The Apotheosis of Blanche in "The Book of the Duchess."

Author / Editor
Wimsatt, James I.

Title
The Apotheosis of Blanche in "The Book of the Duchess."

Published
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 66 (1967): 26-44.

Description
Argues that in BD Chaucer "heavily inlays the Black Knight's long description of his lady with imagery of the Blessed Virgin" and "that the effect produced by such imagery is an apotheosis not inconsonant with the traditional apotheosis of the English elegiac lament." Considers the rhetorical features of Chaucer's description of Blanche in light of its sources and analogues.

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