insight he or she has gained. Chaucer’s text, however,
noticeably omits any such explanation about just what
made the Narrator’s dream so “inwardly sweet” and
therefore calls the very genre and purpose of his dream
vision into question. Moreover, many romances and
love visions tell the story of a man who seeks the love of
a woman—but in this case, the courtly lady is dead.
The fi ctive White, like the actual Blanche, does not
appear as a living and speaking subject in Chaucer’s
text. Instead, her character is reconstructed through a
discourse between two men, the Narrator and the
Black Knight, prompting feminist and gender critics to
wonder if anyone—the narrator, Chaucer, John of
Gaunt—is actually in pain and sorrow over the duch-
ess’s death. The tale has less to do with Blanche than it
does with the men involved, revealing their relation-
ships and alliances. Thus, its primary concern is the
development of male textual and (hetero)sexual iden-
tity, not marriage or mourning.
FURTHER READING
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
Hendershot, Cyndy. “Male Subjectivity, Fin Amor, and
Melancholia in The Book of the Duchess.” Mediaevalia 21
(1996): 1–26.
Horowitz, Deborah. “An Aesthetic of Permeability: Three
Transcapes of the Book of the Duchess.” Chaucer Review 39
(2005): 259–279.
Margherita, Gayle. “Originary Fantasies and Chaucer’s
Book of the Duchess.” In Feminist Approaches to the Body in
Medieval Literature. Edited by Linda Lomperis and Sarah
Stanbury, 116–141. New Cultural Studies. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
Christopher D. Lozensky
BORDER BALLADS (15th and 16th centu-
ries) “The Border” refers to the border area between
England and Scotland, geographically isolated and
subject to centuries of confl ict, allowing the develop-
ment of an historical and cultural autonomy. As such,
border ballads refl ect the area in which they devel-
oped—riding, raiding, feuding, treachery, foray, and
rescue. Many contain a supernatural element. Very few
of these BALLADS contain allusions to the political events
of their times.
These ballads are distinctive for their spareness. The
simplicity of language and syntax goes hand in hand
with the extreme economy of expression, accompanied
by great evocative power in the choice of place names.
This stylistic choice is connected with the intended
audience: Ballads were generally recited, or more fre-
quently sung, by minstrels who accompanied them-
selves with a musical instrument, generally playing
modal, monodic, and homophonic tunes. These regional
characteristics and the historical circumstances in which
the ballads were performed link them to medieval
ROMANCEs.
See also BALLAD (FOLK BALLADs); “LORD RANDAL”; TWA
CORBIES, THE.
FURTHER READING
Reed, James. The Border Ballads. London: Athlone, 1973.
Alessandra PetrinaBRETON LAI See LAY.
“BRING US IN GOOD ALE” ANONYMOUS
(mid-15th century) This drinking song, loosely
dated to the time of Henry VI (1421–71), is connected
with the Christmas season through its melody—a
speeded-up version of the Christmas CAROL “Nowell,
Nowell, Nowell”—and by connection to the Christmas
custom of wassailing (from wassail, “good health”). In
this festive activity, merry revelers go from house to
house, singing and drinking.
The opening and chorus of the song celebrate excess,
repeating: “Bring us good ale, and bring us in good ale,
/ For our blessed lady’s sake, bring us in good ale.”
However, no one is interested in food. The revelers
create mock excuses for why they cannot have any:
Brown bread is “made of bran,” bacon is “passing fat,”
mutton is “often lean,” and, eggs have “many shells.”
The food list goes on and on and, obviously, lends
itself well to additions and revisions by witty wassail-
ers, recreatings a Christmas feast through words.
FURTHER READING
Rickert, Edith. Ancient English Christmas Carols: 1400–1700.
London: Chatto/Windus, 1914.
Eric P. Furuseth92 BORDER BALLADS