Daniel J. Travanti
English 623
Seminar in Medieval Literature
Fall, 1975
Pandarus’ Failure
Pandarus is charming, helpful, loyal and effective…for a time. He loves his niece and probably loves Troilus even more. But I have the feeling that he is motivated not entirely unselfishly. I shall show in this paper that Pandarus promotes and pursues Troilus and Criseyde’s affair partly out of frustration over his own unsuccessful pursuit of a lady.
When Pandarus offers his help, Troilus is amazed: “’This were a wonder thing,’ quod Troilus. / ‘Thow koudest nevere in love thiselven wisse! / How devel maistow brynge me to blisse?’” (I, 621-623) ¹ Pandarus does not deny the charge. In fact, he argues persuasively for the powers of an experienced, if unsuccessful, man:
“Ye, Troilus, now herke,” quod Pandare;
“Though I be nyce, it happeth often so,
That oon that excesse doth ful yvele fare
I have myself ek seyn a blynd man goo
Ther as he fel that couthe loken wide;
A fool may ek a wisman ofte gide.” (I, 624-630)
That is not only good and generous advice, it is a clear indication of how much Pandarus thinks about his own unhappy affair. And he doesn’t stop there. For three more stanzas he wails, and couches aphorisms at his own expense: “’A wheston is no kervying instrument, / But yet it maketh sharpe kervyng tolis.’” (I, 631-632); “’For how myghte evere swetnesse han be knowe / To him that nevere tasted biternesse?’” (I, 638-639). But his most persuasive argument is his last; and it applies to both men: “’Men seyn, ‘to wrecche is consolacioun / To have another felawe in his peyne.’’” (I, 708-709) So far, he has pledged his love to Troilus, and has offered not only his friendship and loyalty, but to help bear Troilus’ burden for him. But Pandarus would help Troilus obtain any woman at all, even his brother’s, Helen (I, 677), if he could. It seems to me that a man who would go that far is motivated by more than camaraderie. Pandarus seems desperate to help, operating largely out of the pain of his own unrequited love: “’So ful of sorwe am I, soth for to seyne, / That certainly namore harde grace / May sitte on me, for-why ther is no space.’” (I, 712-714)
There is the suggestion, over and over again, that Pandarus is trying to heal himself, or at least to be healed. In Book I he uses Phoebus, “that first fond art of medicyne” (659), as an example of one who could not help himself out of the pain of love; and at the end of the book the narrator speaks of “…an esy pacyent, the lore / Abit of hym that goth aboute his cure;” (1090-1091), meaning of Troilus. Earlier, Pandarus had revealed himself in as close a personal account of his own affair as the narrator ever gives us:
“Thow mayst allone here wepe and crye and knele,–
But love a woman that she wot it nought,
And she wol quyte it that thow shalt nat fele;
Unknowe, unkist, and lost, that is unsought.
What: many a man hath love ful deere ybought
Twenty wynter that his lady wiste,
That nevere yet his lady mouth he kiste.” (I, 806-812)
It is only a suggestion, but I can presume that Pandarus is anxious to have Troilus reveal himself partly because he, Pandarus, never did confess to his own lady. Indeed, Pandarus is still in the throes of that love:
That Pandarus, for al his wise speche,
Felt ek his part of loves shotes keene,
That, koude he nevere so wel of loving preche,
It made his hewe a-day ful ofte greene.
So shop it that hym fil that day a teene
In love, for which in wo to bedde he wente,
And made, er it was day, ful many a wente. (II, 57-63)
Despite his own pain, he pursues Troilus’ problem, and not out of uncommon generosity. It sounds as if Pandarus has accepted that if the great Apollo could not heal himself, neither could he solve his own problem. He seems to take his own advice now, about sharing his pain with another, in order to lessen it. And we feel that his passion to have Troilus and Criseyde couple will help him vicariously relieve his own frustration. (I’ve not gone into lechery and voyeurism as possible sub-motives, so to speak, because those subjects warrant separate and equally long consideration, for which I have no room here).
Pandarus plots an assignation and presses Troilus’ suit to Criseyde. Though it is a convention of the ritual of courtly love for the man to languish and fear literally dying, Pandarus seems to exaggerate Troilus’ condition. He does it to gain Criseyde’s sympathy, certainly, but Pandarus’ own pain shows though his pleading:
“Wo worth the faire gemme vertulees!
Wo worth that herbe also that dooth no boote!
Wo worth that beaute that is routheeles!
Wo worth that wight that tret ech undir foote!
Andye, that ben of beaute crop and roote,
If therwithal in yow ther be no routhe,
Than is it harm ye liven, by my trouthe!” (II, 344-350)
Pandarus might just as well be saying that to his own lady love! Though we do not know the details of his affair, we have enough information to see that these sentiments could apply to his own state. There is undeniable bitterness in lines 349 and 350, which could come only from experience. Considering that Pandarus’ plea is all for love, the remark seems a bit excessive and risky at this early stage. I can only think that it is his own pain that prompts it.
From the moment Pandarus instigates the tryst he is one with the lovers. He is in control of every detail:
“For he with gret deliberacioun
Hadde every thing that herto might availle
Forncast and put in execucioun,
And neither left for cost ne for travaile.” (III, 519-522)
His efforts are uncommonly strong, almost fanatical. Criseyde notices: “so wis he was, she was namore afered, — / I mene, as fer as oughte ben required.” (III, 482-483) Pandarus is indeed inspired, and it is not only Troilus’ will, nor God’s alone that he implements. Criseyde sees a truth:
“Fox that ye ben! God yeve youre herte kare!
God help me so, ye caused al this fare,
Trowe I, “quod she, “for al youre words white.
O, whoso seeth yow, knoweth yow ful lite.” (III, 1565-1568)
While seeing to every detail, Pandarus stays almost embarrassingly close to both lovers:
“With that she gan hire face for to wrye
With the shete, and wax for shame al reed;
And Pandarus gan under for to prie,
And seyde, “Nece, if that I shal be ded,
Have here a swerd and smyteth of myn hed!
With that his arm al sodeynly he thriste
Under hire nekke, and at the laste hire kyste.” (III, 1569-1568)
He seems to move in unison with Troilus. He even helps him undress! “And of he rente al to his bare sherte;” (III. 1099). He attends to every need! “And with that word he for a quysshen ran, / And seyde, ‘Kneleth now, while that yow leste, / There God youre hertes brynge soone at reste!’” (III, 964-966) Pandarus’ own happiness depends on Troilus and Criseyde. He literally puts Criseyde into position for the next move in the trysting game, and rhapsodizes about the possibilities: “’For soone hope I we shul ben alle merye.’” (III, 952) There is no question that he is living vicariously, needing to repair, through his friends, a broken affair of his own. He stays close to the end: “And with that word he drow hym to the feere, / And took a light, and fond his contenaunce, / As for to looke upon an old romaunce.” (III, 978-980)
Throughout the rest of the affair, Pandarus experiences every emotion lovers feel. He hurts, hopes, cheers and makes excuses to help. He has been effective, no doubt, and Troilus is grateful. And Pandarus seems pleased with his own efforts. But when Criseyde is exchanged for Antenor and Troilus plunges into despair, Pandarus cannot hold back his previously private self-interest:
“But telle me this, whi thow art now so mad
To sorwen thus? Whi listow in this wise,
Syn thi desir al holly hastow had,
So that, by right, it oughte ynough suffise?
But I, that nevere felt in my servyse
A friendly cheere, or lokyng of an eye,
Lat me thus wepe and wailen til I deye.” (IV, 393-399)
Suddenly it is his pain that matters. And just as suddenly, Pandarus is ready to have Troilus abandon Criseyde: “If she be lost, we shal recovere an other.” (IV, 406) For a man who cares deeply about his niece and loves these two people specifically, Pandarus is startingly objective about Troilus’ predicament! I can only believe that Pandarus wants above all to have Troilus have someone, anyone, and to realize a relationship, any relationship—to help satisfy Pandarus’ own longing for fulfillment.
His final flurries of reassuring words and frantic activity avail Pandarus nothing. The lovers are doomed, and Troilus’ sadness is complete. So is Pandarus’ grief. In his last scene he is at first silent, unable or unwilling to speak. But at last he must: “’What sholde I seyen? I hate, ywys, Cryseyde; / And, God woot, I wol hate hire evermore!’” (V, 1732-1733) There is a note of reluctance in these harsh words that reveals Pandarus’ personal pain. He knows that such a hateful sentiment cannot help Troilus, yet he cannot resist speaking it. He has failed in his personal suit, and circumstances have destroyed this surrogate relationship despite his best efforts. His last words are indeed “the last almighty God I preye / Delivere hire soon! I kan namore seye.’” (V, 1742-1743) And may Pandarus soon be delivered from his pain.