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CRESEYDE, CRESSEYDE, CRISEIDA, CRISEYDA, CRISEYDE, CRISEYDES, CRISSEYDE. Criseyde is Calcas's daughter in Troilus and Criseyde. Boccaccio's heroine, who provided the model for Chaucer's, is named variously in Il Filostrato; some manuscripts read Cryseyda, Criseida; others, Criseyda. E.H. Wilkins gives the name in its various forms in manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, pointing out that Criseida and Griseida appear in other works as well: in the Cueur d'amour espris (1457) of René of Anjou, in the Comedieta de Ponza (shortly after 1434) of the Marquis de Santillana, and in three Florentine manuscripts of Guido delle Colonne, Historia destructionis Troiana. Boccaccio may have taken the name from Ovid's Remedia amoris (The Remedies of Love) 469, and from Tristia II.373, where it appears as Chryseis. In manuscripts of the Remedia the name appears as Criseida, Chriseida, and once as Briseida. Besides Boccaccio's Il Filostrato, Chaucer used a French translation, Le Roman de Troyle et Criseide (before 1384), by Jean de Beauveau, seneschal of Anjou. The form of the heroine's name in this title coincides with Boccaccio's and Chaucer's spellings.

Creseyde occurs only in the F Prologue, medially in LGW F 332, 469, and in final rhyming position, LGW F 441. Criseide occurs twice in medial positions, LGW G 531, Wom Unc 16; Criseyda occurs once initially, Tr II.1424, and once in final rhyming position, Tr I.169; Criseyde occurs thirty-five times initially, Tr I.99, 392; Tr II.386, 449, 598, 649, 897, 1265, 1644; Tr III.85, 638, 799, 925, 981, 1163, 1177, 1198, 1372, 1548, 1564, 1715; Tr IV.207, 273, 479, 1194, 1527; Tr V.16, 57, 176, 504, 806, 848, 864, 1404, 1746; LGW G 459; sixty-eight times in medial positions, where the final -e may be elided or not, as the meter demands, Tr I.176, 273; Tr II.689, 884, 1453, 1562, 1590, 1606, 1678, 1724; Tr III.68, 95, 193, 507, 760, 883, 1068, 1070, 1126, 1209, 1238, 1275, 1350, 1448, 1492, 1670, 1740, 1820; Tr IV.15, 264, 281, 292, 307, 316, 457, 611, 682, 766, 807, 810, 825, 855, 868, 939, 1082, 1090, 1209, 1229, 1317; Tr V.5, 53, 228, 516, 595, 604, 843, 1187, 1247, 1252, 1254, 1260, 1315, 1573, 1587, 1661, 1683, 1720, 1774; fifty-two times in final rhyming position, Tr I.55, 459, 874, 1010; Tr II.877, 1235, 1417, 1550, 1603; Tr III.1054, 112, 1173, 1420, 1473; Tr IV.138, 149, 177, 195, 212, 231, 347, 378, 666, 829, 875, 962, 1147, 1165, 1214, 1252, 1436, 1655; Tr V.216, 508, 523, 687, 735, 872, 934, 948, 1031, 1113, 1123, 1143, 1241, 1264, 1422, 1437, 1674, 1712, 1732, 1833. Crisseyde occurs only in the G Prologue, once medially, LGW G 265, and once in final rhyming position, LGW G 344; Criseydes, ME genitive case, occurs six times in medial positions only, Tr III.1498, 1733; Tr IV.310, 472; Tr V.528, 775. [Argyve1: Calcas: Diomedes: Pandar: Troilus]


D. Aers, "Criseyde: Woman in Medieval Society." ChauR 13 (1979): 177-200; Benoît, Roman de Troie, ed. L. Constans, II: 287-328; Boccaccio, Tutte le Opere, ed. V. Branca, II: 17-228; E.T. Donaldson, "Briseus, Briseida, Criseyde, Cresseid, Cressid: Progress of a Heroine." Chaucerian Problems and Perspectives, ed. E. Vasta and Z.P. Thundy, 3-12; R.A. Pratt, "Chaucer and the Roman de Troyle et de Criseide." SP 53 (1956): 509-539; E.H. Wilkins, "Criseide." MLN 24 (1909): 65-67.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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