painting black in black and creating a monster of vice, he invents a good-
natured and loquacious, elderly go-between, full of proverbial philosophy
and invaluable experience--a genuine light comedy character for all times.
How admirably this Pandarus practises as well as preaches his art; using
the hospitable Deiphobus and the queenly Helen as unconscious instruments
in his intrigue for bringing the lovers together:--

She came to dinner in her plain intent;
But God and Pandar wist what all this meant.

Lastly, considering the extreme length of Chaucer's poem, and the very
simple plot of the story which it tells, one cannot fail to admire the
skill with which the conduct of its action is managed. In Boccaccio the
earlier part of the story is treated with brevity, while the conclusion,
after the catastrophe has occurred and the main interest has passed, is
long drawn out. Chaucer dwells at great length upon the earlier and
pleasing portion of the tale, more especially on the falling in love of
Cressid, which is worked out with admirable naturalness. But he
comparatively hastens over its pitiable end--the fifth and last book of
his poem corresponding to not less than four cantos of the "Filostrato."
In Chaucer's hands, therefore, the story is a real love-story, and the
more that we are led to rejoice with the lovers in their bliss, the more
our compassion is excited by the lamentable end of so much happiness; and
we feel at one with the poet, who, after lingering over the happiness of
which he has in the end to narrate the fall, as it were unwillingly
proceeds to accomplish his task, and bids his readers be wroth with the
destiny of his heroine rather than with himself. His own heart, he says,
bleeds and his pen quakes to write what must be written of the falsehood
of Cressid, which was her doom.