Lesson 34
1. (Describe Rime Royal.)
A Rime Royal stanza consists of seven lines normally in Iambic Pentameter. The rhyme scheme is ababbcc. It is either a tercet and two couplets (aba-bb-cc) or a quatrain and a tercet (abab-bcc).
2. (What is the structure? How does the imagery and argument of each stanza develp and intesify the appeal?)
The structure is 3 Rime Royal Stanzas composed of 7 lines each with a quintet at the end with the rhyme scheme, ddeed, called an envoy. The first 3 stanzas all end with the phrase “I die”. The first one is Chaucer complainig to the purs mercy, to save him from hunger. The second stanza is flattering the lady. The third stanza is begging his lady to help him gain money, to fill his purse so that he may eat. The final stanza is a note to Henry IV to listen and to amend the faults of society.
3. (How does diction account for Humor?)
The humor is that Chaucer is compairing his purse to his lady. He is calling the purse his love and begging that she gives him mercy.
4. (How does the envoy continue the tone of the poem even as it addresses a specific person?)
In the last stanza of the poem, Henry IV is addressed specifically. It still keeps the respectful tone of flattery when Chaucer calls him a conquerer and says he has the power to solve the problems.
