(“The Love Struck”)
by Giovanni Boccaccio
(ca. 1338)
The second major work of the great Italian poet, Boccaccio’s Il Filostrato tells the story of what he calls the “ill conceived” love affair between the Trojan prince Troiolo and the beautiful but fickle Creseida. Based on what is essentially a subplot in the Roman de Troie of BENOIT DE SAINTE-MAURE (ca. 1160), Il Filostrato became the inspiration for CHAUCER’s most important ROMANCE, TROILUS AND CRISEYDE, and ultimately Shakespeare’s tragicomedy on the same subject.
Il Filostrato was probably the last important work Boccaccio completed during his stay in Naples, before the financial crisis of 1341 forced his return to Florence. Its dedication by the fictionalized narrator calling himself Filostrato (a word with a Greek etymology suggesting one vanquished or prostrated by Love) is addressed to a lady he calls Filomena. The narrator will, he says, relate his suffering “in the guise of another,” suggesting that Troiolo’s pain is a reflection of his own. For centuries readers have felt the dedication to be autobiographical, but there is no particular reason to think so, or to believe that any actual lady of Florence corresponded to the Filomena of the dedication. Boccaccio is seeking to recreate the context for the suffering passion of the young lover extolled by the youthful DANTE and his friend Guido CAVALCANTI. He does so in the historical setting of ancient Troy, a city ultimately destroyed by the love of Paris for the beautiful Helen—a popular subject in late medieval romances such as Benoit’s. Boccaccio, however, probably did not use Benoit’s text directly; he most likely knew either Binduccio dello Scelto’s Italian translation or Guido delle Colonne’s Latin version, the Historia troiana (1287).He also chose to write the poem in the eight-line stanzas known as OTTAVA RIMA, a form used in popular Italian romances called cantari.
In Boccaccio’s story, Troiolo is a young Trojan prince (the son of King Priamo) who mocks the silly excesses of lovers, and Creseida is a young widow whose father, Calcas, a Trojan seer, deserts the besieged city and joins the Greek camp when he foresees the certain destruction of Troy.When Troiolo sees Creseida, he is completely overcome by love, and suffers more than those he had previously mocked.His friend Pandaro, Creseida’s cousin, becomes his go-between, and soon brings the two lovers together. A period of joy and peace for the lovers ensues, until the war encroaches on their lives.After one skirmish, an exchange of prisoners is declared. At this point, Calcas convinces the Greeks to sue for the exchange of his daughter Creseida. At the news that she is to be sent to the Greek camp, Creseida and Troiolo are devastated. Although Pandaro tries to convince Troiolo to seize Creseida and flee the city, Troiolo fails to act, and Creseida leaves, vowing to return to Troiolo within 10 days.
The Greek warrior Diomede escorts Creseida to the Greek camp, where he woos her and wins her love. Meanwhile the unsuspecting Troiolo tries to wait out Creseida’s absence by passing time with Sarpidone, but his longing cannot be assuaged. When Creseida does not return to Troy, his grief becomes unbearable. Then, when his brother Deifobo seizes Creseida’s golden brooch from Diomede in battle, Troiolo is finally certain Creseida has betrayed him.He storms into battle, bent on avenging himself on the seducer Diomede, but he is struck down by the fierce Achille before he can take his revenge. Boccaccio’s narrator closes his story with an admonition to all young men to control their passions and not to fall in love with fickle young ladies, despite their beauty and their charms.
Il Filostrato, notwithstanding its roots in the medieval romance tradition that extolled the refined behavior of the noble class, is in fact very popular in tone and colloquial in language, and is intended, as Boccaccio’s earlier works generally are, for a sophisticated middle-class audience rather than a noble one. Though of less consequence in itself than Boccaccio’s later epic TESEIDA or his famous frame narrative The DECAMERON, Il Filostrato may be just as significant in its influence on later writers, especially in the English tradition.
Bibliography
■ Bergin, Thomas G. Boccaccio. New York:Viking Press, 1981.
■ Boccaccio, Giovanni. Il Filostrato. Italian text edited by Vincenzo Pernicone. Translated with an introduction by Robert P. apRoberts and Anna Bruni Seldis. New York: Garland, 1986.
■ ———. The Filostrato of Giovanni Boccaccio. Translated by N. E. Griffin, and A. B.Myrick.New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1967.
■ Hanly, Michael G. Boccaccio, Beauvau, Chaucer; Troilus and Criseyde: Four Perspectives on Influence. Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1990.