Chaucer -- Troilus and Criseyde -- The Myth of Modern Progress

Began reading Troilus and Criseyde in my Chaucer class and
it is incredible. I can’t believe I have never read this or been told about
this work of Chaucer’s before this! It is so beautifully done. It’s an epic, a
romance, and a humor. Like I said, it is
incredible and enjoyable to read.
I love some of the themes and how forward thinking it is, or
maybe it isn’t so forward thinking, maybe it is just that we are constantly
told the modern has progressed and yet we read such works as these that makes
one realize that people, art, and culture haven’t changed/progressed as much as
we might like to think…
For example:
The dialogue is really entertaining and I can see people
having the same sort of conversations today, granted, not using such beautiful
turns of phrase:
"How hastow thus unkyndely and longe
Hid this fro me, thow fol?" quod Pandarus.
"Paraunter thow myghte after swich oon longe,
That myn avys anoon may helpen us."
"This were a wonder thing," quod Troilus;
"Thow koudest nevere in love thiselven wisse.
How devel maistow brynge me to blisse?"
(I.617-623)
Troilus basically saying “dude, how the devil are you going
to help me when you couldn’t help yourself in love” made me laugh and think of guys
I know today and how they interact.
And later Pandarus mentions how Troilus has mocked love:
For thow were wont to chace
At Love in scorn, and for despit him calle
`Seynt Idiot, lord of thise foles alle.'
(I.908-910)

Another example is Criseyde’s reluctance to marry:

Not unlike the Wife of Bath and the old woman in The Romaunt of the
Rose, Criseyde believes men, notably husbands, can be restrictive to their
wives, controlling, and jealous, and she values her freedom from such domestic
tyranny.

"I am myn owene womman,
wel at ese --
I thank it God -- as after myn estat,
Right yong, and stonde unteyd in lusty leese,
Withouten jalousie or swich debat:
Shal noon housbonde seyn to me
`Chek mat!'
For either they ben ful of
jalousie,
Or maisterfull, or loven
novelrie.”
(II.750-756)

Of which to telle in short is myn entente
Th' effect, as fer as I kan understonde.
She thanked hym of al that he wel mente
Towardes hire, but holden hym in honde
She nolde nought, ne make
hireselven bonde
In love; but as his suster,
hym to plese,
She wolde fayn to doon his herte an ese.
(II.1219-1225)