Go, Little Book!
With these lines Chaucer sent forth his 'little tragedie' of Troilus and Crisedye into the world. His poem is our starting point to think about books journeying forth and the work that they do
Go, litel book, go litel myn tragedie, Ther god thy maker yet, er that he dye, So sende might to make in som comedie! But litel book, no making thou n'envye, But subgit be to alle poesye; And kis the steppes, wher-as thou seest pace Virgile, Ovyde, Omer, Lucan, and Stace. And for ther is so greet diversitee In English and in wryting of our tonge, So preye I god that noon miswryte thee, Ne thee mismetre for defaute of tonge. And red wher-so thou be, or elles songe, That thou be understonde I god beseche! But yet to purpos of my rather speche.--
What we love about this poem
Being written and read well is of paramount importance to this poem. It is a late medieval rewriting of a classical story of Troy, in which the narrator’s own voice is very present, as a man who seeks to serve those who serve the God of Love, and all the pain that entails. In Book I of this poem he refers to his own verse “that wepen [weeps] as I write”.
The trust between writer and reader is evoked here in the last book of the painful love story nestled within the epic of the Trojan war. This love is between Troilus, a young prince of Troy, and Criseyde, graceful widowed daughter of Calchas, a Trojan who defected to the Greek cause after foreseeing Troy’s doom, leaving her behind. We first meet Criseyde in her appeal to Troilus’ eldest brother Hector for political protection after her father’s betrayal. Navigating social intricacies, Troilus’ martial responsibilities, Criseyde’s fears for her reputation, and the tense atmosphere of their city under seige, the two lovers finally come together in secret.
But when Calchas negotiates for Criseyde to be sent to the Greek siege camp in a hostage exchange, this secrecy leaves their relationship vulnerable to the forces of war. Newly under threat amongst hostile forces in the Greek camp, Criseyde eventually accepts the love of a persistent soldier, Diomede, breaking her vows to Troilus and, in so doing, his heart.
Trust, then, is an exquisitely fragile thing in this poem of many-layered betrayals and the entanglements of love and war.
The work of words and stories in the world isn’t always straightforward — it’s a perilous negotiation and an adventure in itself. Criseyde famously says, after breaking her promise, that throughout the world her “bell will be rung”, anticipating her infamy. Later incarnations (eg Shakespeare’s) are really quite unpleasantly mercenary depictions, and she becomes a proverbial example of duplicitous women. But this concern of hers has an echo in the “going of the little book”.
To read alongside…
There are many wonderful examples of literature that is about books going out into the world. Geraldine Brooks’s novel People of the Book tells the story of a single book’s journey from its humble creation hundreds of years ago to its status as a precious, politically significant object that is stolen from its highly guarded place in a national museum during wartime. The story charts the many hands through which the volume passes, across time and place, and how books both influence readers and are influenced by them.
The importance of books in times of intense crisis is undisputed. A central feature of most slave narratives is a scene in which the enslaved person learns to read, thus gaining access to the power of the written word. Percival Everett’s James — retelling Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s perspective — takes this convention a step further by having James secretly use his Master’s library, educating himself in philosophy, literature, and political writing while all the time assumed to be illiterate.
Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief is a beloved testament to the power of literature in such contexts, in this case the Holocaust.
Nobel-winning Polish-American poet Czeslaw Milosz lived in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation and helped to hide and support local Jewish families. In his poem ‘And Yet the Books,’ there are ‘fires on the horizon, castles blown up, / Tribes on the march, planets in motion’ — but through it all, also milk cans:
Yet the books will be there on the shelves, well born,
Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights.
How authors control (or don’t control) their work is also a perennial question. With regard to today’s lead quotation, Chaucer’s verse form, later dubbed ‘rime/rhyme royal’, was an innovation that brought together elements of the ottava rima and the ballade forms. He uses it in several other poems, including this acerbic and funny verse, directing a curse at his scribe should he continue to hastily miscopy Chaucer’s work:
Adam scriveyn, if ever it thee bifalle Boece or Troylus for to wryten newe, Under thy long lokkes thou most have the scalle, But after my makyng thow wryte more trewe; So ofte adaye I mot thy werk renewe, It to correcte and eke to rubbe and scrape, And al is thorugh thy negligence and rape. [Scribe Adam, if it ever befalls you to again write Boece or Troilus, unless you copy my making more accurately, may you get the scale (psoriasis) under your long hair! So often a day I must revise your work, to correct it and to each to rub and scrape (erase ink from parchment), and all because of your negligence and haste.] The story of Troilus and Criseyde has been told many times, in many ways--truly a book that has gone out into the world and done much work, across genres as well as cultures and periods. Shakespeare's play Troilus and Cressida can be read alongside Chaucer's poem, as can Lavinia Greenlaw's brilliant updating, A Double Sorrow.
About the Author
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342-1400) lived a varied and cosmopolitan life. The son of a wine merchant, he spent time as a page, soldier, civil servant, courtier, and member of Parliament, writing poetry throughout these other careers. Whilst serving as diplomat in Milan, he encountered the writings of superstars of the Italian renaissance, Dante and Boccaccio, the latter of whose poem The Decameron inspired the tale-telling contest at the heart of The Canterbury Tales.
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