Subtleties of Language in ‘The Legend of Dido’ Makayla Powell College

Chaucer’s artful and intentional exclusion of Venus and Aeneas’ complete conversation from “The Aeneid,” using occupatio, gives Chaucer the auctor authority to include divine intervention when it suits his purpose, but not so heavily that the gods are directly influencing Aeneas, as he still has to be a ‘bad man’ on his own accord. With that, he is also subtly characterizing Dido and her ‘good woman’ qualities with his precise word choice, which allows the reader to gain a better insight into Chaucer’s overall message and intentions when writing these “legends.”

First, it’s important to recognize that this is the one of the only godly interactions the reader witnesses in Chaucer’s version of events, as well as being the only direct communication Aeneas has with the gods (despite his later claim of talking with Mercury, which Chaucer deems a lie.) This raises the question that comes up all too often when reading Chaucer, why? When comparing Virgil and Chaucer’s version of events, it seems that Chaucer could have used this conversation between Aeneas and Venus to push more of the “good woman” qualities that Dido possesses, as Virgil does in describing her glorious rule of Carthage, but instead he chooses to brush over it (while...