Dreams in Troilus and Criseyde

What Chaucer did to his source, Boccaccio's Il Filostrato, in the writing of Troilus and Criseyde continues to be an alluring question for the student of Chaucer's craftmanship.1 It seems to be one of those questions that thrives upon the many answers suggested for it, and is thereby enriched, even as it remains unresolved. “The” answer, if there is any one answer, will emerge only after the smallest details are looked at, for it is in the ways Chaucer made barely perceptible alterations in the story that the secret of the transformation may be found.

It is not surprising that Chaucer made important dramatic use of the dreams Boccaccio had given the hero, Troilus, nor is it surprising that he created a dream for Criseyde as one of his few additions to his source, for from the beginning of his poetic career he was explicit about his interest in dreams.2 It is true that it was an interest he shared with many of his contemporaries. His interest, however, seems to have been more compelling than that of others, his curiosity more persistent.3

Thus, to the general question, what did Chaucer do to his source, one can suggest that, for one thing, he made significant use of the dreams he found in the Italian poem and added one of his own. Together these three dreams are small details that