# Troilus and Criseyde



## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Has anybody ever had the displeasure of reading this rancid tragic love story? The major players are Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Shakespeare, and I have had the most unpleasant experience reading the first two (don't know what the Shakespeare version is like).

If you ever come across it, or if some idiot ever recommends it to you, do NOT read it. It is absolutely dreadful. The main characters, Troilus (a Trojan warrior fighting against the Greeks) and Criseyde (a woman he falls in love with) are the most intensely unlikeable people I have ever read about. And I don't mean this in the characters-we-love-to-hate sense; I haven't enjoyed reading this work while feeling dislike for the main characters; what I mean is that they intensely annoy me. They are frustrating people and I _detest_ them, and I wish I never had to read about them.

Page after page after page, they just whine and moan and cry and sob and talk about their woes and sorrows at being apart from each other, constantly, endlessly begging for death but never having the courage to end their lives. GET OVER IT ALREADY. This is what they're like when they're in love, for crying out loud! But they have to conduct their relationship in secret and sometimes be apart and just rips their poor little hearts to shreds.

Eventually, Criseyde betrays him by pledging her heart to another man. Good on her, at least the other man (Diomedes) has got balls. Troilus is supposedly a great warrior, but he gets his conniving friend Pandarus to do all his dirty work and never sucks up the courage to say anything to Criseyde about his love. Diomedes, on the other hand, sees Criseyde all sad and upset and notices she's in love with someone but has a bash at her anyway - and he who dares, wins!

The biggest relief I have ever had is finally reading that Troilus dies in battle. ****er deserved it. Sadly, in the Boccaccio version, Troilus kills Diomedes first, which was a great shame because I liked Diomedes. In the Chaucer version though, Diomedes' fate is left unspecified, yay!

As for Criseyde... Stupid bitch concerned about nothing other than her reputation. I mean, for goodness' sake, they had the example of Paris and Helen to look at - they both should have just run away and not cared about what people thought, but _oh no, I'm a lady_. Well, I can't wait to read Robert Henryson give her leprosy in a sequel.

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/end rant that means nothing to any of you.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

It´s the subject of an opera by Walton:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/troil1.htm


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Interesting! I wondered if there'd be a musical version. Well, that's a travesty I shall always avoid.


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

Polednice said:


> *Troilus and Criseyde*
> 
> Has anybody ever had the displeasure of reading this rancid tragic love story?


Read the Shakespeare play "Troilus & Cressida."

As Shakespeare plays go, probably a bottom-5 selection on my list...


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## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

" Many Chaucer scholars regard it as the poet's finest work."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troilus_and_Criseyde

I will definitely read it soon.

Thanks for the heads up.

BTW my favorite Shakespeare is Coriolanus and Measure for Measure.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

brianwalker said:


> " Many Chaucer scholars regard it as the poet's finest work."


Indeed they do, as I know from having read much criticism, and these scholars are idiots.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

Reason will not let me speak of sleep,
since it is not in accord with my matter:
God knows of that no notice did they keep.
But lest this night, that was to them so dear,
should escape them vainly in some manner,
it was occupied in joy’s business
and all that appertains to gentleness.

But when the cock – public astrologer –
began to beat his breast, and then to crow,
and Lucifer, the day’s messenger,
began to rise, and his beams to throw,
and eastward rose (to him who might it know)
Fortuna Major, then at once Cressid
with sore heart to Troilus said:

‘My heart’s life, my trust, my delectation,
that I was born alas! For me what woe
that day must make of us a separation!
For it is time to rise and from here go,
or else I am lost for ever, so.
O night, alas, why will you not hover above
as long as when Alcmena lay with Jove?

O black Night, as books tell learned folk,
you who are shaped by God this world to hide
at certain times with your dark cloak,
that under it men might in rest abide,
beasts should indeed complain and folk chide
that as day with labour would us test,
you flee like this and will not let us rest.

You end too quickly, alas, your business,
swift Night, may God maker of Nature’s round,
for your haste and your harsh unkindness,
have you, to our hemisphere tightly bound,
that you may never more go underground!
For now (since you hurry so from Troy),
have I thus suddenly lost my joy.’

Troilus and Criseyde is great, but then who reads poetry that old for the character development, only a very few works, such as Chaucer's very own Canterbury Tales have good characters, it is mostly about the verse.

I tried to think of a similar good bit from Shakespeare but I failed, it is rather a dreary routine work, never read the Boccaccio version but I thought his Decameron was 90% dull.


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