Cleveland State University
EngagedScholarship@CSU
English Faculty Publications
English Department
1992
Love, Labor, and Sloth in Chaucer’s Troilus and
Criseyde
Gregory M. Sadlek
Cleveland State University, [email protected]
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Publisher's Statement
Copyright © 1992 Penn State University Press. This article first appeared in Chaucer Review,
Volume 26, 1992, 350-368.
Original Published Citation
Sadlek, Gregory M. “Love, Labor, and Sloth in Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde.” Chaucer Review 26 (1992): 350-68.
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[email protected].
LOVE, LABOR, AND
SLOTH
IN
CHAUCER'S TROILUS AND CRISEYDE
byGregory M.
Sadlek
. .
c'est.
Amors,
an
travaillant
repos
touz
termes.
Jean de Meun
I.
in
and paradoxical
To say that erotic love is a complex
phenomenon
Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and, indeed, in all of courtly literature is
to state the obvious. But this complexity
is the reason for yet
perhaps
another
on
article
the
for
poem,
various
aspects
of
Chaucer's
concep
For example,
love in
tion of love have not yet been fully explored.
that the lover
Troilus's
world
is at one and the same time a disease
suffers, an ideal that ennobles
him, and a "house" that is built with
a space in which
creates
these various
Chaucer
activity.
purposeful
ever being
on
each
other
without
off
love
perspectives
against
play
about or, at least, feel
resolved.1 This
is why readers often disagree
who
is generally
toward the protagonist,
ambivalent
Troilus,
timid,
passive,
these
hence,
character.
and
qualities
some
prone
are
would
From
to
excessive
merely
argue,
another
despondency.
of
symptoms
irrelevant
perspective
in
one
From
an
an
Troilus's
illness,
amor
evaluation
passivity
perspective
hereos,
of
and,
Troilus's
is a natural
idealism. Finally, from still a third perspec
of his genuine
consequence
notable
character flaws.2
tive, these qualities
suggest
and Mimosa
In a recent article in the Chaucer Review, Milo Kearney
attention has been focused
that "a disproportionate
Schraer complain
. . .Yet
on Chaucer's
of the character flaws of Criseyde.
presentation
Troilus has gotten off with little criticism."3 Given the writings of K. S.
Reiss, and oth
Patch, Edmund
Kiernan,
June Hall Martin, Howard
the case. At least in the recent history of criticism,
ers, this is hardly
as he has had sup
has had almost as many
Troilus
strong detractors
is complex
moral
character
Troilus's
while
However,
enough
porters.
and while it would
to invite and support a wide variety of judgments,
to deny Troilus's
this article seeks to highlight
be a mistake
strengths,
as a victim of sloth
a significant weakness,
his acedia, for seeing Troilus
to
of
lover into a
criticisms
the
arrange many previous
hapless
helps
coherent
medieval
When
he
protagonist
melancholy,
"timido."4
pattern.
a
// Filostrato, Chaucer
discovered
took up Boccaccio's
to
fits
of
who was passive
(sometimes),
prone
exaggerated
as
and Pandaro
and characterized
by both the narrator
for
However,
and
Chaucer
his
these
contemporaries
quali
a recognizable
of moral
the
constellation
ties defined
characteristics,
of a person caught in acedia. Yet Boccaccio's Troilo was
characteristics
as courtly as Chaucer
him to be nor as
wished
neither
apparently
"timid" or "slothful" as the frequency
of Boccaccio's
epithet seemed to
In
imply.
an
his courtliness
character
appropriate
the
then,
reconstructing,
cer (1) improved
that
"an
analysis
that
conception
can
do
no
the
Chau
protagonist,
in the concept
(2) found
to counter-balance
flaw
ing virtue, his fidelity.
In his book on the Christian
comments
of
character
and
most
Troilus's
of acedia, Siegfried
more
than
of acedia
shin
Wenzel
that
suggest
a
to symbolize acedia because he stays in
lovesick romance hero ismeant
seems rather pointless."5 Wenzel
is reply
bed and weeps abundantly
to
D.
in
W.
who
1951
commented
that
lovesickness
Robertson,
Jr.,
ing
was
"an
extreme
form
of
acedia."6
However,
I do
not
intend
to
argue
that Troilus
symbolizes anything, nor do I wish to suggest that lovesick
ness was always perceived
as a moral
scholars have
Indeed,
failing.
texts to establish
adduced
sufficient evidence
from medieval
medical
that some medieval
considered
it simply a physical
writers
illness,
it the result of moral corruption.7 However,
I
while others considered
in an attempt
find that the literature of acedia is especially
illuminating
to understand
Troilus's
character
in
particular
because
the
text
sug
his major source with this specific vice in
gests that Chaucer modified
to think of a
has written:
"It is difficult
mind. As Charles Muscatine
so
romance
of
who
is
hero
French
single
quite
prostrated
by love, so
removed
from
the
actual
business
of
courtship,
who
depends
so com
All courtly lovers suffer from fear, mel
pletely on an intermediary."8
and even despair,
but Troilus
suffers from these and from
ancholia,
he is not a typical courtly lover.
passivity to an extreme degree. Hence,
He may,
indeed, be a parody of one.
I must make an important qualification
at the outset.
In
However,
Troilus and Criseyde Chaucer's
has two different
personae:
protagonist
the public warrior and the private lover.9 The public Troilus
is a confi
dent worker. He is far from Erec, whom Chretien
de Troyes
criticizes
for leaving public life to live in private pleasure with Enide, his beauti
ful wife.10 On the contrary,
Chaucer's work Troilus
fulfills
throughout
3
his public duties as warrior
who is guilty of sloth.
It is only
successfully.
Troilus
the private
readers of the Troilus may not recog
twentieth-century
Although
and his contempo
nize acedia in all of its manifestations,
for Chaucer
Sins
the
Seven
raries,
Deadly
played important parts in their universe
of discourse.11 Wenzel
has treated the subject thoroughly,
but a short
us
see
of
vice that
manifestations
the
of
its
summary
history may help
Chaucer's
not
would
contemporaries
have
The
missed.12
discussion
of
desert
fathers. Eva
acedia begins with the fourth-century
Egyptian
of Psalm
with
the
demon"
Ponticus
identified
acedia
"noonday
grius
to leave their way of life. He used it to refer to
90, who tempts monks
of life
the psychic exhaustion
and listlessness caused by the monotony
to Evagrius,
its chief remedy was patience.
in the desert. According
of the vice as
offered
the classic definition
Later, John Cassion
not
of
heart.
weariness
the
"taedium
Further,
cordis,"
only did he
somno
of the vice?idleness,
establish for the first time the branches
rudeness,
lence,
chattering,
courage
restlessness,
and
and
wandering
inquisitiveness?but
manual
about,
of
instability
mind,
two new remedies,
he also added
labor.13
two major
traditions
acedia
By the late Middle
Ages,
concerning
one
On
the
the
existed:
one,
hand,
other,
scholarly,
clearly
popular.14
acedia was thought to be a sin of the spirit. In the words of Hugh of St.
Victor
it
amaritudo
is
"ex
animi
and
immoderate
sive
tristitia,
[a sadness
immoderata"
or weariness
mind,
nata
mentis
confusione
born
On
bitterness].15
et
taedium
of confusion
the
other
of
the
hand,
to be a sin of the flesh, idleness. While Chau
acedia was also thought
of spiritual acedia in his sermon, calling
cer's Parson speaks primarily
Second
of troubled herte," Chaucer's
it at one point "the angwissh
Nun opens her tale with a treatment of fleshly acedia, which she calls
"the
was
and
ministre
"bisynesse,"
courage,
that,
as
norice
the major
the
Parson
unto
vices."16
remedy
says,
If
the
"may
endure
for
remedy
for spiritual
fleshly
by
long
suffraunce
travailles that been covenable"
(I 730).
to use this Christian
This is all very well, but how is it proper
a
in
of
the
classical,
pagan lover? The answer
concept
analysis
De
with
Andreas
Amore, a literary tradition
Capellanus'
beginning
were adapted
for use
formulations
in which Christian moral
the best and most relevant
literature of Courtly Love.17 Perhaps
is John Gower's Confessio Amantis.
ple of a work in this tradition
Confessio,
Gower's
protagonist,
Amans,
confesses
acedia
acedia wasfortitudo,
his
sins
against
or
the
moral
is that,
arose
in the
exam
In the
love
to
the framework
Genius, Love's priest. The Seven Deadly Sins provide
a
and
IV
classification
is
of
book
all
confession.
for Amans'
Indeed,
are
"in
love"
The
words
in
love.
acedia
of
of
various
illustration
types
3
seems
its Christian meaning
here, for, although
important qualifiers
to
in
the
acedia
the
which
Genius
discusses
is
always
linger
background,
not
the Christian
An
vice.
example
makes
this
clear.
In a
section
major
to his idleness.
of book
examines
Amans
with respect
IV, Genius
not
Amans
is
he
of
that
idleness
because
he is always
argues
guilty
even
to
one notable
In
offer
his
when
"service."
unbidden,
ready,
lady
terms:
in
Amans
his
"service"
the
describes
passage,
following
I serve, I bowe, I loke, I loute,
Min yhe folweth hire aboute,
so sche wole so wol I,
What
When
sche wol sitte, I knele by,
And whan sche stant, than wol I stonde:
if it falle, as for a time
And
Hir liketh noght abide bime,
Bot besien hire on other thinges,
Than make
I othre tariinges
To dreche
forth the longe dai.
(IV, 1169-73,
1181-85)18
these "tariinges" are playing with the lady's hound and birds.
Among
From the Christian
these actions simply waste time and,
perspective,
hence,
are
a form
of
idleness.
However,
Genius,
far
from
condemning
that these are bona fide amatory
Amans,
agrees with his argument
"labors." "Mi Sone," he says, "bot thou telle wilt /Oght elles than Imai
now hiere,
/ Thou
schalt have no penance
hiere"
(IV, 1224?26).
comes to dominate
the
Christian
Hence,
although
perspective
by the
treats in book IV is not the
end of the Confessio, the acedia that Genius
vice in the parallel religion of Love.
Christian
vice but an analogous
to apply the
does not find it incongruous
since Gower
Moreover,
outside
of
the
Christian
it
that Chau
context,
analogue
quite possible
cer
does
the
same
in Troilus.19
the Confessio was written a few years after Troilus, Gower's
Although
on sloth in the Mirour de Vomme antedate
it. Moreover,
it is
writings
clear that Gower was aware of the story of Troilus well before Chau
cer wrote
his
In all,
version.
works.20 Interestingly,
Mirour de Vomme 5251)
Fisher
another's
reminds
writings
us:
there
"Authors
over
are
seven
to
references
two of these (Confessio Amantis,
occur in sections
dealing with
a
converse
who
period
of
years
need
together
not
it in Gower's
IV, 2795, and
sloth. As John
and
borrow
other's very words, but they are likely to show concern
theme."21 Clearly acedia was on the minds of both Gower
in the 1370s and 1380s.22
read
one
one
an
for the same
and Chaucer
matters
To complicate
it should be noted
that another
further,
in which
of
existed
idleness, one of the branches
literary tradition
a necessary
for successful
love. For
acedia, was considered
ingredient
as a remedy against
in a well-known
love, Ovid
suggests,
example,
arcus"
"Otia
si
that
lovers
tollas, periere Cupidinis
passage,
get busy:
in the
break
take
[If you
away idleness, you
Cupid's bow].23 Further,
of the rose
is the gatekeeper
Roman de la Rose, Oiseuse (Ydelnesse)
in
tradition dominates
then, does one know which
garden.24 How,
Troilus? In fact, the idea of sloth in love makes most sense in a context
as work or labor, for if love is labor, then
is presented
where courtship
someone who is too slow or timid in love might well be thought of as
with
stricken
lover's
acedia.
the word "labor" does
Although
in Shakespeare's
does, for example,
filled
with
references
to
the
not appear
in Chaucer's
title as it
is
Love's
Labour's
Troilus
Lost,
play
courtship
as
"labor,"
"work,"
or
"tra
for while the title of Chaucer's
vail."25 This
is not surprising,
source, //
seems to compel readers to conceive of
Filostrato [The Lovestricken],
to love as either "affano" or
love only as an illness, plenty of references
Pandaro
"fatica" can be found in the work. At one point, for example,
sara
tuo
tutta
to
dolce
E'l
fine
Troilo:
fatica
mia,/
says
"Questa
voglio
che sia" [This labor will all be mine and the sweet result I wish to be
to win
thine] (2:32). In another place, Diomede,
fearing his attempt
think
sia
la
mia"
fatica
credo
"Vana
Criseida will be for naught,
[I
says:
this labor of mine an idle one] (6:10).
to these allusions
is suggested
reacted favorably
That Chaucer
by
in the Troilus. The most
of
their number
his increasing
important
in which Pandarus
from Geoffrey
of Vinsauf,
these is his borrowing
of a house.
of a love affair to the building
the conducting
compares
He
says,
For everi wight
that hath an hous to founde
the werk for to bygynne
Ne renneth naught
With
rakel hond, but he wol bide a stounde,
line out fro withinne
And send his hertes
for to wynne.
his purpos
Aldirfirst
Al this Pandare
in his herte thoughte,
And caste his werk ful wisely or he wroughte.
(I, 1065-71,
emphasis
added)
If love is a house to be built, then itmust be constructed
of a house cannot be done
The building
thoughtfully.26
narrator
to
which Chaucer's
work
that
the
might object
not the "true" labor of love.
the labor of the go-between,
the responsibilities
far beyond
Pandarus's work extends
carefully and
in a bed. One
refers here is
Nevertheless,
of Boccaccio's
a more
Pandaro,
normal
for
Pandarus,
go-between.
example,
must
on
not only undress Troilus
but also throw him into bed with Criseyde
when
the night of the first tryst (III, 1093-99).
Furthermore,
speak
ing
on
to Troilus,
one
occasion
he
to his
refers
pointedly
own
activities
as "thi werk" (II, 960).
one would
to see love as
the industrious
While
Pandarus
expect
also seems to see it the same way.
it is surprising
that Troilus
work,
of love as work, he rarely does
conceives
However,
although Troilus
for a brief time after his first night with
any of love's work, except
This
short period of well being
(III, 1772-1806)
suggests
Criseyde.
that success helps Troilus
subdue his acedia temporarily. Nevertheless,
such a small part of the entire poem,
because
this period occupies
In the main,
Chaucer's
focus seems to lie elsewhere.
then, Winthrop
Wetherbee
is correct when he notes,
"The most
striking feature of
. . .The
to
Troilus'
role is his passivity.
emotions
tendency of Troilus'
turn
in upon
themselves
rather
than
to
cause
to
him
actively
pursue
is perhaps
the most
consistent
feature of his behavior."27 The
will
those
traits in Troilus
that suggest he
analysis
following
highlight
was conceived
as a character given in part to both physical and spiri
love
tual
lover's
acedia.
II.
First of all, Troilus
admits freely to a distaste
example, when we first meet him in the temple,
about the work that he has avoided
in his life:
/ have herd told, pardieux,
Ye
And
Of
and
loveres,
which
love
O veray
youre
of youre
lewed
a labour folk han
. . .
fooles,
for love's work. For
he indirectly boasts
lyvynge,
observaunces,
in wynnynge
nyce and blynde be ye!
202, emphasis
(I, 197-200,
added)
on Criseyde,
he
leaving the temple, he first meditates
sorrow
links
labor
and
with
the
of
He
love.
process
immediately
imag
that "travaille nor grame / Ne myghte
for so
ines, says the Narrator,
this thought, Troilus
often
goodly oon be lorn" (I, 372?73).
Despite
worries about wasting
the little labor that he does for the winning
of
in book III, fearing Criseyde's
for example,
Criseyde. When,
anger
over his feigned
he is brought
into Criseyde's
"in
bedroom,
jealousy,
acorse
his mynde
/. . .And al that labour he
the
[Troilus] gan
tyme
hath don byforn,
/ He wende
it lost" (1072,
1075-76,
emphasis
When,
after
356
added). With
ences
are
the exception
of the second
quotation,
all of these refer
additions.
Chaucer's
in somnolence.
suf
When Troilus
Fleshly acedia is also manifested
fers the blows of bad fortune or his own negligence,
he characteristi
believe
that this is a normal and
cally takes to his bed. Some might
to depression,
reaction
excusable
goes to bed even when
yet Troilus
he is happy. Chaucer's
of his behavior
after the first night
description
with Criseyde
He writes that Troilus
is enlightening.
Retorned
He softe
To
slepe
to his real paleys soone,
into his bed gan for to slynke,
longe,
as
he was
(Ill,
Chaucer
slink,"
Troilus's
emphasizes
which
seems
hardly
an
wont
1534-36,
to doone.
somnolence
appropriate
added)
emphasis
here
by using
movement
for
the verb
an
"to
exultant
to doone," which
"as he was wont
the phrase
lover, and by adding
that "sloggy slombrynge"
indicates
(CT, I 705) was one of Troilus's
text.28
of these characterizations
habits. Neither
is in Boccaccio's
is
into
relief
Troilus's
acedia
by the work
fleshly
frequently
brought
and his rival, Diomede,
neither of
done by his go-between,
Pandarus,
of love. In fact, Troilus's
whom
lack fortitudo or bisynesse in matters
to assume Troilus's
work.
is aided by Pandarus's
willingness
passivity
a
line
In book I, taking
directly from Boccaccio, Chaucer has Pandarus
say: "Yef me this labour and this bisynesse, IAnd of my spede be thyn al
that
cio's
swetnesse"
original).
(I,
1042?43,
However,
emphasis
adds
Chaucer
added.
See
many
more
above
such
for
Boccac
comments.
learns from Troilus
that his favorite
For example,
when Pandarus
to
their first meet
he merrily
off
is Deiphebus,
brother
arrange
goes
as I may" (II, 1401,
and
werken
"Now
lat
the
words
with
m'alone,
ing
to
in an attempt
added). And, again, in book IV, Pandarus,
emphasis
/ Be
calm his despairing
friend, begs: "and shortly, brother deere,
added).
(650-51,
emphasis
glad, and lat me werke in this matere"
assumes Troilus's
he
often
and
However,
right
willingly
although
is indeed aware of his friend's extreme passivity.
ful work, Pandarus
In fact, several times he uses the word slouthe?a word never used in 77
to goad Troilus
activ
into some kind of minimal
Filostrato?to
attempt
to
has
returns
he
Troilus
after
when
he
For
presented
ity.
example,
he warns Troilus:
the young knight's request to Criseyde,
Sire, my nece wol do wel by the,
And
love the best, by God and by my trouthe,
But lak of pursuyt make
it in thi slouthe.
(II, 957-59)
refers to the love affair as "thi
Indeed, as I noted earlier, Pandarus
seems ready
at this point Troilus
werk" in the very next line. Because
a
to Criseyde
to respond,
that
he
write
love
letter
Pandarus
suggests
and adds: "Now help thiself, and leve it nought
for slouthe!"
(II,
is led into
before Criseyde
in the house of Deiphebus,
1008). Later,
for the third time in less than 600 lines,
Troilus's
sick room, Pandarus,
not
to
Troilus
of the affair (II,
let
sloth
hinder
the progress
urges
towards
Troilus's
sloth are, then,
attitudes
Pandarus's
1499?1502).
own
in forwarding
his
and
but
inconsistent,
industry
aggressiveness
the affair are unflagging.
in
Another
industrious worker
from part 4,
first words, adapted
this. When
he is sent to pick up
"Al my labour shal nat ben
himself:
shal I seye" (V, 94-95,
emphasis
even more
Diomede
self-confident
love's fields is Diomede.
Indeed, his
stanza 10 of 77Filostrato, underscore
his beautiful
he says to
prisoner,
on ydel, /If that Imay, for somwhat
that Chaucer makes
added). Note
and aggressive
than Boccaccio
Dio
made him (see Boccaccio's
Whereas
Boccaccio's
above).
original
with
mede
fears his labor will be vain, Chaucer's Diomede
the
begins
conviction
that his labor will not be in vain. Shrewd,
and
fearless,
is clearly spiritually akin to Pandarus and
practical as a lover, Diomede
too
to
Troilus.
He
love as labor and, like Pandarus,
opposite
perceives
a house.
amorous
if he were building
his
strategy carefully?as
plans
After closely observing Troilus
and Criseyde,
he reasons:
I am aboute nought,
Certeynlich
If that I speke of love or make
it tough;
For douteles,
if she have in hire thought
that I gesse, he may nat ben ybrought
Hym
So soon awey; but I shal fynde a meene
That
she naught wite as yet shal what I mene.
(V, 100-05)
to his first ap
does not respond
very warmly
Although
Criseyde
his
she
does
thank
him
al
travaile
and
"Of
his goode
proaches,
cheere."29 Thus, while Troilus
in book I worries
that love is nothing
but "labor" and "suffering," Diomede,
who successfully wins Criseyde
from
the
"labor" necessary
for love.30
him,
away
accepts
cheerfully
in
further
Troilus
contention
that
Chaucer
supports my
Imagery
as the polar opposite of his slothful
conceives of Diomede
protagonist.
After Diomede
first presents
his case to Criseyde,
the narrator
says,
This Diomede,
of whom yow telle I gan,
Goth now withinne
ay arguynge,
hymself
With al the sleghte and al that evere he kan,
358
How he may best, with shortest taryinge,
Into his net Criseydes
herte brynge.
To this entent he koude nevere fyne;
To fisshen hire he leyde out hook and lyne.
(V, 771?77,
added)
emphasis
in which
slothful
fishing
imagery may come from the tradition
are likened to cats who refuse to fish because
not
want
to
do
they
wet.
uses
In
their
the
for
Genius
Amantis,
paws
get
Confessio
example,
this image to describe
the idle lover:
The
men
For he ne wol no travail take
To ryde for his ladi sake,
Bot liveth al upon his wisshes;
And as a cat wolde ete fisshes
Withoute
of his cles,
wetinge
So wolde he do, bot natheles
He faileth ofte of that he wolde.
(IV, 1105-11)
Chaucer himself uses the image in the House of Fame when the Goddess
of Fame describes
the idlers who want good fame without doing any
to
merit
it.
be lyke the sweynte cat," she says, "That wolde
"Ye
thing
wete his clowes"
/ He wolde
have fissh; but wostow what?
nothing
Chaucer
(1783?85).
suggests that
By using fishing
obliquely
imagery,
that Troilus
is.31
Diomede
is no such "cat," and, by implication,
is afflicted with fleshly acedia, it is even
If it is clear that Troilus
more
that he suffers from spiritual acedia as well. Gower's
evident
of lover's sloth: besides
discusses
several different
branches
Genius
idleness,
procrastination,
and
negligence,
somnolence,
there
are
timid
all aspects of spiritual acedia.
sadness, and despair,
ity, forgetfulness,
are not essential qualities of
that
these
Few, I believe, would
argue
Troilus's
character.
Ovid writes that "res est solliciti plena timoris amor" [love is a thing
seems to have become
of a
full of anxious dread].32 This
something
was
Andreas
for
it
by
Cappellanus
quoted,
commonplace;
example,
himself when he has Criseyde
and by Chaucer
say, "Love is thyng ay
life is riddled with fears,
ful of bisy drede."33 Since Troilus's
private
one might
lover in this Ovidian
that he is simply a sensitive
argue
him (unlike
fears paralyze
since his numerous
tradition. However,
which goad her into action), one can reasonably
argue that
Criseyde's,
of the pusillani
of his acedia. In his description
they are symptoms
mous
lover,
ing nature
Gower's
Genius
of the slothful man's
foregrounds
fear when
the
emasculating,
he describes
paralyz
such a lover as
He
that hath
And
no
dar
litel of corage
mannes
werk
beginne:
Him
lacketh bothe word and dede,
Wherof
he scholde his cause spede:
He woll no manhed
understonde,
For evere he hath drede upon honde:
Al is peril that he schal seie,
Him thenkth
the wolf is in the weie,
And of ymaginacioun
He makth his excusacioun
cause of pure drede,
And feigneth
And evere he faileth ate nede,
Til al be spilt that he with deleth.
He hath the sor which noman heleth,
The
which
is cleped
lack of herte.
323-35,
(IV, 316-17,
emphasis
added)
Notice
that the distinguishing
mark of the pusillanimous
lover is that
his dread keeps him from "mannes work," the lack of which,
in turn,
causes the failure of the love affair. Even if the timid lover is apt to
blame fortune for his failure, as Troilus
does, his excuses come from
of the pusillani
Gower's
"ymaginacioun"
only. Indeed,
description
mous
lover is so like Troilus
that one wonders
whether Gower used
as his model here.
the Trojan
In Book
I Troilus
in drede"
(1, 529). He fears that
"languishes
loves
another
will
she
that
be
(1,
499),
Criseyde
angry when Pandarus
reveals his (Troilus's)
love to her (1, 1019), and that she will not hear
his case (1, 1020). On more
than one occasion, Pandarus
ridicules the
of
fears
the young Trojan
and he even
1, 1023?24),
(for example,
to exorcise
tries to anger him with unjust accusations,
the
hoping
man's
younger
fear
and
sorrow:
Thise wordes
seyde he for the nones alle,
That with swich thing he myght hym angry maken,
And with angre don his wo to falle,
As
for
the
tyme,
and
his
corage
(I, 561?64,
awaken.
emphasis
added)
one should recall, was the
Courage,
remedy for spiritual acedia, and,
here plays the concerned
But in Books
IV
thus, Pandarus
physician.
and V Troilus
is afraid to carry out his plan to spirit Criseyde
out of
he fears Criseyde will be slain by the Greeks
(IV, 561-62),
(V,
Troy
and he fears to sneak into the Greek camp to visit Criseyde
52?54),
360
(V, 1576?82).
his fears hold
Again,
action.
him
back
from
direct,
remedial
The best and certainly
the funniest example of Troilus's
paralyzing
fear comes on the night of the first tryst. Chaucer makes
it clear that,
were
Troilus's
the
it not for Pandarus,
fears would have prevented
at
from
For
when
he
realizes
that
all.
tryst
happening
example,
Troilus
Pandarus
has completed
all the arrangements,
prays: "Now,
blisful
thow
Venus,
me
. . For
/.
send!
grace
nevere
no
yet
nede
/
ich er now, ne halvendel
the drede" (III, 705?07).
Completely
a litany of prayers
to the gods?including
he begins
distracted,
was
that Troilus
Diana!?for
Pandarus,
sensing
help and strength.
mouses
"Thow
in
wrecched
anger,
snaps
merely
procrastinating,
and grabs
herte, / Artow agast so that she wol the bite?" (Ill, 736-37)
When
forced
him "by the lappe" to pull him along
(III, 742).
by
can say
Pandarus's
lies to play the role of the jealous
lover, Troilus
al is wist, than am I
nothing but "God woot that of this game, /Whan
to
in his fa
Troilus
blame"
(III, 1084?85).
collapses
Finally,
nought
Hadde
mous
swoon,
which
seems
Chaucer
to
was
suggest
sorrow
caused
by
excess
of
It is not until Troilus
is quite literally
and fear (III, 1086?92).
and
then
stroked
in bed and stripped
thrown
Pandarus,
by
by
on his
some
to
of
he
be
minimal
action
that
Criseyde
begins
capable
own behalf.
can be taken from a compari
A measure
of Troilus's
pusillanimity
son with the "timid" Troilo.
Boccaccio's
Unlike Troilus,
lover makes
to
house
and waits in her garden
his way without
Pandaro
Criseida's
con
"baldanzoso
seco
e
sicuro"
[with
a
sense
of
and
courage
security]
but
is not at all tongue-tied
the two lovers meet, Troilo
(3:25). When
a
two
kiss
thousand
lovers
the
After
his
love
expresses
confidently.
where
times in the garden,
bedroom,
they
they rush into Criseida's
to
would
into
While
Criseida
bed.
themselves
and
prefer
jump
strip
a
on
rid
herself
of
asks
that
she
Troilo
bit
of
underwear,
boldly
keep
/
si ch'io t'abbia in braccio
/ Tte ne prego,
it, saying: "anima mia,
come ilmio cor disia" [Soul of me, I pray thee remove it, so
si
Ignuda
that Imay have thee naked inmy arms, as my heart desireth]
(3:32). If
these
are
the
actions
of
a "timido
amante,"
how
does
one
characterize
those of Troilus?
of spiritual acedia, forgetfulness,
The next manifestation
leads
for here dread
only a specific effect of pusillanimity,
memory.
Gower's
like Troilus
when
Amans,
who
to
confesses
he says:
I come ther sche
For whanne
I have it al foryete ywiss;
is,
"forgetfulness,"
is really
to loss of
is much
Of that I thoghte forto telle
I can noght
thanne unethes
spelle
That
I wende
altherbest
have rad,
So
sore
I am
of
hire
adrad.
(IV, 567-72)
Troilus's
is best seen when he lies in bed at Deiphebus's
forgetfulness
to appear. Chaucer
for Criseyde
house waiting
tells us that Troilus
encounter
the
his
remarks
before
(III, 51?55).
carefully
prepared
enters
"his herte gan to
when
the room,
Nevertheless,
Criseyde
quappe" for dread, and "his lessoun that he wende konne /To preyen
hire, is thorugh his wit ironne" (III, 57, 83?84). He can say nothing
swete herte!"
but "Mercy, mercy,
(Ill, 98). All this scene is Chaucer's
to Boccaccio's
addition
story.
To treat in detail all the passages
in which Chaucer
says that Troilus
suffers from sorrow or tristitia, the next branch of spiritual acedia,
for with the exception
would be tedious and unnecessary,
of a brief
is continuously
In
sorrowful.
period at the end of book III, Troilus
seems well described
definition
of
deed, his attitude
by Petrarch's
acedia
as
"a
of
voluptuousness
suffering."34
announces
at the beginning
of the Troilus
Chaucer
theme will be sorrow, and "swich peyne and wo as Loves
(I, 34). He begins:
that a major
folk endure"
sorwe of Troilus
to tellen,
The double
sone of Troye,
That was the kyng Priamus
In lovynge, how his aventures
fellen
Fro
My
wo
to wele,
purpos
and
after
out
is, er that I parte
of
joie,
fro ye.
(I, 1-5)
If "sorrow"
is "the distress
caused by loss, suffering
of mind
[or]
(OED, sorrow, 1), it is clear that Troilus's
disappointment"
spiritual
acedia, his "angwissh of troubled herte," must be the central concern
of the narrative. This sorrow is double in several senses. First, there are
and that of losing
really two sorrows, the sorrow of winning
Criseyde
her. It is also double in the sense of being "doubly
intense"
(MED,
since the Middle
double, 3a). Finally,
English double could also mean
sorrow
treacherous"
"false, deceitful,
[or]
(MED, double, 6a), Troilus's
even
more
is double because
than
bad
it,
fortune,
through
through
Troilus
loses Criseyde,
it seems, values Diomede's
labor and
who,
than she values Troilus's
good cheer even more
integrity and deep
suffering.
Near the end of book V, when
Troilus
charges
off
to seek Diomede
3
a reader's first impression
is likely to be that Troilus
has
his
acedia
and
his
and
that
have
conquered
private
public personae
at this point
is only an illusion, however,
because
finally met. This
most
the
terrible
manifestation
of acedia,
Troilus
ismotivated
last,
by
in battle,
despair,
"that
comth,"
says
the
Parson,
"somtyme
of
to muche
outra
of to muche
drede"
sorwe, and somtyme
(I 693). Only just
geous
in
and
suicide
book
saved
from
IV, Troilus, who discov
barely
despair
ers Criseyde's
broach on Diomede's
cloak, now seeks both to kill and
to be killed; he says:
moore
And certeynly, withouten
speche,
as ferforth
as I may,
From hennesforth,
Myn owen deth in armes wol I seche;
I recche nat how soone be the day!
(V, 1716-19)
at this point: "The necessary
motivation
Wetherbee
says of Troilus's
or ha
is not madness
for Troilus'
condition
final display of courage
to
his
is
the
motive
for
'wrath'
desire
and
the
but
tred,
only
despair,
unlike Troilus, Troilo at the corre
achieve his own death."35 However,
story seems motivated
by anger and a
point in Boccaccio's
sponding
he
that
die in
he
desire for vengeance.
recognizes
might
Although
to
not
kill
chief
intent
is
but to
his
himself
of
his
vengeance,
pursuit
kill Diomede:
davanti
Mandimi
Iddio Diomede
La prima volta ch'esco alia battaglia!
disio tra limiei guai contanti,
Questo
Si ch'io provar gli faccia come taglia
con pianti
La spada mia, e lui morir
Nel campo faccia, e poi non me ne caglia
e lui
Che mi s'uccida, sol ch'e'muoia,
Misero
trovi nelli
regni
bui.
(8:21)
in my way the first time that I go
[May the gods send Diomede
that I
forth in battle. This do I desire among my great woes,
and
sword
cutteth
how
him
know
let
my
put
may
by experience
him to death with groans on the field of battle. And then I care
not if I die provided
only that he die and that I find him
in the realm of darkness.]
wretched
While
perate
Troilo's
action,
anger is directed
Troilus's
anger
outwardly
is primarily
and pushes him into des
inwardly directed. With
respect
Troilus
to his acedia, then, the Troilus
of the earlier books.
of book V differs
little from
the
III.
If one accepts the argument
and fleshly acedia, what effect
poem? First, it shifts somewhat
readers
have
often
seen
its main
suffers from both spiritual
that Troilus
does that have on one's reading of the
the moral focus of the work. Chaucer's
moral
preoccupation
as
an
examina
love or the polarity between
of worldly
tion of either the transitoriness
Troilus's
and
unfaithfulness
fidelity.36 From the second
Criseyde's
the narrator,
is
of
the
Criseyde
protestations
despite
perspective,
for the collapse of the love
made to bear complete moral responsibility
is
due to his fidelity,
sad end. Moreover,
affair and Troilus's
Troilus,
as a sloth
Troilus
but
blameless.
considered
However,
seeing
unlucky
for the failure of the affair to
ful lover shifts some of the responsibility
not
of all her guilt, it at
relieve Criseyde
his shoulders
and, if it does
more
the
least distributes
equitably.
guilt
for our view
such a reading of Troilus also has implications
Second,
for
His
narrator's
of Chaucer's
narrative
open sympathy
strategies.
the romance. Even after
is made quite clear throughout
the heroine
one
Criseyde betrays her lover, the narrator, unlike Robert Henry son,
can
to
her
himself
admit
of Chaucer's
hardly bring
early readers,
even
And
hire
herte."37
"Men
she
not?that
yaf hym
seyn?I
guilt:
her: "For she so
when he does admit her guilt, he cannot condemn
excuse
I
was
hire
I
wolde
/
for
hire
untrouthe
wis,
yet for routhe"
sory
the poet works silently to
If I am correct, then Chaucer
(V, 1098?99).
the qualities
further his narrator's
explicit agenda. By incorporating
he quietly subverts the audience's
of lover's acedia into his protagonist,
and shores up sympathy for
sympathy for the true but weak Troilus
his heroine.
is undercut
he
for Troilus
because,
although
Ultimately,
sympathy
a
in
he
is
he
lacks
is extremely
sense,
idealistic,
courage;
practical
we
seen
in
his
As
have
sloth.
emasculated
earlier,
by
psychologically
the pusillanimous
lover as emas
the Confessio Amantis Genius describes
culated,
a
lover
who
can
not
or will
not
do
a "mannes
werk";
and
in the
that if a knight holds with womanish
Vox Clamantis, Gower
argues
teneat si miles,
abibit /
his honor dies: "Femineos mores
behavior,
woman
a
with
honor"
the
holds
nobilitatis
[If
Orphanus
stirpe
knight
ish behavior,
his honor dies, cut off from the root of nobility].38 Mar
via sloth was always a potential
tin writes
that spiritual emasculation
in
for
"love
feeds
and nurtures
literature,
inactivity."39
courtly
danger
36
How far Chaucer went in emasculating
his protagonist
is suggested by
is not even allowed the male
R. E. Kaske, who points out that Troilus
role in the traditional dawn song. Kaske writes:
on Troilus
to have bestowed
several speeches
on
an
to
in
the
and
certain
aube,
usually assigned
lady
Criseyde
a
to
the
thus
theme
lover,
speeches usually assigned
enriching
in other parts of the poem: the reversal of
sometimes
detected
seems
Chaucer
of
roles
man
woman
and
as
they
are
and
popularly
romanti
conceived.40
cally
Chaucer's
sometimes
of Troi
comic, sometimes
pathetic heightening
lus's sloth dovetails well with other of his strategies for diminishing
the
seems
not
to
of
From
be
Troilus
his
hero.
this
perspective,
masculinity
an ideal courtly lover.
into
ascends "ful blisfully"
The ending of the poem, where Troilus
neither proves that Troilus
is an unflawed
the heavens
(V, 1807?27),
that Troilus
suffers from lover's
lover nor disproves
my argument
ethical perspective
is
in the poem, Chaucer's
acedia. By this point
a lover despairs,
a
as
his
Christian.
Troilus
fidelity,
clearly
Although
virtue under both ethical systems, saves him. In some respects, how
the earthly Troilus,
resembles
ever, the heavenly Troilus
for, as he
the stars, he "dampned
al
rises to find his final resting place among
oure werk that foloweth
so / The blynde
lust" (V, 1823?24,
emphasis
for condemning
his motives
love's labor are
added). Nevertheless,
from those that caused him to avoid it earlier, for at this
different
his
point
opinion
springs not from his sloth but from the Boethian
him by his newly won, other-worldly
wisdom afforded
perspective.
an ideal lover, neither
is
A final point: if Troilus
is not for Chaucer
Pandarus
or
Diomede.
of
lover's
acedia
tive
On
they
the
are
contrary,
presented
from
although
as more
the
purposeful,
perspec
coura
from other perspectives
and sane than Troilus,
they too are
are
for
flawed.
crass,
both,
example,
prosaic, and ruth
They
seriously
his
fineness
of feeling
his
lack Troilus's
less. They
nobility,
integrity,
the
that
all
and thought. My argument
poem's charac
simply suggests
ters are flawed when seen in light of its various moral and social codes,
no one of which
to dominate
is allowed
completely.
in light of lover's
of Criseyde
A full investigation
And Criseyde?
of this article.
the bounds
acedia goes well beyond
Interestingly,
geous,
Pandarus
also
action.41
However,
energy,
difficult
less,
to
uses
the
word
Criseyde
"slouthe"
has
too much
three
of
to
times
her
uncle's
push
her
practicality,
into
It would be
and wit for us to take these charges
seriously.
to prove that Criseyde
suffers from fleshly acedia. Neverthe
the
extent
that
Criseyde
deserves
the
narrator's
characteriza
5
tion as "the ferfulleste
she too
be" (II, 450-51),
wight / That myghte
as
seen
from
be
spiritual acedia. But, in
suffering
might appropriately
seem
to
even
not
does
fit her. Her fears are
this charge
my opinion,
on
founded
real
and
she has the healthy
worldly
generally
dangers,
out
of
best
of unfortunate
trait
the
(but perhaps
ignoble)
making
to lethargy and
situations. Criseyde
lacks
Troilus's
simply
proclivities
in
she
lacks
his
melancholia;
"voluptuousness
suffering."
In Troilus and Criseyde Chaucer
the concepts of labor and
explores
acedia in the highly artificial world of courtly love rather than in their
or the workplace.
usual contexts
of the monastery
so, he
By doing
from which readers can evaluate
adds another ethical perspective
the
In particular,
characters
and actions of his poem.
he employs
lover's
in conceiving
acedia as a guide
the dark side of an otherwise
shining
hero,
the
University
sad,
serious,
ofNebraska
suffering
chevalier
of
Ilium.
at Omaha
on Literature
This article, based on papers given at the Sixth Citadel Conference
and
was made
the 1988 South Central MLA Convention,
Semi
possible
by a 1986 Summer
nar Fellowship
Endowment
from
for the Humanities
the National
and a Margaret
I am grateful
to all the
Scott Fellowship
from Hamilton
and
Bundy
College.
people
that aided me in its completion,
institutions
Prof. R. E. Kaske, who organized
especially
I attended,
the N.E.H.
Seminar
and Profs.
Thomas
Milosh,
Liszka, George
Joseph
on the article's vari
comments
and Thomas
who offered
Economou,
Garbaty,
helpful
ous drafts. They,
of course,
bear no responsibility
in the
for errors
that may
remain
text.
see Charles
1. For a similar
Muscatine's
of the "multicon
view,
description
awareness
the "simultanous
and opposite
of different
in
sciousness,"
planes of reality,"
Chaucer and the French Tradition
See also June Hall Martin's
132-33.
1957),
(Berkeley,
in Love's Fools: Aucassin,
remarks
Troilus, Calisto, and the Parody of the Courtly Lover (Lon
don,
1972), 40.
on Troilus
note ismeant
2. Since the critical
literature
is voluminous,
the following
to be
of general
rather than exhaustive.
those critics who see
suggestive
positions
Among
as an ideal courtly
Troilus
lover are: F. Xavier
"Chaucer's
Troilus
and Self
Baron,
in Love," PLL 10 (1974): 5?14; John Bayley, The Characters of Love: A
Renunciation
Study
in the Literature of Personality
"The Hero of the Troilus,"
David,
(New York,
1960); Alfred
T. P. Dunning,
in Troilus and Criseyde,"
"God and Man
in
Speculum 37 (1962): 566?81;
toJ.R.R.
and Mediaeval
Studies Presented
ed. Norman
Davis
and C. L.
Tolkien,
English
Wrenn
(London,
1962), 164?82; Thomas
Kirby, Chaucer's Troilus: A Study in Courtly Love
The Allegory
([Baton Rouge,
1936; repr.
1940]); C. S. Lewis,
1976);
of Love (London,
in Chaucer's
Robert
"The Central
Troilus," PMLA 11 (1962): 373
ap Roberts,
Episode
"Chaucer's
Troilus of Book
79 (1964): 542-47.
88; and Siegfried
IV," PMLA
Wenzel,
Muscatine's
is an ideal knight. However,
because
he is
(137) is that Troilus
opinion
too ideal, he becomes
a
somewhat
of nostalgia.
Martin
that
(64-65)
argues
figure
Troilus
is a tool of parody.
on Troilus
Critics who have rendered
harsh judgments
include Richard
F. Green,
"Troilus
and the Game
of Love," ChauR
13 (1979): 201-22
is "a socially
(Troilus
inept
K. S. Kiernan,
"Hector
the Second: The Lost Face of Troilostratus,"
AnM
16
buffoon");
to
for
52?62
blame
is
of
his
because
Howard
(1975):
(Troilus
losing Criseyde
passivity);
Chaucer
is miserably
insecure
Patch, On Rereading
Mass.,
1939): Troilus
(Cambridge,
3
"Troilus
and the
and Edmund
fearful;
Reiss,
131?44
wise nor heroic;
is neither
(1968):
(Troilus
3. Milo Kearney
"The
and Mimosa
Schraer,
185.
4. The Filostrato
ed. and
Boccaccio,
of Giovanni
1929), part 2: stanzas 93,
Myrick
(Philadelphia,
and
Failure
of Understanding,"
29
MLQ
of pity).
he is simply worthy
Flaw in Troilus,"
ChauR
22 (1988):
trans. Nathaniel
Griffin
and Arthur
4: 16, 73; 7: 50; 8: 8. In 5: 35,
94;
Pandaro
calls Troiolo's
actions
"cowardly."
are from this edition.
from // Filostrato
All quotations
and translations
5. Siegfried Wenzel,
The Sin of Sloth: Acedia inMedieval
(Cha
Thought and Literature
128.
1967),
pel Hill,
in Medieval
of Charity
6. "The Doctrine
Gardens,"
Speculum 26 (1951): 44.
see John Livingston
"The Loveres Maladye
of Hereos,"
7. On
lovesickness
Lowes,
Love Sickness,"
M. Ciavolella,
and Arcite's
MP
11 (1914): 491-546;
"Medieval Medicine
Annual Papers on Classical Antiquity and theMiddle
Carleton University
Ages 1
Florilegium:
to Chaucer
D. W. Robertson,
1962), 49, 108
(Princeton,
(1979): 222-41;
Jr., A Preface
of Troilus,"
in Chaucer and the
"The Love-Sickness
469; Charlotte
Otten,
10, 457?60,
A. Arrathon
and Mary
ed. Leigh
Minn.,
1986), 23-33;
(Rochester,
Craft of Fiction,
Cornell
in Chaucer's
Troilus and Criseyde" (Ph.D. dissertation,
and Love
Wack,
"Memory
PCP
and "The Liber de hereos
in Troilus"
19 (1984): 55-61,
Univ.,
1982), "Lovesickness
Love Conventions,"
for Medieval
and Its Implications
morbo of Johannes
Affacius
Specu
lum 62 (1987): 324-44.
as his authori
of Gordon
and Bernard
of Villanova
who cites Arnaldus
Robertson,
of the spirit
which
he calls a malady
of lovesickness,
the moral
ties, stresses
reading
are atypical,
who argues
authorities
that Robertson's
rather
than of the flesh. Wack,
to sup
Petrus Hispanicus,
and Avicenna,
cites Constantinus
others,
Africanus,
among
as a moral
was not usually
understood
that lovesickness
failing.
port her contention
one reads. It
on which
to amor hereos, then, seems dependent
authorities
One's
attitude
Chaucer
knew of all these writers,
for Petrus Hispanicus,
is clear, however,
that, except
of the
to them by name
in his description
in the Canterbury Tales, either
for he refers
or in the Canon's Yeoman's Tale (G 1428).
(A 429-34)
Physician
a
whether
acedia itself was not more
than
Some medieval
thinkers wondered
physical
a moral
who identified
the vice with fear, often argued
the scholastics,
illness. Especially
an imbalance
See Wenzel,
Sin of Sloth, 59?
of humors.
that acedia was caused
simply by
Intro
Robert Gillet,
191-94.
A, "Acedia and the Humors,"
60, and especially
Appendix
sur Job (Paris,
the
that Gregory
le Grande, Morales
duction,
1952), 91, argues
Gregoire
that it
he thought
Sins because
Great dropped
acedia from the list of the Seven Deadly
Wenzel
in the realm of pathology.
the realm of morals
and
fell outside
comments,
to support Gillet's
that there is no real evidence
however,
theory. See 5m of Sloth, 25.
8. Muscatine,
137.
see William
H. Brown,
9. On
and private
the public
personae,
Jr., "A Separate
of Tradition,
and the Troilus
Peace: Chaucer
Furthermore,
"JEGP 83 (1984): 492-508.
"
14 (1979?
in Chaucer's
'Love that oughte
ben secree'
Troilus," ChauR
Barry Windeatt,
sense of the distinction
there is a sharper
that in Chaucer's
80): 116?31,
poem
argues
than in // Filostrato.
and outer, public, worlds
the inner, private,
between
10. See Les Romans de Chretien de Troyes, vol. 1: Erec et Enide
(Paris, 1952).
The Seven Deadly Sins ([East Lansing],
11. See Morton
Bloomfield,
1952), esp. 157?
in "Piers Plowman"
The Crisis of Will
202. John Bowers,
D.C.,
1986), 62,
(Washington,
in medieval
acedia
either do not recognize
readers
three reasons
why modern
gives
concerns
he
or do not
when
with
the writer's
when
literature
they see it
sympathize
under
treats the vice: (1) the subject was hidden
(2) the symp
terminology;
specialized
the vice by name, medieval
than mentioning
so well known
toms were
that, rather
of "sloth" has nar
and (3) the concept
the symptoms;
often mentioned
writers
only
to procrastinate.
than a tendency
little more
that today itmeans
rowed so much
Traditio 22 (1966):
The Sin of Sloth, see also Wenzel's
12. Besides
700-1200,"
"Acedia,
inWestern Literature
Ennui
The Demon of Noontide:
and Reinhard
Kuhn,
(Prince
72-102,
ton,
1976).
13. Wenzel,
Sin of Sloth,
5-22.
7
14. Ibid., 174.
15. Summa de Sacramentis Fidei, II. 13. 1 (PL 175: 526).
are from The Riverside
from Chaucer
16. Canterbury Tales, I 677; G 1. All quotations
3rd ed. (Boston,
Chaucer, ed. Larry D. Benson,
1987).
in English
17. See John F. Fitzpatrick,
Litera
"Courtly Love and the Confessional
ture from
Indiana Univ.,
1215 to John Gower"
(Ph.D. dissertation,
1978).
4 vols.
18. Confessio Amantis,
vol. 2 in The Works of John Gower, ed. G. C. Macaulay,
from Gower will be taken from this edition.
(Oxford,
1901). All quotations
as an imitation
see
19. For a discussion
of Christianity,
of the religion
of Love
in Essays inHonor
E. Slaughter,
"Love and Grace
in Chaucer's
Troilus,"
ofWalter
Eugene
1954), 61-76.
(Nashville,
and Friend of Chaucer
the list see John Fisher, John Gower: Moral Philosopher
(New York,
1964), 233.
21. Fisher,
204.
as the cause
two writers would
often have heard
the Christian
vice described
22. The
of England's
For example,
of the late fourteenth
manifold
social problems
century.
to Bowers,
acedia the most
William
who may
have considered
Langland,
according
construct
for most of the forms of corruption
sin, uses sloth as a "unifying
dangerous
in Piers Plowman"
Brinton
of
held up for censure
(xiii). Furthermore,
Bishop Thomas
in January
of 1375, also sees acedia at the root of
in a sermon
delivered
Rochester,
"Verum
si terra non reddat
fertiliter
fructum
he writes:
suum,
turmoil;
England's
Clyde Curry
20. For
multum
debent
si regno Anglie
accidant
infortuna,
atque guerre,
pestilencie,
not render
if the earth would
its fruit abundantly,
accidie
nostre."
[Indeed,
imputari
or war would
of England,
befall the kingdom
nay, if bad fortune,
they ought
pestilence,
on our acedia.]
to be blamed
2 vols. (London,
Devlin,
Sermons, ed. Mary Aquinas
greatly
1954), 1: 216 (my translation).
23. Remedia Amoris
(line 139), in The Art of Love and Other Poems, ed. J. H. Mozley
immo
Mass.,
1939).
(Cambridge,
Le Roman de la Rose, ed. Felix Lecoy,
3
de Lorris and Jean de Meun,
24. Guillaume
are from this edition.
from the Roman
vols. (Paris,
lines 523?628.
1966),
Quotations
Whether
Oiseuse
stands for aristocratic
leisure or the vice Luxuria
has been hotly
et un
Luxure:
debated
See Carlos
Trois
dames
Venus,
Alvar,
"Oiseuse,
recently.
Romania
106 (1985):
miroir,"
108-17;
"Miniature,
Jean Batany,
allegorie,
ideology:
"
in Etudes sur "Le
'Oiseuse' et la mystique
monacale
recuperee
par la 'classe de loisir,'
de Lorris, ed. Jean Dufornet
Roman de la Rose" de Guillaume
(Paris, 1984), 7?36; Charles
de la Rose," Speculum 44 (1969): 581; J. V. Fleming,
"Love and the.Roman
The
Dahlberg,
Romance
1969), 74; E. Kohler,
(Princeton,
of the Rose: A Study in Allegory and Iconography
H.
and Oiseuse,"
78 (1962): 464-69;
"Lea, Matelda
Zeitschrift fur Romanische
Philologie
die Dame
mit dem Spiegel,"
Germanische-Romanische
15
Kolb,
"Oiseuse,
Monatsschrift
on Oiseuse's
Earl Jeffrey
Mirror:
"Reflections
139?49;
Richards,
(1965):
Iconographic
de la Rose," Zeitschrift fur Romanische
Luxuria
98
and the Roman
Tradition,
Philologie
D. W. Robertson,
"Sur le Per
296-311;
198; and Sasaki
(1982):
Preface,
Shigemi,
Etudes de langue et litterature francaises
32 (March
1?24.
d'Oiseuse,"
1978):
sonnage
the Middle
"to copulate"
verb labouren could mean
25. Although
(MED, la),
English
to the MED
and OED
labor nor work as nouns
neither
had any specific
according
or love. One would
to courtship
connection
their use in IlFilostrato
like to know whether
a
on the aristocratic
and the Troilus reflects
influence
love formula
bourgeois
courtly
tion. In other words,
is this a sign that the middle
class work ethic is being borrowed,
or unconsciously,
either
Chaucer's
and,
then, Chaucer?
consciously
by Boccaccio
Parlement
in playing
for example,
that he was interested
of Foules,
gives clear indication
aristocratic
and bourgeois
values off against each other.
narrator
of the Parlement
the "ars longa, vita
Chaucerian
26. The
of Foules uses
breva"
the work of love in lines 1-4.
topos to describe
Chaucer and the Poets (Ithaca,
1984), 65-67.
se n'entro
nel real palagio,
/ Tacitamente
Boccaccio
writes:
"Tomato
Troilo
nel
se potesse
to the royal
ad agio" [After Troilus
had returned
letto, / Per dormir
alquanto
to bed to sleep a little, if he could, for ease] (3: 53).
thence
palace, he went
silently
27.
28.
36
In the parallel
added.
of 77Filostrato, Griseida
29. V, 184, emphasis
rebuffs
passage
Diomede
but notices
his "ardir," his daring
(6: 26).
30. Although
Two
Alain
16
Half
Orbis Litterarum
Renoir,
Lovers,"
"Criseyde's
the differences
in terms of the
between
Troilus
and Diomede
(1961): 239-55,
explores
not use acedia as his
former's
and
the latter's aggressive
he does
passivity
activity,
terms. He claims
in Jungian
he analyzes
their differences
that
rather,
starting point;
to
whose
fear suggests
that she has a stronger
anima than animus,
is drawn
Criseyde,
On
Diomede
almost
her will because
his animus
is clearly dominant.
the other
against
is dominated
that he, like Criseyde,
hand, Troilus's
suggests
by his anima.
passivity
in choosing
that she did not have
finds a psychic
Thus, Criseyde,
Diomede,
complement
in Troilus.
31. Wenzel,
Sin of Sloth, 105, says that this was the most widespread
simile of its kind.
in Heroides
and Amores, ed. Grant
Showerman
32. Heroides,
1.12.
(New York,
1931),
on Love, ed. and trans. P. G. Walsh
33. Andreas Capellanus
1982), 3.291.
(London,
IV, 1645.
Chaucer,
Troilus,
34. From De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae. Quoted
both in Kuhn
(72) and Bowers
(72).
35. Wetherbee,
222.
36. See, for example,
the analyses
of Baron, Dunning,
and Bayley.
Fox (New
37. See The Testament
in Robert Henryson:
The Poems, ed. Denton
ofCresseid,
Chaucer,
York,
Troilus, V, 1050.
1987), esp. lines 542-74;
is
38. Vox Clamantis,
vol. 4 of The Complete Works of John Gower, 5.4. The
translation
from The Major Latin Works of John Gower, trans. Eric W. Stockton
(Seattle,
1962).
16.
39. Martin,
in Chaucer Criticism: Troilus and Criseyde and the
40. "The Aube
in Chaucer's
Troilus,"
Minor Poems, ed. Richard
and Jerome
170-71.
(Notre Dame,
1961),
J. Schoeck
Taylor
41. Troilus,
II, 286; III, 896 and 935.
Post-print standardized by MSL Academic Endeavors, the imprint of the Michael
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