"For a Letter Does Not Blush": The Signification of Troilus's Letters in Troilus and Criseyde

This essay is about Troilus and Criseyde, Geoffrey Chaucer's re-rendering of an Italian poem Il Filostrato, written by Giovannie Boccaccio in the late 1330s. The poem narrates itself around the amatory inception, advance, and dissolution that take place between Troilus, son of King Priam of Troy, and Criseyde, who is a young and beautiful noble widow. The second and the fifth books of the poem register bodies of accounts where Troilus and Criseyde communicate with each other through letters. This paper focuses on the accounts where Troilus's letters are presented in summary or verbatim. His letters demonstrate different functions and meanings, depending upon what emotional and material circumstances he finds himself in and with what intentions he communicates. Troilus employs his first letter as a sort of paper deputy of his affection toward Criseyde. His own unmanly emotions such as shame and shyness, as well as the unfamiliarity between him and her, make him prefer to epistolize his heart rather than to orally communicate it to her face to face. However, by the time he composes his last letters, the physical distance that separates him from Criseyde is now the one big obstacle that he must overcome. Troilus's last letters illustrate his efforts made on the deployment of physical and affective language that would help him to inscribe the senses of presence and intimacy.