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Article: Chaucer's 'Troilus and Criseyde,' book 3, line 1093. (Geoffrey Chaucer)
- Article from:
- The Explicator
- Article date:
- March 22, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In book 3, in the centrally important scene of the poem, when Pandarus has brought Troilus to Criseyde's bedside only to have him faint, Chaucer immediately follows the report of Troilus's swooning with the line, "This was no litel sorwe for to se" (line 1093 in The Riverside Chaucer). The line has never attracted much notice, as the vocabulary and syntax pose no particular challenges, and it can easily be integrated into widely divergent readings (for example, D. W. Robertson's reading of the poem as a Boethian sermon and Donaldson's reading of it as upholding the value of earthly experience). But the meaning of this pivotal line depends entirely on its tone. How ironic ...