Troilus and Criseyde

Troilus and Criseyde is Geoffrey Chaucer's poem in rhyme royal re-telling the tragic love story of Troilus, a Trojan prince, and Cressida. Many Chaucer scholars regard this as his best work, even the more well known but incomplete Canterbury Tales. The comparisons are not really fair as they are very different styles, Troilus and Criseyde is in the very strict tradition of courtly romance whereas The Canterbury Tales is freer, livelier and has better jokes.

Although mentioned in Homer the story of Troilus and Criseyde was first written by Benoît de Sainte-Maure in his poem, Roman de Troie, Boccaccio re-wrote the story in his Il Filostrato which in turn was Chaucer's main source.

The poem was continued by Robert Henryson in his Testament of Cresseid.

Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida was based in part on Chaucer's poem.