Irony and the Age of Gold in the 'Book of the Duchess'

Author / Editor
Fyler, John M.

Title
Irony and the Age of Gold in the 'Book of the Duchess'

Published
Speculum 52 (1977): 314-28.

Description
The narrator of BD, who sees in the tale of Ceyx and Alcyone an exemplum of the loss of their "golden age" love, realizes that the love of the knight is an analogue of the happy fulfillment of the couple's love. Thus, the actual consolation of the elegy comes in an indirect, aesthetic way for the reader and not for the narrator.

Chaucer Subjects
Book of the Duchess.