Geoffrey Chaucer was commissioned by Gaunt to write a poem after Blanche's death which was titled The Book of the Duchess. The poem tells the story of the poet’s dream. Wandering a wood, the poet discovers a knight clothed in black, and inquires of the knight’s sorrow. The knight, meant to represent John of Gaunt, is mourning a terrible tragedy, which mirrors Gaunt's own extended mourning for Blanche.
Read more about this topic: Blanche Of Lancaster
Famous quotes containing the words book and/or duchess:
“If the book is good, is about something that you know, and is truly written, and reading it over you see that this is so, you can let the boys yip and the noise will have that pleasant sound coyotes make on a very cold night when they are out in the snow and you are in your own cabin that you have built or paid for with your work.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“Lady Hodmarsh and the duchess immediately assumed the clinging affability that persons of rank assume with their inferiors in order to show them that they are not in the least conscious of any difference in station between them.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)