The Chess Problem in Chaucer's "Book of the Duchess."

Author / Editor
Rowland, Beryl.

Title
The Chess Problem in Chaucer's "Book of the Duchess."

Published
Anglia: Zeitschrift für Englische Philologie 80 (1962): 384-89.

Description
Observes that the "ferses twelve" of BD 723, though impossible on a common chess board, was possible on some medieval boards (especially in Germany) of twelve squares by eight squares, with their twelve pawns. Then argues that the phrase has "astrological significance," punningly aligning the "ferses" with the twelve signs of the zodiac and, therefore, with Fortune.

Chaucer Subjects
Book of the Duchess