ColumMa SJnibersttg 
 
 STUDIES IN ROMANCE PHILOLOGY AND 
 LITERATURE 
 
 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS TO 
 GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 
 
THE -INDEBTEDNESS OF CHAUCER'S 
 
 *yi V/V/t ^Z^^/fe Ce>/Oj9*&* 
 
 TROILUS AND CRISEYDE 
 
 TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE'S 
 
 HISTORIA TROJANA 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE L. HAMILTON, A.M. 
 
 SOMETIME FELLOW IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES IN TRINITY COLLEGE 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 gorfe 
 
 THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, AGENTS 
 
 66 FIFTH AVENUE 
 
 1903 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1903, 
 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped January, 1903. 
 
 Norfoooti : 
 J. 8. Cuahing & Co. Berwick & Smith 
 Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE following study is a dissertation offered 
 in the spring of 1900 to the Faculty of Phi- 
 losophy of Columbia University, in fulfilment 
 of one of the requirements for the degree of 
 Doctor of Philosophy. My original plan was 
 to make an investigation of Chaucer's indebt- 
 edness to the French and Latin writers who 
 were his predecessors in telling the story of 
 Troilus and Criseyde, but owing to the fact 
 that Joly's edition of the Roman de Troie is 
 so very incomplete and uncritical, I confined 
 my study to the work of Guido, citing from 
 the French poem only when it was necessary 
 to quote illustrative parallel passages. I have 
 used the 1486 Strasburg edition of the His- 
 toria Trojana, but I have been able to collate 
 the passages cited with the readings in the 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 best and oldest manuscripts of the work in 
 the Bibliotheque Nationale and the British 
 Museum, without, however, finding cause to 
 make changes which were essential. 
 
 Studies made subsequent to the writing of 
 this dissertation, upon the relations between 
 versions of Benoit's work and the plagiary of 
 Guido, may lead me, at a later date, to mod- 
 ify certain statements. 
 
 I desire to thank Professor Henry A. Todd 
 for his kindness and care in reading over, and 
 giving helpful criticism on, the manuscript of 
 this book. 
 
CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS TO 
 GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 
 
CHATJCEK'S INDEBTEDNESS TO 
 GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 
 
 ONE of the most discussed of literary 
 problems is that of the sources of Chaucer's 
 Troilus and Criseyde, owing, among other 
 causes, to the author's own statements of 
 the case. Twice in the poem he cites the 
 name of the writer who he would have us 
 think was the author of the book from 
 which he draws his narrative : 
 
 "Myn autour called Lollius" (I. 394), t 
 "As telleth Lollius " (V. 1653), 
 
 and whom he elsewhere enumerates with 
 those who have written about Trojan 
 matters : 
 
 " And by him stood, withouten lees, 
 Ful wonder hye on a pileer, 
 
2 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 Of yren, he, the gret Omeer ; 
 And with him Dares and Tytus 
 Before, and eek he, Lollius, 
 And Guido eek de Columpnis, 
 And English Ganfride eek, y-wis, 
 And ech of these, as have I joye, 
 Was besy for to here up Troye." l 
 
 It is only the task of a translator that 
 he undertakes; he has rendered the story 
 out of the original text 
 
 "in swich English as he can," 2 
 
 and attempts nothing beyond : 
 
 " O lady myn, that called art Cleo, 
 Thou be my speed fro this forth, and my muse, 
 To ryme wel this book, til I have do ; 
 Me nedeth here noon other art to use. 
 For- why to every lovere I me excuse, 
 That of no sentement I this endyte, 
 
 1 Hous of Fame, 1464-1472. 
 
 2 Canterbury Tales, Group B, 49. Cf. L. of G. W., A, 
 85-88. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 3 
 
 But out of Latin in my tongue it wryte" 
 (II. 8-14). 1 
 
 He frequently calls attention to the close- 
 ness of the translation he is making of his 
 original, which he mentions as if it were 
 his sole authority, whether he refers to the 
 writer or his work : 
 
 " And of his song nought only the sentence, 
 As writ myn autour called Lollius, 
 But pleynly, save our tonges difference, 
 
 1 Cf. L. of G. W., A, 264-266 : 
 
 " Hast thou najbjnad in English eek the book 
 How that Crisseyde Troilus forsook 
 In shewinge how that wemen han don mis ? " 
 
 But in the second form of the same passage the God of 
 Love reproaches the poet, as if he had expressed merely 
 his own " sentelnent " in that work. L. of G. W., B, 332- 
 334: ' 
 
 " And of Criseyde thou hast seyd as thee liste ; 
 That maketh men to wommen lasse triste 
 That ben as trewe as ever was any steel." 
 
 In the Retraction at the end of the Persones Tale, " the 
 book of Troilus " is the first mentioned in the list " of 
 my translacionjL^and endytinges of worldly vanitees." 
 Canterbury Tales, Group I, 1084-1085. 
 
4 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 I dar wel sayn, in al that Troilus 
 
 Seyde in his song ; lo ! every word right thus 
 
 As I shal seyn ; and who-so list it here, 
 
 Lo! next this vers, he may it finden here" 
 
 (I. 393-399). 
 
 " Wherefore I nil have neither thank ne blame 
 Of al this werk, but pray yow mekely, 
 Disblameth me, if any word be lame 
 For as myn auctor seyde, so seye I. 
 Eek though I speke of love unfelingly, 
 No wonder is ; for it no-thing of-newe is, 
 A blind man can-not juggen wel in hewis" 
 (II. 15-21). 1 
 
 *Cf.L.ofG. TF., A, 340: 
 " Or elles sir, for that this man is nyce, 
 He may translate a thing in no malyce, 
 But for he useth bokes for to make, 
 And takth non heed of what matere he take ; 
 Therfor he wroot the Rose and eek Crisseyde 
 Of innocence, and niste what he seyde ; 
 Or him was boden make thilke tweye 
 Of som persone, and durst hit nat with-seye ; 
 For he hath writen many a book er this, 
 He ne hath doon nat so grevously amis 
 To translaten that olde clerkes wryten, 
 As thogh that he of malyce wolde endyten 
 Despyt of love, and had him-self y-wroght." 
 
 Cf. T. and C., HI. 1328-1336. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 5 
 
 "Myn auctor shal I folwen, if I conne" (II. 
 49). 
 
 "And what she thoughte sorawhat shal I wryte, 
 As to myn auctor listeth for to endyte " (II. 
 699-700). 
 
 " For ther was som epistel hem bitwene, 
 That wolde, as seyth myn auctor, wel contene 
 An hondred vers, of which him list not wryte ; 
 ( Far. Neigh half this book, of which him list 
 
 not wryte ;) 
 How sholde I thanne a lyne of it endyte" 
 
 (III. 501-504). 
 
 " Nought list myn auctor fully to declare, 
 What that she thoughte whan he seyde so, 
 That Troilus was out of town y-fare, 
 As if he seyde ther-of sooth or no" (III. 
 575-578). 
 
 " Though that I tarie a yeer, somtyme I moot 
 After myn auctor, tellen hir gladnesse, 
 As wel as I have told hir hevinesse " (III. 
 1195-1197). 
 
 " Thourgh yow have I seyd fully in my song 
 Th'effect and joye of Troilus servyse, 
 Al be that ther was som disese among, 
 
6 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 As to myn auctor listeth to devyse " l (III. 
 1814-1817). 
 
 "And after this the story telleth us " (V. 1037). 
 " But trewely, the story telleth us " (V. 1051). 
 
 And again he is careful to give notice 
 that he is abridging his original : 
 
 " [She] gan a lettre wryte, 
 Of which to telle in short 2 is myn entente 
 Th'effecty as fer as I can understonde " (II. 
 1218-1220). 
 
 1 In II. 31-32 : 
 
 " As the story will devyse 
 How Troilus com to his lady grace." 
 and V. 1093-1094 : 
 
 " Ne me ne list this sely womman chyde 
 Ferther than the story wol devyse." 
 
 reference is made to the tale as it is found in Chaucer's 
 own narrative, as he took it from his sources. Cf . T. and 
 C., V. 1772-1776. 
 
 2 On the frequency of this phrase and its equivalents, 
 "shortly to tell," and "shortly to say," in Chaucer's 
 poems, cf. T. R. Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, 1892, 
 Vol. II. pp. 95-96, 547-548. In T. and C. (III. 548, 1117, 
 1156 ; V. 1009, 1826), except in the passage cited in the 
 text, such expressions are used as mere chevilles. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 7 
 
 " But, sooth is, though I can not tellen al, 
 As can myn auctor, of his excellence, 
 Yet have I seyd, and, god to-forn, I shal 
 In every-thing al hoolly his sentence " (III. 
 1324-1327). 
 
 And yet, as if he did not see the con- 
 tradiction of his own statements, he is 
 careful to note that he consulted various 
 works in writing his poem : - 
 
 " But whan his shame gan somwhat to passe, 
 His resons, as I may my rymes holde, 
 I yow wol telle, as techen bokes olde" (III. 
 89-91). 
 
 " Criseyde, which that f elte hir thus y-take, 
 As writen clerkes in hir bokes olde, 
 Right as an aspes leef she gan to quake, 
 Whan she him felte hir in his armes folde " 
 (III. 1198-1201). 
 
 " And trewely, how longe is was bitwene, 
 That she for-sook him for this Diomede, 
 Ther is non auctor telleth it, I wene. 
 Take every man now to his bokes hede ; 
 He shal no terme finden, out of drede " (V. 
 1086-1090). 
 
8 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 " For how Criseyde Troilus forsook, 
 Or at the leste, how that she was unkinde, 
 Mot hennes-forth ben matere of my book, 
 As wry ten folk thorugh which it is in minde. 
 Alias ! that they shulde ever cause finde 
 To speke hir harm ; and if they on hir lye, 
 Y-wis, hem-self sholde han the vilayne " (IV. 
 15-21). 
 
 " And treweliche, as writen wel I finde, 
 That al this thing was seyd of good entente ; 
 And that hir herte trewe was and kinde 
 Towardes him, and spak right as she mente, 
 And that she starf for wo neigh, whan she 
 
 wente, 
 
 And was in purpos ever to be trewe ; 
 Thus writen they that of hir werkes knewe " 
 (IV. 1415-1421). 
 
 " Lo, trewely, they writen that hir syen, 
 That Paradys stood formed in hir yen" (V. 
 816-817). 
 
 "I finde eek in the stories elles- where" (V. 
 1044). 
 
 " In alle nedes, for the tounes werre, 
 He was, and ay the firste in armes dight ; 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONISTE 
 
 And certeynly, but-if that bokes erre, 
 Save Ector, most y-drad of any wight " (III. 
 1772-1775). 
 
 "And trewely, as men in bokes rede" (V. 19). 
 " This Diomede, as bokes us declare " (V. 799). 
 "For these bokes wol me shende" (V. 1060). 
 
 " For whom, as olde bokes tellen us, 
 Was maad swich wo, that tonge it may not 
 telle" (V. 1562-1563). 
 
 " In many cruel batayle, out of drede, 
 Of Troilus, this ilke noble knight, 
 As men may in these olde bokes rede, 
 Was sene his knighthod and his grete might " 
 (V. 1751-1754). 
 
 " Ye may hir gilt in othere bokes see " (V. 
 1776). 
 
 The three passages, 
 
 " And certainly in story it is y-f ounde " (V. 
 834), 
 
 " But certeyn is, to purpos for to go, 
 That in this whyle, as writen is in geste, 
 He say his lady som-tyme ; and also 
 She with him spak" (III. 449-451), 
 
10 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 " And ofte tyme, I finde that they mette 
 With blody strokes and with wordes grete, 
 Assayinge how hir speres weren whette ; 
 And god it woot, with many a cruel hete 
 Gan Troilus upon his helm to-bete" (V. 
 1758-1762), 
 
 are too indefinite in their statements to 
 specify whether one or more authorities are 
 referred to. 
 
 v Again, he does not care to give on his own 
 authority statements which he has not found 
 vouched for elsewhere : 
 
 " But whether that she children hadde or 
 
 noon, 
 
 I rede it nought ; therefore I lete it goon " 
 (I. 132-133). 
 
 " But how it was, certayn, can I not seye, 
 If that his lady understood not this, 
 Or f eyned hir she niste, oon of the tweye ; 
 But wel I rede that, by no maner weye, 
 Ne semed it as that she of him roughte, 
 Nor of his peyne, or what-so-ever he thoughte " 
 (I. 492-497). 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 11 
 
 unless it may be upon a matter of his own 
 experience : 
 
 " But as we may alday our-selven see, 
 Through more wode or col, the more fyr ; 
 Right so encrees of hope, of what it be, 
 Therwith f ul of te encreseth eek desyr ; 
 Or, as an ook cometh of a litel spyr, 
 So through this lettre, which that she him sente, 
 Encresen gan desyr, of which he brente. 
 Wherfore I seye alwey, that day and night 
 This Troilus gan to desiren more 
 Than he dide erst, thurgh hope " l (II. 1331- 
 1340). 
 
 He makes a point of referring his readers 
 who are interested in the fate of Troy to 
 the books devoted to that subject: 
 
 " But how this toun com to destruccioun 
 Ne falleth nough to purpos me to telle ; 
 
 1 As illustrative of Chaucer's process of composition it 
 may be noted that II. 1331-1337 are not based upon the 
 corresponding stanza in the Filostrato (III. 130); the 
 comparison II. 1335 is taken from the Liber Parabolorwn 
 of Alain de Lille (Migne, Patrologia, vol. CCX. col. 
 
12 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 For it were here a long disgressioun 
 Fro my matere, and for yow long to dwelle. 
 But the Troyane gestes, as they felle, 
 In Omer, or in Dares, or in Dyte, 
 Who-so that can, may rede hem as they 
 wryte" (I. 141-147). 
 
 and, as the theme of his poem is the love 
 of Troilus for Criseyde, those who wish to 
 know of his warlike exploits must go else- 
 where for information : 
 
 " And if I hadde y -taken for to wryte 
 The armes of this ilke worthy man, 
 Than wolde I of his batailles endyte. 
 But for that I to wryte first began 
 Of his love, I have seyd as that I can. 
 His worthy dedes, who-so list hem here, 
 Reed Dares, he can tell hem alle y-fere (V. 
 1765-1771). 
 
 Lydgate, in the " Prologue " to his 
 Tragedies, a free paraphrase in verse of 
 
 583; cf. E. Koeppel, Herrig's Archiv, vol. XC. p. 150), 
 while the conclusion II. 1338-1340 is a translation of the 
 mere statement of fact by Boccaccio. (FiL, III. 131, 1-3 ; 
 cf. 130, 7.) 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 13 
 
 the French prose version by Laurent de 
 Premierfait of Boccaccio's De Casibus 
 Virorum 1 in his " list " of Chaucer's works, 
 notes that: 
 
 " In youthe he made a translation 
 Of a boke which called is Trophe 
 In Lumbard tonge as men may rede and se 
 And in our vulgare, long or that he dyed 
 Gave it to name of Troylus and Creseyde." 2 
 
 1 T. Warton, History of English Poetry, ed. 1840, vol. 
 II. pp. 277-278, 320. P. Paris, Les manuscripts francois de 
 la Bibliotheque du Roi, Paris, 1836-1848, vol. I. pp. 233- 
 260; II. 231-244; V. 119-122. A. Hortis, Studi sulle 
 opere Mine del Boccaccio, Trieste, 1879, pp. 638-642. 
 E. Koeppel, Laurents und Lydgates Bearbeitungen von 
 Boccaccio's Casibus Virorum, Munich, 1885. 
 
 2 The Tragedies gathered by Jhon Bochas of all such 
 Princes as fell from theyr estates throughe the mutability of 
 Fortune since the Creadon of A dam until his time ; wherein 
 may be seen what vices bring mene to destruction, with nota- 
 ble warninges howe the like may be avoydde. Translated 
 into English by John Lidgate, MonJce of Burye, edition of 
 J. Wayland, 1558 ; cf. T. F. Dibdin, Typographical An- 
 tiquities, 1816, vol. III. pp. 530-531. This seems to be the 
 "undated black-letter edition" cited by Skeat. Minor 
 Poems of Chaucer, p. x. 
 
U CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 Again, in his version of the Historic* 
 Trojana of Guido delle Colonne, in the 
 translation of the critical discussion of the 
 writers upon the Trojan war, Homer, Virgil, 
 Ovid, Dictys, and Dares, such as he found 
 it in his original, 1 depending, doubtless, 
 upon the list in Chaucer's Hous of Fame, 
 he adds without comment a new name, 
 
 1 Warton was uncertain whether Lydgate's Troy-book 
 was a direct translation from the work of Guido, or from 
 a French version of the Latin original. (Hist, of Eng. 
 Poetry, 1840, vol. II. p. 292.) A. Joly thought that the 
 Latin original had been amplified by the use of Benoit's 
 poem. (Benoit de Ste. More et le Roman de Troie ou les 
 metamorphoses d'Homere et de Vepope'e greco-latine au moyen- 
 age, vol. II. pp. 494-496.) Henry Bradshaw regarded the 
 Latin work as the original of this, as well as the other 
 English versions. (Proceedings of the Cambridge Anti- 
 quarian Soc., vol. III.) Sidney Lee, evidently upon the 
 sole authority of the title-page, stated that "Lydgate 
 mainly paraphrased < Guido di Colonne's Historia de Bello 
 Trojano' and perhaps Dares Phrygius and Dictys Creten- 
 sis." (Diet, of Nat. Biog., vol. XXXIV. p. 312.) Schick 
 seems to think that a French source was used in conjunc- 
 tion with the Latin work. (Lydgate's Temple of Glass, 
 p. (jxvii. ; cf. Troy-book, sig. b 2 verso, col. 1.) 
 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 15 
 
 "And of this syege wrote eke Lollius." l 
 
 And when he comes to the episode of Tro- 
 ilus and Criseyde in his original, he states 
 that he will not give it in full : 
 
 " Syth my maister Chaucer here afore 
 In this matter hath so well him bore, 
 In his boke of Troylus and Creseyde 
 Which he mayde longe or that he deyde." 2 
 
 In the first edition of the works of 
 Chaucer which contained anything in the 
 way of a commentary, 3 that of Speght, 
 
 1 The Auncient Historie and onely Trewe and sincere 
 Cronicle of the Warres betwixte the Grecians and Troyanes. 
 . . . Wrytten by Daretus a Troyan, and Dictus a Grecian 
 . . . and Digested in Latyn by the lerned Guydo de Colump- 
 nis and sythes translated by John Lid gate Moncke of Burye. 
 Thomas Marshe, 1555, sig. b 2 verso, col. 1. Cf. Dibdin, 
 I.e., vol. IV. pp. 494-496. I cite this as Troy-book. 
 
 2 I.e., sig. R 2 verso, col. 1. 
 
 8 The Troilus had already been printed in the " Works 
 of Chaucer," in the editions of Pynson, 1526 ; of W. 
 Thynne, 1532 and 1542; and the reprints of the latter 
 in 1550 and 1561 ; as well as separately by C ax ton, ab. 
 1483; Wynkyn de Worde, 1517; Pynson, 1526. (Henry 
 Bradshaw, ap. Francis Thynne's Animadversions, ed. F. J. 
 
16 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 published in 1598, in the section of the 
 introduction which treats of the works of 
 the poet, the editor writes: 
 
 "Troilus and Creseid called Throphee in 
 the Lumbard tongue, translated not verbatim, 
 but the argument thence taken, and most 
 cunningly amplified by Chaucer." 1 
 
 This magisterial sentence seems to imply 
 that Speght had information of a definite 
 nature upon the sources of the Troilus 
 other than that given in Lydgate's lines; 
 but his restatement of the same matter in 
 the corresponding passage, in his edition 
 of 1602, promptly disposes of such a sug- 
 gestion. 
 
 " Troilus and Creseid called Throphe in the 
 Lumbard tongue was translated out of Latin, as 
 in the Preface to the Seconde booke of Troilus 
 and Creseid he conf esseth in these words, 
 
 Furnivall, 1875, p. 70 n. Cf . Skeat in Works of Chaucer, 
 vol. II. pp. Ixxv-lxxvi.) 
 
 1 Workes of Chaucer, 1598, sig. c 1 recto. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 17 
 
 6 To every lover I me excuse, 
 That of no sentement I this endite, 
 But out of Latin in my tonge it write.' " 1 
 
 His identification of Lollius as " an Ital- 
 
 
 
 ian Historiographer borne in the citie of 
 Urbine " in his list of Most of the Authors 
 cited by G. Chaucer in his works by name 
 declared, 2 has the merit^ of being specific 
 as to the author, if not supplying infor- 
 mation about his work and the language 
 in which it was written. 
 
 1 Workes of Chaucer, 1602, sig. c 1 recto. 
 
 2 Cf . Francis Thynne's Animadversions, p. 71. " The 
 fourthe things ys, that in the catalogue of the auctours, 
 you have omytted manye auctours vouched by Chaucer ; 
 and therefore dyd rightlye intitle yt, * most/ and not all, 
 of the auctours cited by geffrye Chawcer." In the edition 
 of 1602, Speght obviated this criticism by writing, " The 
 authors cited by G. Chaucer in his workes by name 
 declared." Dryden's information about the source of 
 Chaucer's Troilus is due to Speght ( Works of Dryden, ed. 
 Scott-Saintsbury, vol. VI. p. 225), to whom he is indebted 
 in other ways. Cf. F. H. Tupper, Mod. Lang. Notes, vol. 
 XII. pp. 347-352 ; cf . Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare 
 (1807), p. 64. 
 
18 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 Sir Henry Savile, in his edition of the 
 work De Causa Dei contra Pelagas of 
 Bishop Thomas Bradwardine (1290(?)-1349), 
 published in 1618, suggested that the dis- 
 course upon predestination in the Troilus 
 (IV. 966-1078) and in the Nonne Preestes 
 Tale? where the author's name is men- 
 tioned, bespoke an acquaintance with his 
 work. 2 
 
 ^"Sir Francis Kinaston, who in 1635 pub- 
 lished the first two books of his Latin ver- 
 sion of the Troilus, in which the metrical 
 structure of the original was preserved in 
 
 1 C. T., Group B, 4432. 
 
 2 Life of Chaucer in Preface to Urry's edition of 1721 ; 
 also quotation in Testimonies of same edition. Speght 
 gives as the Argument of the poem, " In which discourse 
 Chaucer liberally treateth of the divine purveiaunce." 
 ( Workes of Chaucer, 1598 ; sig. c 5 verso ; ed. 1602 ; sig. 
 Bb 5 recto.) The author of the Testament of Love had 
 already referred to the same passage as authoritative on 
 the matter. (Book III. ch. IV. 248 ff. in W. W. Skeat, 
 Chaucerian and Other Pieces, p. 123.) Cf. Lounsbury, 
 Studies in Chaucer, vol. I. pp. 202-204. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 19 
 
 the number of lines to a stanza, of sylla- 
 bles to the line, and in the order of the 
 rimes, 1 in his English commentary on the 
 poem, noting the great difference between 
 the story of certain characters in the Tro- 
 jan legend, as found in Chaucer's poem, 
 and that in other sources, writes : 
 
 " Some do not improbably conjecture that 
 Chaucer, in writing the loves and lives of Troi- 
 lus and Creseid, did rather glance at some pri- 
 vate persons, as one of king Edward the third's 
 sons, and a lady of the court, his paramour; 
 then [than] follow Homer, Dares Phyrius, or 
 any author writing the history of those times ; 
 for first, it cannot be imagined that Chaucer, 
 being soe great a learned scholler, could be 
 ignorant of the story ; next that he should soe 
 mistake as to make Creseid the daughter of 
 Calchus, the soothsayer, who was the daughter 
 of one Chryses, and there uppon called Chry- 
 seis, whereas her right name was Astynome ; 
 then there should be any love between Troilus 
 
 1 Amorum Troili et Creseidce, Libri duo priores, 
 Oxonise, 1635 ; cf . Lounsbury, I.e., vol. III. pp. 77-78. 
 
20 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 and her; especially that Chaucer should per- 
 sonate her as a widdow, whereas she was a votary 
 to Diana." 1 ) 
 
 TimotliyLThQraas, in his preface^to Urryls 
 edition of Chaucer, published in 1721, has 
 little to add concerning the sources of the 
 Troilus; he repeats Speght's statements 
 about "Lollius" and "Trophe" and then 
 goes on to say: 
 
 "He has not contented himself with a bare 
 translation of his Author, but hath, added 
 several things of his own, and borrowed from 
 
 1 The Loves of Troilus and Creseid, written by Chaucer; 
 with a commentary, by Sir Francis Kinaston, never before 
 published. London. Printed for and sold by F. G. 
 Waldron, MDCCXVI. pp. 7-8 ; (first part) cf . Lounsbury, 
 I.e., vol. III. pp. 81-82. Urry, in preparing his edition of 
 Chaucer, had drawn notes from the apparently unique 
 manuscript of Kinaston's complete work, and these were 
 used by Thomas. Cf . Preface to Urry's Chaucer, sig. m ; 
 Glossary, p. 47. The Loves, etc., pp. i.-ii., vii., xi.-xii. 
 After Waldron's death, we find the manuscript in posses- 
 sion of W. S. Singer. Cf. Works of Chaucer. Cheswick, 
 1822, vol. I. pp. xx.-xxi., n. ; Notes and Queries, I. 5, 
 252, 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 21 
 
 others .5diak4ie~thought- prop^r^f or jhe Embel- 
 lishment .ofjthis work, and particularly the song 
 of Troilus in the First Book is a Translation of 
 that song in Petrarch which begins, S' amor 
 non e, Che dunqu' e quel ch' io sento?" 
 
 and he then refers to the comments of 
 Savile and Kinaston, which have been 
 mentioned above, and in the Glossary under 
 Lollius, he writes : 
 
 "An Italian Historiographer born at Urbino, 
 who lived under the Emperors Macrinus and 
 Heliogabalus, in the beginning of the Third 
 Century, is said to have written the History of 
 His Own Time, and also the Life of the Emperor 
 Diadumenus, the Son of Macrinus" 1 J 
 
 It was Thn-mq.p Tyrwhitt^ to whom stu- 
 dents of Chaucer owe the most for the 
 elucidation of the poet's work, particularly 
 of the Canterbury Tales* who was the first 
 
 1 Tyrwhitt showed clearly that Thomas was the editor 
 of the 1721 Chaucer, after the death of Urry. The Poeti- 
 cal Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Ed. T. Tyrwhitt. Lon- 
 don, 1855, p. vii. and note n. 
 
22 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 to point out the immediate source of the 
 story of the poem. In his Essay on the 
 Language and Versification of Chaucer, pref- 
 aced to his edition of the Canterbury Tales, 
 he stated that in his opinion " Chaucer was 
 
 to the full as much obliged to Boccacce in 
 
 his Troilus as in his Knight's Tale'' * In 
 his notes and glossary he shows that he has 
 made a careful comparison of the English 
 poem with the Italian original, 2 points out 
 the indebtedness to the JDe Consolatione 
 Philosophic of Boethius in the passage 
 treating of predestination, 3 notices_that the 
 sonnet of Petrarch was translated as the 
 work : of Lollius, 4 whose identity he leaves 
 as a puzzle, 5 and would identify Chaucer's 
 own mention of Trophe, . 
 
 " At bothe the worldes endes saith Trophee 
 In stede of boundes he a pillar set," 6 
 
 1 Poetical Works of G. Chaucer, p. xxxix. note 62. 
 
 2 Ibid., pp. 182, 190, 205, 209, 457, 471, 476, 483, 486, 495. 
 8 Ibid., p. 457. 4 /j^-PP^a, 488. 5 Ibid., pp. 209, 479. 
 6 C. T., 14123-14124. Ed. Tyrwhitt. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 23 
 
 and Lydgate's Trophe, with the Filostrato. 1 
 He also suggests that the "Latin" from^ 
 which language Chaucer stated he had 
 translated his poem was Italian, as Boc- 
 caccio in the Teseide 2 to which the Eng- 
 lish poet was under obligations in his 
 Parlement of Foules? Anelida and Arcite? 
 
 1 Poetical Works of Chaucer, pp. 203, 209, 495. 
 
 2 Teseide, II. 2, 4. Cf. Poetical Works, etc., p. liv. n. 
 
 3 Poetical Works, etc., p. 179 ; cf . ten Brink, Chau- 
 cer. Studien zur Geschichte seiner Entwickelung, pp. 125- 
 128. 
 
 4 ten Brink, I.e., pp. 49-53, 56. On Palamon and 
 Arcite, Chaucer's early translation of the Teseide, which, 
 it has been conjectured, was written in seven-verse 
 stanzas, and utilized in some of his latter works ; cf. ten 
 Brink, I.e., pp. 39-70 ; J. Koch, Eng. Stud., I. pp. 249 ff. ; 
 XXVII. pp. 3, 12 ; A. W. Pollard, Globe Chaucer, pp. xxvi.- 
 xxvii. ; F. J. Mather, An English Miscellany Presented to 
 Dr. Furnivall, pp. 301 f. Tyrwhitt, who suggested that 
 Palamon and Arcite was a translation of the Teseida (I.e., 
 p. xxxix. and note 62, liii.), did not note the parallel 
 passages in Anelida and Arcite, and supposed that the 
 later poem was written before Chaucer's acquaintance 
 with Boccaccio's work (I.e., p. 445), and W. Hertzberg 
 adopted this view (Chaucer's Canterbury-geschichten, 1866, 
 pp. 61, 595), which was successfully combated by ten 
 
24 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 Troilus 1 and the Knight's Tale 2 had re- 
 ferred to his own language as " Latino 
 volgare." 3 
 
 Warton, in his History of English Poetry, 
 quotes Lydgate's statement concerning the 
 source of the poem, which he thinks is in 
 conflict with what Chaucer himself says 
 about the language of the work he is trans- 
 lating, speaks of the conjecture of Speght, 
 whose name he does not mention, upon 
 " Lollius," refers to the historian of the 
 third century, Lollius Urbicus, none of 
 whose works are extant, although Du 
 Cange puts him in his list of authorities 
 in his Glossariwn, who, however, "could 
 not be Chaucer's Lollius/' who in the 
 
 Brink (I.e., pp. 49, 53-56), whose theory on this point is 
 accepted by Mather (I.e., pp. 307-312). 
 
 1 Poet. Works, p. 182. 
 
 2 Thynnes Animadversions, ed. Furnivall, p. 43 ; Poet. 
 Works, pp. liii.-lvi., 178-182 ; T. Warton, Hist, of Eng. 
 Poetry, 1774, vol. I. pp. 344, 357. 
 
 8 Poet. Works, p. 209. A view accepted by Skeat. 
 Works of Chaucer, vol. II. p. 468. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 25 
 
 HOUS of Fame is plfl^d a.-mrmgsf. til ft Tn>- 
 
 torians of Troy, and calls attention to the 
 fact that the names Monesteo, Kupheo, and 
 Phebuseo 1 denoted an Italian original. He 
 points out a number of the passages 2 in the 
 Troilus in which Chaucer comments upon 
 the closeness with which he follows his 
 authority; and mentions the indebtedness 
 of the English poem to Boethius, Petrarch, 
 and Bradwardine the last as if assured 
 as the others. 3 
 
 At a later date, from information re- 
 ceived from Tyrwhitt, 4 he knew that the 
 Filostrato was the direct source of the 
 larger part of the English poem, 5 whereas 
 before, knowing merely the title of Boc- 
 
 1 T. and C., II. 51-54. 
 
 2 T. and C., II. 10; III. 576, 1330, 1823. 
 8 T. Warton, I.e., vol. I. pp. 384-388. 
 
 4 On Warton's great indebtedness to Tyrwhitt, cf . 
 Ritson, Observations on the First Three Volumes of the 
 History of English Poetry, 1782, pp. 30, 31, 33, 48. On 
 Warton's ignorance of Italian, ibid., pp. 30, 38. 
 
 6 Hist, of Eng. Poetry, 1840, vol. II. p. 162, note. 
 
26 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 caccio's work, he had thought that it 
 only treated of the same subject. 1 
 
 William Godwin, in his Life of Chaur 
 cer, published in 1.803, which " may, in- 
 deed, be declared to deserve the distinction 
 of being the most worthless piece of bi- 
 ography in the English language," 2 disputes 
 Tyrwhitt's view in every particular. He 
 asserts that without question the Troilus 
 is a translation of the Latin work Trophe 
 s not theLllius iUrbicus of the 
 
 third ___ century, but a contemporary of 
 Wace and Thomas of Becket, 8 the author, 
 also, of the original of the story of 
 Palamon and Arcite* He asks whether 
 it is probable that Chaucer would consult 
 a less known work of Boccaccio, when in 
 the Clerk's Tale he does not show an 
 
 1 Hist. ofEng. Poetry, 1778, vol. I, p. 385 ; II. p. 25. 
 
 2 Lounsbury, I.e., vol. I. p. 194. 
 
 8 W. Godwin, Life of Chaucer, 1804, vol. I. pp. 419, 
 429-430, 437-438. 
 
 4 I.e., vol. III. p. 17, note. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 27 
 
 acquaintance with the Decameron, the 
 work by which the author is generally 
 known. 1 
 
 W. W. Singer, in the introduction to 
 the poems of Chaucer, published in 1822 
 in the Chiswick collection of English 
 poets, shows that he had made a careful 
 comparison of the English and Italian 
 poems, stating that the Troilus was " for 
 the most part a translation of the Filo- 
 strato of Boccaccio, but with many varia- 
 tions and large additions, amounting to 
 no less than 2700 verses." Chaucer's 
 references to "Lollius" and to "Latin" 
 were surprising, " for nothing can be 
 more certain than that Boccaccio was his 
 original ; the fable and characters are the 
 
 1 Z.c., vol. II. p. 473. Sir Walter Scott, whose re- 
 view of Godwin's book in the Edinburgh Review, can \f 
 only find its equal for severity in Lowell's criticism on 
 Masson's Milton, on this point rejected Tyrwhitt's opin- 
 ion in favor of Godwin's. ( Works of Dryden, ed. Scott- 
 Saintsbury, vol. VI. p. 243.) 
 
28 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 same in both poems, and numerous pas- 
 sages of the Filostrato are literally trans- 
 lated." 1 
 
 After such a clear statement of the 
 case as this, it was certainly "far ritroso 
 calle," when, twenty years later, G. L. 
 Craik in his Sketches of the History of 
 Literature and Learning in England from 
 the Norman Conquest to the Accession of 
 Elizabeth, not only refused to credit the 
 Filostrato as being the source of the 
 Troilus, but asserted that Chaucer was 
 quite ignorant of the Italian language, 2 a 
 position in conflict with the undisputed 
 statements of Lydgate and W. Thynne. 8 
 Again Sir Harris Nicolas, in his Life of 
 Chaucer, prefixed to the Aldine edition of 
 
 1 The Poems of G. Chaucer, Chiswick, 1822, vol. I. 
 p. xix. ; cf. p. xvi. 
 
 2 Sketches, etc., 1844, vol. II. pp. 47-53. Again in his 
 History of English Literature, 1861, vol. I. pp. 272-276. 
 
 8 With Lydgate's statement concerning the source of 
 the Troilus may be compared his problematical lines con- 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 29 
 
 Chaucer, in 1845, took the same position, 
 remarking that those who thought differ- 
 ently were but "indiscriminate worship- 
 pers of genius who endow their idols 
 with all human attainments." 1 
 
 cerning a translation made by Chaucer, Tragedies, etc., 
 sig. a 2 verso, col. 1. 
 
 " He wrote also full many a day agone 
 
 Dant in English, himselfe so doth expresse." 
 On interpretation of his passage, cf. W. W. Skeat's to- 
 tally wrong one, Chaucer's Minor Poems, pp. xi-xii. ; 
 2d ed., p. 477. E. Koeppel, Laurent Premierfaits und J. 
 Lydgates Bearbeitungen, etc., p. 82. Anglia, vol. XIII. 
 p. 186. Lounsbury, I.e., vol. II. p. 425. Depending 
 upon this statement, Speght in his 1598 Chaucer gives in 
 the list of the poet's works, Dantem Italum transtulit 
 followed by the statement, Petrarchce qucedam transtulit, 
 (sig. c 1 recto), but both these statements are omitted in 
 the 1602 edition. Thynne, who, as has been noticed 
 (p. 24, n. 2), was the first to point out the source of the 
 Knight's Tale, has elsewhere the statement, "unleste a 
 manne be a good saxoniste, frenche and Italyane linguiste 
 (from whence Chaucer has borrowed manye words)." 
 Animadversions, p. 31 ; cf. p. 43. Against Craik's opin- 
 ion, cf. Fiedler, Herrigs Archiv, vol. II. p. 151; Kiss- 
 ner, Chaucer, etc., p. 6 ; ten Brink, Chaucer, p. 186. 
 
 1 Works of Chaucer . . . 1845, vol. I. p. 25; Yet 
 he quotes Lydgate's statement on the matter (p. 100.), 
 
30 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 i In his edition of Chaucer published 
 1854-1856, KJIell showed that he could 
 believe the evidence of his own eyes. In 
 his Memoir of Chaucer he notices that 
 no such author " called Lollius," or book 
 " called Trophe," had ever been discov- 
 ered, accepting the opinion of Tyrwhitt 
 upon the first point to the prejudice of 
 that of Godwin. 1 He did not consider 
 seriously Nicolas's opinion upon Chaucer's 
 knowledge of Italian; besides making the 
 general statement that " the substance of 
 the poem, which Chaucer amplified and 
 altered, is to be found in the Filostrato 
 of Boccaccio," 2 in the Introduction to the 
 
 and Tyrwhitt's remarks on the source of the Troilus, in 
 his Essay on the Language and Versification of Chaucer, 
 which is reprinted in this edition, is found later on (I.e., 
 pp. 225-226, n.). This note is omitted in Morris's edi- 
 tion of 1866, where Skeat's treatment of the versification 
 is substituted for that of Tyrwhitt (vol. I. p. 172). 
 
 1 Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, edited by Rob- 
 ert Bell, vol. I. p. 14 ; cf . vol. III. p. 10. 
 
 2 l.c., vol. I. p. 14. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 31 
 
 Troilus, the general features of the two 
 poems are compared and at the same time 
 examples of Chaucer's mode of translation 
 are noted, while parallel passages from 
 the Italian poem are cited in notes to 
 the text. 1 It is noted that the earliest 
 source of the story was " a prose chron- 
 icle ... by Guido de Colonna," which 
 must have been drawn "from some met- 
 rical romance extant in his time/' and 
 the fact that Chaucer elsewhere mentions 
 Guido denoted that he was acquainted 
 with him " either through his works or 
 reputation." Lydgate's " Trophe " is ex- 
 plained as "a name denoting Troylus's 
 change of fortune." 2 
 
 It was by others than English editors 
 
 1 l.c., vol. V. pp. 10-14, 17-254 ; VI. pp. 5-52. 
 
 2 Z.c., vol. V. pp. 9-10. The collaboration of Rev. 
 J. M. Jephson in this edition may be noted. The infor- 
 mation of the editors about Lollius Urbicus, the Roman 
 de Troilus, which they regard as the original of Guido, 
 when, in fact, it is a translation of Boccaccio's poem, 
 
32 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 of Chaucer that the next step forward 
 was made, in the study of the sources of 
 the Troilus. In 1858 L. Moland and C. 
 D'H^ricault, in the Introduction to their 
 edition of Nouvelles Francoises en prose 
 du XIV 6 siecle, in giving a detailed ac- 
 count of the literary history of Troilus, 
 were the first to point out that the Filo- 
 strato had its antecedents in the Roman 
 de Troie of Benoit de Sainte-More/ and 
 Guido delle Colonne's 2 Historia Trojanaf 
 and had no doubt that the English poem 
 was in the main an imitation of the Italian 
 poem. 4 To explain the name Lollius they 
 suggested that as the late fourteenth-cen- 
 tury French romance Le Livre de Troilus 
 
 and the Historia Trojana, as an authority on the siege 
 of Thebes, is taken from Warton without acknowledg- 
 ment. Cf. E. Koeppel, Lydgate's Story of Thebes, p. 17. 
 
 1 " Benoit de Saint Maur," as they write it (Nou- 
 velles Francois, pp. lix, lx.). 
 
 2 " Guido delle Columne," " Guy des Colonnes," (I.e., 
 p. Ixxx.). 8 I.e., pp. lix.-xciii. 4 I.e., xci.-xcviii. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 33 
 
 was stated by its author to be a translation 
 of the Filostrato " compose par un poethe 
 florentin nomme Petrarque," * Chaucer, not 
 knowing the name of the author of his 
 original, adopted that of Lollius. 2 Their 
 suggestion, which was only hazarded in a 
 note, concerning Lydgate's Trophe, can 
 only be given in their own words: "In- 
 diquons que troplie represente assez bien le 
 vieux mot trufe, truphe (bourde, trompe- 
 rie), italianise. Chaucer a-t-il truphe Lyd- 
 gate ou Lydgate le public." 3 
 
 Sandras was the first to suggest that 
 the work of Benoit might be the direct 
 source of certain passages in the Troilus, 
 in his Etude sur Chaucer considers comme 
 imitateur des trouveres, published in 1859, 
 printing a number of passages from the 
 unedited Roman de Troie to substantiate 
 
 1 Z.c., pp. ci, 120. 2 I.e., xcviii.-c. 
 
 8 I.e., p. c., n. They were not acquainted with Chau- 
 cer's own mention of " Trophe." 
 
34 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 his conjecture, but his parallel citations 
 are neither definite nor full enough to 
 be conclusive. He, too, thinks that Boc- 
 caccio is hidden under the name of Lol- 
 lius. 1 
 
 In 1862 A. Ebert, in his brief recension 
 of the work of Sandras, expressed the 
 opinion that while there was reason to 
 justify the assumption that Chaucer had 
 recourse to other works than the Filos- 
 trato, there was not evidence enough to 
 show whether it was to the work of 
 Benoit or to that of Guido which he 
 regarded as an original production he 
 was indebted for the introduction of epi- 
 sodes, not found in the Italian poem. 2 
 
 In 1867 Kissner clearly showed by the 
 citation of parallel passages that the Eng- 
 lish poem was in large part a translation 
 
 1 fitude, etc., pp. 42-50, 263-283 ; cf . Hertzberg, Jahr. 
 der deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, vol. VI. p. 202. 
 
 2 Jahr.f. rom. u. engl. Lit., vol. IV. pp. 89-91. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 35 
 
 of Boccaccio's work, in which the order 
 of the stanzas, the verses, and even the 
 rime of the original were adhered to as 
 closely as possible, 1 took the same posi- 
 tion as Ebert in regard to Chaucer's other 
 sources for the story, considering Guido, 
 however, as a plagiarist. 2 He believed 
 that by Lollius, Boccaccio was intended, 
 a Deliberate expedient used elsewhere by 
 the English poet to mystify his readers. 3 
 " Trophe/' mentioned by Chaucer in the 
 Monkes Tale, he supposed referred to the 
 De Casibus Virorum of Boccaccio. 4 
 
 In the same year Henry Morley, in his 
 
 1 A. Kissner, Chaucer in seinen Beziehungen zur 
 italienischen Literature, Bonn, 1867, pp. 12-22, 25-58. 
 
 2 I.e., pp. 22-25. 
 
 8 I.e., pp. 7-9. Cf . Hertzberg, Chaucers Canterbury- 
 geschichten, 1866, pp. 42, 44; JaJir. f. rom. u. engl. Lit., 
 vol. VIII. pp. 154-155. Henry Bradshaw independently 
 reached the same conclusion, G. W. Prothero, Memoir of 
 H. Bradshaw, p. 216. For a conflicting view, cf. Louns- 
 bury, I.e., vol. II. p. 413. 
 
 4 Kissner, I.e., p. 8. 
 
36 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 English Writers, gave a comparative analy- 
 sis of the two poems, noting that Chaucer's 
 version " was more than half as long 
 again as its original/' 1 and proved to 
 his own satisfaction that " Latin " was 
 Italian/ that the English poet, in " his 
 labour towards the elevation of the Filo- 
 strato" 3 " with a parable of Scripture in 
 his mind, out of Lolium, the Latin for a 
 tare, probably contrived for Boccaccio a 
 name that he thought justly significant/' 4 
 and that Lydgate referred to the Filostrato 
 as " Trophe/' because " it evidently points 
 to Criseyde's perfidy, and is related to 
 Tponr), a turning." 5 He also noted that 
 the additions to the narrative concerning 
 
 1 English Writers, 1867, vol. II. Part I. pp. 237-243. 
 To give preciseness to his comparison, without regard 
 to the amount utilized by the English poet, he states 
 that the Filostrato contains 5352 lines, and the Troilus, 
 8251. Cf. Rossetti, Comparison, etc., p. iii. ; Skeat, Works 
 of Chaucer, 1894, vol. II. pp. xlix-1. 
 
 2 l.c., p. 243. 3 i Ctj p. 244, n. 4 I.e., p. 243. 
 6 l.c., p. 221, n. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 37 
 
 the actions of the heroine in the Greek 
 camp, and her dialogue with Diomedes and 
 with her father/ show that Chaucer was 
 acquainted with either the work of Benoit 
 or the Latin version of Guido. 2 
 
 In a communication to the Athenceum 
 for Sept. 26, 1868, are set forth the views 
 of W. M. Rossetti, who regarded Lydgate's 
 " Trophe" ~as~lhe English "trophy," a 
 trophy or victim of love, which corre- 
 sponds to Boccaccio's own definition of the 
 title of the Filostrato ; and hence the term 
 " Trophe " is applied to that work by Lyd- 
 gate. Chaucer, as the French translator, 
 considered Petrarch-itS-author, and referred 
 f.o JTJJP a.a LoTHns in the Troilus and the 
 Hous of Fame, though he introduces 
 him with his real name in the Clerkes Tale 
 because one of his correspondents ad- 
 
 1 This is one of the points wrongly made by Sandras 
 and rectified by Hertzberg, Jahrbuch der Shakespeare- 
 Gesellschaft, vol. VI. p. 202. 2 I.e., p. 243. 
 
38 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 dressed him as Laelius. 1 This communi- 
 cation led Latham, in the next number of 
 n the same journal, to offer his most ingen- 
 ious explanation of Lollius. He suggested 
 that Chaucer got the idea that Lollius was 
 a writer on the Trojan war by the misin- 
 terpretation prevalent in Chaucer's time 
 of the opening lines of one of the Epistles 
 of Horace, 
 
 " Trojani belli scriptorem, maxime Lolli 
 Dum tu declamas Romse, Prseneste relegi " 
 (Ep. I, 2), 
 
 which gave the idea that " the name of 
 the person addressed had become attached 
 to the person written about." 2 
 
 1 Rossetti, in his Chaucer's Troylus and Cryseyde 
 compared with Boccaccio's Filostrato, 1873, pp. vii.-viii., 
 gives up his explanation of Lollius in favor of that of 
 Latham, but still credits his own explanation of Trophe. 
 
 2 Athenceum, Oct. 3, 1868, p. 433. Rossetti, Com- 
 parison, etc., p. vii., writes that this suggestion was " made 
 or rather repeated" in the place cited; but I am not 
 acquainted with its earlier mention. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 39 
 
 Hertzberg, in his review of Kissner's 
 book, accepted his thesis in full, 1 and to 
 obviate the difficulty of the " Trophe " 
 question suggested that the line on the 
 Monkes Tale 
 
 " At both the worldes endes, saith Trophe " 
 should be read, 
 
 " At both the Worldes endes, as Trophe," 
 
 even though the false reading was as old 
 as Lydgate's time. 2 
 
 Ten Brink, in his literary study of 
 Chaucer, accepted Tyrwhitt's suggestion 
 that by " Latin " Italian was meant, Ros- 
 setti's explanation of Lydgate's "Trophe" 
 and Hertzberg's correction of the Chau- 
 cerian text, 3 and in confirmation of La- 
 tham's conjecture about " Lollius " a 
 
 l Jahr.f. rom. u. engl. Lit., vol. VIII. (1866), pp. 156- 
 162. 2 /.c., p. 155. 
 
 8 Chaucer, Studien zur Geschichte seiner Entwickelung, 
 pp. 68-70, 182-184. 
 
40 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 conclusion he had arrived at independently 
 suggested that it was not due to a cur- 
 rent misinterpretation, but that in the 
 manuscript of Horace used by Chaucer, 
 the incorrect readings scriptorum and te 
 legi substituted for scrip tor em and relegi. 1 
 He also noticed that details in the Tro- 
 ilus were due to the work of either Be- 
 
 l l.c., pp. 85-87. Skeat, Works of Chaucer, ed. 1878, 
 vol. L, p. 18, n. Chaucer, The Minor Poems, 1888, p. 359, 
 Works of Chaucer, 1894 (vol. III. p. 278), and Rossetti 
 (I.e., p. 359). Works of Chaucer, 1894 (vol. III. p. 278) 
 and Rossetti (I.e., p. vii.) accept Latham's suggestion as 
 almost a certainty. Joly (Benoit de Ste. Maure, etc., vol. 
 I. pp. 216-217), and Hertzberg (Shakespeare Jahr. vol. 
 VI., p. 201, n. 2) concur in general statement of both 
 Latham and ten Brink, without expressing their precise 
 position in regard to secondary matters. Yet Lounsbury 
 (I.e., vol. II. p. 410) states that " By no stretch of lan- 
 guage can [it] be regarded as probable." Yet the main 
 premise for this opinion to wit, that when Chaucer 
 could translate a philosophical work, the De Consolatione 
 of Boethius, he would not have made the slip of mistak- 
 ing a genitive for an ablative is somewhat vitiated, 
 when we consider that a French translation of the Latin 
 work was Chaucer's original. Cf. Rossetti, Comparison, 
 p. vii., n. ; M. H. Liddell, Globe Chaucer, p. xl. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 41 
 
 noit or Guido or of both, but the sugges- 
 tion is confessedly not his own. 1 
 
 In 1869-1870, by the quite indepen- 
 dent investigations of Dunger and Joly, 
 the impudent plagiarisim of the Roman 
 de Troie by Guido delle Colonne was put 
 beyond a doubt by extensive comparisons 
 of the French and Latin works; 2 but 
 
 i/.c.,p.85. 
 
 2 A. Joly, Benoit de Ste. Maure et le Roman de Troie, 
 1870-1871, vol. II. 470-484. H. Dunger, Die Sage vom 
 trojanischen Kriege in den Bearbeitungen des Mittelalters 
 und ihren antiken Quellen, Leipzig, 1869, pp. 39, 61-64. 
 Tyrwhitt was acquainted with both works, and suspected 
 that the Roman de Troie was the direct source of Guide's 
 work, but " a full discussion of the point by a comparison 
 of Guide's work with the Roman de Troye, would require 
 more time and pains than I am inclined to bestow on it " 
 (note to C. T., 15147, Works of Chaucer, p. 204. Cf. 
 note to C. T., 14914, p. 204, pp. 471, 486). Warton in his 
 first volume of his History of English Poetry (1774) only 
 mentioned Guido as the author of an original work upon 
 the Troy legend, for the sources of which he accepts the 
 author's own statements, and "from which Chaucer de- 
 rived his ideas about the Trojan story" (vol. I. (1774), 
 pp. 126-127 ; cf. pp. 138, 385, vol. II. pp. 82-83, 91-92, 97, 
 on acquaintance with Guido's work ; cf . E. Koeppel, Lyd- 
 
42 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 these two scholars in their orientations of 
 the whole mediaeval Troy legend, only 
 touched incidentally upon the matter of 
 the original of Chaucer's Troilus, and 
 failed to notice the secondary sources 
 
 gate's Story of Thebes, pp. 16-17), and knew of Benoit's 
 work and its subject at only second hand (vol. I. p. 136). 
 In a note in the second volume, from, information unques- 
 tionably received from Tyrwhitt, he speaks of " the an- 
 cient metrical one of Benoit, to whom, I believe, Colonna 
 is much indebted" (vol. II. (1778) p. 99, n.). Francis 
 Douce, in his Illustrations of Shakespeare, published in 1807, 
 stated that he had made the comparison suggested by 
 Tyrwhitt, and found that Guido had " only translated the 
 Norman writer into Latin " (vol. II. pp. 65-66), but his 
 correct conclusion, even if the detailed results were not 
 published, did not seem to be generally known, even 
 though it found its way into such a popular work as Dun- 
 lop's History of Fiction (pp. 175-176, ed. 1845). In 1857 
 Fromman expressed the opinion that Guide's work was 
 nothing but a translation of the French poem (Germania, 
 vol. II. p. 52), while in 1858 Moland and d'Hericault 
 (I.e., p. Ixxx.) regarded the Latin work as " une amplifi- 
 cation de 1'ouvrage de Daures mais aux merites de la- 
 quelle Benoit de Saint-Maur n'a pas per contribue." Pey 
 in the next year (Jahr.f. rom. und engl. Lit., 1. 228) fostered 
 the theory that both Guido and Benoit based their works 
 upon an original unabridged text of Dares, which has not 
 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 43 
 
 which, contributed to the story of the 
 English poem. 1 Joly, to be sure, men- 
 tioned Latham's and ten Brink's sugges- 
 tion as if it were his own, and proposed 
 that Lydgate's line, 
 
 " Of a boke whiche called is Trophe," 
 
 if restored to its probably true reading, 
 which could so easily have been cor- 
 rupted, 
 
 " Of a boke whiche called is Strophe," 
 
 come down to us. This view was accepted by Ebert (I.e., 
 vol. IV. p. 90) and Cholevius (Geschichte der deutschen 
 Poesie, vol. I. pp. 111-112) ; but regarded with doubt by 
 Kissner (I.e., p. 23, n.), and one would have thought 
 finally disposed of by Hertzberg (I.e., pp. 187-194), who 
 like Barth (Guido de C alumna, p. 19) and Morf (Rom., 
 vol. XXI. pp. 18-21) denied Guido even an acquaintance 
 with the Dares as we have it; if Koerting (Dictys and 
 Dares, 1874, pp. 67, 95 ; Boccaccio, 1881, pp. 586-587) and 
 Greif (Die mittelalterlichen Bearbeitungen der Trojanersage, 
 p. 62) had not adopted it as a thesis the maintenance of 
 which was all important, and if Constans (Hist, de la lit- 
 terature et langue francaise, vol. I. p. 215, n. 1) did not 
 seem half inclined to accept their conclusions. 
 1 Joly, I.e., p. 515 ; Dunger, I.e., p. 36. 
 
44 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 would refer to the Italian poem, thus de- 
 noted on account of its metrical structure. 1 
 
 W. Hertzberg in a study upon the Tro- 
 ilus legend independently reached the 
 same general conclusions, and, in com- 
 menting upon Kissner's results, noted that 
 while only two-thirds of the 5288 lines 
 of the Filostrato had been used in the 
 Troilus, that the English poem contained 
 8251 lines. He further pointed out three 
 passages in the Troilus which might 
 equally as well have come from either 
 the work of Benoit or Guido, and three 
 others which from the similarity of lan- 
 guage could only have had their sources 
 in the French poem. 2 
 
 F. Mamroth in his work, G. Chaucer, 
 seine zeit und Seine AbhaengigJceit von Boc- 
 
 i Joly, Z.c., p. 216-217, 493. 
 
 2 Jahr. der deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, vol. VI. 
 (1871), pp. 201-205. I refer to this article as Hertz- 
 berg, I.e. 
 
TO GUIBO DELLE COLONNE 45 
 
 caccio, although not doubting the Italian 
 source of the Troilus, upon the authority 
 of Bell and Hertzberg, still thought God- 
 win's view worthy of an analysis. 1 
 
 W. M. Rossetti said. _ the final word 
 upon the Filostrato-Troilus question by 
 the publication in 1873 of his line-for-line 
 comparison of the two poems, showing 
 that somewhat less than a third of the 
 English poem was taken directly from 
 the Filostrato? Although he gives an 
 analysis of the Troilus story in the 
 Roman de Troie for the sake of setting 
 it off against that given in the Italian 
 poem, he nowhere suggests that Chaucer 
 adopted hints from the French poet, or 
 his Latin plagiarist concerning whose 
 work he accepts the opinion of Moland 
 and d'Hericault. 3 
 
 1 G. Chaucer, etc., Berlin, 1872, pp. 49 ff. 
 
 2 Comparison, etc., p. iii. 
 
 8 1. c., pp. v.-vi. R. Fischer's Die Troilus-Epen von Boc* 
 
46 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 In 1867 J. Koch expressed the opinion 
 that Chaucer possessed Boccaccio's works, 
 of which he made such liberal use in his 
 own poems in a manuscript or manuscripts 
 which did not give the name of the author, 
 and in the case of the Filostrato, as in 
 that of other works, in order to give it an 
 author, attributed it to one Lollius, whose 
 name he may have come upon in the lines 
 of Horace, cited by Latham and ten 
 Brink. 1 
 
 In 1877 M. Landau, who supplemented 
 Kissner's results by researches in the com- 
 parison of the English and Italian poems, 
 noting that Chaucer had translated liter- 
 ally some 1200 verses of his original, 
 advocated the view that the English 
 
 caccio und Chaucer (in Zu den Kunstformen des mittelalter- 
 lichen Epos. Weiner Beitrage zur englischen Philologie, 
 vol. IX. (1899) pp. 217-370) offers nothing new on the 
 question. It is a comparison of the sesthetic value of two 
 poems, stated in percentages. 
 
 i Englische Studien, vol. I. pp. 291-292. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 47 
 
 poet was ashamed to mention a modern 
 writer in Italian as Boccaccio, and there- 
 fore had_ adopted a Latin name which he 
 cited AS hifl authority. 1 
 
 Ten Brink, in his Geschichte der Eng- 
 lischen Litteratur, published in 1893, notes 
 where Chaucer had made use of the work of 
 Benoit at one point in his narrative, "Und 
 begierig greift er aus Benoits Darstellung 
 Ziige auf, die zur Entschuldigung seiner 
 Heldin gereichen konnen. Erst dem von 
 Troilus verwundeten Diomed schenkt sie, 
 von Mitgef iihl geruhrt, ihr Herz ; und 
 der Untreue folgt die Reue auf dem 
 Fusse," 2 and in discussing the sources of 
 the Legend of Good Women, he calls at- 
 tention to the fact that if in this poem 
 Chaucer has preferred Guido as a source 
 rather than Benoit, it is the opposite of 
 what he did in the Troilus. 8 
 
 1 Boccaccio, pp. 92-94. 
 
 2 Geschichte, vol. II. p. 95. 8 /.c., p. 116. 
 
48 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 In 1892 Loafflsh.uxy, who seemed to 
 think that the work of Guido was one of 
 * /the English poet's sources for the Legend? 
 \J stated that " Chaucer knew nothing of 
 / Benoit." 2 In 1894 Skeat, who in earlier 
 / contributions, when he had occasion to 
 touch on the subject, accepted without 
 comment the views of others upon the 
 Filostrato-Troilus and "Lollius" questions 
 with his usual disregard of the antecedent 
 work of others, writing as if he were the 
 first to suggest the possible indebtedness 
 of Chaucer to Guido, pointed out details 
 in the Troilus which he thought had their 
 origin in the Latin work, and cited a 
 number of passages of the Historia Tro- 
 jana from an inferior manuscript to prove 
 his thesis. "Trophe, " as mentioned by 
 both Chaucer and Lydgate, according to 
 
 1 Studies in Chaucer, vol. II. pp. 313-314:. 
 
 2 l.c., vol. II. p. 309. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 49 
 
 his view, was Guide's work; 1 but he did 
 not fail to note where, in the Troilus, 
 Chaucer was unquestionably indebted to 
 the Roman de Troie? 
 
 W. J. Courthope in his History of Eng- 
 lish Poetry regarded the use of Lollius as 
 a deliberate mystification, on the part of 
 Chaucer, to mislead his readers. As the 
 authority of a work to which he wished to 
 give a moral tone, Boccaccio "even if he 
 had not provoked the censure of the church, 
 would have carried no historical weight " ; 
 and " therefore to create for his imagi- 
 nary history, an imaginary historian/' he 
 referred to "the Latin of the supposed 
 Trojan historian Lollius." To fill out 
 the story as he found it in the Filo- 
 strato, "he borrowed numerous incidents 
 and touches of a highly dramatic kin 
 
 1 Works of Chaucer, vol. II. pp. liii.-lxi. 
 
 2 I.e., pp. Ixi.-lxii., Ixxx. 
 
50 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 from the Historia Trojana of Guido delle 
 Colonne." 1 
 
 Finally , J. W. Broatch, in an article 2 
 in which he is assuredly "amicus Pla- 
 tonis/' totally denies the claims of the 
 Historia as set forth by Skeat, as one of 
 the joint sources of the English poem. 
 Unfortunately he rests his case mainly 
 upon his own arbitrary statements, which 
 are not, and cannot be substantiated by 
 citations from the work of either Benoit 
 or Guido. 
 
 Of the known authors to whom Chaucer 
 could have had recourse for the story of 
 
 1 Hist. ofEng. Poetry, vol. I. pp. 262-263. 
 
 2 Journal of Germanic Philology, vol. II. (1898) pp. 
 14-28. W. S. McCormick seems to accept Broatch's con- 
 clusion when he states, "For the development of the 
 story in Book V. Chaucer evidently consulted the Roman 
 de Troie of Benoit de Sainte-More, possibly also the 
 Historia Troiana of Guido delle Colonne." Globe Chaucer, 
 p. xli. ; cf . pp. 543, 546, 553. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 51 
 
 the Troilus and Criseyde, Guido delle 
 Colonne 1 is the only one whom he men- 
 tions by name in any of his works. In the 
 Sous of Fame, 2 in the list of the historians 
 of Troy, he groups together 
 
 " the great Omeer ; 
 And with him Dares and Tytus 
 Before, and eek he, Lollius, 
 And Guido eek de Columpnis;" 
 
 and by this mention of Lollius, removes 
 any chance for the conjecture that by this 
 name Guido was meant. Again, in his 
 Legend of Good Women, at the beginning 
 of the story of Hypsipyle and Medea, he 
 mentions Guido as his authority. 
 
 "Tessalye, as Guido telleth us." 3 
 
 1 The name always appears as " de Columpnis " in 
 autograph signatures : (F. Torraca, Giornale Dantesco, 
 vol. V. pp. 271-277 ; Studi su la lirica italiana del Due- 
 cento, 1902, pp. 449-452), and in the best manuscripts of 
 the Historia. 2 H. of F., 1466-1469. 
 
 8 L. of G. W., 1396. Skeat was the first, in 1889, to 
 restore the correct manuscript reading, " Guido," which 
 
52 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 And when he leaves him to follow another 
 author, he notifies his readers : 
 
 " Al be this not rehersed of Guido, 
 Yet seith Ovyde in his Epistles so." 1 
 
 A careful study of the subject has shown 
 the truthfulness of the poet's statement, 
 and pointed out his exact indebtedness to 
 both the authors mentioned. 2 
 
 had before always been printed as " Ovyde." The Legend 
 of Good Women, 1889, pp. xxxi., 167. Works of G. 
 Chaucer, 1894, vol. II. p. liv. 
 
 1 L. of G. W., 1464-1465. 
 
 2 Bech, Anglia, vol. V. pp. 324, 329-330, on Guido as 
 source ; cf . Legend of Good Women, p. xxxi. ; Lounsbury, 
 I.e., vol. II. p. 313 ; J. W. Broatch, Journal of Germanic 
 Philology, vol. II. pp. 22-23. Chaucer, in following Guido, 
 who substituted Ovid's " Thessalia " for Benoit's "Grece," 
 perhaps to escape the difficulty found in the French poet's 
 transformation of Dares's " Peloponneso " into " Penolope " 
 (R. de T., 712; on source of name in Dares, cf. Dun- 
 ger, I.e., p. 15 ; Koerting, Dictys and Dares, p. 73), which 
 gave a Middle English translator trouble (The Seege of 
 Troye, edited by C. H. A. Wager, 1889, v. 25 ; cf. p. lix.), 
 although acquainted with Dares, does not, here or else- 
 where (L. of G. W., 1397, 1400, 1409 ; cf . p. 167), correct 
 "Pelleus " into "Pelias" (cf. Hertzberg, I.e., p. 121 ; Joly, 
 I.e., vol. L p. 222, n.; H. Morf, Rom, vol. XXI. p. 89). 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 53 
 
 And in the Hous of Fame he refers 
 anonymously to him as an authority for 
 an opinion which he himself does not seem 
 to accept. 
 
 " But yit I gan ful wel espye, 
 Betwix hem was a litel envye, 
 Oon seyde, Omere made lyes, 
 Feyninge in his poetryes, 
 And was to Grekes favorable ; 
 Therfor held he hit but fable." 1 
 
 For in Benoit's poem there is no passage 
 corresponding in the least to Guido's long 
 invective against Homer. 
 
 After telling of the treacherous slaying 
 of Troilus by his Greek opponent, Guido 
 goes on : 
 
 " Sed o homere qui in libris tuis achillem tot 
 laudibus tot preconiis extulisti ; quse probabilis 
 ratio te induxit ut achillem tantis probitatis 
 
 Lydgate, who had followed others in this mistake in his 
 Troy-book, repeats it in his Tragedies (sig. c 1 verso, 
 col. 1). 
 
 *H.of P., 1475-1480. 
 
54 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 titulis exaltasses, ex eo precipue quod dixeris 
 achillem ipsum suis viribus duos hectores pere- 
 misse ipsum videlecet et troilum fortissimum 
 fratrem ejus. Sane si te induxit grecorum 
 affectio a quibus originem diceris produxisse 
 vera non motus diceris ratione, sed potius ex 
 furore." 1 
 
 1 Historia, sig. 1 2 verso, col. 2. Benoit's only comment 
 on Homer (R. de T., 45-66 = Dares, De Excidio Troice, 
 ed. Meister, 1, 13-17) is to the effect that his statements 
 could not be true, as he lived one hundred years after 
 the Trojan war, arid that the Athenians 
 
 " Dampner le voldrent par raison 
 Por ce qu'ot fet les Damedeus 
 Conbatre o les homes charneus " 
 
 (R. de T., 60-62 ; cf. Constans, Revue des Universites du 
 Midi, vol. IV. pp. 36, 53), which Guido translated in its 
 proper place. Historia, sig. a 1 recto, col. 1-2. It is of 
 this passage that Broatch (I.e., p. 20) writes, " Thus in 
 45 he sneers at the paganism of Homer/' and of the clos- 
 ing lines of the poem, a mere scribal formula, 
 
 " Celui gart Dex et tienge et voie 
 Qui bien essauce et monteploie " 
 
 (R. de T., 30107-30108 ed., Qui bien s'avance et monte- 
 ploie," but I have read as above on authority of MSS. 
 B.N., 782, 1553 ; Arsenal, 3340, 3342) he remarks that the 
 poet "expresses Christian sentiments." He emphasizes 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 55 
 
 In the Monkes Tale the stanza in the 
 account of Hercules 
 
 " Was never wight, sith that the world bigan, 
 That slow so many monstres as dide he. 
 Thurgh-out this wyde world his name ran, 
 What for his strengthe, and for his heigh 
 
 bountee, 
 
 And every reaume wente he for to see. 
 He was so strong that no man mighte him 
 
 lette; 
 
 At bothe the worldes endes, seith Trophee, 
 In stede of boundes, he a pilar sette." 1 
 
 finds no analogue in the passage in Boethius 
 in Chaucer's own translation, 2 which was 
 so closely followed in the two preceding 
 stanzas/ but has its source in Guido's state- 
 
 these passages as the only evidence to support his arbitrary 
 statement that Chaucer could have found " his source in 
 Benoit as well as in Guido " for his attack upon paganism 
 (T. and C., V. 1849-1855). 
 
 1 Canterbury Tales, B, 3301-3307. 
 
 2 Boethius De Consolatione Philosophic, Book IV. Metre 
 VII. 29-67. 
 
 3 C. T., B, 3282-3300 
 
56 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 ment, much enlarged upon that of Benoit, 
 which merely has 
 
 " Et les bonnes ilec ficha." l 
 
 And Chaucer may have referred to this 
 very statement, only in order to supplement 
 it with the information he found in what 
 he considered a better authority, in the 
 work of Guido. 
 
 " Hie est ille hercules de cujus incredibilibus 
 actibus per multas mundi partes sermo dirigitur. 
 Qui sua potentia infinites gigantes suis tempo 
 ribus inter em it . . . ista de eo sufficiant tetigisse 
 cum et rei veritas in tantum de sua victoria acta 
 per mundum miraculose divulget, quod usque 
 in hodiernum diem usque quam victor apparuit 
 columne herculis testentur ad gades." 2 
 
 i R. de T., 795. 
 
 * Historia, sig. a 3 recto, col. 1 ; cf . R. de T., 791- 
 
 794,797-798: . 
 
 " Hercules 
 
 Cil qui sostint maint pesant fes, 
 Et mainte grant merveille fist. 
 Et maint felon jaiant ocit." 
 " Ses granz merveilles et si fait 
 Serront mes k toz jorz retrait." 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 57 
 
 " Et locus ille in quo predicte columne Her- 
 culis sunt affixe a quo non sufficit ultra ire." 1 
 
 But Chaucer, in other poems where no 
 authority is named, shows that he is well 
 acquainted with Guido's work. In the 
 Book of the Duchesse he dreams that on 
 the windows of his room 
 
 " hoolly al the storie of Troye 
 Was in the glasing y- wrought thus, 
 Of Ector and king Priamus, 
 Of Achilles and Lamedon, 
 Of Medea and of Jason, 
 Of Paris, Eleyne, and Lavyne." 2 
 
 1 Historia, sig. a 3 recto, col. 2; cf. Skeat, Works of 
 Chaucer, vol. II. p. Iv. Yet Broatch (Z.c., 21) states that 
 "the passage from the Monk's Tale ... is found in 
 Benoit." Cf. R. de T., 796, " Ou Alexandres les [bonnes] 
 trova," with Guido's " Ad has columnas magnas Macedo- 
 nius Alexander . . . subjugando sibi mundum in manu 
 legitur pervenisse," Historia, sig. a 3 recto, col. 1. Chau- 
 cer's " both the worldes endes," as well as the statement 
 in Guido, is based upon the geographical misconception 
 so often found in mediaeval writers, which first confused, 
 and finally made one, the Eastern " bornes " of Bacchus 
 or Alexander, and the Western limits set by Hercules or 
 Arthur. 2 B. ofD., 326-331. 
 
58 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 In Guide's work especially is a promi- 
 nent place given to the loves of Medea 
 and Jason/ as a part of the Trojan story, 
 and from this source the English poet took 
 the names in this passage, as, at a later 
 period, in the Legend of Good Women, he 
 utilized the narrative. 
 
 Again, in the same poem, when we find : 
 
 " And therto al-so hardy be 
 As was Ector, so have I joye, 
 That Achilles slow at Troye 
 Lnd therfor was he slayn also 
 a temple, for bothe two 
 
 1 Cf. A. Joly, I.e., vol. I. p. 474; Bech, Anglia, vol. 
 V. p. 331. While Guido always writes "Hector," the 
 aphaeresized form, " Ector," appears in Benoit after qu* d' 9 
 etc. (R. de T., 296, 371; 283, 394, 420) ; but this was a 
 common O.F. form which Chaucer could have found 
 elsewhere. Cf . " Ercules," B. of D., 1058 ; and see p. 
 56. " Priamus " is exceptional in Benoit (Constans, I.e., 
 p. 67) ; " Lamedon " has no precedent in " Laomedon " 
 of both authors ; but for the manuscript reading, " king " 
 before name which, it is true, may merely have been 
 caught from 1. 328, cf . " Li reis de Troi[e] Laomedon " 
 (R. de T., 989); "Rex Laomedon," Historia, sig. a 4 
 recto, col. 1. But the form " Laumedon," found both in 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 59 
 
 Were slayii, he and Antylegyus, 
 And so seyth Dares Prigius, 
 For love of [hir] Polixena."J 
 
 It is evidently a summing-up of the story 
 of the passion of Achilles for Polyxena, 
 such as it appeared, in an extended form, 
 in the Historia of Guido. 2 That Dares was 
 not the immediate source, as stated by 
 Chaucer, is conclusively demonstrated by 
 his forced spelling of the name " Anti- 
 logus," which Guido had taken as he 
 found it in Benoit, 3 who had thus distorted 
 
 Benoit (Constans, I.e., pp. 34-35, where synseresis must 
 be allowed on account of the metre) and in Guido, would 
 give Chaucer's spelling of the name as "Laodamia," 
 "Laudomia," which became "Ladomea." Cf. L. of G. 
 W., 924; C. T., B, 71; F, 1445; cf. T. and C., IV. 124, 
 "Lameadoun." With "Lavyne" cf. R. de la Rose, ed. 
 Michel, 21818, " Helaine ne Lavine," but 14169, " Helaine," 
 Medee,"Z.c., 14170, 15349. 
 
 1 B. of D., 1064-1071. On spelling "Antilogus," 
 Skeat, Minor Poems of Chaucer, 2d ed. p. 491. 
 
 2 Historia, sig. k 2 verso, col. 1, 14 recto, col. 1 ; cf . 
 R. de T 7 ., 17457-18354, 19177-19289, 19395-19779, 20679- 
 20848, 21176-21256, 21799-22256. 
 
 3 R. de T., 585, 20969, 22091 ; Historia, sig. 1 3 verso, 
 col. 2, 14 recto, col. 1. 
 
60 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 the " Antilochus " of Dares. 1 And that it 
 was to Guido's, and not to Benoit' s, work 
 
 1 Dares, 41, 8 ; 11, 13. Skeat's statement (Minor 
 Poems, p. 266), " Antilochus is a mistake for Archilochus, 
 owing to the usual mediaeval confusion of proper names," 
 is not based on a single fact. Archilochus, who, in the 
 Iliad (XL 100, XIV. 164), is the son of Antenor, in 
 Dares (23, 4) is a Thracian ally of the Trojans; in 
 Benoit (R. de T., 6854, 7692) Archilogus is the son of 
 " Theseus de Theresche," and again appears in the same 
 rdle in the Historia (sig. f 6 recto, col. 1; g 3 recto, 
 col. 1) as "Artilogus" and "Archileus." But Guido, 
 misunderstanding a passage in Benoit (R. de T., 8360- 
 8361, where " Antilogus " appears as the son of Theseus), 
 makes an " Artilogus " the son of another Theseus (His- 
 toria, g 5 recto, col. 2 ; cf . wrong translation again in the 
 Gest Hystoriale, ed. Paton and Donaldson, 6448-6450), 
 who in both writers appears as a Greek ally (R. de T., 
 8179-8184, 8873-8902, 9045-9062, 11174; Historia, sig. 
 g 4 verso, col. 1 ; g 6 verso, col. 1 ; h 1 recto, col. 1). A 
 certain " Artilegus " is introduced by Guido in a pas- 
 sage in which two episodes are made from one in Benoit 
 as a doublet of u Archelaus," who is slain by Hector 
 (Historia, sig. h 5 recto, col. 2 ; cf. R. de T., 10817 ff.). In 
 Lydgate's Troy-look (sig. X 2 verso, col. 2, but X 3 recto, 
 col. 2 ; verso, cols. 1-2, the correct form " Anthylogus " 
 appears), in the Gest Hystoriale (10555-10556), and the 
 La destruction de Troye of Milet (3987), Archilogus is the 
 son of Nestor ; cf . Works of Chaucer, vol. VI. p. 401. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 61 
 
 that Chaucer was directly indebted, is 
 shown by the name of the author, " Dares 
 Frigius," such as it appeared in the for- 
 mer"; 1 while "Daires," "Daire," "Dares" 2 
 is a less specific nomenclature, found in 
 the Old French poem. 
 Then in the lines, 
 
 " nay, certes, than were I wel 
 Wers than was Achitofel, 
 Or Anthaagr, so have I joye, 
 The traytour that betraysed Troye, " 3 
 
 is at once the mediaeval tradition and spell- 
 ing of Antenor, such as we find in Guido, 4 ' 
 and when Chaucer writes, 
 
 1 Historia, sig. e 1 verso, col. 1 ; e 3 recto, col. 1 ; f 5 
 verso, col. 1 ; cf . p. 70 n. 
 
 2 R. de T., 2048, 2051, 3107, 12292, 14048, 16210,21395, 
 21173 ; 106, 5183, 9957, 23722 ; Constans, I.e., p. 68. On 
 Chaucer's acquaintance with the work of Dares, when 
 writing the L. of G. W., Bech, Anglia, vol. Y. pp. 325- 
 326. 8 B. of D., 1117-1120. 
 
 4 Historia, sig. m 1 recto, col. 1 ff. ; cf . R. de T., 
 24373-26325. There is no hint anywhere in Chaucer's 
 works to show that he accepted the mediaeval conception 
 
62 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 " Alias that day 
 
 The sorwe I suffred, and the wo ! 
 That trewlwy Cassandra, that so 
 Bewayled the destruccioun 
 Of Troye and of Ilioun, 
 Had never swich sorwe as I tho," l 
 
 he follows Guido in making a distinction 
 between Troy and Ilium, 2 and, as he, gives 
 Cassandra, who is only incidentally men- 
 
 of ^Eneas as a traitor in conjunction with Antenor, in 
 contradiction to the narrative of Virgil (cf . H. of F., 
 162 fe. ; L. of G. W., 930 ff.), unless it be in the line in 
 the Troilus (II. 1474) in which the two are named 
 together as friends of the enemy of Criseyde, "Were 
 it for Antenor and Eneas," a juxtaposition of names to 
 be found in Benoit (299; 24373). Nor is the story that 
 Simon entered Troy concealed in the wooden horse, in 
 Guido one of brass, " equum erum " found in his 
 mediaeval authorities (R. de T., 25618-25639, 25760- 
 25923; Historia, sig. m 4 verso, col. 2 m 5 recto, col. 
 1), accepted to the rejection of the Virgilian authority. 
 (H. of F., 151-155; L. of G. TF., 930-933; C. T., B, 
 4418-4419; F, 209-211, 305-307) ; cf. Works of Chaucer, V. 
 p. 377. 
 
 1 B. of D., 1243-1249. 
 
 2 Historia, sig. c 2 verso, col. 1-2, in the section treat- 
 ing of the building of Troy by Priam, we find : 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 63 
 
 tioned in the narrative of the ^Eneid, 1 a 
 prominent position in the Trojan story. 2 
 
 Ilion formari constituit quod magnum ejus palacium 
 appelatur. 
 
 Again in the section De direptione Troie we find after 
 entering the city that 
 
 Greci ... in magnum ilion irruerunt 
 
 (sig. m 6 recto, col. 1). The same distinction is made 
 in the H. of F., 152, 155, 158; and in the L. of G. W., 
 936-937, 
 
 " In al the noble tour of Ilioun 
 That of the citee was the cheef dungeoun," 
 
 not only the distinction, but the language, is taken from 
 Benoit, R. de T., 3029-3030 (cf. 645-646, 10366, 24316- 
 24317, 25275, 26029, 26119). 
 
 " A une part font Ylion 
 De Troie le mestre danjon," 
 
 Broatch, I.e. p. 22; cf. Fromman, Germania, vol. II. p. 
 77; C. r., B, 288-289, 4546. 
 
 1 jEn., II. 246, 403; III. 187; V. 636. 
 
 2 Historia, sig. C 1 verso, col. 1 = R. de T., 2941- 
 2942 = Dares, 6, 4 ; Historia, sig. e 2 recto, col. 2 = 
 R. de T., 4127-4144 = Dares, 11, 2-5 ; Historia, sig. o 
 6 recto, col. 2 = R. de T., 4861-4916 = Dares, 13, 14-16 ; 
 Historia, sig. e 3 recto, col. 1 = R. de T., 5509-5520 = 
 Dares, 15, 17-18 ; Historia, sig. h 3 verso, col. 1 = R. 
 de T., 10355-10390 ; Historia, sig. m 4 verso, col. 2 = R. 
 de T., 25482-25488 ; Historia, sig. m 5 verso, col. 2 = 
 
64 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 In the list of lovers in the Parlement of 
 Foules, 
 
 " Tristram, Isoude, Paris, and Achilles, 
 Eleyne, Cleopatre, and Troilus," x 
 
 the heroes of the two romantic episodes of 
 the Historia are alluded to ; in the line 
 of the Legend of Good Women, 
 
 " And Polixene, that boghten love so dere," 2 
 
 R. de T., 26009-26019 = Dares, 49, 21-50, 17; Historia, 
 sig. m 6 recto, col. 1 = R. de T., 26107-26112. In these 
 passages her seer's powers are mentioned, and her pro- 
 phetic lamentations are set forth in full. 
 
 1 P. of F., 290-291. J. Koch (EngliscJien Studien, 
 vol. I. pp. 284-285) thinks that these lines, in which 
 Troilus is taken as a type of a lover, could only have 
 been written after Chaucer had become acquainted with 
 the FilostratOj as his story only forms a minor episode 
 in the works of Benoit and Guido. But he leaves un- 
 explained the introduction of Achilles, whose name, how- 
 ever, as that of Cleopatra, Paris, and Tristram, the 
 English poet may have taken from a passage in the 
 Divina Commedia of Dante (Inf., V. 63-67), of which 
 the P. of F. shows the earliest influence. Cf. Inf., II. 
 1-3, 83-84, 10-11, 19-20; Purg., XXVIII., 16-18, 7-9, 
 with P. of F., 85-86, 109-112, 123-124, 141, 169-170, 
 201-203. 2 L. of G. W., B, 258. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 65 
 
 there is again a reference to one of these ; 
 in the Nonne Preestes Tale one of the " en- 
 samples," to illustrate the value of dreams 
 cited by Chauntecleer, 
 
 " Lo heer Andromacha, Ectores wyf , 
 That day that Ector sholde lese his lyf, 
 She dremed on the same night biforn, 
 How that the lyf of Ector sholde be lorn, 
 If thilke day he wente in-to bataille ; 
 She warned him, but it mighte nat availle ; 
 He wente for to fighte nathelees, 
 But he was slayn anoon of Achilles, 
 But thilke tale is al to long to telle, 
 And eek it is ny day, I may nat dwelle," l 
 
 which has no classical authority, can be 
 
 found in the narrative of Guido. So far as 
 
 . ^"^i ._ ~~ - ' -- 1 
 
 the evidence of the names in the first pas- 
 sage goes, Chaucer may have already become 
 acquainted with the work of Benoit; he 
 makes use of the old French poem, as well 
 as of the Latin romance, elsewhere in the 
 
 1 C. T., B., 4331-4340, 
 
66 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 Legend of Good Women? and in either of 
 these works he could have read the story 
 of the fate of Polyxena, who was slain at 
 the tomb of Achilles by Pyrrhus, because 
 
 for her 
 
 "sis peres fu ocis." 2 
 
 Again, in the summary of the dream of 
 Andromache and its fulfilment there is no 
 hint in its details or language upon which 
 it can be stated conclusively whether it was 
 to the narrative of Benoit or to that of 
 Guido, Chaucer was indebted. 8 
 
 1 Cf . p. 52, n. 2 ; p. 62, n. 2. 
 
 2 R. de T., 26297; cf. 663-668, 26369-26432; Historia, 
 sig. m 6 verso, col. 1 n 1, recto, col. 1. For phrase, 
 " boghten love so dere," cf . T. and C., L, 810 : " Many a 
 man hath love ful dere y-bought," which has no equiva- 
 lent in the parallel passage of the R. de la 7?., 21878; 
 but T. and C., V. 1755-1756 ; " His ire ... the Grekes ay 
 boughte," V. 1800-1801 ; " The wraththe ... of Troilus 
 the Grekes boughten dere," finds its counterpart in 
 Benoit's " Chier lo comparent Troien " (23688) ; Cil de 
 Ik Tont chier comparee " (21204) ; " Mes trop les a, chier 
 compare " (20122). Cf . 17944, 668, 13290. 
 
 8 R. de T., 15187 ff. ; cf . 390-412 ; Historia, sig. i 4 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 67 
 
 In taking the Filostrato as a basis for 
 his Troilus, Chaucer, knowing both of the 
 works from which Boccaccio drew the rudi- 
 ments of his story/ did not hesitate to adopt' 
 
 verso, col. 2 ff., where Dame as elsewhere in the same 
 work is spelled Andrometa. Tyrwhitt had stated (I.e., 
 p. 204, note to 1. 15147), " The first author who relates it 
 is the fictitious Dares, cxxiv, and Chaucer very probably 
 took it from him, or from Guido de Columnis, or per- 
 haps from Benoit de Sainte More." Cf. Broatch (I.e., 
 p. 22), "Tyrwhitt affirmed that the dream of An- 
 dromache . . . came from Guido. It might as well 
 have come from Benoit." 
 
 1 Le Clerc was of the opinion that " le Filostrato n'est 
 qu'un developpement de 1'episode de Troilus et Briseida 
 ou Criseida dans le poeme fra^aise de la Guerre de 
 Troie par Benoit de Sainte-More " (Hist. litt. de la France, 
 vol. XXIV. pp. 553-554). Hortis (Studi sulle opere latine 
 del Boccaccio, 1879, p. 118), Sandras (I.e., p. 42), Moland 
 and d'Hericault (I.e., p. xciii), and Barth (Guido de 
 Columna, Leipzig, 1877, p. 34) do not try to decide 
 whether it was to Benoit or Guido that Boccaccio was 
 indebted for the story of the Troilus. G. Koerting 
 (Boccaccios Leben und Werke, 1880, p. 590) and V. 
 Cresini (Contribute agli studi sul Boccaccio, 1887, p. 195) 
 widen the question by the suggestion that it may 
 have been taken from an Italian translation of either 
 Benoit or Guido, instead of from the original of either 
 
1 
 
 
 68 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 / hints from those authors which had been 
 ^^C neglected by Boccaccio. Not only did he 
 dovetail into his own narrative details of 
 the Latin and French versions of the 
 Troilus episode which had been omitted 
 or changed by the Italian writer, but also 
 \ followed "myn auctor" in seeking material 
 \ in other episodes, and weaving romances 
 \ j about names found in their common au- 
 thorities. And in such additions from 
 Benoit and Guido the predominance of the 
 former as an authority is evident both in 
 
 (cf . C. H. A. Wager, The Seege of Troye, p. xxii.) . Dunger 
 (I.e., p. 36), Hertzberg (I.e., p. 200), Bartoli (Iprecursori del 
 Boccaccio, 1876, pp. 64-66 ; cf. 70-80), M. Landau (Giovanni 
 Boccaccio; seine Leben und seine Werke, 1877, pp. 90-91), 
 and Gorra (Testi inediti di storia troiana, etc., 1889, p. 
 339 ff.) believed that Guide's original text was the direct 
 source ; while Joly (I.e., vol. I. p. 504), Gaspary (Gesch. der 
 italienischen Lit., vol. II. p. 638), Morf (Rom., vol. XXI. 
 p. 106), and Savj-Lopez (Rom, vol. XXVII. pp. 445-449) 
 attributed the greater influence to Benoit, although ac- 
 knowledging the supplementary use of Guido ; and Savez- 
 Lopez was the first (I.e., pp. 451-453) to note Boccaccio's 
 indebtedness to the love episode of Achilles in Benoit. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 69 
 
 language and sentiment, while lie accepts 
 the statements of the latter for specific 
 details, the correctness of which he thinks 
 can be vouched for. While Benoit always 
 writes for Dictys, "Dithis" 1 or "Ditis," 2 
 Guido in translating the passage in the 
 French poem which tells of the discovery 
 by Cornelius, the " neveu " of " Saluistes," 3 
 
 of 
 
 " L'estoire que D^ire ot escrite 
 
 Et en langue gregoise dite," 4 
 
 regarded the participle " dite " as a proper 
 name, and, here and elsewhere, always 
 
 1 R. de T 7 ., 637, 24301, 26202, 30095. 
 
 2 R. de T., 24299, 24322, 26040 ; Constans, Z.c., p. 64. 
 8 R. de T 7 ., 77-79. 
 
 " Cist Saluistes, 90 truis lisant 
 Ot un neveu forment sachant 
 Cornelius fu apelez," 
 
 is Benoit's interpretation of the words in the formula of 
 address, " Cornelius Nepos Sallustio," in Dares. Cf . Joly, 
 I.e., vol. I. p. 477. 
 
 4 R. de T., 87-88, ed. " En greque langue fete et dite," 
 which I have rejected in favor of the reading in Vienna 
 2571, ap. G. K. Fromman, Germania, vol. II. p. 62. 
 
70 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 referred to this author, with whose work 
 he was unacquainted, as Dites, 1 so, Chaucer, 
 whose ignorance on this point was one with 
 Guido, names " Dyte " as a writer on the 
 Trojan war, and when he gives the advice, 
 
 " But the Troiane gestes, as they f elle, 
 
 In Omer, or in Dares, or in Dyte, 
 
 Who-so that can, may rede hem as they wryte," 2 
 
 he is speaking in all seriousness to those 
 who were better situated than he. That 
 he came to doubt the authority that he 
 Accepted when writing the Troilus is 
 shown in the later poem, Tlie Hous of 
 
 1 Historia, sig. a 1 recto, col. 2. 
 
 " Eaque per ditem grecum et frigius Daretem ... in 
 presentem libellum per me judicem Guidonem de columnis 
 messana transsumpta legentur, prout in duobus libris 
 eorum inscripturn, quasi una vocis consonantis inventum 
 est athenis. Quamquam autem hos libellos . . . Cornelius 
 nomine Salustii magni nepos in latinam transferre 
 curverit." 
 
 This mistake of Guido was first noted by Hertzberg, 
 I.e., 189-190. Cf. sig. o. 7 recto, col. 1, " ditem grecum." 
 On passage in epilogue, Historia, sig. O 6 recto, col. 2, in 
 which the form " ditis " occurs which may be only a 
 gloss, cf. H. Morf (Rom, vol. XXI. pp. 20-21). 
 
 2 T. and C., I. 145-147. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 71 
 
 Fame, where, again in a list of writers on 
 
 Troy, he names 
 
 " the great Omere, 
 
 And with him Dares and Tytus." 1 
 
 This is no mere spelling of a name, but the 
 statement of a correction to which the poet 
 had given thought. In his readings he had 
 not come across the work of "Ditis 
 Dithis Dites," and to attribute such a work 
 to a well-known historian, " Tytus Livius," 2 
 one of whose names could easily have been 
 corrupted, seemed the sensible way. 
 
 Chaucer was so well acquainted with the 
 story of Achilles and Polyxena 3 that he 
 
 *H.ofR, 1466-1467. 
 
 2 B. of the D., 1084 = 72. de la ., 9365 ; L. of G. W., 
 A, 280. 1873, (Titus) 1683 ; C. T. y C, 1. In the B. of the 
 D. the allusion to Lucretia is only at second hand, in the 
 L. of G. W. the Latin history was used as a source, while 
 again in the Frankeleyns Tale, where no authority is 
 named, the name occurs in the list of virtuous women, 
 translation from the monastic tract Contra Jovinianum. 
 Cf . C. T., F, 1405-1409 ; Migne, Patrologia, vol. XXIII. 
 col. 275. 3 Cf . p. 59. 
 
72 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 recognized the use made of it by Boccaccio 
 in telling of the beginning of the love 
 adventures of Troilus, and enlarged his own 
 narrative by hints drawn from both of the 
 sources of the Italian poet. 
 Boccaccio's lines, 
 
 "il quale {i.e. Troilus] amore trafisse 
 Piu ch'alcun altro," 1 
 
 could hardly have been the original of 
 Chaucer's longer and more specific state- 
 ment, 
 
 " the god of love gan loken rowe 
 Right for despyt, and shoop for to ben wroken; 
 He kidde anoon his bowe nas not broken; 
 For sodeynly he hit him at the fulle; " 2 
 
 while the figure employed seems to suggest 
 the use of a passage in Guido's description 
 of the first meeting of Achilles and Polyx- 
 
 KV 
 
 ena : 
 
 "Et dum desirabili animo in earn Achilles 
 suum infixisset intuitum sagitta cupidimis for- 
 
 i m, I. 25, 7-8. 2 Tm and C ., I. 206-209. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 7B 
 
 tern Achillem subito vulneravit et ad interiora 
 pertransiens cordis ejus." 1 
 
 Again, Chaucer's lines, 
 
 " And sodeynly he wex ther-with astoned, 
 And gan hire bet biholde in thrifty wyse: 
 *O mercy, god!' thoughte he, 'wher hastow 
 
 woned, 
 Thou art so fair and goodly to devyse ? ' " 2 
 
 " And after that hir loking gan she lighte, 
 That never thoughte him seen so good a sighte. 
 And of hir look in him ther gan to quiken 
 So greet desir, and swich affeccioun, 
 That in his hertes botme gan to stiken 
 Of hir his fixe and depe impressioun : 
 And though he erst hadde poured up and doun, 
 He was tho glad his homes in to shrinke; 
 Unnethes wiste he how to loke or winke," 3 
 
 which have no parallel in the Filostrato, are _! 
 a clever piecing together of unconnected A 
 
 1 Historia, sig. k 2 verso, col. 2. Cf. E. Meybrinck, 
 Die Auffassung der Antike bei Jacques Milet, Guido de 
 Columna und Benoit de Saint-Maur, Marburg, 1886, p. 40. 
 
 2 T. and C., I. 274-278. 
 8 T. and C., I. 293-301. 
 
74 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 expressions in the Latin Romance in the 
 same episode : 
 
 "Achilles igitur dum Polixenam inspexit et 
 ejus pulcliritudinem contemplatus vere suo con- 
 cepit in ammo nunquam se vidisse puellam nee 
 aliquam inulierem tante pulchritudinis forma 
 vigere. . . . Qui dum in earn frequentius in- 
 tuendo sibi ipsi placere putaret et lenire grave 
 desiderium cordis sui majoris scissure cordis 
 vulneris seipsum sibi reddebat actorem. . . . 
 Quid ultra Amore Polixene nimium, illaqueatus, 
 Achilles nescit ipse quid faciat. . . . Propter 
 quod dilatat amplius plagas suas et sui amoris 
 vulnera magis sui cordis attrahit in profun- 
 dum." 1 
 
 1 Historia, sig. k 2 verso, col. 2, k 3 recto, col. 1 ; cf . 
 Gower, Conf. Amant. V. 7591 ff. The lines, 
 [Calchas] 
 
 " Knew wel that Troye sholde destroyed be, 
 By answere of his god, that highte thus, 
 Daun Phebus or Apollo Delphicus, 
 
 (T. and C., I. 68-70) 
 
 Thus shal I seyii, and that his coward herte 
 Made him amis the goddes text to glose, 
 When he for ferde out of his Delphos sterte," 
 
 (T. and C., IV. 1409-1411) 
 in which there is an allusion to the journey of Calchas to 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 75 
 
 Boccaccio did not give a description of 
 Troilus, and Chaucer, in combining details 
 from Benoit and Guido, takes his more 
 definite information from the latter. Thus, 
 
 when Pandarus refers to . 
 
 " Troilus 
 The wyse worthy Ector the secounde," l 
 
 the Delphic oracle in the interests of the Trojans, the 
 warning of the god, which he obeyed, in accompanying 
 Achilles to Athens, not a suggestion of which appears 
 in the Filostrato, do not furnish any hint as to whether 
 it was to the French or the Latin work (cf . R. de T 7 ., 5809- 
 5918; Historic sig. e 6 recto, col. 1) Chaucer had resort to 
 at this point in the story. However, it may be noted that 
 Phebus with the French epithet does not appear in the 
 R. de T. (cf. Danz Apollin, 13732) nor does the Latin 
 "Delphicus" appear in Guido ("Apollo," Historia, sig. e 
 5 verso, col. 2). Lydgate accepts the authority of Chau- 
 cer, and in his translation of this passage we find " Apollo 
 Delphicus" (Troy-look, sig. 2 recto, col. 2). Guido con- 
 fused Delos and "Delphos insulam" (Historia, sig. e 
 4 recto, col. 2; e 5 verso, col. 2). Benoit has Defeis (R. 
 de T., 205, 5786). Chaucer may have written Delphos on 
 the authority of Dares (19, 13 and 19). Cf. C. T., F, 1077, 
 " Thy temple in Delphos wol I barefoot seke." The 
 account of Calchas in the Filostrato (I. 8-9) corresponds 
 to the more general statement of Guido in another passage 
 (Historia, sig. i 1 recto, col. 2 ; cf. R. de T., 12952 ft.). 
 1 T. and C., H. 157-158. 
 
76 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 or when the poet speaking in his own 
 person says, 
 
 " And certainly in storie it is y-f ounde, 
 That Troilus was never un-to no wight, 
 As in his tyme, in no degree secounde 
 In durring don that longeth to a knight. 
 Al mighte a geaunt passen him of might, 
 His herte ay with the firste and with the beste 
 Stod paregal, to durre don that him leste," l 
 
 we have twovseparate passages based upon 
 the statement in the Historia: 
 
 " In viribus vero et strenuitate bellandi vel 
 f uit alms Hector vel secundus ab ipso. In toto 
 etiam regno Troie juvenis nullus fuit tantis 
 viribus nee tanta audacia gloriosus." 2 
 
 1 T. and C., V. 834-840. Cf. II. 643, 739-740; III. 
 1774-1775 ; V. 1564-1565, 1803-1804. 
 
 2 Historia, sig. e 2 verso, col. 1 ; cf . sig. k 6 recto, 
 col. 2, 
 
 "alius hector qui non minori predictus est virtute inclitus 
 ille scilicet troilus qui non minus quam si hector viveret, 
 grecos afficit " 
 
 = R. de T. (19890-19905; cf. 3973-3976, 5419-5421) 
 which again has its source in Dares (36, 20-22), " Dio- 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 77 
 
 In describing the sorrowful plight in 
 which Pandarus found Criseyde, Chaucer 
 availed himself of all that the Filostrato 
 offered, 
 
 " El vide lei in sul letto avviluppata 
 Ne' singhiozzi, nel pianto et ne' sospiri ; 
 E'l petto tutto et la faccia bagnata 
 Di lacrime le vide, ed in disiri 
 Di pianger gli occhi suoi, e scapigliata, 
 Dar vero segno degli aspri martiri," * 
 
 medes et Ulixes dicere coeperunt Troilum non minus 
 quam Hectorem virum fortissimum esse." Cf. Skeat, 
 Z.c., p. Ivi. ; Broatch, I.e., p. 16. Skeat, I.e., pp. Ivi.-lvii., 
 compares T. and C., I. 1072-1085, with Guide's descrip- 
 tion of Troilus, while Broatch (Z.c., p. 16), noting that 
 these lines refer especially to the change that took place 
 in Troilus in consequence of his love, says that any 
 details in this passage "might equally well have been 
 taken from Benoit, 5372 ff." But in fact Chaucer merely 
 anticipates the situation that he translates from the Filo- 
 strato in a later passage. Cf. T. and C., III. 1716-1729 ; 
 Fil., III. 72; T. and C. 9 HI. 1772-1778, 1786-1792; Fil., 
 III. 90, 92. 
 
 1 Fil., TV. 9.6. 1-6. Cf . IV. 100, 7-8 : 
 
 " E intorno agli occhi un purpurino giro 
 Dava vero segnal del suo martiro," 
 
78 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 and by making his own a further detail in 
 Guide's description of the heroine's actions, 
 "t not put to use by Boccaccio, 
 
 A, " et aureos crines suos a lege ligaminis absolutes 
 divellit," 1 
 
 introduced additional matter in his ver- 
 sion, 
 
 " And fond that she hir-selven gan to trete 
 Ful pitously ; for with hir salte teres 
 Hir brest, hir face y-bathed was f ul wete ; 
 
 with T. and C., IV. 869-870, 
 
 " About her eyen two a purple ring 
 Bi-trent in sothf ast tokninge of hir peyne." 
 
 The ultimate source is Dante (Vita Nuova, ch. xl.), 
 "Dintorno loro (i.e. gli occhi) si facea un colore purpu- 
 reo, lo quale suole apparir per alcuno martirio ch' altri 
 
 riceva," 
 
 " Ch' Amore 
 
 Li cerchia di corona di martiri." 
 
 On indebtedness of the Filostrato to the Vita Nuova, cf. 
 Savj-Lopez in Rom, XXVII. pp. 443-444. 
 
 1 Historia, sig. i 2 recto, col. 2. " Aureos crines suos 
 . . . divellit " = Fit., IV. 87, 7 = T. and C., IV. 736-737 ; 
 " ounded hair," cf . R. de la R., 22131-22132 ; H. of F., 
 1386. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 79 
 
 The mighty tresses of hir sonnish heres, 
 Unbroyden, hangen al aboute hir eres ; 
 Which yaf him verray signal of mar tyre 
 Of deeth, which that hir herte gan desyre," 1 
 
 and it was the same phrase in Guide's 
 work that may have suggested to Chaucer, 
 in his description of Criseyde, the lines, 
 
 " And ofte tyme this was hir manere, 
 To gon y-tressed with hir heres clere 
 Doun by hir coler at hir bak bihinde, 
 Which with a threde of gold she wolde binde." 2 
 
 1 T. and C., IV. 813-819; 1. 819 "her herte," van "for 
 wo she." 
 
 2 T. and C., V. 809-812. A point suggested by Skeat 
 (I.e., p. Ivii.), although " this seems fantastic " to Broatch 
 (I.e., pp. 17-18). The hint for this detail in the description 
 of Criseyde may be due to Guido, but the lines are only 
 a modification of a passage in the P. of P., 267-268 : 
 
 " Her gilte heres with a golden threde 
 Ybounded were, untressed as she lay," 
 
 a free translation of the Italian original (Tesaide, VII. 
 65,1-2),- 
 
 " Ella avea d' oro i crini, et relegati 
 Intorno al capo senza trecci alcuna." 
 
80 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 But on the other hand, when he writes, 
 
 " And eek her fingres longe and smale 
 She wrong ful ofte." 
 
 " Hir hewe, whylom bright, that tho was pale," 1 
 
 there is only a reminiscence of Guido's 
 stronger language: 
 
 " Unguibus etiam suis sua tenerrima ora dila- 
 cerabat . . . et dum rigidis unguibus suas max- 
 illas exarat rubeo cruore, pertinctas, lacerata 
 lilia lacerata rosis immisceri shnilitudinarie 
 videbantur." 2 
 
 A phrase of Guido's that suggested to 
 Chaucer in his version an addition to Boc- 
 caccio's description of the heroine has 
 already been noticed, and further, a com- 
 
 1 T. and C., IV. 737-738, 740. Cf . T. and C., V. 708, 
 
 " Full pale y-waxen was hir brighte face " 
 
 = Fil., VI. 1, 6-7, 
 
 " le f resche guance et delicate 
 Pallide e magre Per an divenute." 
 
 2 Historia, sig. i 2, recto, col. 2 ; cf . Z.c., cols. 1-2, " si 
 promentis alicus [vestes] manibus strigerentur et 
 
 rum multitudinem eff iinderenlj," 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOKNTE 81 
 
 parison of the analogous passages of the 
 three authors shows that the English poet 
 deferred to the authority of Guido when 
 in conflict with that of Boccaccio in this 
 instance for artistic reasons if for no other 
 cause. Thus, while Boccaccio tells us of 
 his Griseida, that 
 
 " E1F era grande, ed alia sua grandezza 
 Kispondean bene i membri tutti quanti," l 
 
 Chaucer writes, 
 
 " Criseyde mene was of hir stature," 
 in this as in his other lines, 
 
 " Thereto of shap, of face, and eek of chere 
 There mighte been no fairer creature," 2 
 
 "And, save her browes joyneden y-fere, 
 Ther nas no lak, in ought I can espyen," 3 
 
 1 Fil.j I. 27, 1-2, used by Chaucer in his description of 
 Troilus (T. and C., V. 827-828), which is similar to that 
 given in R. de T., 5405-5406, for which there is no equiv- 
 alent in the Historia (sig. e 2 verso, col. 1). Cf. Skeat., 
 Z.c., pp. Ivi., lix. ; Broatch, Z.c., pp. 16, 18, 26. 
 
 2 T. and C., V. 806-808, * T. and C., V. 813-814. 
 
82 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 following the passage in Guido : 
 
 " Breseida autem filia Calcas multa f uit spe- 
 ciositate decora nee longa nee brevis nee nimium 
 macilenta, lacteo profusa candore, genis roseis, 
 flavis crinibus. Sed superciliis junctis, quorum 
 junctura dum multa piloxitate tumesceret modi- 
 cam inconvenientam presentabat." * 
 
 1 Historia, sig. e 2 recto, col. 1; cf. Dares, 17, 7-9, 
 "Briseidam formosam non alta statura . . . superciliis 
 junctis," and R. de T., 5258, 5261-5262 : 
 " N'ert trop petite ne trop granz." 
 " Mes le sorcil qui li giseient 
 Auquetes li mesaveneient." 
 
 A single word in the first- line suggests Dares as the 
 source, but his statement as to Criseyde's height is not 
 as definite as that of Benbit and Guido ; and only in the 
 Historia is the defect of the eyebrows emphasized. On 
 the other hand, it is to be noted that in Chaucer's story, 
 as in Boccaccio's, the heroine appears as a widow (Fil., 
 I. 11, 3 = T. and C., I. 97; cf. Fil., I. 19, 2, with T. and 
 C., I. 170; Fil., II. 69, 2; T. and C., II. 750 ff.; Fil., 
 VI. 29, 1-3; T. and C., V. 875-876), and although Chau- 
 cer states (T. and C., I. 132-133) : 
 
 " But whether that she children hadde or noon, 
 
 I rede it nought, therefore I lete it goon," 
 Boccaccio specifically states that she did not have any 
 (Fil., I. 15, 4-7; II. 69, 3; cf. W. S. McCormick, 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 83 
 
 For the expansion of the story of the 
 wooing of Diomedes, Chaucer drew largely 
 from the French poem, but in the answer 
 of Criseyde, for the lines, 
 
 " I sey not therefore that I wol yow love, 
 Ne I sey not nay, but in conclusioun 
 I mene wel, by god that sit above," 1 
 
 no specific analogous passage is found there, 
 while in the Latin romance we find the 
 passages of the same import, in which the 
 
 Globe Chaucer, p. 440) ; while Benoit (R. de T., 12977) 
 refers to her as "la pucele." There is no hint of her 
 condition in either Guido or Dares; cf. Hertzberg, I.e., 
 pp. 197-198. 
 
 With T. and C. 9 V. 815-817: 
 
 " But for to speken of hir eyen clere, 
 Lo trewely, they writen that hir syen 
 That Paradys stood formed in hir yen," 
 cf. Dares, 17, 9, "oculis venustis"; R. de T., 5263, 
 " Biax ielz avoit de grant maniere " (cf. p. 124, n. 1) ; His- 
 toria, sig. e 2 recto, col. 2, " oculis venusta " (cf . Hertz- 
 berg, I.e., p. 180, n.) ; Fil., I. 28, 8, " Gli occhi lucenti e 
 Pangelico viso"; T. and C., V. 820-825 = Fil., I. 11, 7; 
 R. de T., 5264-5270. 
 
 1 T. and C., V. 1002-1004. 
 
84 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 thought and language is similar to what 
 we find in the Troilus : 
 
 "Amoris tui oblationes ad presens nee re- 
 pudio nee admitto." * 
 
 44 Unde sua calliditate se nolle non negat et 
 velle in expectationis fiduciam conatur ponere 
 Diomedem." 2 
 
 But it was in Benoit's work alone that 
 Chaucer found mention of the tokens of 
 love that Criseyde presented to Diomedes, 
 circumstances omitted by Guido, and so 
 
 1 Historic sig. i 2 verso, col. 1. 
 
 2 Historia, sig. i 4 verso, col. 2. Skeat (I.e., p. Ix.) 
 citing from MS., Mm. 5. 14, in Cambridge University Li- 
 brary, quotes the much closer analogue, " Unde Diomedi 
 suum non negat, etiam nee promittit," but here as else- 
 where I prefer the text, otherwise fuller and more correct, 
 given in the incunabula. The lines in Benoit (15588- 
 15589,13641), 
 
 " N'est biau ne bien, reson ne dreiz 
 Que d'amer vos donge parole," 
 
 " Gie ne vos refuse autrement," 
 
 do not seem to support Broatch's statement (I.e., p. 18), 
 " There is nothing here which might not have come from 
 Benoit," 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 85 
 
 changed in detail by Boccaccio, who had 
 adopted this hint from this episode upon 
 which to base an incident in his story, as to 
 be hardly recognizable/ and the soliloquy of 
 the heroine before she finally gives herself 
 up to her Grecian lover/ omitted by Boc- 
 caccio, and very shortly summarized by 
 Guido. And yet here in one line, 
 "Retorning in hir soule ay up and doun A 
 
 Chaucer adopts a phrase of Guido' s,; 
 "in sua mente revolvit," 4 
 
 i Cf. p. *R de T., 20194-20330. 
 
 8 T. and C., V. 1023. 
 
 4 Historia, sig. 1 recto, col. 1, but cf. T. and C., II. 
 601-602 : 
 
 " And every word gan up and doun to winde," 
 which translates the Italian, (Fil. II. 68, 3-4) : 
 " Seco nel cuor ciascuna paroletta 
 
 Bivolendo di Pandaro," 
 
 which is rendered again in T. and C., II. 659 : 
 " And gan to caste and rollen up and doun," 
 while T. and C., III. 1541-1542: 
 
 " And in his thought gan up and doun to winde 
 Hir wordes alle," 
 
86 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 and, for brevity's sake, gives the gist of 
 Guido's account of the subsequent action 
 of the heroine, which is only implied in 
 the passage of the Roman de Troie. In 
 Guido's statement, 
 
 "Totum suum animum in Diomedem declinat 
 et convertit amorem. Sed quam primum con- 
 valescentia adeptus absolute facere velle suum, 
 cum in ejus amore tota deferveat et flagranti 
 desiderio penitus incalescat," 1 
 
 Chaucer found authority for his lines: 
 
 " And for to hele him of his sorwes smerte 
 Men seyn, I not, that she yaf him her herte." 2 
 
 renders FU., III. 54, 1-2 : 
 
 " E giva ciascun atto rivolgendo 
 Nel suo pensuiero." 
 
 1 Historia, sig. 1 1 recto, col. 1 ; cf . R. de T. 9 20218- 
 20220 : 
 
 " Desor puet Ten aperceveir 
 Que vers lui a tot atorne 
 S'amor, son cuer et son pense." 
 
 2 T. and C., V. 1049-1050. Broatch, I.e., p. 25, cites a 
 line of the heroine's speech (R. de T., 20271), " Trop ai 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 87 
 
 A careful investigation of Guido's work, 
 in conjunction with the other two sources, 
 puts beyond doubt the truthfulness of the 
 poet's statement when he writes, 
 
 " But trewely, how longe it was betwene, 
 That she f or-sook him for this Diomede 
 Ther is non auctor telleth it, I wene, 
 Take every man now to his bokes hede ; 
 He shall no terme finden out of drede." 1 
 
 But when he finds the exact number of 
 days stated upon another matter, he is not 
 so careful to follow his authorities. For 
 when he writes, 
 
 " For which, with-outen any wordes mo, SN 
 To Troye I wol, as for conclusioun. 
 But god it wot, er fully monthes two, 
 She was ful fer fro that entencioun, 
 For both Troilus and Troye town, 
 
 en lui ja mon cuer mie," which has at least one word which 
 is in the English lines. 
 
 1 T. and C., V. 1086-1090. 
 
88 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 Shall knotteles through-out hir herte slyde ; * 
 For she wol take a purpos for t'abyde," 2 
 
 he flatly contradicts Guide's more radical 
 statement : 
 
 " Non dum ilia dies [i.e. the day of her arrival 
 in the Greek camp] ad horam declinaverat ves- 
 pertinam cuin Briseida suas recentes mutaverat 
 voluntates et vetera proposita sui cordis, et jam 
 magis sibi succedit ad votum esse cum Grecis 
 quam fuisse hactenus cum Trojanis. Jam 
 nobilis Troili amor cepit in sua mente tepescere 
 et tarn brevi hora repente sic subito facta 
 volubilis ceperat in omnibus variari." 3 
 
 iCf. FiL, VI. 8, 6-7: 
 
 " E'n breve spazio ne caccio di f uore 
 Troilo e Troia, ed ogni altro pensiero 
 Che'n lei fosse di lui o falso o vero." 
 
 2 T. and C., V. 764-770. Cf. V. 912, 1006-1008, for 
 which the Filostrato does not furnish an analogue. 
 
 8 Historia, sig. i 3 recto, col. 2. Cf. R. de T., 13823- 
 13827: 
 
 " Anceis que venist le quart seir 
 N'ot el corage, ne voleir 
 De retorner en la cite 
 
TO GUIDO BELLE COLONNE 89 
 
 / 
 
 In the three lines which describe the 
 
 death of Hector is a phrase of which the 
 syntactical position, which offers difficulty, 
 is best explained by a comparison with the 
 parallel passage in Guido : 
 
 " For as he drough a king by th' aventayle, 
 Unwar of this, Achilles through the mayle 
 And through the body gan him ryve." l v// 
 
 Son corage est molt tost mue 
 Poi veritable et poi estable." 
 
 Cf. FiL, VI. 9, 1 = T. and C., V. 842. Cf. also R. de T., 
 13403-13408 ; Constans Chrestomathie de Vancien franpaise, 
 1884, p. 62, II. 169 ff., a mere general statement in which 
 Broatch (I.e., p. 18) somehow finds the same definite state- 
 ment as in Guido. Lydgate in his Troy-book (sig. R 
 3 verso, col. 1-2), refers his readers to Chaucer's poem 
 for the complete story of Troilus and Criseyde, who are 
 only incidentally mentioned in Guide's narrative, but on 
 this one point introduces the statement of the Historia in 
 a garbled' form : 
 
 " But Guydo sayth longe or it was nyght, 
 How Cryseyde hath forsake her owne knight 
 And gave her herte unto this Diomode, 
 Of tendernesse and of womanhede." 
 
 i T. and C., V. 1558-1560. 
 
90 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 " Achilles . . . accepta quadam lancea valde 
 forti non advertente Hectore, velociter in Hec- 
 torem irruit." 1 
 
 Finally, when in one of his closing 
 stanzas, 
 
 " Lo here, of Payens corsed olde rytes, 
 Lo here, what alle hir goddes may availle ; 
 Lo here, these wrecehed worldes appetytes ; 
 
 1 Historia, sig. i 6 recto, col. 1 ; cf . 1 3 recto, col. 1. The 
 rest of the passage is due to Benoit., R. de T., 16166-16178, 
 esp. 16169 (cf. Hertzberg, I.e., p. 204) : 
 " Par la ventaille le teneit." 
 
 " Aventayle " has been listed with " Romance words 
 that end with a consonant in French [but] take an -e- in 
 the Troilus" G. L. Kittredge, Observations on the Lan- 
 guage of Chaucer's Troilus, p. 87 ; where the O. F. form 
 "esventail" is given. Broatch (I.e., p. 19), who questions 
 Skeat's attribution (I.e., p. Ix.) of the original to a passage 
 in Guido, says, " Chaucer might perhaps be allowed to 
 have invented the < eventaille.' " The aventaille of the 
 twelfth to fourteenth centuries was a hood-shaped head- 
 dress made of chain-mail, protecting the forehead and 
 chin, on which the helmet rested, and the front part of 
 which fell on the breast. ( J. Quicherat, Melanges d'arche- 
 ologie, etc., 1886, pp. 314-324 ; Hist, du costume en France, 
 pp. 133, 288 ; Viollet-le-duc, Diet, du mobilier francais, 
 vol. VI. pp. 353-357; 105-107, Plates.) Cf. Skeat, Works 
 of Chaucer, vol. V. p. 352. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 91 
 
 Lo here, the fyn and guerdon for travaille 
 Of Jove, Appollo, of Mars of swich rascaille 
 Lo here, the fornie of olde clerkes speche. 
 In poetrye, if ye hir bokes seche," 1 
 
 which form a pendant to a preceding one 
 in which the finale of the story is given, 
 as found in the Filostrato? he moralizes on 
 his poem/ showing an intolerance not found 
 elsewhere in his works 4 toward the pagan 
 deities, whom he has utilized for poetical 
 
 1 T. and C., V. 1849-1855; cf. V. 206-207, B. of Zt 
 52-55 : 
 
 " And in this boke were written fables 
 
 That clerkes hadde, in olde tyme 
 And other poets, put in ryme 
 To read." 
 
 2 T. and C., V. 1828-1834 = PH., VHI. 28. 
 8 Cf. L.of G. W., 468-474. 
 
 4 There is only one other passage in Chaucer, and that 
 in a poem written in the same period as the Troilus, in 
 which a like sentiment is found. Cf. The Former Age, 
 
 57-59 : 
 
 " Yit was not Jupiter the likerous 
 
 That first was father of delicacye, 
 Come in this world," 
 and with this cf . Paradiso, XV. 107 ff. 
 
92 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 purposes in this very poem/ he shows the 
 influence of passages in the Historia in 
 which Guido inveighs against the deceptions 
 and falsities of heathendom. 2 
 
 A Paadarus is mentioned first in the 
 list of allies who came to aid Troy, accord- 
 ing to the narrative of both Benoit and 
 Guido, and the same person finds place in 
 another episode. 3 Boccaccio has adopted 
 
 1 T. and C., I. 6-9 ; III. 1-46 ; IV. 22-26. 
 
 2 Historia, sig. e 5 recto, col. 2 e 6 recto, col. 1 ; 
 i 3 recto, col. 1. In the Troilus, as in the other poems, 
 Chaucer shows an acquaintance with a late recension of 
 the Roman de Thebes. For similarity in language and 
 sentiment with the stanza of Chaucer, these lines may be 
 quoted (R. de T. ed. Constans, col. II. p. 15, 4337- 
 4442): 
 
 " Ff ors solement danz Jupiter 
 Qui tint un dart agu de fer 
 Mars fu dejoste lui a destre ; 
 Le proz Pallas fu a senestre 
 Cil dui valent en bataille ; 
 Plus que toute Pautre raschaille." 
 
 8 Among the combatants in the fourth battle is men- 
 tioned (R. de T. 11179) Car le reis i fu Pandarus " 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONSTE 93 
 
 this name as that of the cousin of the 
 heroine of the Filostrato, who, in the 
 Troilus, has become her uncle/ and 
 
 (no equivalent in Historia, sig. h 4 verso, col. 1), who 
 fights with Agamemnon (11217-11220) : 
 "Agamemnon et Pandarus 
 Se porterent des chevax jus, 
 Bien s'ateinstrent et se ferirent 
 Et durement se combatirent," 
 which Guido renders (Historia, sig. h 5 recto, col. 1), 
 
 " Rex agamemnon et rex pandalus (sic) inter in simul 
 concurrentes ambo se sternunt ab equis." 
 
 Lydgate (Troy-book, sig. Q i verso, col. 2) makes the 
 name " Pantysylaus " ; the Gest Hystoriale, 7460, omits 
 the episode. There is nothing in the Latin text in the 
 corresponding passages (Historia, sig. g 4 verso, col. 1 ; 
 i 1 recto, col. 2) to answer to Benoit's mention (R. de T. 
 8101) of "Li reis Pandarus de Sezile," as one of those 
 who did not go out to fight in the second battle ; nor to the 
 lines, in the account of the conference of the Greeks and 
 Trojans to arrange for the exchange of prisoners, and in 
 which permission for the return of the daughter of 
 Calchas to her father is granted (cf. p. 104), R. de T., 
 12937-12939 : 
 
 " Agamemnon et Menelaus 
 
 Reis Pandarus et Aiaus. 
 
 Et li halt home des Grezeis." 
 
 i Fit, II. 20, 6 ; 23, 2 ; 27, 7 = T. and C., I. 975. 
 
94 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 through, his story, which passed through 
 such various vicissitudes, in English it has 
 come to be a term of reproach. Chaucer 
 likewise has not hesitated to take a name 
 from one of the sources, and by various 
 changes, has created an entirely new 
 character. In the list referred to, we 
 find in Guido the phrase, 
 
 " Sciendus est ergo quod de regnis eorum licet 
 dares frigius nihil inde dixerit venerunt tres 
 reges cum plus quam tribus milibus militum 
 armatomm, rex videlicet Pandarus, rex Thabor 
 et rex Andastrus," 1 
 
 1 Historia, sig. f 5 verso, col. 1-2. " Pandorus " in 
 text, but the correct reading is confirmed by the original 
 passage in the R de T., 6645-6646, cf. Constans, I.e., 
 p. 54: 
 
 " De Sezile i vint Pandarus 
 Hupoz li vielz et Adrastus," 
 
 (which in turn renders the phrase in Dares, 22, 15, " De 
 Zelia Pandarus Amphius Adrastus ") ; and Lydgate's 
 translation (Troy-look, sig. M 5 recto, col. 2), "The 
 first of them was called Pandarus," although in the Gest 
 Hystoriale (8536) he is given a Celtic surname " Pen- 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 95 
 
 and just as the Italian writer made use of 
 Pandarus, so Chaucer, by a metathesis of 
 form and a change of sex, gives Criseyde 
 
 dragon the pert," while Adrastus becomes " Adasthon " 
 (5438). Benoit based part of his episode of "the dread 
 Saggitarius " (R. de T., 12207-12348) upon the passage 
 in Dictys (II. 40-41), which tells of the exploits of the 
 Lycian archer, Pandarus, and his death by the hands of 
 Diomedes. (Joly, I.e. vol. I. p. 209, cf. p. 229 ; W. Greif, 
 Die mittelalterichen Bearbeitungen der Troyanersage, Mar- 
 burg, 1885, p. 00. ; R. Jaeckel, Dares, Phrygius und Benoit 
 de Ste. More, Breslau, 1875, p. 53 ; E. Meybrinck, I.e., p. 23.) 
 This Pandarus and another, the companion of ^Eneas, are 
 mentioned in the jEneid (V. 496; IX. 672; XL 396). 
 It is unnecessary to assume, as Hertzberg, that (I.e., 
 pp. 189-200, accepted by G. Koerting, Boccaccio's Leben, 
 p. 591) " den Namen Pandarus als vox hybrida des Omens 
 wegen ausgedeutet und fur den Freund gewahlt hat, der 
 dem Troilus alles giebt, Leben und Lebensgliick." This 
 explanation is based upon that given in a passage in the 
 Prcemio of the Filostrato in which the title is explained 
 as being about a " uomo vinto e abbattuto da amore, (p. 1, 
 cf. Hertzberg, I.e., p. 197) ; but this symbolical explana- 
 tion may not be Boccaccio's (cf. H. L. D. Ward, Cat. 
 of Romances, vol. I. p. 68 ; P. Savj-Lopez, Rom, vol. 
 XXVII. pp. 444-445). Landau, (G. Boccaccio, p. 90), and 
 Morf (Rom, XXI. p. 106) notice the use of name in 
 Benoit. 
 
96 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 a niece with the name of Tharbe, 1 in the 
 same way as he found the name of another 
 niece, "Flexippe," in that of the uncle of 
 Meleager, " Plexippus," 2 an outline of 
 whose history is given in the Troilusf 
 taken from Ovid. 4 Again, when Pandarus; 
 to alarm Criseyde, states that Troilus 
 
 1 T. and C., II. 815-816, 1563: 
 
 " And u and doun ther made many a wente 
 Flexippe, she, Tharbe and Antigone." 
 
 " Antigone, hir sister Tarbe also." 
 
 2 Ovid, Met., VIII. 439-440 : 
 
 " hausitque nef ando 
 pectora Plexippi, nil tale timentia, ferro." 
 
 8 T. and C., V. 1464-1484; cf. C.T., A, 2069-2071. 
 
 4 Ovid, Met., VIII. 260-532. On Latin proper names 
 of masculine gender which " have lost a final -s, sometimes 
 with further change of form," cf. ten Brink, Chaucers 
 Sprache und Verskunst, p. 264; Kittredge, Z.c., pp. 382- 
 383, when the masculine form would be identical with 
 the feminine as in this example. The forms of the names 
 in the line "Circes eke, and Calipsa" (H. of F., 1272), 
 are already found in Benoit and Guido. Ulysses's ad- 
 ventures with Circe and Calypso in these two writers 
 (R. de T., 28576 ff., Constans in Hist, de la langue et 
 la led. dt franpaise, p. 196 ; Hist., sig. o 1 verso, col. 2 ; 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 97 
 
 " seyth him told is, of a f reend of his 
 How that ye sholde love oon that hatte Horaste, 
 For sorwe of which this night shall been his 
 laste, 1 
 
 and the heroine denies the charge with the 
 answer, 
 
 " Horaste ! alias ! and f alsen Troilus ? 
 I knewe him not, god helpe me so," 2 
 
 the name of this fictitious lover seems to 
 have been borrowed from Guido's^account 
 of Orestes in which the name always appears 
 as " Horestes." 8 
 
 where false reading "Calipha"), form one episode, the 
 source from which Gower drew his account, and to which 
 he refers elsewhere. (C. A. VI. 1391 ff., VIII. 2598 ff. ; 
 Mirour de I'omme, 16674 ff. ; Balades, XXX. 12 ; Traitie, 
 VI. 17 ff.) 
 
 1 T. and C., III. 796-798. 2 Ibid., III. 806-807. 
 
 3 Historic sig. m 8 verso, col. 2 ; n 6 recto, col. 2, 
 "De Horeste vindicante mortem patris," while in the 
 R. de T. (27958, 28157, 28166, 28182) the name always 
 appears as " Orestes." Kittredge (p. 347) notes the 
 forms " Horestes," " Horest[e] " in Gower's account 
 (C. A., III. 1885 ff., cf. Traitie IX. 18), which is 
 based upon both sources. The "fals Poliphete" (T. and 
 C., II. 1467, cf. 1615, 1618) who, in an episode which is 
 
CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 .ere are a number of details in the 
 .glish poem, not found in the Filostrato, 
 hich could have been suggested equally 
 
 an innovation of the English poet (II. 1394-1757, III. 
 50-224), is charged by Pandarus with bringing "advo- 
 cacyes newe " against Criseyde, must be the " Cererique 
 sacrum Polyphoeten " of the dEneid (VI. 484) who as a 
 Trojan priest could very properly take steps against the 
 daughter of the renegade Calchas. The Greek leader 
 Polypoetes, whom Hector is stripping of his armor, 
 when he is slain by Achilles, according to the narrative 
 of Dares (30, 5-10), does not appear in either Benoit or 
 Guido. In that episode the name of the Greek is not 
 given (R. de T., 16166; Historia, sig. i 6 recto, col. 1), 
 but the French poet, making two episodes of the one in 
 his original, represents Hector as slaying one Politenes just 
 before (R. de T., 16105-16148 ; Historia, sig. i 5 verso, col. 
 2). This name is that substituted by Benoit (R. de T., 
 5671, 8252-8253, " Politenes ") for the classical Philoctetes 
 (Dares, 19, 2), which again is displaced in Guido by Poli- 
 pebus (Historia, sig. e 3 verso, col. 1), while Polypoetes 
 appears in both authors as Polibetes (R. de T., 5663, 8243, 
 9981 ; Historia, I.e.), and in Guido as a doublet of the 
 name in the form Polipotes (Historia, I.e.). He appears 
 elsewhere in Guido as Philotois (sig. g 4 verso, col. 2), 
 and again as Philit(h)eas (sig. h 1 verso, col. 1; h 5 
 recto, col. 1), which corresponds in all these places to 
 Benoit's Filitoas (R. de T., 8189, 9065, 9375). T. E. 
 Oliver, MileCs Destruction de Troye^ p. 229. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 99 
 
 well by passages in either Benoit or Guido. 
 Such are the allusions to the journey of \r 
 Calchas to Delphi and his subsequent 
 actions/ as he 
 
 " Knew wel that Troye sholde destroyed be, 
 By answere, of his god, that highte thus, 
 Daun Phebus or Apollo Delphicus. 
 So whan this Calkas knew by calculinge 
 And eek by answere of this Apollo, 
 That Grekes sholden swich a peple bringe 
 Thorugh which that Troye moste been 
 for-do;" 2 
 
 " Appollo hath me told it f eithfully ; " 3 
 
 1 Cf . p. 74, note. 
 
 2 T. and C., I. 68-74. Fil., I. 8, 7-8 has merely 
 
 "Conobbe e vide, dopo lunga guerra 
 I Troian morti e distrutta la terra," 
 
 which is again translated in T. and C., I. 76-77. 
 
 3 T. and C., IV. 114. Skeat (I.e., p. 462) wrongly 
 states that Guido puts Calchas " in the place of Homer's 
 Chryses," as the latter appears in Benoit as a fellow- 
 priest of the former (R. de T., 25618-25619 ; Historia, 
 sig. m 4 verso, col. 2), after he had come to the Greek 
 camp to recover his daughter Astronomen (26746-26907), 
 an incident omitted in Historia, sig. n 1 recto, col. 1. 
 
100 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 " Thus shal I seyn, and that his coward herte 
 Made him amis the goddes text to glose 
 When he for ferde out of his Delphos sterte," 1 
 
 and to the treason of Antenor, 
 
 " This folk desiren now deliveraunce 
 Of Antenor, that broughte hem to mischaunce ! 
 
 For he was after traytour to the toun 
 
 Of Troye ; alias ! they quitte him out to 
 
 rathe. 
 O nyce world, lo, thy discrecioun ! " 2 
 
 which are told at length in both the Latin 
 and the French romances. 8 
 
 Again, when Chaucer introduces Troilus 
 returning from battle past Criseyde's house : 
 
 " For thurgh this strete he moot to palays ryde; 
 
 For other wey is fro the yate noon, 
 
 Of Dardanus, there open is the cheyne," 4 
 
 1 T. and C., IV. 1409-1411; cf. 1396, "For al Ap- 
 pollo, or his clerkes lawes." 2 T. and C., IV. 202-206. 
 
 3 R. de T., 24373-26038 ; Historia, sig. m 1 recto, col. 1 ; 
 cf. Hertzberg, I.e., p. 203; Skeat, I.e., p. Ivii; Broatch, 
 l.c., p. 16. 
 
 4 T. and C., II. 616-618. Skeat, I.e., p. 470, thinks that 
 the opening of the " cheyne " refers to the street. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 101 
 
 there is a reminiscence of the passage in 
 both authors, in which Hector orders that 
 Dardanides, one of the six gates of Troy/ 
 be opened to allow the egress of his army 
 to meet the Greeks in their second battle. 2 
 When Chaucer writes, 
 
 " At whiche day was taken Antenore, 
 Maugre Polydamus or Monesteo, 
 Santippe, Sarpedon, Polynestore, 
 Polyte, or eek the Trojan daun Ripheo," 3 
 
 he has been directly dependent upon Boc- 
 caccio for the list of names, even retaining 
 their Italian forms, 
 
 " Ed assai ve ne f uron per prigioni 
 Nobili re, ed altri gran baroni. 
 Tra quali fu il magnifico Antenorre, 
 Polidamas suo figlio, e Monesteo, 
 Santippo, Serpedon, Polinestorre, 
 Polite ancora, ed il troian Eifeo," 4 
 
 1 R. de T., 3129-3139 ; cf . Constans, I.e., p. 67. Historia, 
 sig. c 1 verso, col. 1 ; cf . Hertzberg, I.e., pp. 191-192. 
 
 2 R. de T., 7643-7658; Historia, sig. g 3 recto, col. 2. 
 8 T. and C., IV. 50-53. 4 Fil., IV. 3, 1-4. 
 
102 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 but has made a radical change in the state- 
 ment of the facts. For both in the Roman 
 de Troie 1 and the Historia? Polydamas 
 the other names are additions of the Italian 
 \y poet appears, not as the fellow-prisoner, 
 x^> but as the distressed son who uselessly 
 attempts the rescue of his father. And it 
 was by this change that the English poet 
 avoided the inconsistency of which Boc- 
 caccio was guilty in having Troilus and 
 Pandarus visit Sarpedon, of whose return 
 from captivity he makes no mention. 3 
 Again, if Chaucer's lines, 
 
 " Of Pryamus was yeve, at Greek request 
 A tyme of trewe," 4 
 
 1 R. de T., 12401-12415. 
 
 2 Historia, sig. h 6 verso, col. 2 i 1 recto, col. 1. 
 
 8 Fil, V. 38-48; T. and C., V. 430-500 ^gf. W. M. 
 Rossetti, Comparison, etc. p. 246; Skeat, 1. c., p. '497. 
 
 4 T. and C., IV. 57-58. Cf. variants : 
 " But natheles a trewe was ther take 
 At gret requeste." 
 " To (of) Priamus was yeve at his (gret, Grek, Grekes) 
 
 requeste 
 A time of trewe." 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 103 
 
 flatly contradict the statement in the 
 Filostrato, / 
 
 " Chiese Priamo triegua, e fu gli data," 1 
 
 it is because the English poet accepted in 
 preference the joint authority of his two 
 other sources. According to Benoit and 
 Guido, tEe Greeks send Ulysses and Dio- 
 medes as legates to ask for a cessation of 
 hostilities under the plea that they wish to 
 bury x their dead, which are breeding disease 
 in their camp. In the council that Priam 
 calls, Hector alone speaks against granting 
 the truce because he thinks that the true 
 reason for the Greeks' request is that they 
 may obtain provisions. But the opinion of 
 the majority, with which Priam agrees, pre- 
 vails, 2 and in an ensuing conference of the 
 Trojan and Greek leaders, arrangements 
 are made for the exchange of Thoas and 
 
 1 FU. IV. 4, 1. 
 
 2 Cf. Dares, 27, 11-28, 3. 
 
104 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 Anterior; and, at the request of Calchas 
 through his superiors, Priam is not unwill- 
 ing to allow the daughter of the recreant 
 Trojan to go to her father in the Greek 
 camp. 1 
 
 And from this narrative Chaucer modi- 
 fied the story as he found it in his Italian 
 prototype. He follows Boccaccio in making 
 the return of Antenor who has been 
 given to Calchas as a personal prisoner 
 contingent upon that of Criseyde, 2 but in- 
 troduces Thoas, whom he does not else- 
 where mention, as one of the parties in the 
 exchange of prisoners : 
 
 " And of this thing fill sone his nedes leyde 
 On hem that sholden for the tretis go, 
 
 1 R. de T. 12690-12986 ; Historia, sig. i 1 recto, col. 1; 
 i 1 verso, col. 1 ; cf. wrong account in Skeat. I.e., p. 486. 
 
 *FU. 9 IV. 10, 4-6; 12, 7-8; 13; 14, 1-3; 15, 6-8; 
 17,5-8; 43,1-4; 78, 7-8; VI, 19, 2-3; T. and C., IV. 
 Ill, 133-136, 140-147, 149, 177, 195-196, 207-212, 344- 
 347, 663-665; V. 905. There is no equivalent in the 
 English poem for Fil., V. 1, 2-3; 8, 5-8. Cf. Oliver, 
 Milet's Destruction, pp. 98-100. 
 
TO GUIDO BELLE COLONNE 105 
 
 And hem for Antenor ful ofte preyde 
 
 To bringen hoom king Thoas 1 and Criseyde." 2 
 
 Again, the speech of Hector in the Trojan 
 " parlement " against the exchange of a 
 woman for a man, 8 which finds no precedent 
 in the Filostrato, was no doubt suggested 
 by the similar position he takes concern- 
 ing the truce in the common sources of the 
 English and Italian poems, and the outcry 
 of the people against this plea 4 is suggestive 
 
 1 The manuscript reading " Toas," adopted by Skeat, 
 is not justified by spelling in either Benoit or Guido. 
 
 2 T. and C., IV. 135-138 ; cf . Hertzberg. Lc., p. 203. 
 Lydgate Troy-book, sig. Q 5 verso, col. 2, r verso, 
 col. 2 ff., has combined the narratives of Guido and 
 Chaucer. It may be noted that MS. Harl., 1239, an in- 
 ferior manuscript, has a reading which obviates the 
 " Thoas " episode in Chaucer : 
 
 " And hem ful ofte specyally preyde 
 For Antenor to bringe home Creseide " 
 
 (Globe Chaucer, p. 510 ; cf. p. xlii. ; Skeat, I.e., Ixxii.). 
 
 8 T. and C., IV. 176-182 ; cf. Chaucer's introduction 
 of him as a friend of Criseyde in her case against Poli- 
 phete, II. 1450-1466, 1481 ; cf . I, 113-123. 
 
 4 T. and C., IV. 183-196. 
 
106 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 of their better expression of opinion upon 
 
 Calchas when they learn that he wishes his 
 
 daughter, as stated in the same authorities. 1 
 
 When the heroine meets her father, she 
 
 "Stood forth mewet, milde, and mansuete," 2 
 as in the Filostrato, 
 
 " Ella si stava tacita e modesta," 3 
 
 while in the narrative of both their prede- 
 cessors, the heroine reproaches her father 
 bitterly for having such faith in the answers 
 of Apollo, which are not assured, as to leave 
 his honorable position in Troy to become an 
 ally of the bitter foes of his native country ; 4 
 to which Calchas replies by saying, that he 
 has the undoubted promise of the gods that 
 Troy will be destroyed in a short time, and 
 that it will be better for them to escape the 
 fate of the other inhabitants; whereupon 
 Breseida seems to accept the situation, espe- 
 
 1 R. de T., 12967-12972 ; Historia, sig. i 1 verso, col. 1. 
 2 T. and C., V. 194. * Ftt., V. 14, 3. 
 
 4 Broatch (I.e., p. 16) says that in Guido, " the speech 
 of Briseida is mere railing." 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 107 
 
 cially when the Greek princes receive her 
 with all kindness. 1 But just as Boccaccio 
 in the discussion of Troilus with his mis- 
 tress before her departure from Troy antici- 
 pates the speech of Calchas, 2 and foretells 
 her favorable reception by the Greeks/ so 
 Chaucer in the corresponding place in his 
 poem has Criseyde tell how she is going to 
 rebuke her father. 4 
 
 In Boccaccio's poem, the heroine merely 
 states that she will persuade her father 
 to allow her return to Troy, to recover 
 
 her property which 
 
 " el per avarizia 
 Delia mia ritornata avra letizia." 6 
 
 1 R. de T., 13684-13830; Historic*, sig. i 2 verso, 
 col. 2 13 recto, col. 2. 
 
 *Fil. 9 IV. 142, 2-3; T. and C., IV. 1479-1482 ; cf. R. 
 de T., 13767-13778. Historia, sig. i 3 recto, col. 1, 
 " Scio enim . . . trucidatis." 
 
 8 Fil. 9 IV. 142, 4-5 ; T. and C., IV. 1485-1488 ; R. de T., 
 13814-13822. Historia, sig. i 3 recto, cols. 1-2, "In 
 adventu . . . replent earn." 
 
 4 Cf. Skeat, I.e., p. Ivii.; Broatch, I.e., p. 16. 
 
 *FiL, IV. 136. 
 
108 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 In the Troilus this is elaborated into a 
 definite plan, by which she is to bribe, 
 deceive, and cajole Calchas into repudiat- 
 ing the authority of the oracles of Apollo. 1 
 And, in the following lines, there is a 
 reminiscence of the speech of Brisaide to 
 her father in the earlier writers : 
 
 *T. and C., IV. 1356-1414. Cf. Amphibologia ; 
 ambigua dictio . . . ut illud responsum Apollinis ad 
 Pyrrhum, 
 
 ' Aio te, Aiacida, Romanes vincere posse.' 
 
 In quo non est certum quern in ipso versu monstraverit 
 esse victorem" (Isidorus, Etymologiarum, Lib. I. ch. 34; 
 Migne, Patr., vol. 82, col. 109). Chaucer makes use of an- 
 other etymology from the same source in the Persones 
 Tale, where " seint Isidre " is referred to at first hand (C. 
 T., I. 551 ; Etym., Lib. XVH. ch. 7 ; Migne, I.e., col. 615 ; 
 cf. C. T., I. 85). But the first definition of Isidore is 
 based upon a chapter in Cicero's De Divinatione (II. 56), 
 where oracles are scored in a passage much resembling 
 Chaucer's lines, "Tuis enim oraculis Chrysippus totum 
 volumen implevit partim f alsis, ut ego opinor, partim casu 
 veris, ut fit in omni oratione ssepissime, partim flexiloquis 
 et obscuris ut interpres egeat interprete et sors ipsa ad 
 sortes referenda sit, partim ambiguis, et quae ad dialec- 
 tum deferendse sint." Then follow references to " hanc 
 amphiboliam" (in inferior texts " amphibologiam "), 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 109 
 
 " For al Appollo, or his clerkes lawes, 
 Or calculinge avayleth nought three hawes ; 
 
 the answer of the oracle to Pyrrhus, cited above, and 
 " ilia amphibolia," which was given to Croesus. 
 
 Chaucer's definition of Boccaccio's word " ambages " 
 (T. and C., V. 898-899), 
 
 " That is to seyn, with double wordes slye, 
 
 Swich as men clepe a word ' with two visages,' " 
 is rather that of " amphibologyes," which he uses as a 
 synonym. A misunderstanding of another passage (De 
 Div., II. 54-55, " Quamobrem . . . Cassandra ") seemed 
 to have supplied him with his second name for Cassan- 
 dra (T. and C., V. 1450-1451) : 
 
 " For which he for Sibille his suster sente 
 That called was Cassandre eek al aboute." 
 
 This work of Cicero is largely taken up with an 
 adverse criticism of the work of the Stoic Chrysippus on 
 dreams and oracles, and it may be to it that Chaucer 
 refers, in the Wife of Bath's Prologue, as being one of 
 the books " bounden in one volume " that Jankin had 
 (C. T., D, 677) : 
 
 " Crisippus, Trotula, and Helowys." 
 
 Chaucer had found the De Divinatione cited in Boe- 
 thius (B. V. pr. 4, 11, 3 ff.), and made use of it at first 
 hand in the Nonne Preestes Tale (C. T., B, 4174-4294; 
 De Div., I. 27. Cf. C. T., B, 4113-4126; T. and C., V. 
 369-371 ; De Div., I. 29. Cf. K. O. Petersen, Sources of 
 Nonne Preestes Tale, pp. 106-110). Cf. Works of Chaucer^ 
 vol. V., p. 309. 
 
110 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 Desyr of gold shal so his sowle blende 
 That, as me lyst, I shal wel make an ende. 
 
 " And if he wolde ought by his sort it preve 
 If that I lye, in certayn I shal f onde 
 Distorben him, and plukke him by the sieve, 
 Makinge his sort, and beren him on honde, 
 He hath not wel the goddes understonde. 
 For goddes speken in amphibologyes, 
 And, for a sooth, they tellen twenty lyes. 
 
 " Eek drede fond first goddes, I suppose, 
 Thus shal I seyn, and that his coward herte, 
 Made him amis the goddes text to glose, 
 Whan he for ferde out of his Delphos sterte." 1 
 
 Again, when Troilus foresees the argu- 
 ments of her father against her return to 
 the city, 
 
 1 T. and C. 9 IV. 1397-1411. Cf. R. de T., 13732- 
 13737 ; Historia, sig. i 3 recto, col. 1 : 
 
 "Sane decepemnt te Apollinis falsa responsa " 
 (cf. PH., VII. 90, 7-8), 
 
 " Sane non f uit ille deus Appollo sed potius puto fuit 
 comitiva infernalium furiarum a quibus responsa susce- 
 pisti." 
 
 Cf. Skeat (I.e. p. Ivii); Broatch (I.e., p. 16); also 
 p. 99. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 111 
 
 " And over al this, your fader shal despyse 
 Us alle, and seyn this citee nis but lorn ; 
 And that th' assege never shal aryse, 
 For-why the Grekes ban it alle sworn 
 Til we be slayn, and doun our walles torn," l 
 
 he has enlarged upon two lines of the 
 Filostrato? by borrowing from his other 
 sources. 3 Chaucer's comment upon Cri- 
 seyde's promises to use every means to 
 return to Troy, 
 
 i T. and C., IV. 1478-1482. * Cf . p . 74> n . 
 
 *R. de T., 13767-13773. Cf. A. Mussafia, Sitzb. der 
 Wiener AL Phil.-Hist. Klasse, vol. 67, p. 324 : 
 " Ensorquetot bien vei et sei, 
 Que morz et destruiz les verrai 
 Si nos vient mielz aillors garir 
 Que la dedanz o els morir. 
 Mort seront il, vencu et pris ; 
 Car li Deu Pont issi permis, 
 Ce ne puet noes longues durer ; " 
 Historia, sig. i 3 recto, col. 1 : 
 
 " Scio enim pro certo per infabilium promisa deorum 
 presentem guerram protendi non posse tempore diuturno 
 et quod civitas Troie brevi tempore destruatur et ruat, 
 destructis ejus omnibus nobilibus et universis plebeis ejus 
 in ore gladii trucidatis. Quare carissima filia, satis est 
 melius nobis hie esse quam hostili gladio serviente perire." 
 
 Cf . p. 107, note 2. 
 
112 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 " And treweliche, as writen wel I finde, 
 That al this thing was seyd of good entente, 
 And that hir herte trewe was and kinde 
 Towardes him, and spak right as she mente, 
 And that she starf for no neigh, whan she 
 
 wente 
 
 And was in purpos ever to be trewe, 
 Thus writen they that of hir werkes knewe," l 
 
 part of which he restates later on, 
 
 " And trewely, as men in bokes rede, 
 Men wiste never womman han the care, 
 Ne was so looth out of a toun to fare," 2 
 
 has no parallel in the Filostrato, and reverses 
 the sentiments of Benoit and Guido, as the 
 first comments on the fickle nature of the 
 heroine/ while the latter follows up his 
 account of Brisaide's sorrow at parting by 
 slurs upon her sincerity, and a diatribe 
 against the faithlessness of woman. 4 
 
 1 T. and C., IV. 1415-1421. *Ibid., V. 19-21. 
 
 8 . de T. 13403-13408, 13826-13827. 
 
 *Historia, sig. i 2 recto, col. 2. T. and C., IV. 1695- 
 1701, is not suggested by any passage in either Benoit or 
 Guido (Skeat, I.e., p. Ivii. ; Broatch, I.e., p. 17). Chaucer 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 113 
 
 The declaration of his passion to Cri- 
 seyde by Diomedes 1 and her answer in 
 their ride to her father's tent 2 after Tro- 
 ilus has delivered her into his care/ has 
 its precedent in both the 0. F. and Latin 
 romances, although Chaucer is directly 
 
 has merely developed one stanza of the Filostrato (IV. 167) 
 into two of his own (1688-1701). The day gan ryse " 
 translates the Italian " s'appressava Gia 1'aurora," which 
 seems in turn to be suggested by Guide's phrase, " Sed 
 diei hora quasi super veniente," (ffiston'a, sig. i 2 recto, 
 col. 1). 
 
 *Cf. T. and C., V. 88, "The sone of Tydeus" with 
 R. de T., 13499, Filz Tideus." Cf . p. 115, n. 2. 
 
 2 T. and C., V. 92-175. 
 
 3Cf. FiL, V. 12, 2-3: 
 
 " a Diomede N"on parlo punto," 
 with T. and C., V. 86-87 : 
 
 " and unto Diomede 
 No word he spak, ne noon of all his route," 
 
 where, in Chaucer's addition, may be a reminiscence of 
 the list of distinguished Greeks who accompanied Dio- 
 medes, according to the narrative in the R. de T., 13490- 
 13494, for which Guido (Historia, sig. i 2 verso, col. 1) 
 has merely, "Sed Grecis advenientibus ad recipiendum 
 eandem." Cf. Oliver, I.e., p. 100. 
 
114 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 dependent upon the speech of the Greek 
 lover in the Roman de Troie, 1 and not 
 upon the mere summary of the same in 
 Guido's work, 2 although he has abridged 
 Criseyde's answer, not from that found in 
 Benoit, 8 but from the one given by the 
 
 1 R. de !F., 13502, 13589, 13649-13673. Cf . particularly 
 R. de T., 13499, 13574-13580, 13526-13528, 13561-13566, 
 13523-13525, 13543-13551, with T. and C., V. 88, 109- 
 112, 155-158, 162-165, 169-175; and with the last cf. 
 the speech of Troilus where same passage has been used, 
 T. and C., IV. 1485-1488. The same passage of Benoit 
 has been utilized in the FU., VI. 14-25, VI. 21 = T. and 
 C., V. 1489-1490. Chaucer, making the first step in Dio- 
 medes' wooing in Boccaccio's poem the second in his 
 own, translates this in T. and C. (V. 855-942, but 940 
 not in Fil. Cf. T. and C., V. 155-157). 
 
 2 Historia, sig. i 2 verso, col. 1. 
 
 8 R. de T., 13585-13643. Yet Chaucer says (V. 176) 
 that she " lyte answerde " Broatch (I.e., p. 17 ; cf . 18, 27) ; 
 " But Benoit has, 13671, the original of the Chaucerian 
 < thanked Diomede.'" The R. de T., 13671-13672, does 
 state that Diomedes : 
 
 " Li a cri cent feiz merci 
 Que de lui face son ami." 
 
 (Cf. R de T., 14985, with T. and C., V. 1011) ; which is 
 not quite the same thing. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 115 
 
 latter' s plagiarist.^ The description of Dio- 
 
 " This Diomedes as bokes us declare, 
 Was in his nedes prest and corageous; 
 With sterne voys and mighty limes square, 
 Hardy, testif, strong and chevalrous 
 Of dedes, lyk his father Tideus, 
 And son men seyn, he was of tunge large, 
 And heir he was of Calidoine and Arge," 2 
 
 is an enlargement upon the lines of the 
 Filostrato. 
 
 j/ </ 
 
 *Cf. p. 83; Hertzberg, I.e., p. 203; Skeat, I.e., p. Mi.; 
 Bloatch, l.c., p. 17. 
 
 2 T. and C., V. 799-805. Cf . 803-805, with T. and C. 9 
 V. 932-934: 
 
 " l For if my fader Tydeus,' he seyde, 
 6 Y-lived hadde, I hadde been er this, 
 Of Calidoine and Arge a king, Criseyde ! ' " 
 = Fil. VI. 24, 1,3: 
 
 " Se '1 padre mio Tideo fosse vissuto, 
 Di Calidonia et d* Argo saria suto." 
 Guide's statement (Historia, sig. 3 verso, col. 1), "dio- 
 medes . . . de terra sua argis," has been enlarged upon by 
 Lydgate, unquestionably upon the authority of Chaucer, 
 into "fro Calidonye and Arge" (Troy-book, sig. R 4 
 verso, col. 1). Cf. Skeat's confused statement on the 
 matter (I.e., p. 490). 
 
116 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 " Egli era grande e bel della persona 
 Giovane fresco e piacevole assai, 
 E forte e fier siccome si ragiona, 
 E parlante quant' altro Greco mai," l 
 
 by hints drawn from Chaucer's other 
 authorities. The lines in Benoit's descrip- 
 tion of Diomedes, 
 
 " Groz et quarrez et granz adds," 2 
 " Molt par f u hardiz et veisos," 3 
 
 1 Fil., VI. 33, 1-4 ; cf . with 1. 4, R. de T., 5198-5199 : 
 " Mes de parole esteit noisos 
 
 E molt esteit fox sorparlez," 
 
 and quotation from Guido on p. 118. On defective lines 
 in T. and C., V. 799-840, W. S. McCormick, I.e., p. 543. 
 
 *R. de T., 5194. But Chaucer may have gone back 
 to Benoit's original, which offers a closer analogue to his 
 own expression, "quadratum corpore" (Dares, 16, 19- 
 20), which, however, may be better compared with the 
 phrase in the description of Ajax, " quadratum valentibus 
 membris" (Dares, 16, 14-15), which Benoit renders 
 (R. de T 7 ., 5161-5162): 
 
 " Aiaus fu gros et quarrez 
 
 De piz, de braz et de costez." 
 Cf . Skeat, I.e., p. Iviii. ; Broatch, I.e., pp. 17, 26-27. 
 *R. de !T., 5197. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 117 
 
 show at once the source of two of the 
 details in the English poem. In another 
 passage in the Roman de Troie, Achilles 
 thus characterizes Diomedes in addressing 
 him, 
 
 " Sire, gie ne me merveil mie 
 
 Se vos amez chevalerie 
 
 Si fetes vos, ne poez plus 
 
 Mar fussiez vos filz Tideus. 
 
 Se par vos n'ert toustans meintenue ; " 1 
 
 " Or estes garni et prest 
 De fere autretel," 2 
 
 and the hints borrowed thence by Chau- 
 cer are too apparent to further 
 The term "testif " would state 
 
 ther specify. \j 
 te in a word \f- 
 
 lia " ll n'psf. Kian 
 
 1 R. de T 7 ., 19747-19751 ed. " chevalelie," " n'est bien 
 meintenue " ; but cf . L. Constans, Roman de Thebes, vol. 
 II. p. cxvi. 2. 
 
 *R. de T., 19764-19765. This passage is in the 
 account of the embassy of Ulysses, Nestor, and Diomedes 
 to persuade Achilles, who refrains from the war on 
 account of his love for Polyxena, to come to the aid of 
 the Greeks in their distress, but their prayers and re- 
 proaches are in vain, Guido's account is very much 
 abridged (R. de T., 19395-19779; Historia, sig. k 5 
 
118 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 Guide's description of an unpleasant feature 
 in the personality of the Greek hero : 
 
 " servientium sibi mmis impatiens cum molestus 
 servientibus nimis esset." 1 
 
 The visit of Diomedes to the tent of 
 Calchas to woo Criseyde is found only in 
 the Filostrato, but his action at parting, 
 
 " And after this, the sothe for to seyn, 
 Hir glove he took of which he was ful fayn," 2 
 
 is transposed from its proper place in 
 Chaucer's two other sources, where the 
 same incident occurs, when Diomedes 
 leaves the heroine at her father's camp. 3 
 And it is to the lines of Benoit, 
 
 verso, col. 2 to k. 6 recto col. 2). Cf. " in his nedes," with 
 T. and C., III. 1772. "In alle nedes" = Fil. III. 90, 1, 
 " NelPopere opportune." 
 
 1 Historic sig. e 2 recto, col. 1; cf. Dares, 16, 20, 
 " impatientem." For the detail " with sterne voys," there 
 is no equivalent in either the French or Latin texts, but 
 the same characterization may have been applied to a dif- 
 ferent feature. Cf. R. de T., 5195, "La chiere avoit molt 
 felonesse." Historia, I.e., "aspectu ferox." 
 
 2 T. and C., V. 1012-1013. * Cf. p. 113. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 119 
 
 " Un de ses ganz li a toleit 
 Que nus nel seit ne perceit 
 Molt s'en fait liez," l 
 
 rather than to Guide's paraphrase, 
 
 "unam de cirothecis quam Brisaida gerebat in 
 manu ab ea nullo percipiente furtive subtraxit," 2 
 
 that this touch is due. Again, when Chau- 
 cer writes, 
 
 " And after this the story telleth us 
 That she him yaf the faire baye stede, 
 The which she ones wan of Troilus," 3 
 
 he makes statements of facts, for which 
 
 1 R. de T., 13673-13675. 
 
 2 Historia, sig. i 2 verso, col. 2 ; cf . Skeat, Z.c., pp. 
 lix., 499 ; Broatch, Z.c., p. 18. Yet in the phrase which 
 directly precedes, there is perhaps the hint not found 
 in Benoit for a couple of lines of Chaucer : 
 
 " Quare associavit earn usque ad locum quo Bresaida 
 recipere in sui patris tentoria se debebat, et ea perveniente 
 ibidem ipse earn ab equo descendens prouiptus adivit." 
 
 Cf. T. and C., V. 181-182, 189: 
 
 " For wan she gan hir fader for aspeye, 
 
 Wei neigh doun of hir hors she gan to sye." 
 "And from her hors she alighte." 
 8 T. and C., V. 1037-1039. In 1039, 1 accept Thynne's 
 reading "she" in preference to "he" of all the manu- 
 
120 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 Benoit was the sole authority; 1 and if in 
 the following lines, 
 
 " And eek a broche (and that was litel nede) 
 That Troilus was, she yaf this Diomede," 2 
 
 scripts (cf. Skeat, I.e. pp. 499, Ixxiii.), as it accords 
 with a statement in Benoit's account of his heroine's 
 loan of the horse to Diomedes (R. de T., 15009-15014) : 
 
 " Un jor iert ale preier 
 Qu'ele remirot le destrier 
 Qui Troylus avoit este 
 L'en li ot bien dit et conte 
 Qu'a sa mie en esteit presenz 
 Iriez en iert et molt dolenz." 
 
 Cf. Works of Chaucer, ed. Bell, vol. VI. p. 23. Reading 
 "he," the line would allude to another passage in the 
 O.F. poem, which was rendered in Guide's work, recount- 
 ing the capture of the horse of Troilus, by Diomedes, 
 who had unseated its rider, and its presentation to the 
 heroine, an act of courtesy often mentioned in ro- 
 mances, R. de T., 14238-14303; cf. L. Constans, Les 
 MSS. du Roman de Troie, in Etudes romanes dediees a 
 G. Paris, p. 214 ; Historia, sig. i 4 recto, col. 1 ; cf. Buev. 
 de Com., 2661 ff.; R. de Thebes, 4363 ff. ; Saisnes, vol. L 
 pp. 122, 126 ; Perceval, 6887 ff. ; Fergus, 4972 ff. 
 
 1 R. de T., 15009-15054 ; cf. Skeat, I.e., pp. 499, Ixxx. ; 
 Broatch, I.e., pp. 18-19, 25. 
 
 2 T. and C., V. 1040-1041 ; cf. Skeat (I.e., p. 503), who 
 does not find incident in Guido. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 121 
 
 he adopts Boccaccio's setting of the same 
 incident, in the Filostrato? it was to the 
 O.F. poem that he had to have recourse 2 
 when he continues with : 
 
 1 Fil., VIII. 8, 9-10 ; T. and C., V. 1658-1678 ; cf. T. 
 andC., III. 1370-1372: 
 
 " But wel I woot a broche, gold and asure, 
 In whiche a ruby set was lyk an herte, 
 Criseyde him yaf, and stak it on his sherte," 
 
 where Chaucer introduces a new detail in his story, by 
 attributing to Criseyde an action at an early period in 
 her connection with Troilus, which, following Boccaccio, 
 he has attributed to the hero at the time of their part- 
 ing. Again, Chaucer had no precedent in any of his 
 sources when he attributes to the lovers a common cus- 
 tom (T. and C., III. 1368-1369 ; cf. P. Meyer; Girart de 
 Roussillon, p. 18, n. 1 ; Godefroi de Bouillon, 15, 553), 
 
 " And pleyinge entrechaungeden hir ringes 
 Of which I can nought tellen no scripture," 
 
 or when Criseyde says to Pandarus (T. and C., III. 
 885): 
 
 " Have here, and bereth him this blewe ring." 
 
 2 R. de T 7 ., 15102-15104:. Seeing this on the lance of 
 Diomedes (15576-15577), Troilus may know that he is 
 forgotten by his beloved (15109-15112) ; furnishing the 
 
122 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 " And eek, the bet from sorwe him to releve, 
 She made him were a pencel of hir sieve.'' 1 
 
 And while there is reference to more than 
 one authority in the lines ; 
 
 " I finde eek in the stories elles-where, 
 Whan through the body hurt was Diomede 
 Of Troilus, tho weep she many a tere, 
 Whan that she saugh his wyde woundes blede ; 
 And that she took to kepen him good hede, " 2 
 
 there are details mentioned which are only 
 found in the French romance. Thus Guido's 
 phrase, 
 
 "ipsum (i.e. Diomedes) precipitem dejecit ab 
 equo et mortaliter vulneravit," 3 
 
 same motive as is supplied by the brooch in Boccaccio 
 which Chaucer made use of. (Cf. note, p. 121, n. 1). For 
 custom, cf. R. de Thebes, 4455, 8963; R. d' Alexandra, 401, 
 7; Eneas, 9331: Octavian, 2694, 3405; Anseis, 2002, 3634, 
 4719, 5000 ; Rom, vol. IV. p. 30 ; Jahr. f. rom. u. engl. 
 Lit., vol. IX. p. 34; Auberi, 74, 18; 78, 13; Perceval, 6866. 
 
 1 T. and C., V. 1042-1043 ; cf. Skeat., I.e., pp. 499, 
 Ixxx. ; Broatch, I.e., p. 24. 
 
 2 T. and C., V. 1044-1048. 
 
 8 Historia, sig. k 6 verso, col. 2. 
 
TO GUIDO BELLE COLONNE 123 
 
 omits the specific statement found in the 
 passage of the Roman de Troie, of which 
 Chaucer has made use in the above lines, 
 
 " Come il navra Diomedes 
 Parmi le cors de plein esles," 1 
 
 just as in Troilus's vow that if he meets 
 his successful rival, 
 
 " trewely, if I have might and space 
 Yet shall I make, I hope, his sydes blede,"* 
 
 there is a reminiscence of the fuller de- 
 scription elsewhere in Benoit: 
 
 " Ala f erir Diomedes 
 D'une lance grosse et poignal 
 Si que Fenseigne de cendal 
 Li remest parmi les costez."^ 
 
 Nor is there a suggestion in the Latin of 
 the French lines, 
 
 " Mes n'en puet pas son cuer covrir 
 Que plor, e lermes, et sospir 
 
 1 R. de T., 545-546; cf. Broatch, I.e., p. 25. 
 
 * T. and C., V. 1704-1705. *R. de T., 20066-20069. 
 
124 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 N'issent de li a negun fuer 
 
 
 E ele en plore o les deus ielz," l 
 
 as there is in the English poem. 
 
 And, again, the reason of the change of 
 number to the singular is apparent when 
 Chaucer writes, 
 
 " But trewely the story telleth us, 
 Ther made never womman more wo 
 Than she, whan that she falsed Troilus," 2 
 
 as the soliloquy which follows is a some- 
 what close version of a passage in the 
 Roman de Troief of which Guido has only 
 
 1 R. de T., 20197-20199, 20213. On form ielz, ueuz, 
 cf. Constans., I.e., p. 47 ; ]St ded. a G. Paris, p. 224, n. 
 
 2 T. and C., V. 1051-1053. 
 
 3 R. de T., 20227-20330 ; T. and C., V. 1054-1085; cf. 
 esp. R. de T., 20228-20229, 20233-20234 (cf. 20255), 
 20245-20252 (cf. 20665-20669), 20265-20268 (cf. 20310, 
 20317-20329), 20269-20274, 20308, 20277-20280, 20234; 
 T. and C., 1058-1060, 1056-1057, 1061-1066, 1068-1071, 
 1072-1074, 1026-1027, 1734. Cf . Hertzberg, l.c., p. 204, 
 Skeat, I.e., p. 500 ; Broatch, I.e., p. 24. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 125 
 
 a short summary/ and which was entirely 
 omitted by Boccaccio. 
 
 If the English poet, after telling of her 
 final decision to return the love of Dio- 
 medes, declares, 
 
 " Ne me ne list this sely wornman chyde 
 Ferther than the story wol devyse. 
 Hir name, alias ! is publisshed so wyde, 
 That for hir gilt it oughte y-now suffyse. 
 And if I mighte excuse hir any wyse, 
 For she so sorry was for hir untrouthe, 
 Y-wis, I wolde excuse hir yet for routhe," 2 
 
 as in an earlier passage he writes, 
 
 "Tor how Criseyde Troilus forsook, 
 Or at the leste, how that she was unkinde, 
 Mot hennes-forth ben matere of my book, 
 As wry ten folk thorugh which it is in minde. 
 Alias ! that they shulde ever cause finde 
 To speke hir harm ; and if they on hir lye, 
 Y-wis, hemself sholde han the vilanye," 3 
 
 1 Historia, sig. 1 1 recto, col. 1. 
 
 2 T. and C., V, 1093-1099, * find., IV. 15-21. 
 
126 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 in the first of these passages there is a 
 A veiled allusion, as in the second a direct 
 y'/ ff reference, to the slighting comments of 
 s/\^ Guido upon the actions of the heroine in 
 f V particular, 1 as well as upon the falsity of 
 womankind in general, which in his char- 
 acter of a woman-hater he brings in through- 
 out his work. 
 
 While, in the Filostrato, 2 Cassandra, who 
 has heard from Deiphobus the cause of the 
 evil plight of Troilus which he had acci- 
 dentally discovered, comes to persuade the 
 latter to forget the faithless low-born 
 daughter of Calchas, in the Troilus 3 the 
 hero sends for her as a seer to interpret 
 his dream, to which in the Italian poem 
 
 1 Historia, sig. i 2 recto, col. 2 ; 13 recto, col. 2 ; 1 
 1 recto, col 1 ; yet for the general statements Guido found 
 his material in the R. de T. (cf. 13412-13465, 14968- 
 14982). Lydgate bitterly reproaches Guido for his mis- 
 ogyny = Troy-book, sig. d 1 verso, col. 2 ; Hertzberg, I.e., 
 185 ; Danger, I.e., p. 62, n. Morf ., Rom, vol. XXI. p. 92. 
 
 2 Fil., VII. 77-87. 8 T. and C., V. 1443-1526. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 127 
 
 he himself has given the same meaning/ 
 and in introducing this new motive, Chau- 
 cer has been unquestionably influenced by 
 the prominent part which this daughter of 
 Priam's plays in the mediaeval Troy legend, 
 and from which, as it has been noticed, 
 he took the cue in other poems. 2 Chaucer's 
 indebtedness for different details in his few 
 lines upon Hector's death, to both his 
 French and Latin sources, has already been 
 noted. And again, in the lines that tell of 
 the grief which it caused, 
 
 " For whom, as olde bokes tellen us 
 Was maad swich wo, that tonge it may not telle, 
 And namely, the sorwe of Troilus," 3 
 
 it is to be noticed that he has supplemented 
 Boccaccio's general statement, 
 
 7., VII. 27; T.andC.,V. 1513-1519. Itmaybe noted 
 that, as in the Filostrato (VII. 88), Troilus supposes that 
 his sister gained her knowledge through divination, his 
 reproach of her incompetence (VII. 89-90) is made use 
 of by Chaucer (T. and C., V. 1520-1529). 
 
 2 Cf. pp. 62-63. 8 T. and C., V. 1562-1564. 
 
128 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 " L' alto dolor, da non poter mai dire, 1 
 Che 1 padre, ed egli e' fratei per la morte 
 Ebber d' Ettor," 2 
 
 by a specific detail of which the source is 
 in Benoit's lines, 
 
 " Molt le regrete Troylus 
 Car riens soz ciel n'amot il plus." 3 
 
 Again, the lines, 
 
 " In many cruel batayle, out of drede, 
 Of Troilus, this ilke noble knight, 
 As men may in these olde bokes rede, 
 Was sene his knighthod and his grete might. 
 
 1 Cf. R. de T. 9 16305-16307 : 
 
 " Lk est li dols si angoisseos 
 Si pesmes et si dolereos 
 Que nel porreit riens raconter." 
 Gest Historale, 8717 : 
 
 " Hit were tore any tunge tell hit with mouthe." 
 
 2 Ftt., VIII. 1, 3-5. 
 
 8 R. de T., 16351-16352. The grief of Paris is there, 
 however, " namely " set forth, 1 6323-16350. Guido merely 
 has (Historia, sig. i 6 recto, col. 2) : 
 
 Sic et dolentes fratres ejusdem dolores casu universa- 
 liter torquebantur. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 129 
 
 And dredelees, his ire, day and night, 
 
 Ful cruelly the Grekes ay aboughte," l 
 
 I 
 for which the Filostrato only offers a single 
 
 parallel line, 
 
 " Nelle battaglie Troilo sempre entrava," 2 
 
 allude to the combats in which Troilus 
 was preeminent after the death of Hector, 
 which are fully described by both Benoit 3 
 and Guido. 4 
 
 1 T. and C., V. 1751-1756. On phrase "his ire 
 aboughte" cf., pp. 66, n. 2, and Fil.,VIII, 27, 1-2= T. 
 andC.,V. 1800-1801: 
 
 " L' ira di Troilo in tempi diversi 
 A Greci nocque molto senza fallo." 
 
 2 Fil., VIH. 25, 7. 
 
 *R. de T., 19153-19174, 19350-19355, 19994-20021, 
 20123-20139, 20454-20464, 20529-20534, 20560-20564, 
 20820-20828, 21174-21175. 
 
 4 Historia, sig. k 5 verso, col. 1-1 2 verso, col. 2 ; Guide's 
 phrase (Historia, sig. i 5 verso, col. 1), in the account of 
 the combat in which Troilus and Diomedes would have 
 killed each other if Menelaus had not interfered, 
 
 " se graviter impetunt in duris ictibus lancearum," 
 is nearer Chaucer's "Assayinge how hir speres weren 
 whette" (T. and C., V. 1760), than Boccaccio's, 
 
130 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 Chaucer's account of Troilus's death is 
 summed up in one line, 
 
 "Dispitously him slough the fiers Achille," 1 
 
 " E di gran colpi f ra lor si donaro, 
 Talvolta, urtando e talor nelle mani 
 Le spade avendo " (Fil. VIII. 26, 3-5), 
 
 which seems to have its source in the R. de T. y 15588- 
 
 15591, 
 
 " A f erir d'espee et de lance 
 Tel geu voleient comencier 
 O les clers trenchanz branz d'acier 
 De quei les testes lor seign assent," 
 
 of which the last line seems to suggest Chaucer's (T. and 
 C., V. 1762) lines : 
 
 "And god it woot, with many a cruel hete, 
 Gati Troilus upon his helm to bete." 
 
 Chaucer's line, T. and C., V. 1802, " For thousandes his 
 hondes maden deye" is a modification of Boccaccio's 
 (Fil., VIII. 28, 7) " Avendone gia morti piu di mille," 
 for which Guido (Historia, sig. k 6 verso, col. 1), " Scripsit 
 enim Dares quod illo die mille milites interfecit ex 
 Grecis," gave the information. Cf. Dares, ed. Meister, 
 p. xlvi. The same feat is attributed to Hector, R. de T., 
 9957-9958 ; Historia, sig. i 4 recto, col. 1. Cf . Skeat, I.e., 
 p. Ix. ; Broatch, I.e., pp. 19-20. 
 1 T. and C., V. 1806. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 131 
 
 a translation of his Italian original, 
 " Miseramente un di T uccise Achille," 1 
 
 but there is a suggestion of the manner of 
 his death in an imprecation, not found in 
 the Filostrato? which the hero calls down 
 on himself, if he should ever be ungrateful W 
 to Pandarus for his services : 
 
 " And, if I lye, Achilles with his spere 
 Myn herte cleve." 3 
 
 Now in the narrative, of both Benoit 4 and 
 Guido, 5 Achilles is represented as slaying 
 Troilus by cutting off his head, but, in one 
 version of a Middle English summary of a 
 part of the Roman de Troie, there is evi- 
 dence collateral with that given in Chaucer, 
 of the tradition according to which Achilles 
 pierces his Trojan opponent with a spear 
 a point brought out in the Troilus of 
 
 1 FiL, VIII. 27, 8. 2 Fil., III. 15. 
 
 8 T. and <?., III. 374-375. 
 
 4 R. de T., 21415-21416. 
 
 5 Historia, sig. 1 2 verso, col. 2. 
 
 
132 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 Sophocles, 1 and in vase paintings which 
 departed from the more common version 
 to follow that of the Greek tragedian. 2 In 
 the Seege of Troye, as it appears in MS. 
 Harl. 525, it is stated that Achilles, after 
 a long fight with swords, 
 
 " Smote Sir Troyell to J>e herte 
 Even ato his body he deled." 3 
 
 If the first of these lines is anything 
 more than a mere conventional phrase, its 
 coincidence with Chaucer's statement is 
 striking ; but only after the publication of 
 
 1 Schol., in Iliad, XXIV. 257, as amended by F. G. 
 Welcker, Zeit.f. Alterthumsw., 1834, No. 3, p. 30; Die 
 griechischen Tragodien mil Rucksicht auf den epischen 
 Cyclus., 1839, vol. I. p. 124; Eustathius, in 11, XXIV. 
 257. Cf. W. Klein, Euphronios, 1878, p. 77, n. 2. 
 
 2 Welcker, I.e., vol. I. pp. 124-129; J. Overbeck, 
 Die Bildwerke zum ihebischen und troischen Heldenkreis. 
 1853, p. 338; Klein, l.c., p. 85; Zuckenbach, in Johns 
 Jahr. SuppL, vol. XI. pp. 610-612; cf. 603, 605, 609 ; A. 
 Baumeister, Denkmaler der classischen Alterihum, p. 1902. 
 
 8 The Seege of Troye, etc., w. 1528-1529 ; cf . pp. 
 xxxi.-xl. ; Granz, Seege of Troye, etc., p. 51. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 133 
 
 a critical edition of the Roman de Troie 
 can we be assured that the two English 
 writers found in their original a suggestion 
 for the change of detail. 
 
 It is to be noted that every time " myn 
 auctor" is referred to on a specific point, 
 the Filostrato is meant/ and if a sonnet of 
 Petrarch/ given in a translation 3 in which 
 "nought only the sentence" but " every 
 word" has its equivalent, is attributed 
 to " myn auctor Lollius," 4 the other refer- 
 ence to that author is upon a detail only 
 found in the work of Boccaccio. 5 Again, in 
 
 1 T. and C., II. 699-791 = FiL, II. 69-75; T. and C., III. 
 501-504 = FU. 9 III. 3, 4-5 ; T. and C., III. 575-578, 568-570 
 = Fil., III. 21, 4-8 ; T. and C., III. 1195-1197, cf . FiL, III. 
 31, 1-3 ; T. and C., III. 1324-1327 (where Chaucer states 
 that " thogh I can not tellen al, as can myn auctor," after 
 he has taken 126 lines to enlarge upon the substance of 
 21 lines in the Italian poem, T. and C., III. 1198-1323 ; 
 cf. Fil., III. 31-33) ; T. and C., 1814-1817 = Fil., IV. 24, 
 1-3. 2 Sonn., 88. 8 T. and C., I. 400-420. 
 
 4 T. and C., I. 393-399. 
 
 5 T. and C., Y. 1653-1673 = Fil., VIII. 8-10; cf. p. 
 121. 
 
134 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 speaking of his poem as a whole, Chau- 
 cer only mentions "myn auctor" as his 
 authority/ and three times he makes an 
 indirect reference to the Italian poem. 2 
 When Chaucer states that 
 
 " Criseyde was this lady name a-right," 3 
 
 he accepts the authority of the statement 
 of Boccaccio, 
 
 " Griseida nomata," 4 
 
 1 T. and C., I. 260-266, II. 18, 49. 
 
 2 T. and C., 1. 492-497 = FU., 1. 48 ; T. and C., II. 1219- 
 1225 = FU. 9 II. 125-127; T. and C., V. 1758-1764 = FU., 
 VIII. 26. 3 T. and C., I. 99. 
 
 4 FiL, 1. 11, 6. Chaucer seems to emphasize the cor- 
 rectness of the change of the name made by Boccaccio, 
 under the influence of classical authorities, in which the 
 daughter of the priest Chryses plays such a prominent 
 part as the captive of Achilles (cf. L. Constans in Hist, 
 de la langue et lit. francaise, vol. I. p. 209, n. ; Hertzberg, 
 I.e., p. 197), without supposing the additional reason 
 that "Boccaccio wollte die Chriseis als die Goldige 
 gedeutet werden" (Hertzberg, I.e., p. 197, accepted by 
 Koerting, Boccaccio, p. 591). Criseida and Griseida 
 appeared as the same form in the text of the Italian 
 poem, as is evident from the fact that both appear in MSS. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 135 
 
 rejecting the name " Brisaida," " Briseida," 
 given by the French and Latin writers/ 
 although he modified the spelling in later 
 poems to " Creseyde." 2 
 
 Once he refers to a detail in his story, 
 which " writen is in geste," 3 and this 
 proves to be the Filostrato ; and again, 
 when he states that he is narrating the 
 action of his heroine, 
 
 " as writen clerkes in hir bokes old," 
 
 of Guido, where the copyists have substituted " Criseida " 
 for "Briseida," the form in the original text. (Morf, 
 Rom, vol. XXI. p. 101, n. ; cf . Moland et d'Hericault, 
 I.e., p. cxxxv. ; Mussafia, I.e., pp. 496-497; Hertzberg, I.e., 
 p. 197.) 
 
 1 R. de T., 12956 ; Historia, sig. i 1. recto, col. 2. 
 
 2 Against Women Unconstant, 16; L. of G. W., 332, 
 441, 469 ; cf. H. of P., 397-398 : 
 
 " Eek lo ! how f als and reccheles 
 Was to Briseida Achilles," 
 
 where the English poet took the classic accusative form 
 as it appeared in Ovid (Heroides, III. 137), while in 
 C. T., B, 71, he gives a form, probably of his own mak- 
 ing, Brixseyde " ; cf . Her., III. 1, " Briseide." 
 
 8 T. and C., III. 450 = Fil., HI. 3, 6. A satisfactory 
 
136 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 he is merely translating a passage from 
 the Italian poem/ which has no parallel 
 in the other sources. 
 
 explanation has not been offered as to what particular 
 form of narrative is meant by "in geste" in the lines 
 (C. T., B, 2122-2124): 
 
 " Sir, at o word, thou shalt no lenger ryme, 
 Let see wher thou canst tellen aught in geste, 
 Or telle in prose somwhat at the leste." 
 
 Elsewhere the word, in its meaning of " narrative," refers 
 indifferently to authorities in Latin verse or prose 
 (P. ofR, 1515; L. of G. W., A, 87; T. and C., II. 83, Y. 
 1511; C. T., B, 1126, D, 642). Gower applies it to 
 the T. and C. (Mirour de Vomme, 5253) : 
 
 " U qu'il oit chanter la geste 
 De Troylus et de la belle 
 Creseide." 
 
 IT. and C., III. 1199 = m, 111,32; cf. p. 7; 
 T. and C., V. 1478-1479: 
 
 " Of which, as olde bokes tellen us 
 Ther roos a contek and a great envye," 
 
 where Ovid's Metamorphoses alone is referred to (cf. 
 
 p. 96); and again, B. of D., 52-55: 
 
 " And in this boke were writen fables 
 That clerkes hadde, in olde tyme 
 And other poets put in ryme, 
 To rede, and for to be in minde." 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 137 
 
 Once he refers to "the story" for a 
 detail only found in Benoit ; * and again 2 
 he calls attention to the same source as 
 the authority for a passage which was 
 necessarily dependent upon the Roman de 
 Troie, except for a detail, the hint for 
 which he adopted from the Filostrato? In 
 translating the Italian, 
 
 " NelP opere opportune alia lor guerra 
 Egli era sempre nell' armi il primiero 
 Che sopra' Greei uscia fuor della terra, 
 Tanto animoso, et si forte e si fiero 
 Che ciascun ne dottava, se no erra 
 La storia," 4 
 
 he adds a detail from Benoit/ and mentions 
 more than the one authority cited by Boc- 
 
 1 T. and C., V. 1051; cf. p. 124. 8 Cf.' p. 120. 
 
 2 Cf. p. 119, T. and C., V. 1037. 4 FiL, III. 90. 
 5 R. de T., 5418-5420; cf. Constans, I.e. p. 63 : 
 
 " De eels de Troie li plus bials 
 E li plus prouz, fors que sis frere 
 Hector." 
 
 In Guido he is always represented as the equal of Hector. 
 
 See p. 76. 
 
138 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 caccio, necessarily including his Italian 
 predecessor as one of his sources : 
 
 " In alle nedes, for the tounes werre, 
 He was, and ay the firste in armes dight ; 
 And certeynly, but-if that bokes erre, 
 Save Ector, most y-drad of any wight." l 
 
 The description of Diomedes is, for the 
 most part, based upon that given in the 
 Roman de Troie, with the addition of de- 
 tails from the Filostrato, and possibly a 
 V hint from Guido, 2 and here Chaucer, in 
 speaking of his authorities, says that the 
 " bokes us declare," 3 and "some men seyn." 4 
 
 Only once, in his description of Troilus, 
 for which he is mainly indebted to Guido's 
 ork, does he directly refer to this source, 
 and with the indefinite term, " in storie it 
 
 1 T. and C., III. 1772-1775. 2 Cf. p. 115. 
 
 8 T. and C., V. 799. 
 
 4 T. and C., V. 804; cf. T. and C., I. 708. "Men 
 seyn," where proverb is given, which the " Chanoun 
 yeman," says he, "ones lerned of a clerk," C. T., G, 
 748; cf. T. and C., II. 1238. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 139 
 
 is y-founde." 1 He mentions " these olde 
 bokes " 2 as his authorities for passages in 
 which he has expanded a line or two in 
 the Filostrato, by a statement of events 
 for which he found a detailed account in 
 the works of Benoit and Guido. 3 If in a 
 passage in which 4 he comments upon Cri- 
 seyde's actions, the facts could have been 
 furnished by all of his three sources/ the 
 kindliness of his reflections upon her mo- 
 tives would on this point exclude the 
 authority of Guido, whom the English poet 
 elsewhere in the poem indirectly rebukes 
 for his harsh opinion of the heroine, 
 
 " Alias ! that they shulde ever cause finde 
 To speke her harm ; and if they on hir lye, 
 Y-wis, hemself e sholde han the vilanye," 6 
 
 1 T. and C., V. 834; cf. p. 76. 
 
 2 T. and C., V. 1562, 1753 ; pp. 127-129. On olde 
 bokes," cf. pp. 135-136 ; T. and C., V. 1481. 
 
 8 Cf . pp. Ill, 127-129. 
 
 4 T. and C., IV. 1415-1421 ; cf. V. 19-21 ; cf. pp. 111- 
 
 112. 5 T. and C., IV., 15-18 ; cf . p. 125. 
 
 6 T. and C., IV. 19-21 ; cf . p. 8, and C. T., F, 551, as 
 
140 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 even if he writes as if he alluded to more 
 than one authority, as he unquestionably 
 does, when he is speaking merely of the 
 facts of the story: 
 
 " Bisecliinge every lady bright of hewe, 
 And every gentil womman, what she be, 
 That al be that Criseyde was untrewe, 
 That for that gilt she be not wrooth with me, 
 Ye may hir gilt in othere bokes see." l 
 
 " The stories " are the source mentioned 
 for a passage which summarizes a long 
 account in the Roman de Troie and the 
 Historia? Twice he takes care to mention 
 that certain details are not to be found in 
 his authorities/ and if in his delineation of 
 the character of the heroine he writes, 
 
 writen folk," where the Biblical narrative seems to be 
 referred to. 
 
 1 T. and C., V. 1772-1776. 
 
 2 T. and C., V. 1044 ; cf. p. 122 ; T. and C., V. 1459, 
 "old stories " = " an tiche storie," Fil, Proemio, p. 7, 
 An. and Arc., "olde storie," "storia antica," Tes., I. 2. 
 
 8 T. and C\ I. 132-133, V. 1086-1092; cf. pp. 82 n., 87. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONJSTE 141 
 
 " But trewely, I can not telle hir age," l 
 
 he appears to fear to add a specific detail, 
 which is not elsewhere vouched for. Yet 
 in this very passage occurs a bit of charac- 
 terization which is referred directly to the 
 authority of those "who writen that her 
 syen," 2 for which it is difficult to cite what 
 lay be a parallel in any of the sources. 3 
 Lgain, in an episode of the Troilus which 
 id no prototype in the story as told by 
 the predecessors of the English poet, the 
 gf erence is entirely fictitious in the lines 
 
 " But whan his shame gan somwhat to passe 
 His resons, as I may my rymes holde, 
 I yow wol telle, as techen bokes olde." 4 
 
 He unquestionably refers to the unnamed 
 Italian poem as his main authority, and if 
 he writes of his own poem that 
 
 " Out of Latin in my tonge it wryte," 5 
 
 1 T. and C., V. 826. 8 Cf. p. 83 n. 
 
 2 T. and C., V. 816. 4 T. and C., III. 89-91. 
 
 6 T. and C., II. 1 
 
142 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 it was in order to give to his source the 
 dignity that he wished to attribute to that 
 of Anelida and Arcite, where, in making a 
 very free translation of a passage in the 
 Tesaide? he notes his intention, 
 
 " in English for tendyte 
 This olde storie, in Latin which I fynde," 2 
 
 when, in fact, he is only using the words 
 of the Italian poem, which treats of some- 
 thing else. 3 And, in the one poem he 
 adopts hints from the Historia, which was 
 the Latin source of the Filostrato, as in 
 the other he translated passages from Star 
 
 iTes., 1.2: 
 
 " Che m' e venuta voglia com pietosa 
 Rima di scriver una storia antica, 
 Tanto negli anni riposta e nascosa 
 Che latino autor non par ne dica 
 Per quel ch' io senta, in libro alcuna cosa." 
 
 2 An. and Arc., 9-10. 
 
 8 Cf . pp. 23-24 ; ten Brink, Chaucer, pp. 49, 53-56 ; 
 Skeat, Minor Poems, p. 311 ; Koch., Eng. Stud., vol. XV. 
 p. 399. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 143 
 
 tius, 1 in whose work Boccaccio found sug- 
 gestions for the story of the Tesaide; so 
 that he may have felt a right in both cases 
 to refer to the Latin sources of his Italian 
 originals as his own. It is to mystify his 
 readers once more, in order to hide the 
 name of his author, that he introduces the 
 name of Lollius, to whom he attributed a 
 history of the Trojan war, 2 by a misinter- 
 pretation of the lines of Horace, 8 which he 
 found cited in the Polycraticus 4 of John of 
 Salisbury, a work with which he was well 
 acquainted. 5 For elsewhere he translates 
 another line of Horace, 6 cited in the same 
 
 1 An. and Arc., 22-48 ; Thebias, XII. 519 fE. ; cf. Skeat, 
 Chaucer's Minor Poems, pp. Ixix., 313. 
 2^.0/^.1468; cf. p. 51. 
 8 Ep. 1. 2, 1 fE. ; cf. pp. 38-40, 46. 
 
 4 Polycr., VII. 9 ; Migne, Patrologia, vol. CXCIX. vol. 
 657. This passage has already been noted by W. E. A. 
 Axon, N. and Q., Ser. 9, vol. III. p. 224. 
 
 5 Cf . W. W. Woolcombe in Essays on Chaucer, pp. 293- 
 306 ; Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, vol. II. pp. 362-364. 
 
 6 Ep., 1. 10, 24 = C. T., H. 161. 
 
144 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 work, 1 a propos of the matter he is treating 
 of, again he refers to it by inference as an 
 authority, 2 and quotes from it a number of 
 times without mentioning his source. 3 In 
 the same way in Anelida and Arcite, where 
 he equally avoids mention of Boccaccio, he 
 avails himself of the name of Corinna, a 
 contemporary of Pindar, who had been 
 remembered down to Chaucer's day, as 
 the author of a work upon the Theban 
 
 1 Polycr., III. 8, col. 489. 
 
 2 C. T., D. 1510-1511; cf. Polycr., II. 27, col. 468; 
 Woolcombe, I.e. p. 295. 
 
 8 C. T., C. 591, 595, 603, 621 = Polycr., I. 5; cols. 399- 
 400. On " Stilbon-Chilon," cf. E. Koeppel, Anglia, vol. 
 XIII. p. 183 ; K. O. Petersen, On the Sources of the Nonne 
 Prestes Tale, p. 100, n. C. T., H. 226 ft.=Polycr., III. 14 ; 
 cf . Petersen, I.e. p. 114, n. 1 (Alexander and the pirate) ; 
 possibly C., 538 &. = Polycr., VIII. 6, col. 725; cf. Wool- 
 combe, I.e. p. 296 ; and Former Age, 33-40 = Polycr., VIII. 
 6, col. 727 ; cf . Works of Chaucer, vol. I. p. 541. On C. T., 
 C. 517 ff., 527 ff., cf. Woolcombe, I.e. pp. 297-304; Works 
 of Chaucer, vol. V. pp. 278-279 ; Lounsbury, I.e. pp. 364- 
 372. In the B. of D., 663-664, the information from the 
 Polycr., I. 5, col. 399, is at second hand, the immediate 
 source being the Rom. de la Rose, 7425 ff. 
 
TO GUIDO BELLE COLONNE 145 
 
 story, making her with Statins the joint 
 authorities of his poem/ the source of a 
 large part of which has not been pointed 
 out. 
 
 When he introduces into his narrative 
 
 1 As to the author referred to, I adopt the hint given 
 by Tyrwhitt, who thinks it hardly possible that Chaucer 
 "had met with that poem " (Works of Chaucer, p. 461). 
 The mere statement about the composition of the work 
 could have been as accessible to Chaucer as that about 
 Agathon, to whom he refers in another poem (L. of G. 
 W., 525-526 ; cf. Cary's Dante, note to Purg., XXII. 106; 
 Bech., Anglia, vol. V. p. 365 ; Skeat, Legend of Good 
 Women, pp. xxiv.-xxvi., 149) in some mediaeval encyclo- 
 pedic work. Constans (Roman de Thebes, vol. II. p. clvii., 
 n. 2), who does not know of Chaucer's indebtedness to 
 Boccaccio in the Anelida and Arcite, unnecessarily sug- 
 gests that Chaucer may have been acquainted with a 
 Latin translation or abridgment of Corinna's poem, 
 though he regards it as more probable that her name, as 
 that of Lollius, was used to conceal the true source. 
 Hertzberg's suggestion (Jahr. f. rom. und engl. Lit., vol. 
 VIII. p. 160; Shah Jahr., vol. VI. pp. 173-174; cf. Skeat, 
 Chaucer's Minor Poems, p. 312), that Corinnus, a historian 
 of the Trojan war is referred to, has not as good ground 
 for acceptance. 
 
 2 An. and Arc., 21 : 
 
 " First follow I Stace, and after him Corinne." 
 
146 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 the translation of a sonnet of Petrarch, 
 as a song found in the text of his original, 
 he may have confused the two Italian 
 poets owing to the fact that the authorship 
 of the Filostrato in his manuscript, as in 
 that used by the French translator, was 
 attributed to Petrarch ; 1 but the very inno- 
 vation rather denotes that it was done to 
 sustain the mystery with which he wished 
 to surround the origin of his poem, and to 
 avoid here, or elsewhere, mention of Boc- 
 caccio, who has been his most important 
 authority throughout all his works. 2 
 
 1 Cf. pp. 32-33. 
 
 2 In the Monkes Tale in the account of Zenobia, for 
 which he drew the material from Boccaccio's De Casibus 
 Virorum (VIII. 6) and De Mulieribus (ch. xcviii.), if any 
 reader desires details, he writes (C. T., B, 3515-3516) :- 
 
 " Let him un-to my maister Petrark go, 
 That writ y-nough of this I undertake." 
 
 Tyrwhitt (note to C. T., 14253, Works of Chaucer, p. 203) 
 conjectured that " Boccaccio's book had fallen into 
 Chaucer's hand under the name of Petrarch." 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 147 
 
 
 
 He nowhere mentions or even indirectly 
 suggests 1 the title of the Filostrato in the 
 Troilus, while in the Knightes Tale? having 
 in mind the symbolical meaning attributed 
 to the name by Boccaccio, 3 he has one of 
 his characters assume it instead of the name 
 found in the Tesaide* When Chaucer has 
 been at so much pains to conceal the name, 
 the author, and the language of the work 
 which was his main authority, it is not at / 
 all surprising that he does not cite by name * 
 Benoit or Guido. To them he merely refers 
 
 1 The variant of T. and C., III. 503, found in St. John's 
 College, Cambridge, MS., 1. 1, 
 
 " An hondred vers of which hym liste nat write," 
 is the only suggestion of the metrical structure of the 
 original. 
 
 2 C. !T., A, 1428, " Philostrato he seide that he heighte." 
 Cf. 1558, 1728. 
 
 3 Cf. p. 95 n. 
 
 4 Tesaide, IV. 3, has Pentheo." It is to be noted 
 that certain lines of the Filostrato that are translated in 
 the Troilus reappear in the Knightes Tale. Cf. C. T., A, 
 1010, 1101, 1163-1168; T. and C., IV. 627; I. 425; IV. 
 618. 
 
148 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 in general terms as authorities for incidents 
 in his story and details in his description 
 of the characters, not found in his Italian 
 original. From their narratives he also 
 borrows, without notice, material for the 
 enlargement of his own story, independent 
 of that of Boccaccio, but taken from the 
 same places in these works, to which the 
 Italian poet had resort. The suggestions 
 taken from the French poem or its Latin 
 plagiary and often it is a word, a phrase, 
 borrowed from one, sometimes, to supple- 
 ment the statement of the other are skil- 
 fully introduced into the main texture of 
 the story, in different parts of the Troilus. 1 
 Some of these additions form an essential 
 
 1 In the same way Gower inserts details taken from 
 Benoit or Guido into his versions of incidents, the main 
 body of which is borrowed from one of these authors, so 
 that it is sometimes difficult to decide to which one he 
 refers as an authority in the phrases " cronique," " the 
 tale of Troie," " bok of Troie." Cf. Traitie, IX. 4 ; Conf. 
 Amant., III. 2641; V. 3192; I. 483; V. 3244; VII. 1559. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLOGNE 149 
 
 part of his own story, as lie first wrote it ; 
 others, again, are changes in details of state- 
 ments, taken from Boccaccio, which he 
 made in revising his poem. 1 
 
 As authorities for the history of the / 
 Trojan war, he mentions Homer, Dictys, )P 
 and Dares, 2 as he found them cited in the 
 Roman de Troie and the Historia Trojana? 
 
 1 As is shown by the variant readings of Harleian 
 MS. 1239. 
 
 2 Cf. p. 12. 
 
 8 Cf . pp. 51 ff. The stanza (V. 1786-1792), 
 
 " Go litel boke, go litel myn tragedye, 
 Ther God thy makere yet er that he dye 
 So sende myght to make in some comedye 
 But litel book no makynge thow nenvye, 
 But subgit be to alle poesye 
 And kys the steppes where as thow seest space 
 Virgile, Ovyde, Omer, Lucan, and Stace," 
 
 is an imitation of the closing lines of the Thebaid of 
 Statius (XII. 816-819), 
 
 " Vive, precor ; nee tu divinam Aeneida tempta, 
 Sed longe sequere et vestigia semper adora. 
 Mox, tibi si quis adhuc praetendit nubila livor, 
 Occidet, et meriti post me referentur honores." 
 
 And the last line is merely a variant of the stock formula, 
 
150 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 since he was acquainted with only the work 
 of Dares at first hand. In doing this he 
 merely follows the precedent established by 
 mediaeval writers, according to which the 
 statements of a translator were as authori- 
 tative as those of his original, and a citation 
 at twentieth hand as good as one at first 
 hand. He refers to Dares as an authority 
 upon the warlike exploits of Troilus, 
 and he may well be citing here at first 
 hand. 1 
 
 In his account of Hercules, Chaucer refers 
 to Guido as an authority under the name of 
 Trophee, 2 a translation of his second name 
 "de Columpnis." 3 For the fact that the 
 " columne Herculis " was set up as a token 
 
 so much used by mediaeval poets, in which the greatest 
 writers of antiquity are grouped together. Cf., e.g., 
 F. Michel, Tristan, vol. I. p. Ixv. ; Romania, vol. XXV. 
 p. 503 ; Dante, Inf., IV. 85 ff. 
 
 1 On Chaucer's use of Dares, cf . pp. 59, 61, n. 2, 75 n., 
 82 n., 130 n. 
 
 2 Cf. p. 55. 8 Cf. H. of F., 1469, p. 51. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 151 
 
 of victory a trophaeum, trophee 1 is 
 emphasized by the author of the Historia, 
 in the passage translated by the English 
 poet/ and elsewhere. 3 Chaucer considers 
 the explanation of Melibee, "that is to 
 seyn, a man that drinketh hony," 4 and the 
 absurd etymologies of the name Cecilia 5 as 
 satisfactory, and so, " to seye in English/' 
 this Latin name, makes use of a single 
 word which at once deSnes and trans- 
 lates it. 
 
 1 Cf. p. 37 ; Works of Chaucer, vol. II. p. Ivi., n. 1. 
 
 2 Cf. pp. 55-57. 
 
 8 Historia, sig. f 5 recto, col. 1. In this passage, evi- 
 dently as a comment on his own name, Guido speaks 
 of certain so-called " Columne Hereulis," situated in the 
 southern part of Italy, which, according to tradition, were 
 put up by the hero in commemoration of his conquest 
 there. On their site, according to Guido, the town of 
 Terranova was built by Frederick II. Cf. Works of 
 Chaucer, vol. II. p. Ivi., n. 1 ; Works of Gower, ed. 
 G. C. Macaulay, vol. II. p. 501 ; Torraca, Studi su la lirica 
 italiana del Duecento, pp. 412-416. It is conceivable that 
 Chaucer referred to these columns, which he may have 
 regarded as being at one of the " worldes endes." 
 
 * C. T., B, 2599. 5 C. T., G, 85 ff. 
 
152 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 Lydgate finding Trophee cited by Chaucer 
 on the adventures of Hercules, of which 
 Guido gives a similar account/ noticing 
 that the treatment of the story of Troilus and 
 Criseyde in the English poem differs from 
 that in the Historia? supposes Chaucer's 
 source for both .these episodes to be a 
 work in Italian. 3 He himself was not 
 
 1 In Lydgate 's translation there seems to be reminis- 
 cences of the lines in the Monkes Tale. (Troy-book, 
 sig. B 6 recto, col. 1; cf. Works of Chaucer, vol. II. 
 p. Iv.) 
 
 2 Cf. 15, 75 n., 89 n., 115 n. ; Works of Chaucer, 
 vol. II. p. 503. On Lydgate's intimate acquaintance with 
 the Troilus, cf. J. Schick, Lydgate's Temple of Glass, 
 p. cxxvi. The Gest Hystoriale omits details in the account 
 of the lovers, because, 
 
 "Who-so wilnes to wit of thaire wo fir, 
 Turne hym to Troilus and talke there ynoghe." 
 
 (8053-8054; cf. Works of Chaucer, vol. II. p. Ixvi.) 
 Gower, who made use of the works of both Benoit and 
 Guido, always refers to the story as it is found in 
 Chaucer's poem. (Con/. Amant., II. 2457-2459 ; IV. 2795 ; 
 V. 7597-7602 ; VIII. 2531; Mirour de Vomme, 5253-5355; 
 Balades, XX. 19-22.) 
 
 3 Cf . p. 13. 
 
TO GUIDO DELLE COLONNE 153 
 
 acquainted with that language/ while 
 Chaucer refers to Dante 2 and Petrarch 3 as 
 authorities in the same Tale in which he cites 
 from Trophee. He knows that Chaucer was 
 acquainted with the work of Guido, 4 and 
 accepts his authority as to the existence 
 
 1 Bale's statements that Lydgate had travelled in 
 Italy for the sake of learning the language, that Dante 
 was one of the authors most studied by him, and that he 
 translated some of his writings, as well as some of 
 Petrarch's, have been shown to be worthless ; with how- 
 ever much faith they were accepted and enlarged upon 
 by the bibliographers and historians of early English 
 history. (Bale, Scriptorum illustrium majoris Britanniae 
 Catalogus, Bale, 1559, pp. 586, 587 ; Tanner, Bibliotheca 
 Britannico-Hibernica, 1748, p. 489; Warton, History of 
 English Poetry, 1824, vol. II. p. 362 ; Ritson, Bibliographia 
 Poetica, p. 6 ; A. Hortis, Studi sulle opere latine del Boc- 
 caccio, pp. 627 n., 646-647 ; Constans, La legende d'Oedipe, 
 pp. 366-367; Roman de Thebes, vol. II. p. clxi; Morley, 
 English Writers, vol. VI. p. 103; E. Koeppel, Laurents 
 und Lydgates Bearbeitungen, etc., p. 83 ; Zeit. fur ver- 
 gleichendes Literatur, vol. I. p. 426; Schick, as cited, 
 pp. lxxxviii.-xc., xcvi., clii.) 
 
 2 C. T., B, 3657; cf. p. 29 n. 
 
 8 C. T., B, 3515; cf. p. 145, n. 2. 
 
 4 He makes use of the Legend of Good Women in his 
 account of Jason and Medea ; cf . pp. 51-53, 53 n. 
 
154 CHAUCER'S INDEBTEDNESS 
 
 of a writer upon the Trojan war, named 
 Lolliu^, 1 although non-committal as to his 
 authorship of the " l^rophe." But he has 
 no idea of the real name of the Italian 
 work of which he speaks, or of its author, 
 his favorite Boccaccio. 
 
 1 Cf. pp. 14-15. 
 
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS 
 
 By an oversight I have failed to note G. C. Macaulay's 
 contributions. In a communication to the Academy of 
 April 6, 1895, he maintained the theory that the work of 
 Guido was not used at all in the Troilus, as Chaucer is 
 really indebted to Benoit in those passages in the Eng- 
 lish poem for which there seems to be analogues in the 
 Historia. In a note in F. J. FurnivalFs Three More 
 Parallel Texts of Chaucer 1 s Troilus and Criseyde, pp. a-b, 
 he cites a number of passages from the Roman de Troie, 
 which were unquestionably the original of some lines of 
 Chaucer, and notes that only in the fifth book is use 
 made of this auxiliary source. By the same slip I have 
 overlooked the edition of Harleian MS., 1239, an indiffer- 
 ent copy of an early version of the Troilus, from which I 
 have only cited at Second-hand, and without due empha- 
 sis. The readings cited below, for the most part are not 
 found in the other MSS., but it may be grouped on ac- 
 count of other characteristics, with Cambridge Univ. Libr. 
 MS. Gg. 4. 27, and St. John's College, Cambridge, MS. L 1. 
 
 P. 7. The variant of T. and C., III. 1327 
 (Harl. and St. John's), 
 
 " In every thing the gret(e) of his sentence," 
 modifies the statement regarding the fidel- 
 ity with which the original is reproduced, 
 
 155 
 
156 ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS 
 
 and it is to be noted that this explanation 
 is in a passage that is found in a different 
 place in the other MSS. 
 
 Pp. 8, 122. T. and C., V. 1044 : 
 " I fynde eke in the story elles where." 
 
 The correct plural form, "stories/' in the 
 revised version refers to both the French 
 and Latin sources, while in lines 1037, 
 1051, only Benoit needs to be referred to 
 as an authority. 
 
 P. 73. With T. and C., I. 293-298, cf. 
 II. 533-535, 902. 
 
 Pp. 74, 100, 109-110. T. and C., IV. 
 1411. The reading, 
 
 " Whan he from Delphos, to the grekys sterte," 
 adds a detail of the story as it is found in 
 Benoit and Guido. 
 
 P. 81. R. de Tr., 5231 has the variant : 
 "Mais c'es sorcilles li joignoient." 
 
 P. 83. With T. and C., V. 1004, cf. III. 
 1164. 
 
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS 157 
 
 P. 90, n. T. and C., V. 1558 : 
 
 " For as he drow a kynge by the ventaille." 
 P. 101. T. and C., IV. 50-56 : 
 " At whiche day was taken Antenor, 
 Palidomas and also Menestes, 
 Santipe, Sarpedon, Polinestor, 
 Polite and eke the Troian dan Ruphes, 
 And other lee folk as Phebuosos, 
 For al Ector, so that the folk of Troye 
 Drede the lese a gret part of hir loye." 
 
 This is evidently a bad copy of a version of 
 
 the stanza in the Filostrato, in which the 
 
 inconsistency noted had not been corrected. 
 
 P. 102. The reading of T. and C., IV. 
 
 57-59 
 
 ^ * 
 
 " To Pryamus whas yeven at his requeste 
 A tyme of trew," 
 
 is again the uncorrected version of the 
 original. 
 
 P. 105, n. 2. The reading of T. and C., 
 IV. 137-138, in Harl 1239 is a translation 
 of a line of Boccaccio, in which the later 
 version makes a change, not altogether 
 
158 ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS 
 
 happy, by the addition of a detail found in 
 the other sources. 
 
 P. 109, n. In a note to Gower's Conf. 
 Amant.,V. 7451-7455, 
 
 " This, which Cassandre thanne hihte, 
 In al the world as it berth sihte, 
 In bokes as men finde write, 
 Is that Sibille of whom you wite, 
 That alle men yit clepen sage," 
 
 Macaulay refers to, but does not cite a 
 passage in the Pantheon of Godfrey of 
 Viterbo, which shows that in Chaucer's 
 lines there is a misunderstanding of a 
 prevalent mediaeval tradition. Godfrey is 
 treating of the various sibyls, and of these 
 he tells us, " Fuit igitur haec Sibylla Priami 
 regis filia, et ex matre Hecuba procreata. 
 Vocata est autem in Graeco Tiburtina; 
 Latine vero Albunea nomine, vel Cassan- 
 dra." Pantheon, Pars X, in Pistorius, 
 Scriptores de Rebus Germanicis, vol. II. 
 p. 157 ; cf. Works of Gower, vol. III. p. 510. 
 
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS 159 
 
 P. 112. T. and C., IV. 1421 : 
 
 " Thus wryten thoo that ever the lestes knew." 
 
 P. 116, n. 1. Kittredge (Observations, 
 etc., pp. 410, 412, 418) notes the verses 
 which are metrically defective in some or 
 all the MSS. 
 
 Pp. 119-120, n. The variant of T. and <7., 
 V. 1039, 
 
 " The wych of hym whan Troylus," 
 
 suggests an episode of which I cannot 
 state the source. 
 
 P. 121. R. de Tr., 15102-15104: 
 
 " La destre manche de son braz 
 Bone et fresche de ciclaton, 
 Li done en leu de gonfanon." 
 
 P. 125. T. and C., V. 1095: 
 "Hir name, alias ! ys punysshed so wyde." 
 
 P. 130. T. and C., V. 1806 (Harl. 1239 
 and 3943 ; St. John's) : 
 
 " Ful pitously hym slough the fiers(e) 
 Ac(c)hille." 
 
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