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So mote hir sorwes passen everecho.

For if hire whiel stynte any thyng to torne,

Than cessed she Fortune anon to be.

Now, sith hire whiel by no may sojourne,

What woostow if hire mutabilite

Right as thyselven list wol don by the,

Or that she be naught fer fro thyn helpynge?

Paraunter thow hast cause for to synge” (I.841-54).

The same points of argument are reiterated here in Chaucer’s own words. Pandarus is saying the exact same things as Lady Philosophy’s argument. Fortune is the same to every man. The joys she brings may pass away, but so will the sorrows. Her wheel cannot stop. She would cease to be fortune. The reader can see the direct correlation between Boethius’s work and Pandarus’s words.

Fortune in Troilus and Criseyde

Chaucer gives Pandarus a clear understanding of Lady Fortune. It is his character who leads Troilus and instructs him, as Lady Fortune did Boethius. Camargo insists that it was important for Chaucer that his readers see the correlation between the opening of the Consolation and the opening of Troilus and Criseyde. “Because it was important to Chaucer that his readers recognize the analogies between Troilus and Boethius and Pandarus and Philosophy from the outset, he took special pains in Book I to recall the Consolation’s vivid opening scene” (Camargo, p. 215). Just as Lady Philosophy found Boethius under the sway of the muses, so Chaucer begins this scene with Troilus singing alone in his room. He also comes to him and upbraids him for his confusion about Fortune as noted in the passage from Book I cited above. However, Pandarus is truly an opportunist when it comes to Fortune. He tells Troilus and Criseyde to take the opportunity presented to them by this love. “By turning Lady Philosophy’s lesson into a veiled carpe diem, Pandarus demonstrates his enthusiastic acceptance of the transitory gifts of Fortune,” Joseph Salemi writes. Pandarus encourages Troilus by saying that Fortune must be smiling on him, and tells Criseyde that this is an “good aventure” (II.288).

In Book IV, Pandarus again counsels Troilus on Fortune. However, now Fortune has turned her face away from Troilus. He says:

“Who woulde have wende that in so litel a throwe

Fortune oure joie wold han overthrowe?

For in this world ther is no creature,

As to my dom, that ever saugh ruyne

Straunger than this, thorough cas or aventure.

But who may al eschue, or al devyne?

Swich is this world! Forthi I thus diffyne:

Ne trust no wight to fynden in Fortune

Ay propertee; hire yiftes ben comune” (IV.384-92).

He grasps that the very nature of Fortune is to take what she has given. No one can understand her fickle nature, except to know that she changes. Pandarus goes on to tell Troilus that he should seek a new love. Surely Fortune will smile on him in the form of a new ladylove! This is truly a Boethian philosophy. As Fortune spins her wheel, eventually the wheel will bring prosperity again (Consolation, II. Pr 1).

Troilus has a completely different view regarding Fortune. He is much more like Boethius. “He [Troilus] and Pandarus represent two equally distorted views of Fortune: that of the opportunist and the fatalist,” says Joseph Salemi (219). Jefferson also agrees that Troilus is “the kind of fatalist that Boethius was in the Consolation…in the role which he assumes for himself in contrast to his consoler, Dame Philosophy, the man who cries out against Fortune, who cannot reconcile to his misfortunes” (123). So Chaucer has cast his Troilus in the role of Boethius. Troilus’s question at the beginning of his song in Book I does indeed echo that of Boethius:

“If no love is, O good, what fele I so?

And if love is, what thing and which is he?

If love be good, from whennes cometh my woo?

If it be wikke, a wonder thynketh me,

When every torment and adversite

That cometh of hym may to me savory thinke,

For ay thurst I, the more that ich it drink” (I, 400-06).

He is questioning the very nature of Fortune and the events surrounding him. Boethius, while recounting his downfall to Lady Philosophy, asks her “where evil comes from if there is a god, and where good comes from if there isn’t” (Consolation, I, Pr. 4).

The problem is that just as Boethius is wrong regarding Fortune, so is Troilus. Take Troilus’s lament in Book IV as a clear example of this misconception regarding Fortune and as a prime example of his fatalism:

“Fortune, allas the while!

What have I don? What have I thus agylt?

How myghtestow for routh me bygile?

Is ther no grace, and shal I thus be spilt?

Shal thus Criseyde awy, for that thow wilt?

Allas, how maistow in thyn herte fynde

To ben to me thus cruwel and unkynde?” (IV, 260-266).

When he continues, the true nature of his distress is revealed. “Have I the nought honoured al my lyve,/As thow wel woost, above the goddes alle?” (267-68). Troilus has devoted himself to the service of Fortune, but like Boethius, can not yet grasp her true nature. Chaucer uses this misconception to make even clearer that the true nature of Fortune is constant change. Troilus’s fatalism and misinterpretation of the favors of Fortune show up in sharp contrast to the opportunism and understanding of Pandarus.

Troilus reacts with even greater fervor in Book IV when he thinks Criseyde has died. “O cruel Jove and thow, Fortune adverse,” he cries (IV, 1192). Salemi says that “Troilus’s frantic despair is a text book example, according to Boethian principles, of how not to react to adverse Fortune” (218). Troilus has just told the reader he had served Fortune all his life. How

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