LOVE IN "TROILUS .AND CRISEYDE" ---------------------------.__ ~._~· •• A ••• _. ABSTRACT AUTHOR: Hutton G. Archer TITLE: Chaucerfs Conception of Love in Troilus and Criseyde as Compared with Dantefs in The Divine Comedy. DEPARTMENT: English Department - McGill University DEGREE: M'aster of Arts SUMMARY The primary link between Chaucer f s Troilus and Criseyde and Dante f s Divine Comedy is their theme of love. Chaucer puts to great use his histor- ical proximity to Dante by paraphrasing more than a hundred lines of the Comedy. In the process, .he supports Dantefs Christian philosophy whereby there is one universal love. All creatures participate in that love which is implanted in them by God at the moment of creation. The human soul re- ceives most of the divine nature, and by virtue of it bas the faculty of reason and the ability for the intellectual expansion and enlightenment which is part of the process of returning to God. Some critics have doubted tbat Chaucer is expressing this Christian philosophy in Troilus and Criseyde which bas elements of the courtly and pagan traditions. St. Augustinefs model of Omnis amer aut ascendit, aut dèscendit resolves this problem. Love differs only in its direction. ~ Divine Comedy expresses love as it ascends to God, for Dante through his love of Beatrice achieves Godfs grace. Troilus seeks ultimate satisfaction in the physical consummation· of his love for Criseyde, thus expressing love as it descends to lust. His pilgrimage takes him only to the lowest sphere of Heaven. In these terms, both poems vindicate the process of Godfs love • ._.0 ._-----_.__ . __ ._-- .. • KA. ,Ai, ( . J!UL __ t (fi. ;:ZP. ~_ .... :;:._.,~i .·.00Ll' .... d .... a: " i :: .. - 1 CHAUCER'S CONCEPTION OF LOVE IN "'lROILUS AND CRISEYDE" AS COMPARED WI TH DANTE' S IN Il THE DIVINE COMEDY" By HUTTON G. ARCHER 'nlesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, McGill University, in partial fulfilment of the degree of Master of Arts Department of English March 31, 1971 .~ . \ ~-. ;, 1 Hutton G. .Archer 1.971 t ,,---_.---, .. ... ______________________________________~~~ __~$~,~~~~H!~.? .. ~.~·,·"·:~-- ~~~. -.. · .O . C O-N T E N T S Page INTRODUCTION· iii 1. LOVE IN THE DIVINE COMEDY 1 1. BefoEe The Divine Comedy 1 2. Comedy 6 3. Inferno 8 4. Purgatorio 11 5. Paradiso 15 6. Love in Dante 19 II. LOVE IN TROILUS .AND CRISEYDE 21 1. ,Chaucer and Dante 21 2. The . Tragedy of Troilus 26 3. Predestination and Free Will 30 4. Troi1us' Pilgrimâg-e 35 5. The Guides 42 6. itove in Channer 49 III. CONCLUSION 56 IV FOOTNOTES 58 V A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY, 62 li o IN'IRODUCTION In this thesis, Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde is analysed in terms of the similarities which it bears to Dante's Divine Comedy. The primary link between these two works is that they are medieval love poems. Both poets regard the subject of love as most fitting for their study and since they are both heir to the same body of literary, phil- osophical and rhetorical conventions, there is inevitably a great deal in common in their work. Love and the understanding of it is the major force in the two stories. The Beatrice story reveals Dante's love for her, his growth in spiritual insight when he lost her in the flesh and found her in the ·spirit, and his ultimate discovery of God as Love through her. Chaucer's Troilus, on the other hand, reveals a lack of insight which brings him despair in his loss of Criseyde, and takes him to the eighth sphere, the closest point from·which he can look back on earth and recognize his folly. These are the two directions in which love can go. In medieval Christian terms, there is only one love and it differs only in its direction. St. Augustine states in his discussion of Psalm ~ CXXII; 1'Omnis amor aut ascendit, aut descendit." In Philip Schaff's translation of· St. Augustine's work, this is elaborated: As impure love inflames the mind, and sumnons the soul destined. to perish to lust for earthly things, and to followwhat is perishable, and precip­ itates it into lowest places, and sinks it into the abyss; so holy love raiseth us to heavenly things, and inflames us to what is eternal, and excites the soul to those things whiCh do not pass away nor die, and from the abyss of hell raiseth it to heaven.2 cr iii ---- .... _._-_ ...-.. ........ o Troilus' error is that he makes the phys"ical consummation of his love for Criseyde his ultimate goal. This is an example of love as it descends. Dante looks beyond the physical Beatrice, and attains Paradise. This is love as it ascends. In terms of the Augustinian image of ascent and descent, it becomes evident that both Dante and Chaucer were expressing the same philosophy of love. St'. Augustine elsewhere refers to these two directions of love as charity and cupidity. They are both the motion of the soul toward the enjoyment of one's self, one's neighbor or any corporeal thing. Charity is enjoyment for the sake of God, while cupidity is enjoyment for the sake of something other than God. 3 As we learn from Dante's progress in The Divine Comedy, one can move from a cupidinous attachment to a char- itable one. St. Paul points out in Romans l, 20 that God is to be under- stood "by the things that are made". This is developed by St. Augustine when he says that the beauty of creation should lead men towards love for the creator,4 and that charity should begin with the love of one's 5 neighbor. Troilus', downfall comes about not because he loves the earthly Criseyde, but because he seeks ultimate satisfaction in her physical being. The discussion of Dante's Divine Comedy and other works in this thesis makes use of certain assumptions which are current among Dante scholars. lt is not intended to add to the volume of scholarship on Dante, but simply to provide a frame of reference for the discussion of Troilus and Criseyde. This is justifiable in the light of the evidence to be presented that Chaucer familiarized himself with Dante's work and is o indebted to it tb a large degree. iv -----------________.~ __ ~__ '.c.~ •• _. ___ ,. l LOVE IN THE DIVINE COMEDY 1. Before "'!he Divine Comedy" When Dante was nine years old, he met Beatrice at the house of her father on the occasion of the celebration of the spring festival. He was so struck by her beauty, charm and dignity that he thought her an angel, and she infused in him the intense love which was later to become a symbolic and spiritual one. In the Vita Nuova he tells of the moment when love became master of his soul, and of the devotion with which he follawed Beat~ice as a boy. His second meeting with her occurred nine years later, when she saluted him in the street and brought h~ inexpress- able delight. '!hey never spoke to each other, and it is obvious that ftom the beginning, the objective Beatrice whom he loved so much was leading him to an understanding of the spiritual power that was being expressed 6 to h~ through her. Only in this work does Dante's conception of love come close to that which leads to sexual gratification. The transition from an inexperienced young man who faces love for the first time to an older man who can see it objectively is evident in the poems of the Vita Nuova. In the first sonnet: When Love was shawn· me with such terrors fraught As may not carelessly be spoken of. He seem'd likeone who is full of joy, and had My heart within his hand, and on his arm My lady, with a mantle round her, slept; Whom (having waken' d her) anon he made To eat that heart; she ate, as fearing harm. lhen he went out; and as he went, he wept.7 o l -----_ .. __ .. _-_. ---. _. 2 o There is already an indication of the-psychological insight that gives us the brilliance of the Comedy. The new life is the inner life, his love-seeking psyche. The several different attitudes to love reflected in the Vita Nuova give a clear indication of the direction Dante's spirit is taking. Love is evidently what is worth writing about. It becomes the true content ofhis poetry. The Convivio is the link between the Vita Nuova and the Comedy. It is vital to an understanding of Dante's developing philosophy in relation to love. Here he turns With great difficulty from his former passions to a different kind of attachment. Beatric~ has died, and Dante believes that she has been replaced by an intellectual attachment. Philosophy has become the object of his study. In a lengthy discussion of the concept of love, Dante defines it as the spiritual union of the soul with the objec"t loved, to which union the soul of its own nature hastens quicker or slower according as it :is free or obstructed.8 This natural impulse is present in the soul because it is created by God, and, as an effect of the First Cause, it partakes of the nature of that cause as much as it can according to its own nature. Each form shares to seme extent the divine nature, and the human soul, since it is the noblest, receives most of the divine nature.