OSHER 46 - Twice-told Tales of Troy

Geoffrey Chaucer's narrative poem, "Troilus and Criseyde" (c. 1386) and Shakespeare's play, Troilus and Cressida (c. 1603), tell the same basic story--one of youthful love and passion sacrificed on the altar of political intrigue and the imperatives of war. Drawing most of its characters and incidents from Homer's Iliad, the story was told in varying forms in several languages throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The class will explore and contrast the reshaping of this enduring story in the literary imaginations of two of the greatest of all English poets.