TROILUS AND CRISEYDE, V. 743—749: Another Possible Source

Chaucer's personification of Prudence in Troilus (743—749) as a maiden with "eyen thre" has traditionally been ascribed to an obscure allusion in Dante's Purgatorio (XXIX. 132) concerning a lady with "tre occhi." But the lady is not identified in Dante's work, nor are the "tre occhi" linked to the three temporal realms. Therefore, if one is to insist that Chaucer's source lies in Dante, he must expand that source to include the commentaries and manuscript illuminations associated with the Commedia. However, in an allegorical canzone by Matteo Frescobaldi(1297—1348), a minor Florentine disciple of Dante, there appears a heretofore unnoticed Prudence who "con tre occhi tre tempi governa." This Prudence shows complete conceptual correspondence to Chaucer's. Since Chaucer was probably knowledgeable of the Frescobaldi family and had visited Florence in 1373, there is a significant possibility that he appropriated the figure of Prudence from Matteo instead of Dante.