Troilus and Cressida by Geoffrey Chaucer – A book review

Written in the 14^th century, ‘Troilus and Cressida’ is considered Chaucer’s greatest poem, the other of his works of imminent importance being ‘The Canterbury Tales’.

Very few love stories are straightforward; well, are there any at all?

The time is during the Trojan war. Troilus, a Trojan prince sees the beautiful Cressida, a widow and instantly falls in love. Cressida is allowed to stay in the Trojan city, in spite of her father Calchas’s act of treason.

In this story by Chaucer, neither Troilus nor Cressida plays as strong and important part as Pandar, Cressida’s uncle and Troilus’s friend. It’s almost ugly and reprehensible how Pandar plays a pimp (it’s not me, it’s Pandar who calls himself one) to Cressida and guilefully lures her to the arms of Troilus. The kettle seems hotter than the tea as he creates situations and orchestrates incidents to make them come together, even to the extent of getting them to bed. His motive for this excitement is unclear. He deceives not only Cressida but also the hands that feed him, his master, the king and his family.

Troilus, the bravest of warriors, comes across as an incapable weakling, leaning on Pandar for everything, a pushover who wants in the smallest of difficulties of the heart to die than to face and fight. But who’s to blame in the matters of the heart when questions are many and answers few and unconvincing.

“If love is naught, O God, why feel I so?

If love is aught, what nature then hath he?

If love is good, whence cometh all my woe?

If love is bad, it seems then strange to me,

How every torment and adversity

That comes from love, itself with joy doth link,

For still I thirst the more, the more I drink.”

It doesn’t take much for Pandar to entice Cressida to fall for the great Troilus and she’s even ready for a secret affair, hidden from society. No mention of her dead husband, no memories, no guilt is presented to the reader. Her selfish justification for falling in love with Troilus is:

“What should I do? Shall I not have some fun?

Shall I not even love, if so inclined?

Why not, I’d like to know! I’m not a nun!

What if my heart a resting place should find

Upon this knight, the best of all mankind,

If I preserve my honor and my name,

I see no cause in that of harm or blame!”

And then comes the betrayal. Cressida has to go back to her father in Greece as a war exchange. She very easily convinces Troilus against his wishes of eloping and promises him to return but once there, her heart changes as easily as the hues of the approaching sunset as she settles for the Greek Diomedes. Convenience and needs become more important than the dear’s feelings. She even forgets the favour the Trojan Lords had done to her when they gave her shelter and protection in spite of her father’s betrayal. Like father, like daughter! And to wreck havoc to the lover’s heart, she gives the brooch gifted by Troilus to Diomedes.

Debating on her soul aye up and down

The words of this impetuous Diomede,

His high estate, the peril of the town,

Her loneliness and all her pressing need

Of friendly help, and thus began to breed

The reasons why, the simple truth to tell,

She thought it best among the Greeks to dwell.

This is yet another story of betrayal, of how convenience, practicality and an uncaring self obsession, without much time to lose, without much effort, without much remorse or guilt, shamelessly shuns love and defends itself in its doing. Can it get any more heartless? Practicality, hahaha – thy are death for the lover, a piercing arrow for the soldier guarding a heart full of love, a dagger of brutality. If Chaucer were alive, he’d have known so many Troilus’s and Cressida’s still exist out there, only their ways and expressions have changed.

Everything can be justified but what do we do with it? You justify your broken promises but does the pain understand that, does it grow any less? No.

…Recalling, too, that love to widely known,

Yields bitter fruit, though sweetest seed be sown.

 A prayer for all lovers of this world.

And pray for those that dwell in love’s despair,

From which they never hope to be restored;

And pray for them who must the burden bear

Of slanderous tongue of lady or of lord;

Pray God that he the faithful may reward,

And to the hopeless grant a quick release

And bring them from unrest to lasting peace.

My rating – 6/10


Image copyrights:

Book cover - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/26563/troilus-and-cressida-by-geoffrey-chaucer-translated-by-george-philip-krapp-introduction-by-peter-g-beidler/

Geoffrey Chaucer - https://www.sunsigns.org/famousbirthdays/d/profile/geoffrey-chaucer/