The origin and development of the story of Troilus and Criseyde

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 Excerpt: ... demonstration, surmises that the episode as a whole is autobiographical, --" Principalmente, io credo, perche egli ritraeva sentimenti e affetti proprii: il Filocolo iofatti e il Filostrato sono le opere scrivendo le quali piu ebbe il Boccaccio a provare i morsi della gelosia." 104 THE EVIDENCE OP Gbiseida's UNFAITHFULNESS TO TRIOLO. to the chronological priority of the episode in Filocolo. On the other hand, if we ignore the autobiographical possibilities of the Fileno episode we are once more left to the stylistic criterion, and hence to the chronological priority of Filocolo. One more point deserves consideration before we close, tentatively, our examination of the relative chronology of the parts of Filocolo and Filostrato before us. We have already observed that Florio becomes aware of his lady's supposed infidelity through a favour, in the form of a veil, that Fileno brings to Montorio.1 This situation is strikingly similar to that in the Roman de Troie in which Troilus becomes aware of Briseida's infidelity, we infer, through the favour that she has given to Diomedes.2 It is to be noted also that this situation in Filocolo is much nearer to the simple sketch in Benoit's poem than to the more complicated parallel situation in Filostrato. According to the Italian poem, Troilo at no time sees Diomede wearing Griseida's favour, and has no definite evidence of her infidelity until Deiphobus brings to Troy the "ornato vestimento" of Diomede, on which Troilo sees the fatal "fermaglio." Since Benoit's poem was almost certainly familiar to Boccaccio at the time when he was writing Filocolo,& it seems probable that the detail of the veil shows the influence of the favour of Diomedes in the Roman de Troie rather ...