The Dreamer, the Whelp, and Consolation in the 'Book of the Duchess'

Author / Editor
Friedman, John Block.

Title
The Dreamer, the Whelp, and Consolation in the 'Book of the Duchess'

Published
Chaucer Review 3.3 (1969): 145-162.

Description
More than merely consolation for John of Gaunt, BD conveys the "more universal theme" of "personal loss and its effects on man's physical and psychic condition." Traditionally associated in various sources with leading, with healing, and with dialectic and wisdom, the whelp in the poem leads the Dreamer to the Black Knight and thereby prompts a dialectic process of healing and consolation.

Chaucer Subjects
Book of the Duchess
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations