Courtly LoveCourtly Love

Ideal LoveReal life will never arranges itself exactly like a romance - so enjoy every moment until the end of the story because the memories before the fairy tale ending are worth making!

Before there were cell phones and computers, men used to show their devotion to a woman with matters of the heart, and of hope. Their futures were intertwined in the erotic desire, and loyalty expressed with the heart’s content.

Ideal LoveDuring courtship, a woman is in control of the relationship where a man’s obedience and submission inspires him to do great deeds.

Back in the day men would express their emotions, but in today’s society we find that men are to appear as masculine and factual.

Where has all the romance gone? Or has romance just changed form?

History

• In 1168, Eleanor of Aquitaine left the court of her husband Henry II and took up residence in her ancestral lands of Poitou and ruled as a duchess.

• With a deft hand and a discerning eye, she turned a district that had been on the outskirts of events for forty years into the center of economic and social life.

• As a result of this sudden burst of activity, Eleanor's court in the city of Poitiers drew vassals paying homage, squires training to be knights, young ladies acquiring their education, and visiting future kings and queens related by blood or marriage to the duchess.

• Because she was a woman of renowned beauty, charm and style as well as extraordinary wit and iron will, the poets, chroniclers, musicians, philosophers, artists, who always flocked around her also congregated at Poitiers. It was out of royalty and romance that the movement of courtly love emerged.

Eleanor of Aquitaine

The Stages of Courtly Love

• Attraction to the lady, usually via eyes/glance • Worship of the lady from afar

• Declaration of passionate devotion • Virtuous rejection by the lady

• Renewed wooing with oaths of virtue and eternal fealty • Moans of approaching death from unsatisfied desire

(and other physical manifestations of lovesickness) • Heroic deeds of valor which win the lady's heart

• Consummation of the secret love

• Endless adventures and subterfuges avoiding detection

The Twelve Rules of Love from The Art of Courtly Love by Andreas

Capellanus1. Thou shalt avoid avarice like the deadly

pestilence and shalt embrace its opposite.

2. Thou shalt keep thyself chaste for the sake of her whom thou lovest.

3. Thou shalt not knowingly strive to break up a correct love affair that someone else is engaged in.

4. Thou shalt not chose for thy love anyone whom a natural sense of shame forbids thee to marry.

5. Be mindful completely to avoid falsehood.

Rules continued6. Thou shalt not have many who know of

thy love affair.

7. Being obedient in all things to the commands of ladies, thou shalt ever strive to ally thyself to the service of Love.

8. In giving and receiving love's solaces let modesty be ever present.

9. Thou shalt speak no evil.

10. Thou shalt not be a revealer of love affairs.

11. Thou shalt be in all things polite and courteous.

12. In practicing the solaces of love thou shalt not exceed the desires of thy lover.

Six "Not so good" Things About Courtly Love

1. UnrealisticTypically the courtly love relationship was not between

husband and wife.

2. AdulterousAlthough this aspect bothers modern readers more than past

readers.

3. Put women on an inaccessible pedestal

4. In some situations, it enabled the knight from reaching his full potential.

- Ex: Guinevere and Lancelot

5. Distraction

6. Suffering symptoms of love

The Literary Convention of Courtly Love 

• In France and England, courtly love became a central theme of lyric and epic poetry. 

• The literary convention of courtly love appears in works of most of the major authors of the Middle Ages including Geoffrey Chaucer (Canterbury Tales).  

• Courtly love conventions are found in the medieval genres of lyric, the allegory and the Romance (such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) 

• In the 12th century, literature written in French was referred to as "romance" to differentiate it from "real" literature, which was written in Latin.  

• - Eventually, the term "romance" began to refer not to any literature written in French, but to the specific sort of literature that was popular among the French-speaking court audiences of France and Anglo-Norman England: stories of the chivalric adventures of knights and their ladies. 

• - There have been debates about whether courtly love was a social reality or simply a literary fiction. Regardless, it was a widespread and significant notion.  

The Literary Convention of Courtly Love cont.

Masculine Images 

• Physically strong hero/

• protector 

• Wise father figure. 

• Super lover extraordinaire  

Men’s Images of Women  

• Aloof princess in a tower 

• Emitter of life.  

• Virginal and sweet. (The Madonna-Whore complex)

Differences: Modern Love vs. Courtly Love

Different definitions

Modern: A feeling or disposition of deep affection or fondness for someone, typically arising from a recognition of attractive qualities, from natural affinity, or from sympathy and manifesting itself in concern for the other's welfare and pleasure in his or her presence (OED)

Courtly Love: A certain inborn suffering derived from the sight of and excessive mediation upon the beauty of the opposite sex, which causes each one to wish above all things the embraces of the other and by common desire to carry out all of love’s precepts in the other’s embrace (Capellanus)