tune. If she decides to take it back, it is her prerogative. This should not send him to the pits of despair. “Indeed, my very mutability gives you just cause to hope for better things,” Fortune tells Boethius (58). Just as the wheel has borne him down, so can it bear him back up to better things.Lastly, Lady Philosophy instructs Boethius in Fortune’s deeper significance, as a servant of God. Jefferson again, “Of a connection with Providence, Fortune herself does not seem to be aware, for she works blindly and wantonly. But behind her and governing her, is the all-wise Providence. Through the adversities of Fortune, Providence creates in men what we now call character…. In Fortune [Boethius] saw the instrument of God” (50). This made what Boethius was doing a very serious matter. It was all very nice to talk about the whims of fortune, but to tie it logically and directly to the providence of God was a completely different matter. Boethius’s Influence on ChaucerIt is from these points of argument with Fortune that we can see how Boethius influenced Chaucer, especially in Troilus and Criseyde. Most of the literature on Troilus seems to support this claim as well. “The Boethian theme of Fortune dominates Troilus and Criseyde, and Chaucer even incorporates direct borrowings from the Consolation of Philosophy,” says Martin Camargo (214). Jefferson says that the Consolation had more influence on Troilus than on any other long poem of Chaucer’s (120). It seems, however, that Chaucer did not just use Boethius randomly in this text. He very carefully dealt with the same fundamental issues of Fortune and God’s providence that Boethius did in his Consolation. That is why Pandarus sounds just like Lady Philosophy when he speaks to Troilus in Book 1:“Than blaestow FortuneFor thow art wroth; ye now at erst I see.Woost thow nat wel that Fortune is comuneTo everi ma...
