Title: Boccaccio's and Chaucer's Cressida
First published: 1995
Description: During the Middle Ages, the story of Cressida's infidelity to Troilus intrigued writers, and different versions of this tale continued to be retold and reworked through the Renaissance. This study focuses on the figure of Cressida in two fourteenth century works, Boccaccio's Filostrato and Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, and devotes particular attention both to classical and medieval prototypes for Cressida and to each narrator's role in shaping her.

The study's originality derives from its compelling demonstration of the tensions between a Cressida defined by literary history and convention and a Cressida recast through perceptually limited narrators. Offering Dido as a dynamic model for Cressida, this book provides an extensive treatment of Boccaccio's Dido.
Subjects: History, Women and literature, Italian influences, Troilus (Legendary character) in literature, Influence, Trojan War, Sources, English poetry, Characters, Man-woman relationships in literature, Cressida (Fictitious character), Literature and the war, Cressida, Women in literature, Chaucer, geoffrey, -1400, Boccaccio, giovanni, 1313-1375
Places: England, Italy
People: Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400), Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375)
Time periods: To 1500
LC classification: PR1896 .K45 1995