Troilus and Criseyde

The career of Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400) developed from a period of French influence in the late 1630s, through the 'middle period' of both French and Italian influences. Troilus and Criseyde (c.1385) is from the most important mature Italian-influenced work. Troilus and Criseyde is Chaucer's longest complete poem. The story is taken from Boccaccio's Il Filostrato. In the midst of the Trojan war, and on opposing sides, Troilus falls in love with Criseyde, aided by Criseyde's uncle Pandarus, to tragic consequence. Chaucer deepens the sense of seriousness by showing Criseyde's deliberations, and by calling into question the lovers' freedom of action. Trust not in unstable fortune, the narrator seems to be saying, but in God.