ABSTRACT
The most sustained result of Geoffrey Chaucer’s ranging, searching artistic consciousness occupied him during the period c. 1385–1387. Chaucer’s writings is there any clear evidence that he had seen a stage representation of a classical play, although there is mention of miracle plays and the ‘scaffolds’ of such productions. Doubtless Chaucer never saw a staged performance of classical drama. The history of the stage production of Roman drama or neo-Latin imitations in Italy in the fourteenth century remains un-documentable. Chaucer prolongs the single day time scheme beyond Criseyde’s waking and dreaming experience. Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, Pandarus and Diomede belong to the older world of the complications of honour. The scenic structure of Troilus seems to rely on two basic organizing principles, character-grouping and time-value, the first of which may be traced to an academic or reading knowledge of Roman drama. The second basic element in the Chaucerian formulation of scene in Troilus is that of time-value.
