Troilus and Criseyde A New Translation (Oxford World's Classics)

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BkV:259 The Eighth Sphere: The sphere of the fixed stars above the orbits of the ‘planets’ (Greek for wanderers from their visually erratic positions relative to the fixed stars as viewed from Earth) in their seven spheres of the Ptolemaic scheme. (Earth, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) BkII:2 Clio: The Muse of History. The nine Muses were the virgin daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne (Memory). They were the patronesses of the arts. Clio (History), Melpomene (Tragedy), Thalia (Comedy), Enterpe (Lyric Poetry), Terpsichore (Dance), Calliope (Epic Poetry), Erato (Love Poetry),Urania (Astronomy), and Polyhymnia (Sacred Song). Troilus and Criseyde is written in Rhyme Royal. Each verse has seven lines in a rough iambic pentamenter (unstressed syllable, stressed syllable x 5) as in ‘Have here a swerd and smyteth of myn hed!’ (26) and a rhyme scheme ababbcc. BkV:46 Escalipho: Chaucer’s version of Ascalaphus. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book V:533-571. The son of Orphne and the River Acheron, he sees Persephone eat the pomegranate seeds, informs on her, and is turned into a screech-owl.

BkI:25 First Letter: A reference to Anne of Bohemia wife of Richard II, indicating the poem was written after their marriage in 1382.BkIV:29 Juvenal: Chaucer refers to Juvenal’s satires X 2-4 ‘ pauci dignoscere possunt/ vera bona atque illis multum diversa, remota/ erroris nebula....few can distinguish their own true good often, and separate it from the distant cloud of error...’ BkIII:250: The Hymn to Love: This is a free rendering in rhyme royal of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy Book II metre 8. BkIII:210: Titan Sun: The name Titan is applied to Sol the sun god, son of the Titan Hyperion. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book I:1-30. BkII:34 Minerva, Jupiter, Venus: Also Bk II:61 Pallas: Minerva was the Roman name for Pallas Athene the goddess of the mind and women’s arts (also a goddess of war and the goddess of boundaries – see the Stele of Athena, bas-relief, Athens, Acropolis Museum). Jupiter was the sky-god, son of Saturn and Rhea, born on Mount Lycaeum in Arcadia and nurtured on Mount Ida in Crete. The oak is his sacred tree. His emblems of power are the sceptre and lightning-bolt. His wife and sister is Juno (Iuno). (See the sculpted bust (copy) by Brassides, the Jupiter of Otricoli, Vatican). Venus was the Goddess of Love. The daughter of Jupiter and Dione. She is Aphrodite, born from the waves, an incarnation of Astarte, Goddess of the Phoenicians. The mother of Cupid by Mars. (See Botticelli’s painting – Venus and Mars – National Gallery, London) BkIII:59 Polyxene: The daughter of King Priam and Hecuba of Troy. See Ovid’s metamorphoses Book XIII:429-480. She is sacrificed to appease the ghost of Achilles.

reverse the pattern of stressed and light syllables: ‘ Criseyde answerde, “Never the bet for yow…”‘ (17) explains more Middle English vocabulary than most other editions, though the textual notes are shorter than those in the earlier Windeatt edition. BkV:254 Penelope: The wife of Ulysses, and daughter of Icarius and the Naiad Periboa, who waited patiently for Ulysses return from the Trojan War.BkV:210 Diana and the Calydonian Boar: Slighted by King Oeneus, the goddess Diana sent a wild boar against Calydon. This led to the incident of the Calydonian Boar Hunt. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book VIII:260 onwards. The maid in verse 211 is Atalanta, whom Meleager loved. For Meleager’s death see Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book VIII:515-546. Act 5, scene 3 Andromache and Cassandra enlist Priam in their efforts to persuade Hector to refrain from battle. He, in turn, futilely attempts to keep Troilus from the fight. With Priam’s reluctant blessing on Hector, both young men leave to fight, with Troilus delayed a moment by Pandarus, who gives him a letter from Cressida that Troilus reads and then tears up. BkV:94 Lucina: A Roman title of Juno as moon-goddess (strictly Juno Lucetia) and goddess of light and of childbirth. Robinson, Ian. Chaucer's Prosody: A Study of the Middle English Verse Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971.