." (138). See
also the extensive discussion of Criseyde criticism, 144-65, which makes of her everything under
the sun. Finally, see Kaminsky' s discussion of Diomede, 165-67 and 203, interpreted either as a
"verray gentil parfit knight" (Paul Edmonds) or the "most openly malevolent influence on
Criseyde" (Stephen Knight).
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3. I am grateful to Allen J. Frantzen for suggesting this relationship to me.
4. Chief among detractors of the theory is D. W, Robertson, according to Kaminsky
(122), but many, beginning with C. S. Lewis, embrace it (123).
5. G.T. Shepherd, "Troilus and Criseyde," in Chaucer and Chaucerians, 65-87.
See also Winthrop Wetherbee, Chaucer and the Poets, especially chapter two, in which he
argues that Troilus' s experience "conforms to the classic pattern of human love delineated in the
Roman de la Rose," 28.
6. See Joseph E. Gallagher, "Criseyde' s Dream of the Eagle: Love and War in Troilus
and Criseyde," 118 for an interesting suggestion that this dream also presages Diomede' s
more aggressive love of Criseyde. Also see Mark Lambert, "Troilus, Books I-III: A Criseydan
Reading," in Essays on Troilus and Criseyde, 105-25.
7. Willene P. Taylor, "Supposed Antifeminism in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde
and its Retraction in The Legend of Good Women," 4. Taylor credits D. W. Robertson for
this idea.
8. Shepherd suggests that the love of Troilus and Criseyde has been treated "as a real
good," and that throughout the poem Troilus is "a figure not merely of potential, but of realized
worth and 'troughe,'" 67. See also Monica McAlpine, The Genre of Troilus and Criseyde,
for her discussion of the nature of Troilus's love: "If Troilus had been a Christian, he might have
made a confession of love in which, like Dante in another comedy, he would have traced the
fire
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of his love for God to its origin in the fire of his
love for a woman. .," 180-81.
9. See also Benoit de Sainte Maure, Le Roman de Troie; E. Talbot Donaldson,
"Briseis, Briseida, Criseyde, Cresseid, Cressid: Progress of a Heroine," in Chaucerian
Problems and Perspectives, 1-12. See also Gretchen Miezkowsky, The Reputation of
Criseyde (1155-1500), 71-153, on which Donaldson bases much of his article.
10. I here acknowledge the invalulable critical and editorial advice I received from both
Allen J. Frantzen and Michael Masi in their readings of my essay.
