Troilus and Cressida [Paperback]

Often called the first great English novel, Troilus and Cressida, a tragic love story set during the siege of Troy, is Chaucer’s masterpiece. Troilus, a valiant warrior, is scornful of love until he catches a glimpse of Cressida. With the help of his friend and her uncle Pandarus, Troilus wins Cressida over. But their happiness is destroyed when, summoned to a Greek camp, Cressida seeks the protection of one Diomede and ultimately betrays Troilus.“Chaucer’s greatest poem.”—C. S. LewisGeorge Philip Krapp (1872–1934) was a renowned authority on Anglo-Saxon.

Peter G. Beidler is a professor of English at Lehigh University and editor of The Wife of Bath and, with Elizabeth Biebel, Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale: An Annotated Bibliography.

Cindy Vitto is a professor of English at Rowan University and author of The Virtuous Pagan in Middle English Literature and the co-editor of The Rusted Hauberk: Feudal Ideals of Order and Their Decline.Book I

The Temple Door

The double sorrow of Troilus to tell,

Unhappy son of Priam, king of Troy,

And how he fared, when first in love he fell,

From woe to weal, then back again from joy,

Until we part my time I shall employ.

Tisiphone, now help me to endite

These woful lines, that weep e'en as I write!

On thee I call, Goddess malevolent,

Thou cruel Fury, grieving ever in pain!

Help me, who am the sorrowful instrument10

That lovers use their sorrows to complain;

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