Theme and Number in Chaucer's 'Book of the Duchess'
- Author / Editor
- Peck, Russell A.
Theme and Number in Chaucer's 'Book of the Duchess'
- Published
- Alastair Fowler, ed. Silent Poetry: Essays in Numerological Analysis (New York: Barnes and Noble; London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970), pp. 73-115.
- Description
- Describes parallels in plot and structure between BD and Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy," arguing that Chaucer depicts a partial glimpse of full consolation. Identifies how "numerological composition" underlies the structure of BD and how several of its details--especially "number metaphors" based on 1, 3, 8, and 12--capitalize upon "essential analogues" between individual nature and Absolute Nature" in order to gesture toward consolation.
- Contributor
- Fowler, Alastair.ed.
- Alternative Title
- Silent Poetry: Essays in Numerological Analysis
- Chaucer Subjects
- Book of the Duchess
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
- Style and Versification