John M. Hill is professor emeritus of English language and literature at the U.S. Naval Academy.

John Hill’s detailed analysis of Chaucer’s deeply thought, but playful, poetry emphasizes traces of divine forms in human affairs, however tangled with mere sense perceptions and degraded actions. Convincingly challenging the trend of some recent criticism, the poems (especially Troilus and Criseyde) are found to be shot through with Neoplatonic/Boethian notions of knowledge, love, joy, “full” friendship, and community.

• Chapter One - Chaucer’s Neoplatonism: Varieties of Love, Friendship and CommunityChapter Two - Varieties of Supposition and the Truth Value of StoryChapter Three - Varieties of Friendship: Pandarus, Troilus and Noble FriendshipChapter Four - Avuncular Form and Pandarus’s Several EmbassiesChapter Five - Varieties of Joy in Troilus and CriseydeChapter Six - Varieties of Invited “Compaignye” in the Pilgrimage to CanterburyConclusion - Chaucer’s Neoplatonic Art

John M. Hill is professor emeritus of English language and literature at the U.S. Naval Academy.

John Hill’s detailed analysis of Chaucer’s deeply thought, but playful, poetry emphasizes traces of divine forms in human affairs, however tangled with mere sense perceptions and degraded actions. Convincingly challenging the trend of some recent criticism, the poems (especially Troilus and Criseyde) are found to be shot through with Neoplatonic/Boethian notions of knowledge, love, joy, “full” friendship, and community.

• Chapter One - Chaucer’s Neoplatonism: Varieties of Love, Friendship and CommunityChapter Two - Varieties of Supposition and the Truth Value of StoryChapter Three - Varieties of Friendship: Pandarus, Troilus and Noble FriendshipChapter Four - Avuncular Form and Pandarus’s Several EmbassiesChapter Five - Varieties of Joy in Troilus and CriseydeChapter Six - Varieties of Invited “Compaignye” in the Pilgrimage to CanterburyConclusion - Chaucer’s Neoplatonic Art