Set during the tenth year of the siege of Troy, this poem relates how Troilus persuades Crisyede to become his lover, only to be forced apart by the events of war. This edition contains an introduction that places the poem in the context of its times, with notes and appendices.
Chaucer's longest complete poem is the supreme evocation of doomed courtly love in medieval English literature. Set during the tenth year of the siege of Troy, the poem relates how Troilus - with the help of Criseyde's wily uncle Pandarus - persuades her to become his lover, only to be betrayed when she is handed over to the Greek camp and yields to Diomede.