ABSTRACT
The happiness of Troilus and Criseyde is destroyed by a particular stroke of bad Fortune. The prominence of Fortune in Troilus reveals an added layer of philosophical material only briefly present in Boccaccio’s less intellectual narrative. Boethius’ ideas about Fortune, Providence and Destiny are echoed in Troilus, but they appear in the service of a variety of literary purposes. Modern Chaucerians, if somewhat less numerous, have engaged in equally fierce debate over the function of Fortune in Troilus. Fortune in Troilus often represents the basic condition of human life on this earth - an unredeemed natural world of ceaseless motion with no Lady Philosophy in sight. As the nature imagery of the ballad suggests, Fortune is Troilus’ foe only in the sense that he must suffer the consequences of her inevitable ‘brotelnesse’. Change is the essence of Fortune, and it is therefore appropriate that her role develops in the course of Troilus and Criseyde.
