ABSTRACT

Troilus and Criseyde is a love story set during the Trojan War. It is the account of how two people fall in love, and the eventual betrayal of that love. The narrator has managed to endow Troilus with all the nobility of a talking cart horse, but he is as clear about Troilus’s subjection to love as he is that Criseyde is a most worthy object of that love. The matter-of-fact statement of the case lasts only as long as the stanza break before Pandarus pitches himself headlong into a tearful declaration of suicidal devotion in support of Troilus’s endeavour. The unconscious Troilus is hoisted into bed and stripped off by Pandarus as he calls upon a bewildered Criseyde to help. The two of them rub Troilus’s hands and bathe his forehead in an attempt to bring him round.