Composer’s Note:

Criseyde’s Arietta is from Alice Shields’ chamber opera CRISEYDE, a feminist-revenge re-write of Chaucer’s famous but misogynous romance “Troilus and Criseyde”. In the opera the character Criseyde becomes a triumphant heroine, far different than Chaucer’s inscrutable bimbo.

The scene takes place in Criseyde’s parlor, where Criseyde is being pressured by her uncle Pandar to meet with his boss Prince Troilus who has the hots for her. She submits to power, and then gets mad.

This arietta may be performed either in middle or modern English (score contains both).