T fate, providence, pagan

Question 1

For all that comth, comth by necessitee / Thus to be lorn it is my destinee’ (IV. 958

Answer 1

• echoes thought of Boethian prisoner
• potential for movement suggested by the repetition of ‘comth’ is usurped by a caesura: imitates the way in which Troilus self-imposes a halting of action by way of his passive acceptance of a supposedly fixed fate
• use of caesura in expressing T’ surrender to destiny reflects the absoluteness of his belief.
• the definitiveness of the balanced lines characterizing his speech with inertia.
• final rhyming couplet of ‘necessitee’ and ‘destinee’ enact a kind of psychological self-entrapment as the circularity of rhyme creates a claustrophobic pattern - he feels imprisoned and imposed by fate.
• repeats Boethian lament but the absence of figure equivalent to Lady P. reader sees inconsistencies of T argument by irony

Question 2

But who may all eschue, or al devyne? / swich is this world! Forthi I thus diffyne: / Ne trust no wight to fynden in Fortune / Ay propretee; hire yiftes ben comune.

Answer 2

pandarus book 4 after hearing C will be exchanged for A

• like lady philosophy, he advocates an understanding of Fortunes commonality to human existence.
  ‘this world’ and its submission to Fortune, simular to Lady P teaching that men should deny material pleasures as it is not true happiness.
• ‘forth i thus…’ : P asserts his own human view. forthi and thus are used tautologically to suggest a defiant mode of reasoning. humanistic affirmation of agency in contrast with T’s acceptance of destiny.
  ‘devyne’ and ‘diffyne’ - connected alliteratively, set up a relationship between the unforeseeable quality of moral existance, and the active assertion of human faculties.
• p suggests that T error is his feeling like a victim to fortune, for fortune is common to everyone. echoes Lady P argument in book 2 that humans cannot claim owership to anything effected by fortune.

Fortune communality. when T says ‘my destinee’, possessive pronoun exemplities him as one such guilty of ‘fynden in fortune / Ay propretee’ which Lady P says no no noo

Question 3

`minnis

Answer 3

A. J. Minnis explains that “the young pagans in Chaucer’s poem… believe that men are predetermined by the power of the stars and conceive of fate in terms of a fixed order of events”.

, “the pagan deities are assimilated to the planets which bear their names, and belief in planetary influences and astral determinism is inextricably linked to polytheism

[Criseyde, for example, blames her department from Troy on the fatal astral conditions of her birth ”. In these moments, the characters submit to astral determinism, denying any responsibility on their part. ]

[Their reliance on astrology therefore becomes interlinked with the worship of pagan gods, and the workings of the stars become a direct translation of the planet-god’s actions. ]

Question 4

treatsie astrology

Answer 4

Treatise on the Astrolable, written in 1390, Chaucer discusses a medieval scientific instrument used by astronomers to measure the position of the celestial body in the sky. . The author expresses a fascination with the position of the stars and moon but places their significance in accordance with Christian theology.

Chaucer writes planetary influences incline but do not compel fate; a conclusion conventional to medieval Christian attitude. We must, therefore, be sceptical of characters in Troilus who believe too heavily in astrology, or rather, believe astrology constitutes destiny, rather than serving as an agent to it.

Question 5

`consolation

Answer 5

Much of Christian theology is inherited from the Consolation of Philosophy, written by late Roman public and literary figure Boethius (c. 475-524)

The relationship between fortune and divine providence in Troilus and Criseyde is complex, and Chaucer explores their correlation through a philosophical lens. distinct from boccaccio

Question 6

and down from thenes faste he gan avyse

this litel spot of erthe `

Answer 6

The “litel spot” echoes Dante’s Paridoso: “with my sight I returned through every one of the seven spheres, and I saw this globe such that I smiled at its
paltry semblance

By harking to Dante’s Paridoso, Chaucer suggests some Christian enlightenment on the part of Troilus – although the final destination of his soul is unspecified

Question 7

subgit be to alle / poesie / and kis the steppes, where as thow seets space, / virgile, ovide, omer, lucan and stance’ (5. 1790-92)

Answer 7

moment near poets own ending. its author in this moments place his own work within context of the classical poetic tradition
verse paragraph that imitates statius’ homage to virgil at the end of Thebiad
‘humility topos’. ekoves pagan poetical tradition
does this again later in different tone ‘pagyen corsed old rites’ etc

Question 8

‘thise wreched worldes appeites:/ Lo here, the forme of olde clerkes speche / in poetrie, if ye hire bokes seche (5. 1854-55)

Answer 8

R.K. Root gives unflinching linguistic gloss on the word ‘forme’: ‘‘the context suggests that forme is here used in the sense given to forma by scholastic philosophy, i.e “the essential principle of a thing which makes it what it is”… the meaning of the sentence would then be ‘see what is the essential principle which informs ancient pagan poetry!’, i.e, a set of false gods and ‘thise wrecched worldes appetites’.

thus a paradoxical attitude of poet. at once honors the artistic achievement of the ancient poets and confidently scorns the ‘essential principle’ of their poems. this tone characterises medieval humanism generally.

the difference between pagan and christian are matters of central poetic meaning rahter than of subordinate and accidental historical fact.
idolatry etc with pagan rites that crowd the pages of latin epic, with ‘appetites’ refering to love. ‘rascal gods’ as a link between pagan idolatry and pagan love which concludes the poem