Calle It Gentilesse: A Comparative Study of Two Medieval Go-Betweens

'CALLE IT GENTILESSE A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TWO MEDIEVAL GO-BETWEENS Deborah Ellis Pandarus in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and Celestina in Fernando de Rojas's Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea are possibly the two most famous go-betweens in medieval literature. Pandarus' name has long been associated with the technique of procurement, and Celestina's name has become synonymous with the literary stereotype of the crafty bawd. In many ways they are defined by the same conventions, and they perform the same functions within the structure of the two works. Both are moti­ vated by professional pride and vicarious lust. As panderers, they act as the major catalysts in the love stories. Their centrality and complexity justify the study of their characterizations as a lens through which to focus on the ambiguities, tensions and assumptions of each work. To this end, the interplay between the go-between and the spatial imagery in the Troi­ lus and the Tragicomedia will be compared in order to place their actions in a meaningful context. The activities of Celestina and Pandarus, as de­ fined by the boundaries of each go-between's house, provide an insight into the structural similarity of these panderers' roles and reveal as well the fundamental disparity of vision between Rojas and Chaucer. While both authors employed the same panderer-bawd literary type, that type is