The Influence of Boethiusí Consolation of Philosophy on Chaucerís Troilus and Criseyde.
Boethiusí Consolation of Philosophy can only be seen as the primary source for Troilus and Criseyde. Chaucer uses the narrative of Boccaccioís Il Filostrato to illustrate Boethian philosophy. From Boethius come the structure of the poem, Chaucerís definition of its genre (de causibus being a Boethian concept), the themes of fortune, predestination and earthly happiness, ideas of time and narrative, and much of the imagery found within the poem.
Structure, Narrative and Time
The basic five-book structure of Troilus and Criseyde is lifted directly from the Consolation. However, the Boethian view of time creates a duality of narrative which Chaucer wrestles with throughout the poem.
Boethiusí view of time (via St Augustine) stated that God exists outside of time, that he sees everything at once in an "eterne and presentarie estat", while man must live inside time in the "moveable and transitorie moment". This theory puts the author in rather an odd position, especially when he is using a story which his audience already know. The narrative, and the characters within it, must obviously move within the second form of time: for them, everything is unexpected and everything is mutable. However, the author and many of the audience are put into the position of God: they can "see" the whole narrative at once. Chaucer accepts this, and uses it to produce some of the most interesting effects within the poem as he switches between the two states. Firstly, his use of an evidently limited narrator, distinctly removed from the author, not only echoes the ignorance of the prisoner in the Consolation but also creates a dichotomy between the God-like author and the restricted view of the narrator. Chaucer also works within the narrative to blur the boundaries between the two forms of time: the use of proleptic or significant dreams and visions, for example, disrupt the temporal flow of the narrative, while references beyond the limits of the scenario (to Thebes, for example) open up time and space beyond the limits of the poem. This is also seen as Chaucer manipulates the memories of the audience with fleeting, out of context references to Boethius which refer the audience unexpectedly to a different time and place.
These different attitudes to time can also be seen in the characters of the poem: Troilus, for example, seeks to live outside of time, believing love to be a "bond perpetually durynge". Pandarus and Criseyde, on the other hand, are much more goal oriented and therefore mutable: as Pandarus says and Criseyde proves, "The new love out chaceth oft the old".
Time and narrative are also the areas where Chaucer moves away from Boethius. While Boethius conveys the idea of the Wheel of Fortune and the essentially cyclical nature of things, structurally, the prisoner moves from the lowest point of understanding to the highest in what is basically a straight line. Troilus, on the other hand, moves very differently. His "double sorwe" of the first stanza reflects the circular structure of Troilus and Criseyde, where Troilus can be seen to rise and then fall (in terms of love and earthly happiness), or to fall and then rise (in terms of self-awareness and understanding). The loversí union occurring at the exact centre of the poem serves to accentuate this flux.
This difference is not hard to explain. While Boethius is trapped in a cell, waiting to die, Troilus is moving in battle saga and a love story. If no one can ever comprehend the way the world works from within it, then it is not surprising that while Boethius, living on borrowed time, can move straight to an understanding, Troilus, living very much in the world, can only gain an understanding after his death. Life in the midst of death versus death in the midst of life, to coin a Lutheran phrase.
Language and Imagery
Much of the imagery within the poem reflects the cyclical preoccupation discussed above. The oppositions of light and dark, order and chaos are taken directly from Boethius, where they are used to illustrate the peace of the heavens, where everything is seen and understood, against the turmoil of earth, where everything is dark and confused. Imagery of sickness and health is also taken from Boethius and mixed with medieval theories of the physiology of love to produce the lovesickness which pervades the first half of the poem. It also informs the relationship between Troilus and Pandarus. Chaucer was lucky in finding in the visit of Pandaro to Troiolo in the Filostrato a close parallel to the visit of Philosophy to Boethius in the Consolation, and it is at this point, for the first time since the opening lines of the poem, that the parallels between Troilus and Criseyde and the Consolation are made clear. Pandarus, like Philosophy, is put in the role of physician, and advises in a much more philosophical vein than Pandaro in the Filostrato. Likewise, Pandarusí brisk manner makes him far more similar to Philosophy than Pandaro in tone.
Fortune, Predestination and Happiness
Perhaps the influence of Boethius can be found most obviously in the long discussions of Fortune and the transitory nature of happiness that are found throughout the poem. It is here that the closest links to the Consolation can be found: as Philosophy states that "She, cruel Fortune, casteth adoun kynges that whilom were weren ydraddÖThus sche pleyeth, and thus sche prooeveth hir strengthes", Troilus declares that none "may of hire cruel whiel the harm withstonde; / For as hire list she pleyeth with free and bonde". These verbal links can be found throughout the poem (see table), but the idea which underlies them all is the mutability of Fortune. This can be negative, as Troilus points out, "Fortune is my fo", or positive Pandarusí clinching argument to Troilus in Book I that the very uncertainty of Fortune may bring him his desire. The idea of Fortuneís wheel, then, links Troilus and Criseyde with the Consolation both linguistically and thematically, but the one idea is used very differently in the different books: Philosophy uses it to persuade Boethius to detach himself from the idea of fortune, Pandarus uses the same idea to encourage Troilus that he has just as much chance of experiencing good fortune as bad.
A similar connection can be seen between the two books in various discussions of the transitory nature of earthly happiness. While Criseyde complains that all happiness is eventually destroyed: "There is no verray weele in this world here", echoing Philosophyís "How myghte thanne this present lif make men blisful?", Pandarus warns Troilus of one of Boethiusí major complaints: that it is the "worste kynde of infortune" to remember past happiness in a time of sorrow (for exact correlations, see table).
The concept of predestination is introduced with much more subtlety, being able to be woven into the narrative rather than just discussed. Pandarus, for example, makes complex plans for Criseyde to see Troilus from the window of her house so that she can fall in love with him, when ironically and with more than a passing nod to predestination this has already happened. This is not to say that the characters have no awareness of this the rainstorme in Book III, for example, is credited to Fate as the "executrice" of our "wierdes", while Troilusí syntactically tortuous reflection on the subject in Book IV reflects his rather inadequate grasp of the subject; in one of the more openly comparative references to the Consolation, Troilusí resignation to what he sees as manís lack of free will is compared to what Boethius actually posits in a system which allows for both predestination and free will.
Bibliography
Oxford Guides to Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde by Barry Windeatt
Chaucer and the Subject of History
Social Chaucer