四级八级复习指导资料－欧洲文化入门七
(2). Courtly love ★ ★ ★I. What is courtly love?
n Courtly or Chivalric Love, most often depicted in romances, was typically between knights and married ladies who were usually older and of higher social status. It originated with the so-called troubadours of the late eleventh century, which wrote almost entirely about sexual love.
n Then the Cult of the Virgin Mary got mixed in the courtly love a bit later.
n The “courtly love" relationship is modeled on the feudal relationship between a knight and his liege lord. The knight serves his courtly lady with the same obedience and loyalty which he owes to his liege lord. She is in complete control of the love relationship, while he owes her obedience and submission.
II. Five main attributes that characterize courtly love
n In essence, the courtly love relationship was:
n i. Aristocratic:
n As its name implies, courtly love was practiced by noble lords and ladies; its proper milieu was the royal palace or court.
n ii. Ritualistic:
n The lady was wooed according to elaborate conventions of etiquette (cf. "courtship" and "courtesy") and was the constant recipient of songs, poems, bouquets, sweet favors, and ceremonial gestures. For all these gentle and painstaking attentions on the part of her lover, she need only return a short hint of approval, a mere shadow of affection. After all, she was the exalted domina--the commanding "mistress" of the affair; he was but her servus--a lowly but faithful servant.
n iii. Secret:
n Courtly lovers were pledged to strict secrecy.
n iv. Adulterous:
n Courtly love was extramarital. Indeed one of its principle attractions was that it offered an escape from the dull routines and boring confinements of noble marriage (which was typically based on practical and dynastic concerns rather than on love).
n v. Literary:
n Before it established itself as a popular real-life activity, courtly love first gained attention as a subject and theme in imaginative literature. Ardent knights, that is to say, and their passionately adored ladies were already popular figures in song and fable before they began spawning a host of real-life imitators in the palace halls and boudoirs of medieval Europe.
III. Three unique aspects of courtly love
n i. The ennobling force of human love
n Troubadour love poetry, although conceptually adulterous, inspired the man (and perhaps the woman) and ennobled the lover's character. The knight's love for the lady inspires him to do great deeds, in order to be worthy of her love or to win her favor.
n This power of transformation, of ennobling the character of the lover, is the distinguishing characteristic of Courtly Love. Courtly love is something entirely new in Europe, and the major source of our modern ideas about romantic love.
n ii. The elevation of the beloved above the lover
n iii. Love as ever unsatisfied, ever increasing desire
n
Further reading: Andrew the Chaplain – the code of Courtly Love
n Marie, Countess of Champagne (香巴尼), had Andrew the Chaplain, a cleric at the Court of Poitiers (波瓦第尔), write a formal code of love which would instruct people in the proper behavior of lovers as part of her attempts to civilize Poitiers. There are a total of 31 "rules." Such as:
How Love May be Retained
n Keep it secret
n Be wise and restrained in conduct
n Be generous and charitable
n Be humble, not proud
n Offer service to all ladies
n Do what is pleasing to your loved one
n Associate with good men; avoid the wicked
n Jealousy increases love
n →The Middle Ages, like today, had every variety of love, from the sacred to the profane.
Further reading: Andrew’s rules of love applied to Boccaccio’sDECAMERON
n Frederigo, a young gentleman, fell in love with Monna Giovanna, a beautiful, charming, married Florentine lady.
n Rule 1: Marriage is no real excuse for not loving
n Frederigo spent all his money on tournaments, jousting, hosting feasts and other extravagances, to win Monna Giovanna's love."
四级八级复习指导资料－欧洲文化入门七
n Rule 10: Love is always a stranger in the home of avaricen Rule 14: The easy attainment of love makes it of little value; difficulty of attainment makes it prized.
n She did not care for him or his spendthrift ways. He lost his wealth, retaining only one little farm and one falcon, "among the best in the world."
n Monna's husband died→ she and her son →living a year inthe country near Frederigo's farm.
n The son & Frederigo & his falcon.
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