Chaucer’s ‘litel bok’, Plotinus, and the Ending of Troilus and Criseyde.
Towards the end of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, as almost all of the tragic strokes of the story have fallen, the narrator- makere turns away from his material to address a kind of envoy to his ‘litel bok’. In two stanzas he sends his poem on its way, cautioning and exhorting it in the same breat...
| Published in: | Neophilologus Vol. 93; no. 2; pp. 357 - 369 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Springer Nature
Apr2009
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=37254758&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 37254758 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00282677 OK9 jtl: Neophilologus issn: 00282677 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Apr2009 vid: 93 iid: 2 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 37254758 10.1007/s11061-008-9129-5 ppf: 357 ppct: 12 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 166KB tig: atl: Chaucer’s ‘litel bok’, Plotinus, and the Ending of Troilus and Criseyde. aug: au: Carney, Clíodhna affil: Department of English, National University of Ireland, Galway Ireland su: Troilus & Criseyde (Book) Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400 Troilus (Legendary character) Cressida (Fictional character) Neoplatonism Greek folklore Greece sug: subj: Greece Troilus & Criseyde (Book) Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400 Troilus (Legendary character) Cressida (Fictional character) Neoplatonism Greek folklore keyword: Chaucer Ending of Troilus and Criseyde Envoy Exitus and reditus Neoplatonic theory of emanation Plotinus Troilus and Criseyde ab: Towards the end of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, as almost all of the tragic strokes of the story have fallen, the narrator- makere turns away from his material to address a kind of envoy to his ‘litel bok’. In two stanzas he sends his poem on its way, cautioning and exhorting it in the same breath. This article is a re-examination of the ending, with special emphasis on these two stanzas, in the light of Plotinus’s Neoplatonic scheme of exitus and reditus, or emanation and return-to-source, that appears to influence the imagery and language of the poem at this stage. Although Plotinus’s Enneads were not read in their own right in the Middle Ages, they were transmitted through various influential channels, including Augustine and the pseudo-Dionysius. Through these thinkers, the idea of exitus and reditus came to influence Aquinas, and the theology of the later medieval period. In a discussion that draws upon Dante, the letter to Can Grande della Scala, and the Cursor Mundi, the author of this article traces the implications for the value of the poem, and its flawed, worldly subject, that the invocation of the Neoplatonic scheme of emanation entails. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Neophilologus is a copyright of Springer, 2009. All Rights Reserved. item: Neophilologus holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2009 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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