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During the great seige of Troy, Troilus, The son of Priam, sees Criseyde and falls in love with her. Later, with the help of Pandarus - one of the first great character studies in our literature - Troilus wins her love, only to be betrayed. Cecil Day Lewis considered that Troilus' betrayal was so painful that no one 'without reluctance reads it twice'. Nevertheless, Chaucer's depiction of passionate sexual love, his grasp of tragedy and the unpredictability of Fate, and his wonderful sense of the ridiculous often contained in the sublime make it 'one of the most beautiful long poems in the English language'.
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