Courtly Love

1
Courtly Love

• History and Primary Factors of a Secular
  Feminine Literature

2
Write your own lai

• Your assignment, after we read and discuss Marie
  de France, is to write a lai of your own
• Your lai will benefit from close attention to
  Marie de Frances stories
• It will also benefit from this lecture, so note
  the work of Andreas Cappelanus

3
Historical Development

• Arab poets brought lyrics of worship of the woman
  to Europe in the wake of the crusades in the 11th
  Century
• In the 1100s troubadours wrote and sang stories
  about sexual love, especially adultery, in the
  courts of southern France and northern Italy
• Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen of Poitiers, France
  in the late 1100s, ruled with assistance from
  her daughter Marie

4
Eleanor and Marie

• Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204) and her
  daughter, Marie, Countess of Champagne set up a
  court controlled by women which encouraged poets
  and scholars
• This was a unique situation in which wealthy
  powerful women were able to created their own
  environment
• This picture is from a stonemasons image when
  Eleanor was 30.

5
The Court of Love in Poitiers

• Eleanor and Marie had a court of 60 noble women
  who routinely held court in which they disputed
  and made judgments about love according to their
  code of courtly love
• The code was developed to free women from their
  inferior role as Eve and elevate their status to
  Mary, mother of Jesus
• The woman is not the property of a man, but is
  the mistress of a man who is at her command
• This court had little to do with the realities of
  womens roles it was a social court, not a legal
  one!

6
The Rules of Courtly Love

• Marie had Andrew the Chaplain, a cleric at
  Poitiers, write a code of love
• Andrew, known as Andreas Cappelanus, wrote The
  Art of Courtly Love. It survives to our own time
• Proper behavior of lovers
• Woman as mistress, man as vassal

7
What is love?

• Love is an inborn suffering that comes from the
  sight and excessive reflection on the beauty of
  the opposite sex, which causes a wish above all
  else to embrace the other
• Love is wonderful, since it teaches men to be
  virtuous and honorable
• The rules of love are meant for men to follow, so
  that they will please women

8
How love grows

• It must be secret
• Love should be restrained
• It should be generous, charitable, and humble
• Love attempts to please the woman
• Lovers should associate with good men and avoid
  wicked ones
• Jealousy makes love stronger

9
How love weakens

• Seeing the beloved too often
• Seeing the beloved too little
• Rude, uncivilized, rough behavior
• Lack of wealth or loss of wealth
• Disrespect for religious rituals and beliefs

10
A summary of the 31 rules

• The man cannot control his desire for her
• The woman is in control of him, completely
• She is cold, even cruel and gives him nothing
• He suffers from unconsummated desire
• The woman is unattainable, but he cannot help
  giving up everything for her
• Only if and when she chooses, does she reward him
  by making love to him

11
Further insights (Andreas)

• No one can love unless he or she is compelled by
  the sight and thought of the other
• Easy attainment of love makes it worthless
  difficulty makes it prized
• Marriage is no excuse for not loving
• A new love extinguishes an old love
• Nothing forbids one woman being loved by two men
  or one man by two women
• Wealth is helpful, greed is destructive

12
Courtly love and the goddess

• Some scholars believe that the origins of courtly
  love are in Celtic feminism
• The Celtic goddess Artemis (Diana) was virgin,
  mother of all creatures, and huntress/destroyer
• http//members.aol.com/KLStoner/essays/courtly_lov
  e.html

Boudica, warrior queen of the Celts, defeated the
Romans in 61 AD