Hunting for the Hurt in Chaucer′s Book of the Duchess

The word play on h(e)art-hunting has become a virtual commonplace in criticism of Chaucer′s Book of the Duchess. Less widely discussed is the third meaning of ME herte, "hurt." The "hart"/ "heart" pun is, however, only implicit in the poem, while the rhyme of "heart" and "hurt" in lines 883-84 makes clear the close association of the terms for Chaucer. Earlier commentators insisted that this was in fact an instance of rime riche or "identical rhyme," but if it is so it is striking that it is the unique instance of the rhyme in Chaucer, whose works are full of occasions for hurt hearts. The essay argues that this is, instead, an instance of near-rhyme and that the confusion in scribal spellings of ME hurten(with ′u,′ ′0,′ ′i,′ ′y,′ and ′e′ ) suggests uncertainties about its root vowel that modem linguistic study has not clarified completely. If the rhyme of herte ("hurt") with herte ("heart") is, however, established by these lines in BD, then it is probably reasonable to ask about all the occasions where characters in the poem are hurt by emotional or physical distress. In the cases of A1cyone and the Man in Blak, the hurt is revealed plainly as the death of a loved one, and Alcyone′s death and the Man in Blak′s return "homwarde" offer contrasting responses to the realization and acknowledgement of their loss. In the case of the Narrator, however, the exact nature of his "hurt" is nowhere made clear and the questions this Jack of clarity raises for the reader remain unanswered when the poem declares its "hert-huntyng" done. Further examination of the Narrator′s character and his role in the poem may reveal him to be a physician himself in need of healing, and this reading of his character may identify him as an ancestor as much of Chaucer′s Pardoner as of the Pilgrim Narrator of Canterbury Tales.