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Courtly love in medieval manuscripts4/6/2023 The practice of courtly love developed in the castle life of four regions: Aquitaine, Provence, Champagne and ducal Burgundy, from around the time of the First Crusade (1099). History Ĭourt of Love in Provence in the 14th century (after a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris) This presents a clear problem in the understanding of courtliness. He argues that many of the texts that scholars claim to be courtly also include "uncourtly" texts, and argues that there is no clear way to determine "where courtliness ends and uncourtliness starts" because readers would enjoy texts which were supposed to be entirely courtly without realizing they were also enjoying texts which were uncourtly. Richard Trachsler says that "the concept of courtly literature is linked to the idea of the existence of courtly texts, texts produced and read by men and women sharing some kind of elaborate culture they all have in common". Even though Paris used a term with little support in the contemporaneous literature, it was not a neologism and does usefully describe a particular conception of love and focuses on the courtliness that was at its essence. In addition, other terms and phrases associated with "courtliness" and "love" are common throughout the Middle Ages. Even though the term "courtly love" does appear only in just one extant Provençal poem (as cortez amors in a late 12th-century lyric by Peire d'Alvernhe), it is closely related to the term fin'amor ("fine love") which does appear frequently in Provençal and French, as well as German translated as hohe Minne. Talbot Donaldson in the 1970s, were critical of the term as being a modern invention, Donaldson calling it "The Myth of Courtly Love", because it is not supported in medieval texts. Lewis wrote The Allegory of Love further solidifying courtly love as a "love of a highly specialized sort, whose characteristics may be enumerated as Humility, Courtesy, Adultery, and the Religion of Love". The term and Paris's definition were soon widely accepted and adopted. Sexual satisfaction, Paris said, may not have been a goal or even result, but the love was not entirely platonic either, as it was based on sexual attraction. The lover (idolizer) accepts the independence of his mistress and tries to make himself worthy of her by acting bravely and honorably (nobly) and by doing whatever deeds she might desire, subjecting himself to a series of tests (ordeals) to prove to her his ardor and commitment. Paris said amour courtois was an idolization and ennobling discipline. While its origin is uncertain, the term amour courtois ("courtly love") was given greater popularity by Gaston Paris in his 1883 article "Études sur les romans de la Table Ronde: Lancelot du Lac, II: Le conte de la charrette", a treatise inspecting Chrétien de Troyes's Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart (1177). Its interpretation, origins and influences continue to be a matter of critical debate. The term "courtly love" was first popularized by Gaston Paris and has since come under a wide variety of definitions and uses. The topic was also popular with major writers, including Dante, Petrarch and Geoffrey Chaucer. The topic was prominent with both musicians and poets, being frequently used by troubadours, trouvères and minnesänger. In essence, courtly love was an experience between erotic desire and spiritual attainment, "a love at once illicit and morally elevating, passionate and disciplined, humiliating and exalting, human and transcendent". Ĭourtly love began in the ducal and princely courts of Aquitaine, Provence, Champagne, ducal Burgundy and the Norman Kingdom of Sicily at the end of the eleventh century. "Loving nobly" was considered to be an enriching and improving practice. In the high Middle Ages, a "game of love" developed around these ideas as a set of social practices. This kind of love is originally a literary fiction created for the entertainment of the nobility, but as time passed, these ideas about love changed and attracted a larger audience. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing various deeds or services for ladies because of their "courtly love". God Speed! by Edmund Blair Leighton, 1900: a late Victorian view of a lady giving a favor to a knight about to do battleĬourtly love ( Occitan: fin'amor French: amour courtois ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry.
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