The evolution of the Twang and Criseyde story, though important and interesting, can here be ;only briefly indicated. Homer, in the book' of the 'Iliad' makes his solitary me n n of Troilus as a son of Priam. who died "Wfore the 'beginning' of the poem. The cyclic poets acted upon this suggestion and developed Troilus into a hero. In the time of Constantine the Great, Dictys Cretensis' book, 'De Bello Trojano,' in which Troilus figures largely, was translated from the original Greek into Latin: and, about 635 A.D., another 'De Bello Trojano,' in which Troilus is a prominent hero, appeared in Latin as a supposed translation from the Greek of a certain Dares Phrygius. It was from Dares that Benoit de Saint Maure, troub adour to Henry II, king of England, obtained much of the material for his poem of 30,000 verses, which turns the story into a medimval romance, and first introduces the love element by giving Troilus a mistress named Briseida, who figures in the 'Iliad' as the love of Achil les. Guido de Colonna, a judge at Messina, in 1287 translated Benoit's poem into had Latin. From both Benoit and Guido, Boccaccio de rived the material for his poem 'Filostrato' ("one stricken by love"), in which he changes the name.of the heroine to Criseida (the golden one), and adds Pandar to the dramatis per sour. Chaucer uses only about one-half of
Boccaccio's poem, condensing, amplifying, para phrasing, ignoring, according to his needs and purpose. He draws also upon both Guido and Benoit, and even Boccaccio's prose romance 'Filocolo,) which is upon an entirely different subject, for certain details.
The standard text of the poem is that edited by W. W. Skeat (in (Comolete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer,' 6 vols., Oxford 1894). Crit ical works are numerous. Among these consult 'Chaucer's Troylus and Cryseyde compared with Boccaccio's Filostrato translated by Wil liam Michael Rossetti' (London 1873; Chaucer Society Publications, 1st series, 44, 65) ; Price, Thomas Randolph, 'Troilus and Criseyde' (Modern Language Association of America, Publications, Vol. II, pp. 307-322, 1896) ; Ham ilton, George L., 'The Indebtedness of Chau cer's Troilus and Criseyde to Guido de,i,le Colonne's Historia Trojan()) (New York 1903) ; Young, Karl, 'The Origin and Develop ment of the Story of Troilus and Criseyde' (London 1908; Chaucer Society Publications, 2d series, 40). Chapter VI of Robert K. Root's 'The Poetry of Chaucer' (Boston 1906) gives a fair and interesting criticism of the poem.