'Qhua wait gif all that Chauceir wrait was trew? '.Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayIn his Testament for Cresseid, inspired by Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, Henryson's narrator presents an almost immediate challenge to the truth of his literary predecessor, consequently plunging the authority of his own narrative into doubt and humiliating himself before his readers. This demonstration of humility on the part of the narrator is present elsewhere, both in Troil and in Testament, with the simple citation of literary sources; “worthy Chauceir”,[58] in the work of Henryson and “myn auctor Lollius”[394] (among others) in that of Chaucer. Besides giving us the right to confuse the authors with the narrators (insofar as the narrators refer to works that both authors have read), the presentation of the sources from which their work is derived seems to undermine their own authority and originality. However, what may seem humble actually has subsequent literary functions. Nicholas Watson argues, for example, that Western literature has a tradition of "homage and displacement", meaning that Chaucer and Henryson acknowledge their sources in order to create literary space (and therefore authority) for their own work, by covering itself with the artifice of “homage”. While this is true, I would take Watson's argument further by suggesting that both writers further cement the truth and authority of their narratives by repeatedly suggesting that the tragic events of their narratives are between the hands either of fate or of the gods themselves, and therefore located outside the narrator's control. Instead, the narrators act deictically, guiding readers through the action and intensifying the tragic elements of each respective poem by lamenting things beyond one's control. Under the guise of being "humble," both authors thus establish their work as authoritative and true through the "homage and displacement" of their literary predecessors and the infallibility of gods and predetermined events outside the narrator's realm. An interesting feature of Chaucer's poem is the narrator's language of obligation; an insistence that he must convey his story, however painful or trying it may be. Such language is also present to some extent in Henryson's narrative (although he briefly attempts to separate himself from the narrator with "sum poeit" [66]) and serves to hyperbolize both the importance and the urgency of their work. For example, Henryson's narrator describes the telling of the story as "a maid to report lamentations",[67] "maid" being particularly forceful language as well as a word suggesting that a higher supervisory authority exercises the forcing. This suggestion can also be seen in Chaucer's poem where the narrator describes himself as "the sorrowful instrument/Who helps the renters".[10] Again, “instrument” inevitably suggests that someone above the narrator is “playing” him, describing him as a transmitter or mediator. What is interesting about this mediating effect is also the pretension of neutrality that it immediately creates in the narrator. Henryson's use of the term "report" in particular insinuates a lack of bias, while Chaucer repeatedly refers to his attempts to be faithful to his sources: "as myn auctour seyde, so sey I", [18] with even the syntax of the “I” which follows. from "auctour", again creating the impression that Chaucer is only asort of scribe. Creating this sense of neutral obligation, I would argue, works by making readers believe that the narrators are doing them a favor and have gone out of their way to ensure that everything they write is true. Acting as mediators of their narratives, the narrators are thus protected from criticism, "Blames me if any word is lame"[17, Troilus], while simultaneously granting importance to their control of the narrative is something very clear and tangible in both Troilus and Testament, with both authors portraying those in higher authority (i.e. fate or the gods) as the dictators of the most important or tragic events in their stories, while the narrators act deictically, guiding readers through the action. Chaucer's narrator, for example, asks in the opening lines of the poem: "Thesiphone, how help me for tenditis",[6] while Henryson describes how "Saturn" "tuik at hand"[309] The punishment of Cresseid", "hand" physically representing Saturn's control over Cresseid's fate. In places, Henryson's and Chaucer's narrators speak in the present tense while describing their characters' fates as having already been decided in the past. Chaucer's narrator states: "in hire while she sets up vp Diomedes;/ffor which at this moment myn herte gynneth blede",[13-14] while Henryson's narrator similarly entreats Saturn : “Withdraw your sentence and be kind”,[327] where “gynneth blede” and “withdrawn” situate the narrators in the present. By creating such a clash between the present narrator and events that have already occurred or been decided, Chaucer and Henryson situate their narratives outside of their own work, presenting them as established histories. This also places the men on the level of their readers, all at the mercy of fate and gods like Troilus and Cresseid. By pretending to relinquish narrative control, both narrators respond to tragedy as it occurs and heighten the emotional impact of the most important moments in both poems. Similar to Henryson's questioning of narrative truth and authority, this "surrender" appears to be a performance of the narrators humbling themselves before larger forces or characters, and while this is true, The narrators' emotional reactions against the pre-established events in both poems also serve to assert their unequivocal truth. As Marilyn Corrie points out in her essay on “Fate, Fate, and Fortune,” “the idea that what happens to people and what they do is determined by external forces.” to themselves was common in the Middle Ages[.]' As discussed previously, fate and the pagan gods in Troilus and in Testament lend ultimate authority to both poems. However, as features, they also ensure that any bad news or punishment that befalls Troilus or Cresseid cannot, to any serious degree, be considered unfair by readers, which is most visible in the work of Henryson who imagines a punishment for Cresseid's infidelity than that of Chaucer. not. Derek Pearsall suggests of the gods in Testament that they "operate in a manner brutally similar to what is called divine justice", a comment which summarizes Henryson's treatment of Cresseid; his punishment is brutal, but it is God, rather than himself, who is the instigator. As a result, readers can only see what happens to him as just and deserved, thus reinforcing Henryson's moral didacticism at the end of his poem, "Mix not your lufe with false deceptions,"[613] because Cresseid proves to be an unmistakable character. example of “deception” and’.