Balance in "The Book of the Duchess"

Balance in The Book of the Duchess

An essay by Terry Bohannon
Written, October 31, 2002

Chaucer, the medieval English poet who lived from 1345 to 1400, lived through five major outbreaks of the plague, the Black Death -- from which, the swish of Death's scythe was heard for generations. The first of these outbreaks occurred when Chaucer was young, and between the years 1348 and 1350. The first plague was the hardest hitting, killed about one-third to one-half of those living in London (Ibeji). The third of these outbreaks, in 1369, struck royal blood: King Edward's wife, Philippa of Hainault, and John of Gaunt's wife, Blanche -- who was 28 at the time. During the time of Blanche's death, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, was not with his wife, but out at sea. And a few years after Blanche's death, perhaps for a memorial service, John of Gaunt commissioned Geoffrey Chaucer to write a poem (Benson 329).

From that commission, most likely before 1372 (which is when John of Gaunt remarried), Chaucer wrote The Book of the Duchess (Hussey 29). This poem, one of Chaucer's first, was strongly influenced from the French poetry, and is in the format of the dream motif.

The Book of the Duchess is likely in the format of the dream motif for various reasons. One reason is the disconnection from reality that the dream gives: if this poem and the actions therein were not in a dream, Chaucer might have easily offended his patron if he somehow misrepresented Blanche. Another reason is the freedom that the dream gives the author to use his poetic talent to create a balanced and highly organized work. The balance in this work -- the balance of ideas, images, and the overarching balance of the whole poem -- is thought to be Chaucer's first step to the high level of poetic beauty that Chaucer writes later in his life.

This is the same type of beauty found in Shakespeare's King Lear or Bach's Motets. Not only is The Book of the Duchess interesting, the process of reading it gives pleasure to those tuned to appreciate such beauty.

This poem begins with the dreamer -- who is often misrepresented as Chaucer, but is not likely Chaucer the poet -- lamenting over the fact that he cannot get any sleep. So, he then picks up a book he hopes will direct him to sleep. The book he picks up is a story in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The source material Chaucer used is linked to Machaut's Dit de la fonteinne amoureuse as well as a story in Ovid's Metamorphoses about Ceyx and Halcyone.

A king, Seys, is out at sea while his wife, Alcyone, is at their palace. Alcyone, after waiting for a "longe terme" (BD. 79) [long time] for her husband to come home, loses patience and sends out a party of men to search for Seys. Not finding her husband, the queen prays to Juno so that she will know whether Seys is alive or dead, and falls into a god induced deep sleep. Here, like in many of Chaucer's tales, Juno and the gods intervene into human affairs. When doing this, Juno sends Isis to tell Morpheus, who is the god of sleep, to send Seys to Alcyone in a dream. Morpheus does this. However, he does not succeed at consoling Alcyone. After a false image of Seys tells her that he is dead, and asks her to give him a proper burial, Alcyone dies within the third morning (BD. 214) -- perhaps from the shock of the absolute loss.

From this, the dreamer closes the book, or at least, he stops reiterating the story to us. He gets an idea. The dreamer will follow Alcyone's example, and pray to the god of sleep, if there is such a being. The dreamer does this, and falls instantly to sleep.

When introducing his dream, the narrator tells us that no man, not even Joseph of Egypt, has had or will have the wit to interpret his dream. That a statement is likely a literary devise, or vessel, used to spark curiosity into the imagination of his readers, so that his readers, or listeners, will be further drawn into the poem.

When sleeping, the dreamer wakes up in a room where the story of Troy is seen through the unbroken windows, and the Romance of the Rose told through paintings or pictorials on the wall with subtitles (or, as Chaucer writes, "bothe text and glose"). After noises startle him, the dreamer finds himself in the midst of a hunt, the hunt of a white hart.

Eventually, the dreamer becomes ". . . war of a knyght in blak, / That sat and had yturned his bak" (BD. 445-446) [. . . aware of a knight in black, that sat and had his back turned.] The dreamer then observes the Black Knight mourn for his lost lady.

Then, when the dreamer does introduce himself to the Black Knight, he feigns ignorance, and draws a few stories out of the Black Knight. The knight eventually gives up indirectly saying what ayleths (ails) him, and says ""She ys ded!" (BD. 1309) [She is dead!].

Before The Book of the Duchess is dissected, and its balances are developed, balance needs to be defined. Balance is the achievement of an equilibrium of conditions where opposing or similar images, words, or ideas, are held in check -- so then, that one or a series of images or ideas does not skew the reading of the text, and that the reading flows naturally and relates to the readers and listeners.

In this poem, there is balance between characters within the book. As with the dreamer and the Black Knight: Chaucer achieves balance through similarities. And there is a balance between the poem and reality. At least as much of the reality we have from historical sources -- such as with a similarity in situation between John of Gaunt and Alcyone. There is also a balance between ideas such as idleness and productivity, the counterfeit and the real. There are even small motifs of sleeping patterns and phrases representing grief.

Now, let's take a look at the balance between the Black Knight and the dreamer. In the beginning, there were some words, and these words were, "I have gret wonder, be this lyght, / How that I lyve, for day ne nyght / I may not slepe wel nygh noght; / I have so many an ydel thought / Purely for defaute of slep . . ." (BD. 1-5). [I have great wonder, be this light, how that I live, for neither day nor night I do not sleep at all; I have so many an idle thought purely for the lack of sleep.] Seemingly, from what the dreamer tells us, he has not been able to sleep because he has had wondering thoughts. He says that he ". . . holde it be a sicknesse / That I have suffred this eight yeer" (BD. 36-37) [. . . holds it to be a sickness that I have suffered these eight years.] He does not directly tell us what his sickness is, but it is affecting him enormously. Since the dreamer was affected so seriously, that which affected him most likely involves love -- especially when in the atmosphere of a courtly romance.

In this dreamer's dream, the Black Knight shows his sickness, shows his sadness, when the dreamer describes him lamenting:

And with a dedly sorwful soun
He made of rym ten vers or twelve
Of a compleynte to himselve --
The moste pitee, the moste rowthe,
That ever I herde . . .
(BD. 462 et seq.).

And with a deadly sorrowful sound
He made of rhyme ten verses or twelve
Of a complaint to himself --
The most piteous, the most compassionate
That ever I heard . . .

The Black Knight, full of grief and unaware of the dreamer, laments with, "Allas, deth, what ayleth the, / That thou noldest have taken me, / That was so fair, so fresh, so fre . . ." (BD. 481-484). [Alas, death, what is a matter with you, that you would not have taken me; that was so fair, so fresh, so free. . . .]

Both the dreamer and the Black Knight have had jarring experiences. The Black Knight has lost his lady; and something else, maybe something similar, has pained the dreamer.

Now, there is a similarity between the story the dreamer reads, and the events surrounding Blanche's death. In 1369, John of Gaunt went on a martial expedition to France (Britannia). When in France, and away from his land, the plague came to Lancaster and captured Blanche.

This mirrors the events in the story that the dreamer reads. When Alcyone is at home, Seys is out at sea, and his falling is described as follows:

To tellen shortly, whan that he
Was in the see thus in this wise,
Such a tempest gan to rise
That brak her mast and made it falle,
And clefte her ship, and dreinte hem alle,
That never was founde, as it telles,
Bord ne man, ne nothing elles.
(BD. 68 et seq.).

To keep it short, when that he
Was in the sea in this way,
Such a tempest again to rise
That broke their mast and made it fall,
And cleaved their ship, and drowned them all,
That never was found, as it is said,
Board nor man, nor nothing else.

These two situations, of what Chaucer has written as Ovid's Metamorphoses, and what we know of the situation behind the death of Blanche, are juxtaposed, and the relationship between these two situations deepens our understanding in how this would have been understood when it was read in Chaucer's time.

Now, with the balance between idleness and busyness: throughout Chaucer's work, there is interplay between these two ideas. As Lisa Kiser said, "the Black Knight deems the virtue of 'busynesse' [busyness] to be next in importance to the virtue of 'truth'" (Kiser 16). The Black Knight conveys the value that he has of busyness when describing that to keep busy, he had to make songs and poetry, "But for to kepe me fro ydelnesse, / Trewly I dide my besynesse / To make songs, as best I koude" (BD. 1155-1157). [But to keep me from idleness, truly I did by busyness to make songs as best I could.]

This idea not only shows itself in the prologue that has been quoted before, where the dreamer mentions his idle thoughts lead him to sleeplessness, but it also shows itself in the story of Alcyone and Seys in a scene where Isis, after coming to the cave in which Morpheus and his fellows live, finds herself among idlers.

There these goddes lay and slepe,
Morpheus and Eclympasteyr,
That was the god of slepes heyr,
That Slep and dide noon other werk.
(BD. 166 et seq.).

There these gods lay and sleep,
Morpheus and Eclympasteyr,
Who was the god of sleep's heir,
That slept and did no other work.

That the god Morpheus and his son Eclympasteyr are not truely productive is stressed by Chaucer with that verse and other descriptions. Such as with the baroness of the cave and the valley in which it is located; and that because the cave is as dark as hell's mouth, "They had a good leyser for to route" (BD. 172), or that they had a good opportunity to snore. The darkness, then, supports their pursuit of laziness.

They especially pronounce their idleness when Isis attempts to wake up Morpheus. She, in a way that is humorous to the reader and listeners, makes three attempts at waking him up. It is only after the third attempt that Morpheus opens one of his eyes -- another sign of idleness -- to then ask "'who clepeth ther?'" (BD. 185), or "who speaks there."

After Isis tells Morpheus what Juno requests of him, he goes off and takes ". . . up the dreynte body sone / And bar hyt forth to Alcione / . . . there as she lay / Ryght even a quarter before day" (BD. 196-199), he takes [up the drowned body soon and carried it forth to Alcyone . . . there as she lay, just a quarter before day (three hours before dawn).] Unfortunately, as was briefly mentioned earlier, after Seys appeared to his wife and told her that she will never see him again, he asked her to "Bury my body, for such a tyde / Ye mowe hyt find the see besyde" (BD. 207-208), [bury my body, for such a tide, you can find it beside the sea.] After hearing this speech, Alcyone "With that hir eyen up she casteth / And saw noght. 'Allas!' quod she for sorwe, / And deyed within the thridde morwe" (BD. 212-214), [With that she cast up her eyes, and saw nothing. 'Alas' she said for sorrow, and died within the third morning.]

Morpheus' dream, then, is a failure in its consoling -- we can conclude that, according to Chaucer, a pursuit done in idleness, such as Morpheus' cheap trick, is a pursuit ruined by its falseness. To do something well, it must be from the sweat of our brows, not from the wake of our snore.

This brings us to another idea, and another contrast -- between the counterfeit and the real. The dream that Morpheus gives Alcyone is a counterfeit of reality, and its falseness quickened Alcyone's death. The Black Knight, when describing his lady, shows the value of trueness when he described that the beauty of his lady, ". . . was no countrefeted thyng" (869), that her beauty was no counterfeited thing. Chaucer achieves balance here when the description of the lady's beauty contrasted to the counterfeit vision of Seys. There is another balance with how the Black Knight and Alcyone deal with pain, or how they mourn. Alcyone, when mourning, and when no man has found her lord, says "'Alas!' . . . 'that I was wrought!'" (BD. 90), ["'Alas!' . . . 'that I was born!'"]. The loss of her husband tears her heart, and with this loss she laments and even questions the day that she was born.

The Black Knight, too, when telling his story to the dreamer, says, "That me ys wo that I was born!" (BD. 566), [that I am woe, that I was born,] and about a hundred lines later, he says, "My blysse; allas, that I was born!" (BD. 656). Perhaps in line with the culture of England, or from images in literature, there is a small motif of sleeping in the buff, of sleeping naked. First, Alcyone sleeps naked when "Hyr women kaught hir up anoon / And brighten hir in bed al naked," (BD. 124-125), [Her women caught her up at once, and brought her to bed all naked.] Apparently, her servant, or maid, undressed her and put her in her bed. And, in Morpheus' cave, there are some of his fellow idlers who "lay naked in her bed" (BD. 176) [lay naked in their bed]. The dreamer as well, was naked, "And in the dawenynge I lay / Me mette thus in my bed all naked" (BD. 292-293), [and in the dawn I lay, I dream thus in my bed all naked.] Therefore, with the balance that has been pointed out, and that which has not, Chaucer, with The Book of the Duchess, created a masterwork. As with Shakespeare's King Lear, the harmony within the poem surpasses in brilliance over any of the source materials.

Works Cited:

Benson, Larry." The Riverside Chaucer." Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston. Dallas. 1987.

Hussey, S.S.. "Chaucer: An Introduction." Methuen & Co., LTD. London. 1971.

Ibeji, Mike. "The Plague in Britain." BBC. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/history/renderplain.pl?file=/history/society_culture/welfare/blackdeath/black_10.shtml>

"John of Gaunt (1340-1399)." Britannia.com, LLC. 2001. <http://www.britannia.com/bios/royals/jgdklanc.html>

"John of Gaunt." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. 1994. <http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0826444.html>

Kiser, Lisa. "Truth and texuality in Chaucer's poetry." University Press of New England. Hanover, N.H.. 1991.