PANDAR, PANDARE, PANDARES, PANDARUS is Criseyde's uncle and Troilus's best friend in Troilus and Criseyde. Troilus appeals to him to act as a go-between, and he promises to help Troilus win Criseyde's love. Because of the part he plays in the poem, Pandarus foresees the development of his name as "male bawd" when he says: "I am becomen/Betwixen game and ernest, swich a meene/As maken women unto men to comen," Tr III.252-255. His name and his function appear in Boccaccio's Il Filostrato, Chaucer's source for the poem. [Creseyde: Troilus]

Pandar, the English contraction, occurs twenty-nine times in medial positions only, Tr I.582, 736, 868, 876, 1030, 1037, 1045, 1070; Tr II.490, 1093, 1226, 1252, 1492, 1561, 1676; Tr III.115, 512, 548; Tr III.1094; Tr IV.353, 368, 376, 452, 641, 822, 1085; Tr V.281, 1111, 1709. Pandare appears eleven times initially with elided final -e, Tr II.67; Tr III.1555, 1656; Tr IV.582, 638; Tr V.323, 484, 1128, 1160, 1170, 1275; Pandare, trisyllabic, appears four times initially with final syllabic -e, Tr II.1275, 1415; Tr IV.344, 806. Pandare appears fifteen times medially with elided final -e, Tr I.829, 939, 1009, 1015; Tr II.974, 1051, 1260, 1285, 1344, 1352, 1479, 1547; Tr III.68; Tr IV.366, 828; twice medially with final silent -e, Tr II.1207; Tr III.629; Pandare, trisyllabic, appears three times medially with final syllabic -e, Tr I.658; Tr IV.872; Tr V.521. Pandare, with final syllabic -e, appears fourteen times in final rhyming position and rhymes mostly with care and fare, Tr I.548, 588, 610, 624; Tr II.1679; Tr III.603, 1105, 1644; Tr IV.461, 578; Tr V.280, 505, 1120, 1147. Pandares, the ME genitive case, occurs three times in medial positions, Tr I.725; Tr II.1341, 1529. Pandarus, the Latin form, never occurs initially; it appears ninety-two times in medial positions, mostly the second word and the first stressed syllable in the line: Tr I.727, 761, 778, 841, 1023, 1051, 1058; Tr II.57, 58, 106, 208, 220, 254, 505, 937, 939, 953, 989, 1109, 1142, 1180, 1193, 1296, 1308, 1313, 1318, 1329, 1355, 1399, 1406, 1431, 1531, 1588, 1600, 1612, 1625, 1640, 1681, 1688, 1710, 1723, 1727; Tr III.59, 148, 183, 208, 227, 235, 346, 358, 484, 654, 680, 694, 708, 736, 747, 762, 841, 932, 960, 974, 1077, 1135, 1188, 1571, 1582, 1592, 1616, 1664, 1678, 1738; Tr IV.379, 445, 498, 521, 849, 913, 946, 1086; Tr V.295, 498, 554, 557, 1121, 1157, 1244, 1245,1253, 1268, 1668, 1723. It occurs twenty times in final rhyming position: Tr I.618, 771, 822; Tr II.93, 120, 155, 169, 190, 429, 1046, 1185, 1459, 1625; Tr III.1585, 1662; Tr IV.463; Tr V.430, 477, 682, 1291. In Boccaccio's Il Filostrato the name is Pandaro.