The Book of Duchess: Details, Structure, Characters and Summary of the Poem
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- Introduction
- Details of the poem
- Structure of the poem
- Characters of the poem
- Summary of the poem
- Questions
Details of the Poem
- Written in 1368 or between 1368 and 1372. But published in 1532 in William Thyone՚s collection.
- Other titles- The Death of Blanche , The Dream of Chaucer
- To commemorate the death of Blanche of Lancaster, wife of Sir John Gaunt (Chaucer՚s friend and patron)
- Dream vision⟋dream allegory
- 1334 lines, Octosyllabic rhyming couplets.
Structure of the Poem
- Total lines in this poem 1334 Poem lines 1 - 290 Dream Lines 291 – 1334
- It is also a Long Narrative Poem
- ‘Lady White’ refers to Blanche
- ‘Long castle’ refers to House of Lancaster
Characters of the Poem
- Narrator: Dreamer: Poet: Chaucer
- Says (Calyx) : King
- Alcyone: Queen
- Juno: Roman Goddess
- Morpheus: God of Sleep
- Black Night: Idealized version of John of Gaunt
- Lady White: Representation of the Duchess Blanche
- Fortune: Allegorical Representation
Summary of the Poem
- Says-on sea voyage-never returns (drowned and died)
- Alcyone prays to God Juno- her prayer is answered in her dreams
- Morpheus (God of sleep) -fetches say՚s body from the sea & shows him in Alcyone՚s dream-Says reveals her, He is dead.
- Alcyone too dies of grief in 3 days
Narrator՚s Dream
- May morning-hunting with Emperor Octavian & a group
- Dream chamber Stained glass paintings-Trojan war Wall paintings- The Romance of the Rose
- Narrator follows a small hunting dog-to dark forest
- Black night, under a huge oak tree- reciting poetry
- The Knight curses Fortune for spinning her wheel and made her beloved die
- The knight lost his ‘White Queen’ to Fortune in the game of chess.
- The narrator tries to console him by saying examples from history
- Wisdom of Socrates . Medea Jason . Dido & Aeneas Samson Delilah.
- But the knight is not consoled
- He says, he was serving the god of love before he met Lady White
- He wooed her for 1 year and married her
- She was so beautiful & gentle in character
- Lady White is dead now.
- The narrator exclaims sadly,
- The hunting party returns poet wakes up from his sleep
- The poet decides to write his dream as a rhyme (poetry) .
Questions
1. Who is the god of sleep is the Book of Duchess?
Answer: God Morpheus
2. Name the King and Queen who come in the Ovid՚s book noted in poem, Book of Duchess.
Answer: Says and Alcyone
3. The knight lost his ‘White Queen’ to Fortune in the game of
Answer: Chess.
✍ Manishika