Troilus and Criseyde

Yes, another reread of this text, my third this semester. I don't think I'm going to want to read it for a long time after this, lovely as it is. I just can't seem to get to grips with it well enough to do my essay, so I just marathoned it, alongside Shakespeare and Dryden's versions.

I read mostly for Criseyde/Cressida's character, this time. I don't know quite what to make of it, actually: she is so virtuous, and we see her in so much detail for the first part of the story, but then we see her betrayal only from Troilus' point of view -- when it seemed to me that she was the one who risked most for their love, and who was ready to put more into it. Maybe I'm too coloured by Shakespeare and Dryden, though.

(The actual edition I used was the Norton one, so my original comments on that still stand.) ( )

As with Shakespeare's version of this story, Chaucer deserves rereading, particularly if you're planning to write a 4,000 word paper on his version of Troilus and Criseyde. I've said pretty much all of what I want to say about his plot and characters in my original review, not so long ago, but it is interesting to read this again in light of having read Henryson and Shakespeare's work -- and in a different edition.

Barry Windeatt is, I gather, a pretty important scholar in this particular field. His notes are good and there's a lot of background information, but I prefer the Norton edition because it has the glosses printed alongside rather than beneath the poetry, making it a lot easier to peruse at a glance. The way it's printed here makes it quite difficult for the text to flow unless you're only going to need to look up a word or two here and there. (I'm immersed in Middle English at the moment and I still need the glosses for some words, so for a casual reader, that'd probably be a deal breaker...) ( )

Modern English verse translation.