Paper 4 - Troilus and Criseyde Flashcards

Based from Pippa's set text scenes doc - then briefer stuff around rest of poem xx

What happens before the set text section?

Pandarus invites Deiphebus to dinner - P tells D to invite Troilus, Criseyde, and then D offers to invite Helen and Hector

Pandarus tells Criseyde that ‘false Polyphete’ is coming for her estate, she relents; D arrives to invite her to dinner

Pandarus then visits Troilus and urges him to say he’s ill, Troilus says he won’t have to fake it - Pandarus says to Troilus ‘and I / shal wel the deer unto thi bowe dryve’

Book 2 - 1541-1568

Troilus arrives but goes to bed, Helen arrives the next morning with entourage

Narrator is very elusive, often saying he won’t say stuff - exposes Pandarus’ position as an author/narrator figure

1562-4 - ‘Come ek Criseyde, al innocent of this, […] But fle we now prolixitee best is’

Book 2 - 1569-1582

Deiphebus is a great host, but everyone is sad over Troilus’ sickness; everyone suggests cures, and Criseyde is silent thinking she could be the best doctor for him

D calls Troilus - ‘Troilus, the syke’, new epithet

Pandarus ‘afferme’ and ‘conferme’ Troilus’ complaints in a rhyming couplet

Book 2 - 1583-1597

Everyone praises Troilus a lot, but Criseyde laughs internally since she knows she controls whether he lives or dies; but the narrator wants to shift focus to pure romance

‘But al passe I, lest ye to longe dwelle; / For for o fyn is al that evere I tell’ - Criseyde talking about main goals and focus, but couplet implies control

Book 2 - 1598-1638

Guests are chatting and Pandarus interrupts to ask Deiphebus about Criseyde

Pandarus tells Criseyde’s story about Polyphete, and implores Criseyde to tell Troilus whilst he is ill

Poliphete rhymes with ‘spete’ - association with spit

Pandarus calls Criseyde a ‘beere’ for Troilus - both a funeral ‘bier’ and a sexual meaning

Book 2 - 1639-1687

Pandarus leaves and tells everyone that they can see Troilus, but only one at a time.

Helen comforts Troilus and insists he should help Criseyde, Troilus agrees.

Book 2 - 1688-1708

Pandarus asks to bring Criseyde in, but Troilus wants Helen and Deiphebus to read a letter from Hector about whether a Trojan should die, looking for advice. They take the letter outside and read it for over an hour.

Troilus using written text to deceive H and D - consistent motif of written texts containing falsehoods

Book 2 - 1709-1736

Pandarus invites Criseyde and tells her she can bring anyone, or no-one, with her. Criseyde enters, arm in arm with Pandarus, and is told not to kill him.

Criseyde is supposedly ‘al innocent of Pandarus’ intent’

Pandarus reminds Criseyde of ‘the vertu of corones tweyne’ - LOADS of different interpretations [virtues, Priam/Hecuba, nuptial crowns, or simply eloquent nonsense]

Book 2 - 1737-1757

Pandarus keeps telling Criseyde to hurry up, or she’ll regret it. Ending passage is narrator asking reader to imagine Troilus’ anxiety hearing them outside.

Book 3 - 1-21 [proem]

Narrator addresses light which reaches Venus, praises her and declares no-one can live without love.

Language is more French, more noble

Book 3 - 22-49

Narrator discusses transformative love, through Mars and how Venus placated him. Then asks Venus to help him write in the joy that he brings to others, to express beauty of love.

Book 3 - 50-98

Troilus is excited to see Criseyde. She enters with Pandarus and pushes him down as he tries to get up out of kindness. C thanks T, and he becomes tongue-tied and blushes. C still loves him anyway.

Troilus is in love with Criseyde, but still feels need to perform. Criseyde still loves him, cf. to Diomedes who is much more direct [Book 5 - ‘I am, al be it yow no ioye / As gentil man as any wight in Troye’]

Narrator promises to stay true to sources, but Chaucer invents a lot

Book 3 - 99-147

Troilus declares he will die for Criseyde, and calls her ‘wommanliche wif’. Pandarus begins to cry and begs Criseyde to do it. Criseyde is confused and asks ‘I, what?’.

Pandarus mocks her and says that she should obviously have sympathy for Troilus; Criseyde still asks for elaboration.

Troilus asks over many stanzas for Criseyde to look upon him kindly.

Book 3 - 148-182

Pandarus says that if he were a God, he would kill Criseyde for not accepting Troilus’ plea. Criseyde thinks and does not rush, but does look kindly at Troilus.

Criseyde asks that Troilus will always look after her honour, and that he will not have more of her sovereignty in love just because he is a prince. She will punish him if he does wrong, but otherwise she will turn his suffering into pleasure.

Book 3 - 183-343

Pandarus praises Gods, then says Helen and Depheibus are returning from the garden, and that T+C should come to his house on a signal. H+D return and everyone resumes the charade, with Troilus commanding everyone to leave. Pandarus brings a straw mattress to sleep next to Troilus.

Later, Pandarus claims that he has done everything for Troilus to soothe his pain. P emphasises discretion and how high Criseyde’s reputation is. He says that Troilus could ruin his life by boasting.

• Pandarus warns against danger of words, ironic - ‘firste vertu is to kepe tonge’

Pandarus suggests boasters are liars, and returns to arranging plans and promises a meeting.

Book 3 - 344-420

Troilus admits his sadness and how long it took him to confess, and that he is now happy. Bawds do this for money, but T declares Pandarus is compassionate. T offers his sisters to P, including Helen.

Troilus begins to sound more like Pandarus - mimicking ‘compassioun, and felawship, and trist’

T promises that if he made it public, he would want to be imprisoned by Agamemnon - and if he is lying, then he should be killed by Achilles [dramatic irony, he is killed by Achilles in B5]

Book 3 - 421-511

Troilus does not boast but burns with love. T+C speak clandestinely and T often pre-empts her desires. C is reassured by his privacy.

• Troilus is hyper-masculine and very attentive - often rhyming with ‘nede’ and ‘hede’ about how he knew her

Pandarus is a hastener and a go-between. Narrator comments that they are happy, but want more.

• Narrator mentions how love letters were lost, and focuses on T+C ‘standing in concord and in quiete’ - readers kept away

• Spearing - Limits are introduced to show limits of poetry and art generally

Book 3 - 512-588

Pandarus arranges a T+C meeting, if anyone asks for T, he will say he is in a private temple. It is arranged on a moonless night and it’s meant to rain.

Pandarus goes to get C and she says it might rain. P implores her to come and she worriedly asks if T will be there. Pandarus says he won’t, but it wouldn’t matter anyway (meaning he is). C agrees and goes off, hoping Pandarus is making a wise choice.

• Pandarus has very forceful language and Troilus is just waiting - ‘And Troilus, that al this purveyaunce / knew at the fulle, and waytede on it ay’

• ‘This tymbur is al redy up to frame’ - Crafting and hunting associated with Pandarus

Book 3 - 589-693

Pandarus swears he will be punished like Tantalus if things don’t go well.

Criseyde goes with an entourage to Pandarus’ whilst Troilus is hiding. Rain happens and Pandarus says they should all stay, Criseyde predicts that any objection to this would be ignored, so she agrees and claims she was joking about leaving.

The party begins again but Pandarus stops it saying that everyone should sleep and arranges it so Criseyde is protected from the sound of rain. The narrator comments on how ‘wondirliche loud’ the wind is

Book 3 - 694-805

Pandarus sneaks into Troilus’ room, and tells him not to worry since things can either be perfect or the worst. Troilus starts praying to Venus and asks her to forgive him in the name of Adonis if he was born under unlucky stars.

• Larger ideas around predestination at play. Ending inverts this section, T worried about unlucky stars vs. him rising ‘up to the holughnesse of the eighthe spere’ in B5

Pandarus shames him for being a mouse, and they go to Criseyde’s room through a trapdoor. Criseyde awakens and asks how he got there. Pandarus tells her and asks her not to be too loud. Pandarus says that calling someone a lover is improper when loving someone else

Pandarus claims that Troilus came in by climbing through a window, since he was sick with jealousy and betrayal since he’s “found out” that Criseyde loves Horaste.

Book 3 - 806-889

Criseyde is distressed and denies all rumours. Criseyde claims there is no true joy in the world, since people either realise it is fleeting and then get sad, or it is incomplete since people are ignorant. If one is not sad about the future loss of joy, then it is not a complete joy.

Criseyde addresses jealousy and asks how it could sway Troilus when she’s done nothing wrong.

Pandarus asks her to reassure Troilus and Criseyde says she will do it tomorrow. Pandarus reproves her for risking his life all night and claims she never loved him. She offers her blue ring to give to Troilus.

• Interesting to contrast fleeting happiness both to the consummation later in B3, a ‘suffisaunce’, and Troilus’ death into the ‘pleyn felicite / That is in hevene above’ in B5

• Criseyde’s lament is based on Boethius Consolation of Philosophy

• Sapphire ring = truth, constancy, sadness - Panda throws away thinking it is meaningless

Good quotes from BEFORE Set Text

B1 - Muse is ‘Thesiphone’, vengeful fury emphasising tragedy; Troilus at first ‘scorned hem that Loves peynes dryen’ and thought his love was a ‘disese’

B2 - Pandarus claims to Criseyde that ‘if ye late hym deyen / I wol sterve’; Troilus is advised by Pandarus to ‘biblotte it with thi teris’ for his first letter to Criseyde

Good quotes from AFTER Set Text

B3 - Pandarus watches T+C - ‘As for to looke upon an old romaunce’

B4 - Troilus ‘corseth’ everything after the trade [Criseyde, Cupid, fate, birth, etc.]; Criseyde promises faithfulness as ‘Ne remuable Fortune deface’

B5 - Troilus speaks on his own woe as ‘Men myght a book make of it, lik a storie’; Criseyde also predicts hatred ‘Hire name, allas, is publysshed so wide / That for hire gilt’; Troilus sees that ‘His lady nas no lenger on to triste’