Lines 1 to 28: the proem

Book iv begins with a proem marking this moment as the turning point in Troilus’s fortunes. Chaucer follows the final stanza of Book iii of Boccaccio’s Filostrato in blaming Fortune for the short-lived nature of worldly happiness such as that experienced by the lovers. Fortune will now, like a haughty noble lady, turn her attractive face away from Troilus and pay him no attention, removing him completely from Criseyde’s good favour. In Troilus’s place on the ascending part of her wheel, Fortune will place Diomede, the Greek nobleman who will in Book v replace Troilus in Criseyde’s affections. Thinking ahead to Troilus’s imminent suffering, the narrating first-person tells us that his heart begins to bleed with compassion. His pen shakes with fear at the thought of what he is about to write. Yet although he acknowledges that his subject matter must now be the manner in which Criseyde deserts Troilus because that is what is written in his sources, he immediately interjects that at least it must be how Criseyde was ‘unkynde’ (16) to Troilus, how she was indifferent to his suffering or acted ungraciously towards him. His qualification concedes that Criseyde’s behaviour is incontrovertibly heartless and discourteous but nevertheless insinuates that in some way it might be understood as less than an outright betrayal. He goes on to lament the fact that those who have written prior versions of her story should find reasons to criticize his heroine. If they lie about her in any way (presumably if they exaggerate her culpability), he says that they themselves should be blamed. This intervention begs the question of what it is that makes the narrating voice sympathize with Criseyde, regret the fact that she is criticized and see her as a potential victim of unwarranted censure. Can we agree with him in being reluctant to condemn her?