Content deleted Content added
Immanuelle (talk | contribs) added Category:European Cultural History using HotCat |
rv to version of 10:59, 8 March 2024, by Deor |
||
| (36 intermediate revisions by 18 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{Short description|Medieval European literary conception of love}}
[[File:Leighton-God Speed!.jpg|thumb|[[God Speed (painting)|''God Speed!'']] by [[Edmund Blair Leighton]], 1900: a late Victorian view of a lady giving a favor to a knight about to
'''Courtly love''' ({{lang-oc|fin'amor}} {{IPA-oc|finaˈmuɾ|}}; {{lang-fr|amour courtois}} {{IPA-fr|amuʁ kuʁtwa|}}) was a [[medieval Europe]]an literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and [[chivalry]]. 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". This kind of love
Courtly love began in the [[Noble court|ducal and princely courts]] of [[Duchy of Aquitaine|Aquitaine]], [[Duchy of Provence|Provence]], [[Champagne (province)|Champagne]], [[Duchy of Burgundy|ducal Burgundy]] and the [[Norman Kingdom of Sicily]]<ref name="Ousby, p. 213">{{cite book |editor-last=Ousby |editor-first=I. |chapter=Courtly Love |title=The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English |year=1995 |page=213 }}</ref> at the end of the eleventh century. In essence, courtly love was an experience between [[eroticism|erotic desire]] and spiritual attainment, "a love at once illicit and morally elevating, passionate and [[discipline]]d, humiliating and exalting, human and [[transcendence (philosophy)|transcendent]]".<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=Francis X. |editor-last=Newman |year=1968 |title=The Meaning of Courtly Love |at=vii |isbn=0-87395-038-0 }}</ref> The topic was prominent with both musicians and poets, being frequently used by [[troubadour]]s, ''[[trouvère]]s'' and ''[[
The term "courtly love" was first popularized by [[Gaston Paris]] and has since come under a wide variety of definitions and uses. Its interpretation, origins and influences continue to be a matter of critical debate.
Line 15:
The term and Paris's definition were soon widely accepted and adopted. In 1936 [[C. S. 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".<ref>Lewis, C.S., ''The Allegory of Love'', p. 2. (1936)</ref>
Later, historians such as [[D. W. Robertson Jr.]],<ref>Robertson Jr., D. W., "Some Medieval Doctrines of Love", ''A Preface to Chaucer''.</ref> in the 1960s and John C. Moore<ref>John C. Moore begins his review of the history and pitfalls of the term, "The beginning of the term 'courtly love' is commonly placed in one of two centuries, the nineteenth or the twelfth" (John C. Moore, "Courtly Love": A Problem of Terminology", ''[[Journal of the History of Ideas]]'' '''40'''.4 [October 1979], pp. 621–632).</ref> and E. Talbot Donaldson<ref>E. Talbot Donaldson, "The Myth of Courtly Love", ''Speaking of Chaucer'' (New York: Norton, 1970), pp. 154–163.</ref> 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. 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''. In addition, other terms and phrases associated with "courtliness" and "love" are common throughout the Middle Ages. 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.<ref name="Boase">Roger Boase (1986). "Courtly Love," in ''[[Dictionary of the Middle Ages]]'', Vol. 3, pp. 667–668.</ref>
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".<ref name=busby/> 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.<ref name=busby/> This presents a clear problem in the understanding of courtliness.<ref name=busby>Busby, Keith, and Christopher Kleinhenz. Courtly Arts and the Art of Courtliness: Selected Papers from the Eleventh Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society. Cambridge, MA: D.S. Brewer, 2006. 679-692. Print.</ref>
Line 45:
According to an argument outlined by [[Maria Rosa Menocal]] in ''The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History'' (1987), in 11th-century Spain<!-- Muslim al-Andalus, Christian Spain, or both ? -->, a group of wandering poets appeared who would go from court to court, and sometimes travel to Christian courts in southern France, a situation closely mirroring what would happen in southern France about a century later. Contacts between these Spanish poets and the French troubadours were frequent. The metrical forms used by the Spanish poets resembled those later used by the troubadours.<ref name="Menocal">
{{cite
| last1= Menocal|first1= Maria Rosa
| title= The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History: A Forgotten Heritage
| url= https://muse.jhu.edu/book/3592
| website= Project Muse|date= 3 August 2010
|publisher= Penn Press |isbn= 9780812200713
| access-date= 24 January 2018|ref= 45
}}
Line 57 ⟶ 59:
The historic analysis of courtly love varies between different schools of historians. That sort of history which views the early Middle Ages dominated by a prudish and patriarchal theocracy views courtly love as a "humanist" reaction to the puritanical views of the Catholic Church.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eleanorofaquitaine.net/The%20Practice%20of%20Courtly%20Love.htm |title=Deirdre O'Siodhachain, The Practice of Courtly Love |publisher=Eleanorofaquitaine.net |access-date=2010-01-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820155345/http://www.eleanorofaquitaine.net/The%20Practice%20of%20Courtly%20Love.htm |archive-date=2008-08-20 }}</ref><ref>This analysis is heavily informed by the Chivalric–Matriarchal reading of courtly love, put forth by critics such as Thomas Warton and Karl Vossler. This theory considers courtly love as the intersection between the theocratic Catholic Church and "Germanic/Celtic/Pictish" matriarchy. For more on this theory, see The Origin and Meaning of Courtly Love, Roger Boase, pg 75.</ref> Scholars who endorse this view value courtly love for its exaltation of femininity as an ennobling, spiritual, and moral force, in contrast to the ironclad chauvinism of the first and second estates.<ref name="Boase"/> The condemnation of courtly love in the beginning of the 13th century by the church as heretical, is seen by these scholars as the Church's attempt to put down this "sexual rebellion".<ref name="Boase"/><ref>[http://www.eleanorofaquitaine.net/The%20Practice%20of%20Courtly%20Love.htm Deirdre O'Siodhachain, The Practice of Courtly Love] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820155345/http://www.eleanorofaquitaine.net/The%20Practice%20of%20Courtly%20Love.htm |date=2008-08-20 }}</ref>
However, other scholars note that courtly love was certainly tied to the Church's effort to civilize the crude Germanic feudal codes in the late 11th century. It has also been suggested that the prevalence of arranged marriages required other outlets for the expression of more personal occurrences of romantic love, and thus it was not in reaction to the prudery or patriarchy of the Church but to the nuptial customs of the era that courtly love arose.<ref name="ReferenceA">[[Denis de Rougemont]] (1956), ''Love in the Western World''.</ref> In the Germanic cultural world, a special form of courtly love can be found, namely ''Minne''.
At times, the lady could be a ''[[princesse lointaine]]'', a far-away princess, and some tales told of men who had fallen in love with women whom they had never seen, merely on hearing their perfection described, but normally she was not so distant. As the [[etiquette]] of courtly love became more complicated, the knight might wear the colors of his lady: where blue or black were sometimes the colors of faithfulness, green could be a sign of unfaithfulness. Salvation, previously found in the hands of the priesthood, now came from the hands of one's lady. In some cases, there were also women troubadours who expressed the same sentiment for men.
Line 63 ⟶ 65:
==Literary convention==
The literary convention of courtly love can be found in most of the major authors of the Middle Ages, such as [[Geoffrey Chaucer]], [[John Gower]], [[Dante]], [[Marie de France]], [[Chretien de Troyes]], [[Gottfried von Strassburg]] and [[Sir Thomas Malory|Thomas Malory]]. The medieval [[genres]] in which courtly love conventions can be found include the [[lyric poetry|lyric]], the [[Romance (heroic literature)|romance]] and the [[allegory]].
===Lyric===
Line 94 ⟶ 96:
Through such routes as Capellanus's record of the Courts of Love<ref>Helen Waddell, ''The Wandering Scholars'' (1968) p. 311</ref> and the later works of [[Philosophy of love#Petrarchism|Petrarchism]] (as well as the continuing influence of Ovid),<ref name="Boase"/> the themes of courtly love were not confined to the medieval, but appear both in serious and comic forms in early modern Europe. Shakespeare's ''Romeo and Juliet,'' for example, shows Romeo attempting to love Rosaline in an almost contrived courtly fashion while Mercutio mocks him for it; and both in his plays and his sonnets the writer can be seen appropriating the conventions of courtly love for his own ends.<ref>William C. Carroll ed., ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona'' (2004) p. 31</ref>
[[Paul Gallico]]'s 1939 novel ''[[The Adventures of Hiram Holliday]]'' depicts a Romantic modern American consciously seeking to model himself on the ideal
==Points of controversy==
Line 114 ⟶ 116:
===Courts of love===
<!--NOTE: [[Courts of love]] and [[Court of love]] redirect here as
A point of controversy was the existence of "courts of love", first mentioned by [[Andreas Capellanus]]. These were supposed courts made up of tribunals staffed by 10 to 70 women who would hear a case of love and rule on it based on the rules of love. In the 19th century, historians took the existence of these courts as fact, but later historians such as Benton noted "none of the abundant letters, chronicles, songs and pious dedications" suggest they ever existed outside of the poetic literature.<ref name="John Benton"/> Likewise, [[Feminism|feminist]] historian [[Emily James Smith Putnam|Emily James Putnam]] wrote in 1910 that, secrecy being "among the lover's first duties" in the ideology of courtly love, it is "manifestly absurd to suppose that a sentiment which depended on concealment for its existence should be amenable to public inquiry".<ref name=Putnam>{{cite magazine |last=Putnam |first=Emily James |author-link=Emily James Smith Putnam |date=1910 |title=The Lady of the Castle |url=https://archive.org/details/atlantic106bostuoft/page/357/mode/1up?view=theater |magazine=The Atlantic Monthly |volume=CVI |page=357 |access-date=16 October 2022}}</ref> According to Diane Bornstein, one way to reconcile the differences between the references to courts of love in the literature, and the lack of documentary evidence in real life, is that they were like literary salons or social gatherings, where people read poems, debated questions of love, and played word games of flirtation.<ref name="Bornstein"/>
===Courtly love as a response to
== Stages ==
Line 157 ⟶ 159:
==External links==
*Michael Delahoyde, [http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/medieval/love.html Courtly Love], Washington State University.
*Andreas Capellanus, [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/capellanus.asp "The Art of Courtly Love (btw.
*[https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9026618/courtly-love "Courtly love"]. In ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' Online.
*Richard Utz "[http://www.medievalists.net/2018/10/were-women-ever-sacred/ Were Women Ever Sacred? Some Medieval and Modern Men Would Like Us to Think So]," medievalists.net, 14 October 2018
Line 168 ⟶ 170:
[[Category:Love]]
[[Category:Interpersonal relationships]]
[[Category:
[[pl:Trubadurzy (literatura)#Fin' amors – miłość dworska]]
| |||