courtly love
-
What is courtly love in literature?
Courtly love, emerging in the Middle Ages, was a code of behavior between ladies and their lovers, greatly influencing medieval literature. It began with troubadour poetry in southern France in the late 11th century. The term amour courtois translates to courtly love.
The courtly lover served his lady, with the love often being adulterous because marriages were for business or alliances. The lover worshipped his lady as a saint, serving the god of love, where faithlessness was a sin. This concept, inspired by Ovid and influenced by religious devotion and Islamic mystical philosophy, quickly spread across Europe.
This idea is evident in German minnesinger lyrics and court epics. The German courtly poet, Walther von der Vogelweide, challenged the chaste eroticism of courtly love with his poem, "Unter der Linden", representing a more natural and spontaneous love.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Where and when did the idea of courtly love first appear?
The idea of courtly love, a highly conventionalized code prescribing the behavior of ladies and their lovers, first appeared in the troubadour poetry of Aquitaine and Provence in southern France toward the end of the 11th century. It was spread across Europe by Eleanor of Aquitaine and was decisive in transmission. The term amour courtois was widely used during the late 19th century through the work of the French philologist Gaston Paris, but the term itself was rarely used in medieval literature of any European language.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What are some main features or rules of courtly love?
Courtly love, arising in the Middle Ages, was a code of conduct between ladies and their lovers, influencing literature with the theme of amour courtois. The courtly lover served his lady, with the love often being adulterous because marriages were for business or alliances. The lover worshiped his lady as a saint, with faithlessness considered a sin.
Key aspects of courtly love:
* The lover existed to serve his lady.
* Love was viewed as a delightful disease, demanding faithful service.
* It involved long-suffering endurance of the coldness of an unapproachable, high noble lady.
* The lover was expected to polish his speech, manners, and virtues to a high standard.
* Faithfulness was paramount.5 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How was courtly love often shown in medieval stories or poems?
In medieval literature, courtly love was often depicted through a highly conventionalized code of behavior between ladies and their lovers. The lover typically saw himself as serving a god of love and worshiping his lady as a saint, always ready to fulfill her demands.
Common themes included the lover's suffering from the coldness of an unapproachable noble lady, enduring hardship in hopes of winning her affection. This involved polishing his speech, manners, and virtues to meet courtly standards. Poems and stories often portrayed the lover displaying outward signs of passion, such as sighing, trembling, and sleeplessness, while maintaining respect for his lady. Stories of knights seeking adventures to prove their love and devotion were also common.
4 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How did courtly love influence how people viewed romance and relationships in literature?
Courtly love, a code of behavior for ladies and their lovers during the Middle Ages, significantly shaped views on romance in literature. Originating in the 11th century with the troubadour poetry of southern France, it idealized physical passion outside marriage, influenced by the Roman poet Ovid and religious devotions.
This concept quickly spread across Europe, impacting literature. Chrétien de Troyes's Lancelot and Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan und Isolde exemplify its influence. Italian poetry, especially Petrarch’s sonnets, and Dante's fusion of courtly love with mystical vision in La divina commedia further demonstrate its reach. Even in England, it shaped courtship rituals, marking a profound shift in how love and relationships were perceived and portrayed in literature.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Can you name some famous works or authors that used the theme of courtly love?
Courtly love, a theme prevalent in medieval literature, dictated the behavior between ladies and their lovers. Characterized by idealized adoration and service, this concept influenced numerous authors and works.
Examples include:
* Chrétien de Troyes: Known for Arthurian romances like Lancelot, ou Le Chevalier de la charrette, where the hero is subservient to his mistress, Guinevere.
* Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun: Authors of Roman de la rose, an allegorical poem that explores courtly love, with Jean de Meun later adding a critical perspective.
* Gottfried von Strassburg: Author of Tristan und Isolde, a court epic embodying courtly ideals.
* Dante Alighieri: Fused courtly love with mystical vision in La divina commedia, where Beatrice serves as a spiritual guide.
* Walther von der Vogelweide: German courtly poet who challenged the conventions of courtly love with his poem "Unter der Linden," celebrating mutual and passionate love.7 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
courtly love, in the later Middle Ages, a highly conventionalized code that prescribed the behaviour of ladies and their lovers. It also provided the theme of an extensive courtly medieval literature that began with the troubadour poetry of Aquitaine and Provence in southern France toward the end of the 11th century. The term amour courtois—translated into English as “courtly love”—came into wide use during the late 19th century through the work of the French philologist Gaston Paris, but the term itself was rarely used in medieval literature of any European language. Today courtly love is practical shorthand for an understanding of love that, according to some scholars, came into being during the Middle Ages and that constituted a revolution in thought and feeling, the effects of which resonated throughout Western culture.
The courtly lover existed to serve his lady. His love was invariably adulterous, marriage at that time being usually the result of business interest or the seal of a power alliance. Ultimately, the lover saw himself as serving the all-powerful god of love and worshipping his lady-saint. Faithlessness was the mortal sin.
The philosophy found little precedent in other, older cultures. Conditions in the castle civilization of 11th-century southern France, however, were favourable to a change of attitude toward women. Castles themselves housed many men but few women, and poets, wishing to idealize physical passion, looked beyond the marriage state. The Roman poet Ovid undoubtedly provided inspiration in the developing concept of courtly love. His Ars amatoria had pictured a lover as the slave of passion—sighing, trembling, growing pale and sleepless, even dying for love. The Ovidian lover’s adoration was calculated to win sensual rewards. The courtly lover, however, while displaying the same outward signs of passion, was fired by respect for his lady. That idealistic outlook may be explained partly by contemporary religious devotions, both orthodox and heretical, especially regarding the Virgin Mary, and partly by France’s exposure to Islamic mystical philosophy (gained through contacts during the Crusades), which embodied concepts of love—as a delightful disease, as demanding of faithful service—that were to characterize courtly love.
" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">
Courtly love may therefore be regarded as the complex product of numerous factors—social, erotic, religious, and philosophical. The idea spread swiftly across Europe, and a decisive influence in that transmission was Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife first to Louis VII of France and then to Henry II of England, who inspired some of the best poetry of Bernard de Ventadour, among the last (12th century) and finest of troubadour poets. Her daughter Marie of Champagne encouraged the composition of Chrétien de Troyes’s Lancelot (Le Chevalier de la charrette), a courtly romance whose hero obeys every imperious (and unreasonable) demand of the heroine. Soon afterward the doctrine was “codified” in a three-book treatise by André le Chapelain. In the 13th century a long allegorical poem, the Roman de la rose, expressed the concept of a lover suspended between happiness and despair. The 13th century also produced one of the few medieval uses of the term courtly love, in the Occitan (Provençal) romance Flamenca, which refers to amor cortes. (Fin’amor, in Occitan, and amour fine, in French, are closely related terms also used in medieval texts.)
Courtly love soon pervaded the literatures of Europe. The German minnesinger lyrics and court epics such as Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210) are evidence of its power. Italian poetry embodied the courtly ideals as early as the 12th century, and during the 14th century their essence was distilled in Petrarch’s sonnets to Laura. But perhaps more significantly, Dante had earlier managed to fuse courtly love and mystical vision: his Beatrice was, in life, his earthly inspiration, and in La divina commedia she became his spiritual guide to the mysteries of Paradise. The literatures of Spain—Castilian, Catalan, Galician—also registered the effect of what came to be called there amor cortés. Courtly love was a vital influential force on most medieval literature in England, but there it came to be adopted as part of the courtship ritual leading to marriage. That development, discussed in C.S. Lewis’s The Allegory of Love (1936), became more pronounced in later romances.