ABSTRACT
Geoffrey Chaucer creates the illusion of a lively and mutual relationship between the fictional narrator, who has been singled out so often and so out of proportion in criticism, and the fictional audience with which audience are asked to identify themselves. The poem, as it were, creates its own audience and it implies a set of expectations which it partly fulfils and partly disappoints. At the outset of Troilus, Chaucer, developing a hint from Boccaccio, addresses himself to the lovers among his audience, but not, as Boccaccio did, to ask for their personal sympathy and pity, but to appeal to their superior experience. In the course of the poem the lovers among the audience are several times singled out as the only people whose understanding and experience can make up for the shortcomings of the poet. More interesting and provocative is the poet’s appeal to the audience’s judgement in questions concerning the characters of the story.
