Boethius' Influence on Chaucer's "Troilus"

Abstract

B OETHIUS' contribution to the terminology and the atmosphere of Chaucer's Troilus has long been recognized. Many readers agree that the poem is, in essence, practical study in real life of the working out of the Boethian teaching.' Illustrative of that position is Farnham's contention that Chaucer employed Boethian materials in altering II Filostrato to achieve the perfect De casibus tragedy, to show how the Wheel of Fortune condemns all human endeavor.2 But other and highly diverse interpretations of the poem continue to appear, with no sign of a reconciliation. In the hope of reducing the disagreement, I have chosen to re-emphasize the influence of De consolatione philosophiae, especially some features of it which scholars of eminence have overlooked or casually mentioned. I say casually, for that is how Patch treated his observation that the poem falls into stages roughly comparable to those discernible in the Consolation.3 Exploring this comment, together with several interrelated aspects of the work, has led me to propose (1) that the poem not merely illustrates but extends the principle of the turning wheel and (2) that the poem, viewed in relation to the Consolation, has a significantly allegorical cast. For half a century Chaucerians have been vitally concerned with the alleged defects in Troilus, such as Pandarus' garrulousness, Troilus' soliloquies, and Criseyde's infidelity. Their reactions have been as varied and as irreconcilable as the critical principles they have brought to the work. I-for one-once hoped that these issues could be resolved by the techniques of formal analysis. If it could be shown that Chaucer selected a limited number of character traits and other sources of plot complexity and arranged the events in a plausible order which left the causes exhausted, in that no expectations were aroused without being satisfied, then the defects would be superficial and the poet's reputation enhanced. But at least one issue seems to defy resolution, that is, the emotional confusion we experience at reading the palinode. Nothing adequately prepares us for Chaucer's condemning every vestige of the morality not merely by which his characters have acted but in terms of which the narrator comments on those actions. The most reward-