I'm reading Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde right now and I absolutely love it. I've read a couple of English and French romances, but those were all about a lover and his married and therefore unreachable lady. Maybe I've misunderstood the Middle English text somewhere, but aren't Troilus and Criseyde both single? Why do they have to keep there love a secret then? Can't they just marry and love each other in all openness? I understand that these are the expectations of courtly love, but it feels a bit overly complicated to me.
Could anyone maybe shed some light on Chaucer's work? I would also be very interested in some general points about courtly love between unmarried people, does that happen in medieval literature?
Thank you!
I think you may have slightly misunderstood the story, which leads to your confusion. Though Troilus is head over heels for Criseyde, Criseyde only took a liking to him at first:
"For I sey nought that she so sodeynly Yaf him hire love, but that she gan enclyne To like hym first" (ll. 673-675)
Even when she did fall in love with him, she did not trust men to be faithful. The fear of Troilus leaving her after having been in a public relationship with her, thus leading to dishonour for Criseyde, is what leads her to keep the relationship secret:
"Also thise wikked tonges ben so prest To speke us harm; ek men ben so untrewe, That right anon as cessed is hire lest, So cesseth love, and forth to love a newe. But harm ydoon is doon, whoso it rewe" (ll. 785-789)
So summarising: Criseyde wants to keep the relationship secret, because she is afraid Troilus' love won't stay when his lust is gone (which is of course dramatic irony as Criseyde will cheat on Troilus instead of the other way around).
Edition used is: Chaucer, "Troilus and Criseyde" in The riverside Chaucer, ed. by Larry D. Benson (2008, Oxford University Press: Oxford).
PS Sorry if the formatting isn't great, no idea how to do that well on mobile