Courtly Love
Courtly love as a literary
phenomenon reflects one of the most far-reaching revolutions in
social sensibility in Western culture--the dramatic change in
attitude towards women that began in the late eleventh century,
spread throughout western and northern Europe during the twelfth
century, and lingered through the Renaissance and on into the
modern world where traces can still be found. In its essential
nature, courtly love, or fin' amors, as the Provencal poets
called it, was the expression of the knightly worship of a refining
ideal embodied in the person of the beloved. Only a truly noble
nature could generate and nurture such a love; only a woman of
magnanimity of spirit was a worthy object. The act of loving was in
itself ennobling and refining, the means to the fullest expression
of what was potentially fine and elevated in human nature.
More often than not, such a love
expressed itself in terms that were feudal and religious. Thus,
just as a vassal was expected to honor and serve his lord, so a
lover was expected to serve his lady, to obey her commands, and to
gratify her merest whims. Absolute obedience and unswerving loyalty
were critical. To incur the displeasure of one's lady was to be
cast into the void, beyond all light, warmth, and possibility of
life. And just as the feudal lord stood above and beyond his
vassal, so the lady occupied a more celestial sphere than that of
her lover. Customarily she seemed remote and haughty, imperious and
difficult to please. She expected to be served and wooed, minutely
and at great length. If gratified by the ardors of her
lover-servant, she might at length grant him her special notice; in
exceptional circumstances, she might even grant him that last,
longed-for favor. Physical consummation of love, however, was not
obligatory. What was important was the prolonged and exalting
experience of being in love.
It was usually one of the
assumptions of courtly love that the lady in question was married,
thus establishing the triangular pattern of lover-lady-jealous
husband. This meant that the affair was at least potentially
adulterous, and had to be conducted in an atmosphere of secrecy and
danger. The absolute discretion of the lover was therefore
indispensable if the honor of the lady were to be preserved. Though
the convention did not stipulate adultery as a sine qua non,
it is nevertheless true that the two great patterns of courtly love
in the Middle Ages--Tristan and Isolt and Lancelot and
Guenevere--both involved women who deceived their husbands.
Implications of Courtly Love
What practical effect did the
convention of courtly love have on the situation of women in the
Middle Ages? Very little, if we are to believe social historians,
who point out that there is no evidence to show that the legal and
economic position of women was materially enhanced in any way that
can be attributed to the influence of fin' amors. In a
broader cultural context, however, it is possible to discern two
long range effects of courtly love on western civilization. For one
thing, it provided Europe with a refined and elevated language with
which to describe the phenomenology of love. For another, it was a
significant factor in the augmented social role of women. Life
sometimes has a way of imitating art, and there is little doubt
that the aristocratic men and women of the Middle Ages began to act
out in their own loves the pattern of courtly behavior they read
about in the fictional romances and love lyrics of the period. The
social effect was to accord women preeminence in the great,
central, human activity of courtship and marriage. Thus women
became more than just beloved objects--haughty, demanding,
mysterious; they became, in a very real sense, what they have
remained ever since, the chief arbiters of the game of love and the
impresarios of refined passion.
Toward the end of the Middle Ages,
in the work of Dante and other poets of the fourteenth century, the
distinction between amor and caritas became blurred.
Chaucer's Prioress ironically wears a brooch on which is inscribed,
"Amor Vincit Omnia" ("Love Conquers All"). The secular imagery of
courtly love was used in religious poems in praise of the Virgin
Mary. The lover with "a gentle heart," as in a poem by Guido
Guinizelli, could be led through a vision of feminine beauty to a
vision of heavenly grace. One of Dante's greatest achievements was
to turn his beloved, seen primarily in physical, worldly, courtly
love terms in his early work, La Vita Nuova, into the
abstract, spiritualized, religious figure of Beatrice in The
Divine Comedy.
Adapted from A Guide to the Study of Literature: A Companion Text for Core Studies 6, Landmarks of Literature, ©English Department, Brooklyn College.
