Medieval Dream Visions : Chaucer's Book of the Duchess

Author / Editor
Quinn, William A.

Title
Medieval Dream Visions : Chaucer's Book of the Duchess

Published
David F. Johnson and Elaine Treharne, eds. Readings in Medieval Texts: Interpreting Old and Middle English Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 323-36.

Description
Quinn defines the genre of dream vision, surveys "standard readings" of BD, and offers a "re-vision" of the poem that reconciles its humor and sadness by imagining it as a performance some years after the death of Blanche. The poem may have been performed on the occasion of Gaunt's betrothal to Constanza of Castile or in acknowledgment of his love of Katherine Swynford.

Alternative Title
Readings in Medieval Texts: Interpreting Old and Middle English Literature.

Chaucer Subjects
Book of the Duchess.