The Book of the Duchess is said to be a tribute, a eulogy of sorts. But as with any other story, there is more than one level to The Book of the Duchess. One of the things Geoffrey Chaucer seemed to do in The Book of the Duchess was to define refined love.

Chaucer gave the first pieces of his definition of refined love within the story of the King Seys and his wife Alcione. This first idea that Chaucer gives of refined love is of what one should feel when his or her love is gone longer than he or she should be. Seys had gone on a sea voyage, but instead of returning unharmed, a storm blew up and the ship sank, and Seys drowned. Alcione, obviously, did not take this well.

This lady, that was left at hom, / Hath wonder that the king ne com...