OCTOBER MINUTES
October 3
"Kate Harding
Dr. Sutherland began by revisiting the question of how the
consolation in The Book of the Duchess differs from
The Consolation of Philosophy. We discussed the concept
of a journey in both texts, noting that the journey in The
Consolation of Philosophy follows a specific set of steps
and ends in flight, whereas the journey in The Book of
the Duchess is more introspective, driven by the dreamer
extracting deeper parts of the story from the Knight in Black
as we go along. As well, the consolation Philosophy concerns
herself with is the message that temporal, worldly worries
are unimportant--philosophy gives us wings to rise above the
caprices of fortune and human misery--while in The Book
of the Duchess, the consolation is bound to this world;
the dreamer convinces the Knight in Black that his life on
earth is better than he realizes. Philosophy’s consolation,
then, was called an “orientation for death,” and
the dreamer’s consolation a “reorientation back
into life.”
We also discussed a few similarities in the
texts, most notably the key role played by Fortune in each.
Another point of similarity was the way the ideas in both
texts are presented as dialogues, between Philosophy and the
prisoner and the dreamer and the knight, although here Philosophy
is very wise and the dreamer pretends to know nothing. From
there, Dr. Sutherland began to lecture on The House of
Fame, beginning with the idea of “journey”
again. She noted the physical locations in the text--a church,
a desert, the House of Fame and the House of Rumour--and pointed
out that while the House of Fame itself is presented quite
conventionally, other locations are somewhat more unpredictable.
The juxtaposition of a temple and a desert, for instance,
is unusual, and the whirling, wicker House of Rumour itself
is highly unconventional.<to top>
These points of originality led to the question
of whether The House of Fame can be seen as a “postmodern”
text. First, Dr. Sutherland asked the class for definitions
of modernism and postmodernism. Students pointed out that
modernism arose after WWI and carried on after WWII, when
there was a great sense that the present was irreparably broken
off from the past. There was a great desire to make literature
and art relevant to a new age, and thus a move away from figurative
art. Postmodernism is in part a reaction to that ethos, but
it proves difficult to define. It conveys a sense that everything
has been done before, and there can be no clean break from
the past. Thus, jumps in time and structure, the blending
of conventions, intertextuality and irony are common in postmodern
literature. Dr. Sutherland pointed out that current computer
technology is very postmodern in that it tends to present
information in non-linear, non-judgemental ways.
Whether The House of Fame should be
seen as an exercise in “postmodernism” (long before
the term existed) or merely a jumbled, incoherent mess of
ideas is a matter of some debate among critics. Certainly,
when he combines drawing on tradition with allowing incongruous
things to stand together--such as when he presents Ovid and
Virgil’s opposing interpretations of Aeneas’s
behaviour--Chaucer steps into arguably “postmodern”
territory. Throughout the text, the narrator Geoffrey acts
as sort of a tour guide, allowing the reader to experience
the House of Fame for him or herself, keeping the present
moment always at the forefront. The reader becomes a dream
interpreter, then. All of these elements are a departure from
conventional French dream poetry, with its heavy allegorical
didacticism.<to top>
Next, Dr. Sutherland discussed authority, an
issue which goes to the centre of The House of Fame
(and marks its ending). First, we considered authority with
regard to the relationship between Love (Venus) and Fame in
Book I. Venus takes on the role of Fortune, suggesting that
Love is what makes one a slave to the wheel. Then, around
lines 1876-82, Geoffrey has been watching seven groups of
supplicants to the throne of Fame, and when asked if he came
there for fame, he responds that he is more interested, as
a poet, in his own experience—the poet’s authority
comes from his ability to turn experience into art. Just as
an authority figure is about to enter, however, the poem ends
abruptly.
We then talked about different authority figures
in each Book. Book I begins with a very brief prayer to the
Christian God (which degenerates into a curse on those who
misinterpret his dream), while Book II calls on Venus (Cipris),
Jupiter, the muses (in their first appearance in English literature)
and, most unusually, the author himself when he addresses
all those “That Englissh Understonde kan” telling
them to listen to his dream. This seems to suggest that Chaucer
is aware of creating a national poetry.<to
top>
Book III begins with an invocation of Apollo,
god of science and light, then carries references to other
important writers—Dante and Petrarch—as well as
the authority of minstrels, who preserved certain interpretations
of history in song. Dr. Sutherland explained that The
House of Fame is very much about authority and experience.
The narrator sees himself as an observer and a reporter, telling
the reader what is happening as he goes along. Geoffrey’s
own doubts about his ability to convey his experiences push
him into a position of modesty, reflecting both the inexpressibility
of overwhelming experiences and his own ignorance and lack
of skill in describing them. The professor pointed out, though,
that this is a modesty topos—a formula repeated in literature
so that it becomes recognizable as a clichéd pose,
not a genuine effort on the author’s part to express
something individually—and thus can be considered “affected
modesty.” Around lines 1167-1180, we see evidence of
this modesty topos as Geoffrey tells us his wit is insufficient
to describe his experience—yet that doesn’t stop
him from trying. Hand in hand with the affected modesty goes
the confidence to write the story anyway, and Geoffrey is
not modest about his talents as a writer; he reinterprets
historical writers like Virgil and Ovid, adopting their authority
in some measure. As well, between about line 960 and 980,
he reinterprets Boethius Book IV, metre I. He expresses doubt
(another topos) about his skill in love, but sets that against
his skill as a writer.<to top>
This was related to the authority of the eagle
in Book II. His grabbing Geoffrey and knocking him out lets
him take control of the situation away from the narrator.
He moves Geoffrey along to have new experiences that he’ll
want to write about, which brings up the theme of the consolation
of writing: although Geoffrey is unhappy in love, he can be
happy on the page. Their comic dialogue picks up both the
theme of the poet’s ability to turn experience into
art and the modesty topos.
After Paula gave a report on Macrobius and the dream of Scipio
and Mike gave a report on the history of fame (notably as
a goddess in Virgil and Ovid), we split into groups and made
up possible endings for the text, based on what we knew of
Chaucer’s work so far, producing several amusing scenes.
Although we didn’t come to a conclusion about where
the story was meant to go, Dr. Sutherland pointed out that
a crowd of people Geoffrey meets in the House of Rumour, at
line 2121, become characters we’ll see again next term
in The Canterbury Tales.
TO TOP
October 10
Hyun-Duk Chung
The class commenced with our ESU representative,
Sissy, passing around an e-mailing list to be signed by students
interested in being notified about up-coming events hosted
by the English Department. Next Dr. Sutherland gently reminded
the class to take advantage of her office hours, drawing attention
to the fact that our next and first major evaluation is in
about two weeks. Attention was also called in our readings
to take note of, and compare, the narrator in the various
works we have read, and will be reading; in particular, what
Chaucer appears to be accomplishing with him.
Following a short test on translating two stanzas
taken from the Parliament of Fowls(PF), we also looked
at poetic form, noting that in PF, Chaucer uses "Rhyme
Royal", a stanza made up of seven lines of rhyming couplets.
The "Rhyme Royal" is associated with higher style
(which becomes important in revealing tone in The Cantebury
Tales). We also noted that in both the Book of Duchess
and House of Fame Chaucer uses columns without breaks, but
more importantly, lines with seven or eight syllables each,
giving it, at times, a "sing-song" effect. In PF,
Chaucer uses the longer iambic pentameter, which allows a
more "thoughtful pace" to the poem. <to
top>
The motif of the poem appears in the first line
as "The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne".
It recalls the Roman formula of "ars longa, vita brevis",
meaning that while the human life is short, art endures. Chaucer
puts a twist on the formula to say that ‘craft’
(art) takes a long time to learn, and the art being that of
‘love’ (line 4). The second stanza illustrates
a ‘classic Chaucerian narrative stance’ of not
knowing too much about love, while expressing a fondness of
books, and what literature affords. Another Chaucerian style
to note is the method of incorporating other textual sources,
seen in lines 22-25, in the image of old fields and new corn.
By the fourth stanza the narrator has moved
from the subject of art, to love, then to Cicero (Tullius),
who was an orator, moralist and ascetic (one who renounces
the pleasures of the flesh). The legitimate kind of love according
to Cicero is a transcendent love that binds the state for
the common good that requires the sacrifices of individual
desires and will (also see bk 2 m 8 of Boethius). Furthermore,
individual, passionate love is seen as rather disruptive and
less acceptable. The narrator goes on to concisely summarize
Cicero’s Dream of Scipio, mentioning two things
that will get one to heaven’s bliss: 1) know oneself
as an immortal, knowing where lies the homeland of the soul;
2) work toward the common good. The lecherous are to wander
the earth until they eventually make their way to paradise.
Charles Muscatine (Chaucer and the French Tradition)
pointed out that the Ciceronian perspective on individual
desire which begins PF is also used to end the next major
work we will be studying in about two weeks: Troilus and
Criseyde.<to top>
As the narrator is contemplating the idea of
love and looking to books to get greater understanding, the
sun goes down and he is forced to put away the reading and
prepare for bed. The narrator is presented in an image of
undressing, contemplating love, and alluding to ‘having
something he’d rather not have, and not having something
that he would like to have’ (lines 85-92). In an attempt
to identify what these things may be, we considered the sense
of physical desire noted in lines 253-256 with the mention
of god Priapus, and the urgency of the birds to get away with
their new-found mates. The juxtaposition of Cicero’s
idea of love to the narrator’s dilemma, sets up two,
if not competing, then contrasting, images of love beside
one another. It is also ironic that, once the narrator falls
asleep, it is Africanus who leads the dreamer into the garden
of Venus; again getting a juxtaposition of figures that represent
different views.
The entrance of the garden is a single gate with two inscriptions;
one on each side. Although the language is similar to Dante,
it is different from the double gates seen in his work. Chaucer
presents only one gate, but with two possibilities: to find
an eternal may garden or a lifeless wasteland. The term ‘daunger’
in line 136 is associated with ‘fine amour’,
used in the ‘refined love of the nobility and aristocrats’,
and refers to a Lady’s reserve in the face of suitors.
At the gate, the narrator is transfixed in his indecision
of whether to enter or turn around. It is Africanus who coaxes
the dreamer into the garden by saying that the inscriptions
don’t apply to him because he is not a lover, but a
writer. This is an example of how Chaucer tends to present
multiple possibilities without siding with any particular
one. <to top>
Departing from the double inscription of the
gate, both appealing and unappealing aspects of love continue
to present themselves in various images inside the garden:
there are lush trees, but are named in association with their
more morbid uses; a list of allegorical characters representing
the nature of love, create ambivalence by presenting aspects
both good ("Plesaunce") and bad ("Behest",
meaning unfulfilled promises); the display of Venus, laid
out on a bed of gold in a transparent cloth with the sun setting
in the background, against the image of the chaste Diana.
The class paused here for break, after which Cher reported
on the "occasion" of PF, following Aaron’s
presentation on Alain of Lille’s Complaint of Nature.
We discussed the role of Nature in the Middle Ages as a figure
of the plenitude of life and its requirements in contrast
with the contemptus mundi tradition. Nature becomes
associated with Christianity in a way that Venus does not.
The discussion resumed at the scene where the
formel, perched on the arm of Nature, is receiving the speeches
of the three tercels who are competing for her love. The tercels’
formal and proper speech of fine amour and ‘genteel
playe’ is later undercut by the interjection of the
common birds with their comic language which break up the
rhythm of the long-lines. At this point, the class broke up
into groups of three or four, and read lines 561-609 aloud
to one another. Afterwards, there was a very nice dramatic
reading of the same section by generous and brave volunteers
at the front of the class. <to top>
Then we assembled a list of basic vocabulary,
to be familiar with: "dom" (judgement); "sade"
(serious, sober, wise); "rede" (advise / read);
"soth" (truth); "wex/wax" (grow, increase);
"recche" (care); "lewed" (ignorant, uneducated).
Also we noted the subtle differences in meaning between: "mede"
(money), "guerdon" (money, reward); and "quyt"
(match, meet half-way, some kind of (re)payment equal to loss/gain).
After the birds’ debate on the legitimate
basis of love, (also serving as a critique of courtly love
and a question of which class has authority), Nature grants
the formel’s timid request for a respite in order to
consider her choice for a mate. Nature’s statement that
a year is not too long of a wait (line 661) becomes a joke
in contrast to the sense of urgency of the birds to go off
with their mates.
The class concluded on the importance of noting the development
of the comic narrator who enters action, makes comments and
then withdraws. Important aspects to include the sophistication,
lightness of irony, and how he brings different traditions
into play, letting them run into each other, without judgment.
October 17
Sissy Wong
Introduction
We began today with questions about the upcoming in-class
essay scheduled for October 24, 2002. Dr. Sutherland urged
us to engage with the text by using passages and quotes from
the readings, explaining why you choose that passage and using
the language itself to make an argument. Also, we are allowed
to bring in two pages of notes (front and back) and Riverside
Chaucer. The duration of the test will be an hour and
a half.
A slight change in the breakdown of marks was announced in
class. For changes, please go to http://individual.utoronto.ca/jensutherl/chaucer.html#evaluation.
Lecture ended 40 minutes early today to allow for a translation
tutorial.
Today’s reading is Legend of Good Women (‘Prologue
Text F’; Cleopatra). This is the first text which we
read out of order (Troilus and Cressida was already written).
Before we turned to this poem, Dr. Sutherland asked the class
to comment on anything that surprised us about the Middle
Ages or Chaucer, now that we’ve read four of his early
works. We spent some time talking about marriage law in the
Middle Ages and the concept of "coverture" which
means that women are covered by the legal status of their
fathers and husbands, rather than having their own rights.
We also discussed courtly love, or "fine amour,"
(Chaucer writes of "the craft of fyn lovynge" in
LGW F 544) and the idealization of women, contrasting this
with the denigration of women as irrational flesh. We talked
about Eve and the Virgin Mary and how the Virgin connected
with the courtly love tradition through, for example, the
Song of Songs tradition. Finally, we discussed classical mythological
references and their relationship to Christian imagery, specifically
through the history of Neoplatonism, and the tradition of
allegorical interpretation of classical myth represented by
the Ovide moralisé.
Punctuation Poems
These poems were games played in the Middle Ages between men
and women. Different meanings result from the poem depending
on the placement of punctuation marks. Below is the poem punctuated
against women:
I women is rest peas and pacience
No season. for-soth outht of charite
Both be nyght & day. thei haue confidence
All wey of treasone. out of blame their be
No tyme as men say. mutabilite
They haue without nay but stedfastnes
In theym may ye neer fynde y gesse. cruelte
Suche condicons they haue more & lesse.
from Diane Bornstein. "Antifeminism." The Dictionary
of the Middle Ages. Ed. Joseph Strayer. Vol. 1. New York:
Charles Scrivner's Sons, 1982. 322-325.
Romance of the Rose
La Roman de la Rose (Romance of the Rose) was written
by Guillaume de Lorris and 40 years later, completed by Jean
de Meun. The book is an allegory on erotic love. It was written
in French and a #1 bestseller for 300 years. The book is important
to today’s lecture because Chaucer gets in trouble with
the God of Love in the Legend of Good Women for translating
the Romance of the Rose, as well as for writing Troilus and
Criseyde.
In the book, sexuality is represented by several characters
as being part of nature. One passage that was read out in
class says that the nature of women is to want to seek freedom
just as it is a bird in a cage (an allusion to Boethius’
The Consolation of Philosophy III.m.2). La Vielle
(Old Woman), the speaker of the passage, goes on to say that
it is law which restricts women from their natural freedom
(RR 13875-966). She also argues in an earlier passage that
men deceive so women should do the same (13265-282). La Vielle
instructs women to be like a predator (13582-600).
Christine de Pisan (1364-1434) found the Romance of the
Rose to be very unfavorable to women. Dr. Sutherland
read from some of the exchange of letters in what is known
as "La Querelle de la Rose." Christine was a very
educated lady especially in law because she tried to fight
for the land that belonged to her deceased husband. She wrote
a book on Fortune (Le Livre de la Mutacion de Fortune)
in which, following her husband’s death she is transformed
into a man, and also City of Women, a book about good women
and a handbook for wifely behaviour.
Kane, Joseph L. Baird and John R., ed. La Querelle de
la Rose. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North
Carolina Department of Romance Languages, 1978.
LGW Prologue
The story starts with the authority-experience motif within
a Christian frame (ie. "joy in hevene and peyne in helle").
The narrator says no one alive today has actually been to
heaven or hell. We get our knowledge from books, especially
"old approved stories". If there were no books,
we would lose out on the gift of remembrance. The narrator
stands up for books and says experience does not cover everything.
However, in May, the narrator puts his books down and goes
out to visit his beloved flower, Daisy. He speaks of her in
the language of romance, including the Modesty topos: "Allas,
that I ne had Englyssh, ryme or prose, suffisant this flour
to preyse aright!" He is humble and gives her all the
power in line 94. The daisy is then associated with Christ
with her spring "resureccioun" in line 110. Then
the birds start singing the song of Seynt Valentyn where Nature
pairs off the birds, an allusion to the Parliament of the
Fowls, and French dream poetry in general. The narrator is
so enraptured by nature that he tells the servants to make
him a bed in the field. He begins his dream lying on this
bed.
In the dream, he meets the God of Love, Cupid, who’s
described as not blind but blinding with the sun’s rays
coming forth from his eyes. Chaucer goes into an elaborate
description of his queen’s headdress that makes her
resemble a daisy. A train of other women enters the scene.
All these ladies see the flower and praise it. The daisy is
thus claimed and hailed the emblem of good women.
The God of Love sees the narrator and is angered. He tells
him "Yt were better worthy, trewely, a worm to neghen
ner my flour than thow." Cupid is quite upset with the
dreamer for what he has written (ie. the translation of the
Romance of the Rose and the portrayal of Criseyde). He wants
to punish him, but the Daisy-queen steps in to defend the
dreamer. She gives a lecture to Cupid on kingship. He would
be a bad ruler if he exercises his power in the tyrannic rule
of Lombard. She then uses the analogy of the lion who does
not pounce on the fly which is another Modesty Topos, since
it compares the dreamer to a fly. She offers penance and the
dreamer agrees to this.
Cupid introduces the Queen as Alceste, a character from classical
mythology. She chose to go down to Hades in stead of her husband
and Hercules went down to save her. Her love for her husband
which led her to save him is in keeping with the tone that
Chaucer employs for the rest of Legend of Good Women, especially
in "Cleopatra." The Daisy is also a Christ-like
figure because she is resurrected in Spring, and has spent
three days in hell on behalf of another, as did Christ on
behalf of mankind. As we can see, the Christian motif is strongly
connected to Greek mythology to create a kind of religion
of love, where Christ’s role is played by the lady.
As with Christianity, this religion involves the three stages
of penance: contrition, confession, and satisfaction. The
dreamer’s penance is to write a poem that praises women,
rather than detracts from their image. While there are a lot
of stories, the poem is not finished.
LGW – Cleopatra
A significant section is devoted to Antony. Chaucer writes
an elaborate depiction of the battle scene, while the wedding
banquet and the history of Cleopatra is given minimal representation.
The focus is on Cleopatra as the faithful wife who is woeful
when Antony dies. She, too, kills herself because she cannot
bear the pain of not having Antony alive. A comment on the
stories in LGW is that Chaucer simplifies the lives of these
women, leaving out the parts that create ambivalence about
their characters. The question then is, did he do this on
purpose?
October 24
The first hour and a half of today's class was spent writing
the in-class essay on the negotiation of authority in Chaucer's
dream poetry. After break Dr. Sutherland introduced Troilus
and Criseyde.
Troilus and Criseyde
This is one of the great works of English literature. It's
about love and all the most important, sometimes painful,
issues that come out of our experience of love.
Chaucer wrote T&C during the 1380, a time of massive
disruption. Thomas Usk, executed for treason March 1388, refers
to it in his Testament of Love. Chaucer lost his
position as Controller of Customs in 1386, but served as member
from Kent in Parliament that same year. We will see how realistic
are his accounts of the Trojan parliament in Book IV. At the
time there was a move afoot to rename London "Troia Nova,"
related to the tradition of "King Brut," a Trojan,
like Aeneas, who went on to found a nation.
T&C is an unusual work for Chaucer in several ways, and
also seems to have cost him some anxiety. We looked at some
of the manuscript issues associated with the poem, remembering
"Chaucer's Wordes Unto Adam, his own Scriveyn,"
read during our first class, and read the first stanza of
T&C for its double references to writing and oral delivery.
We also discussed Chaucer's increasing engagement with Italian
writing, specifically Boccaccio's Il Filocolo, the
primary, though unacknowledged, source for Chaucer's adaptation.
Chaucer presents himself through the narrator as a translator,
working from his author "Lolius." This is a simplification
of the numerous texts he had access to about the Fall of Troy,
some of which he specifically names.
Looking at the opening stanzas (we refreshed our memory about
Rhyme Royal and discussed the possible effect of Five Books
written in this form) we reviewed what we know so far about
"fyn lovynge" and love as service and religion.
Dr. Sutherland pointed out that this is not a dream poem and
urged us to be aware of the way the narrator negotiates a
relationship with the history he presents. We also briefly
discussed epic and its techniques with reference to the proems
and stylistic devices of heightened language and imagery.
Dr. Sutherland gave a quick overview of some of the major
differences between Chaucer's Troilus and Boccaccio's,
including characters, style, themes, and structure. She then
drected us to the theme of "double sorrow" and the
mention of forutne's wheel in i.138-40 and iv.5-11, encouraging
us to go back and read ii.m.2 and iv.m.6 in Boethius' Consolation
of Philosophy Love's relation to nature and religion
are an important theme in T&C. Courtly codes of love will
be an important part of how this plays out. We looked at the
"Y" of medieval sermons, that suggested that although
love was part of God's natural creation, it could go two ways,
towards the satisfaction of fleshly pleasure, or towards God.We
also rememberd the "Pi" and "Theta" of
practical and theoretical knowledge on Philosophy's gown,
and the Neoplatonic tradition of a ladder of ascent from sensal
to intellectual understanding.
Next week, Book One.
October 31
By Millie Dodic
The class began with a short quiz on Book I of Troilus
and Criseyde. Administration involved an invitation to
attend a performance of Shakespeare’s Troilus and
Cressida at the Hart House Theatre on either November
15 or 16. Interested parties are to contact either Professor
Sutherland or classmate Susan Bond for information regarding
tickets and times. A comparison of the two versions would
certainly make for an interesting class discussion. Michelle
Persaud’s presentation on the background to the Fall
of Troy was informative and entertaining, and the detailed
handout of Greek mythological characters is a much-appreciated
reference (for this class as well as others). Next week, we
will hear from Raji about the background to Pandarus and his
niece. Finally, Professor Sutherland announced that our in-class
essays would be returned to us next class.
We compared a stanza from Boccaccio’s Il Filostrato
to its direct counterpart in Troilus and Criseyde. The
most noteworthy difference is that Chaucer manages to transform
the original while staying surprisingly close to the source.
The changes are not in content or theme, but in Chaucer’s
use of heightened language and imagery, in this case that
of the heart sailing toward death ("unto deth myn herte
sailleth").
This heightened language supports the allegories of love
as religion, love as sickness, and love as journey. Love as
religion is expressed in the overtly religious language of
the church, such as "converte"(309), "helle"(872),
"repente"(933) and "foryive"(937). We
recognized the similarity between a repentant sinner and Troilus’s
plea for forgiveness to the "God of Love"(932).
This scene, in which the sinner must be sincere in his confession
also parallels Chaucer’s penitent narrator in Legend
of Good Women, where love as religious service is the dominant
theme. Also, as Pandarus points out, this religious service
is the duty of all men and women, and to refuse is unnatural,
or a "vice"(987). We noted that once he has accepted
his duties to love, Troilus, like a true repentant, is a better
man.
The allegory of love as sickness appears for the first time
in our readings of Chaucer’s poetry. In Troilus
and Criseyde we have the literal lovesick character,
who "loste his hewe"(441) and was "brende"(448).
His only remedy, of course, is Criseyde, described as his
"hele and hewe"(461). Again, the heightened language
of illness and fever aptly illustrates the physical as well
as emotional "destresse"(439) inflicted upon the
lover unrequited.
Finally, we discussed the allegory of love as journey, in
which Chaucer’s use of the boat metaphor represents
the lover’s path to his beloved. Before he repents and
agrees to serve Love, Troilus’s "boot" is
"steereless"(416). After he confesses to Pandarus,
he has "to a good port…rowed"(969), thereby
completing the allegory of love as a journey travelled by
boat.
"Image" plays an important recurring role in Book
I. Professor Sutherland discussed the medieval belief that
the imagination could take outside images and store them inside.
It was said that Cupid’s arrow carried the actual image
of the beloved into the lover’s eye, where it travelled
to the heart. Troilus’s heart is described as "his
brestez yë"(453), where he is able to look at Criseyde
day or night.
The helpful, yet comical, Pandarus reminded us of similar
Chaucerian characters in other works we have read; specifically,
the narrator in The Book of the Duchess and the eagle
in The House of Fame. They seem to share the same
purpose, that of the witty, talkative, and ultimately instructive
comic relief. Pandarus also brought to mind the original Boethian
instructor, Philosophy. The dialogue between Troilus and Pandarus
was examined in some detail, and it was agreed that the friendly
tension ("pushing buttons" and "rubbing it
in") between the two characters made for a lively and
interesting read.
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