Topical Argument in Chaucer's Book of the Duchess

Author / Editor
Fichte, Joerg O.

Title
Topical Argument in Chaucer's Book of the Duchess

Published
Loren C. Gruber, ed. Essays on Old, Middle, Modern English and Old Icelandic in Honor of Raymond P. Tripp, Jr. (Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen Press, 2000), pp. 387-408.

Description
Argues that lack of historical evidence prevents us from learning much about the composition of BD. An examination of its topoi, however, reveals that the poem begins as a lament, turns into a consolation, and finally becomes an encomium designed to enlist the patronage of John of Gaunt.

Alternative Title
Essays on Old, Middle, Modern English and Old Icelandic in Honor of Raymond P. Tripp, Jr.

Chaucer Subjects
Book of the Duchess.