Summary
Summary of Troilus and Criseyde
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Private love lives under public danger
In Troy during the Greek siege, a young prince and a widow begin a love story shadowed by war. Troilus is a fine warrior; Criseyde is vulnerable because her father has gone over to the Greeks. Between them stands Pandarus, her uncle and his friend, ready to push them together.
Chaucer follows love from within, through hope, fear, doubt and conversation. Alongside the lovers stands a narrator who calls himself a go-between and does not always seem certain what to think.
Key idea 2
Troilus loses his pride in love
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Key idea 3
Pandarus makes himself needed
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Key idea 4
Criseyde chooses love in stages
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Key idea 5
A storm shelters the lovers
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Key idea 6
Happiness rests on a turning wheel
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Key idea 7
War breaks into the lovers' plans
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Key idea 8
The narrator balances tenderness and doubt
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Key idea 9
Love leaves its questions open
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who love psychological stories, medieval literature, and tales of love tested by war and betrayal. It also rewards anyone curious about Chaucer beyond the Canterbury Tales.
What this book is
Troilus and Criseyde is a love story in verse, written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 1380s. It is set in Troy during the Greek siege. Chaucer took the outline from the Italian poet Boccaccio, who had written a shorter poem on the same tale. He made it wiser and far more shaded in feeling. The poem runs to five books, and it is written in seven-line stanzas known as rhyme royal.
The story follows two people. Troilus is a young Trojan prince and a fine warrior. Criseyde is a widow whose father has gone over to the Greeks. Between them stands Pandarus, her uncle and his friend, who schemes, jokes and pushes them together. Around them the war goes on, and every private hour is shadowed by the public danger.
What do you get from it? You get one of the earliest great studies of a love affair from the inside, with its hope, fear, doubt and talk. You meet a narrator who admits he is only a go-between and who often seems unsure what to think of his own people. You also get an argument about fate and free choice, set inside a tale of ordinary feeling. Let us begin with a prince who thinks he is above love.
In this summary
- 1A proud prince scorns the god of loveFree
- 2Pandarus draws out the lovesick secret
- 3Criseyde weighs safety against desire
- 4A staged dinner and a feigned illness
- 5One stormy night brings the lovers together
- 6Happiness proves to rest on Fortune's wheel
- 7The Greeks demand an exchange of prisoners
- 8What the poem says about love, fate and trust
- 9How Chaucer shapes the telling
Key point 1 of 9
A proud prince scorns the god of love
The poem opens by saying it will tell of the double sorrow of Troilus, son of King Priam. He will fall from joy into misery, and the narrator warns us of this from the start. He asks the lovers in his audience to pray for those in love, and to pity those who suffer from it. He calls himself a servant of the servants of love, a humble helper and not a man who has lived the thing himself.
The scene is Troy under siege. Calchas, a Trojan priest who can read the future, has seen that the city will fall. He slips away to the Greek camp and leaves his daughter Criseyde behind. The Trojans are furious and think her tainted by her father's treason. Criseyde is a widow, alone and afraid, and she begs for the protection of Hector, the greatest Trojan fighter. Hector gives it kindly, and she can stay.
Then comes the spring festival in the temple of the Palladion, a sacred statue that guards the city. Troilus walks through the crowd with his young knights, and he mocks lovers as he goes. He teases them for their sighs and their foolish pains. The god of love hears him, and the poem makes it a moment of quiet comedy. The pride of the young man is about to be answered.
Criseyde stands by the temple door, dressed in black as a widow, and she is noticeably lovely and calm. Troilus sees her and is struck at once. His heart is caught before he even understands it. He goes home changed, with all his bravado gone, and the narrator watches with a gentle smile.
The first book then turns to his suffering. He cannot sleep, he cannot eat, and he hides in his chamber. He believes that a prince of Troy cannot beg an unknown widow for love. In the first book, the pain is already complete. What he needs is a friend who knows how to talk, and he is about to be found by one.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
Why does Criseyde hesitate to welcome love?
Right. “A husband or a lover would take that freedom from her, and she has seen that love can bring gossip and pain.”Not quite. “A husband or a lover would take that freedom from her, and she has seen that love can bring gossip and pain.”
What forces Criseyde to leave Troy?
Right. “Calchas, the defecting priest, sees his chance and asks for his daughter Criseyde in exchange.”Not quite. “Calchas, the defecting priest, sees his chance and asks for his daughter Criseyde in exchange.”
What does the poem suggest about human happiness?
Right. “He says that it is real and strong, and that it is exposed to forces larger than anyone.”Not quite. “He says that it is real and strong, and that it is exposed to forces larger than anyone.”
Questions about Troilus and Criseyde
What is Troilus and Criseyde about?
It is a poem about a Trojan prince who falls in love with a widow named Criseyde during the siege of Troy. Her uncle Pandarus helps them, and the war then threatens their happiness.
Is Troilus and Criseyde based on a true story?
No. It is a medieval retelling of a tale from the legends of Troy. Chaucer wrote it in the 1380s, mainly after Boccaccio's Italian poem Il Filostrato, and added much of his own.
Who is Pandarus in Troilus and Criseyde?
Pandarus is Criseyde's uncle and a close friend of Troilus. He is witty and practical, and he arranges the meetings between the lovers. His name later gave English the word pander.
Is Troilus and Criseyde hard to read?
The stanzas flow well when read aloud, and the story is clear.
What is the main message of Troilus and Criseyde?
The poem shows that earthly happiness is fragile and ruled by Fortune. It also asks about fate and free will, and about the worth of vows when fear and war press on people.
