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Fin amor and social finesse: Women and the new sensitivity within the world of chivalry.
1. Courtly poetry / Courtly love / fin amor sophisticated [representation] of love.
a. Crusades in late 11th c. give a new dimension to the class of bellatores. Spirituality,
civility, morality, politeness and honour become idelized markers of the upper class
men.
b. French troubadours (in the south) and trouveurs, (in the north): those who
find/invent ways of putting ideas and emotions into the language of poetry.
c. The court of Aquitaine as a centre of such culture in France.
d. Later (2nd half of the 12th c.) the court of Champagne (Countess Marie de
Champagne, daughter of Eleanor)  sponsoring both Chrétien de Troyes and the
culture of courtly love.
e. Influences of such culture in England, Italy and Germany (courtly love poets called
there Minnesänger).
2. Courtly literature in France and elsewhere  sublimations of love.
a. The culture of the south  Aquitaine, Languedoc (earlier the name for the French
dialect of the south).
b. Possible influences of Arabic culture and literature from the Iberian Peninsula (Al-
Andalus, Andalusia).
REPROACH, Abd al-Rahman V, ABSENCE, Abu Bakr al-Turtushi (1059-1126)
Caliph of Cordoba (d. 1024 AD)
Every night I scan
My nights are much longer The heavens with my eyes
Since you insisted on banishing me Seeking the star that you are contemplating.
From your side,
I question travellers
Oh, Gazelle who delays From all the corners of the earth
Her promise and does not keep Hoping to meet one who has breathed your
The word she gave! fragrance.
Have you forgotten When the wind blows
The night we spent I make sure it blows in my face:
On a bed of roses The breeze might bring me news of you. [& ]
When stars on the horizon Secretly I study every face I see
Gleamed like pearls Hoping against hope
Against lapis lazuli? To glimpse a trace of your beauty.
3. Courtly love (amour courtois / fin amor).
a. Aristocratic feudal Europe as based on arranged marriages.
b. idealized and sophisticated representation of love as emotional suffering of two
lovers (preferably unmarried).
c. Idealized image of the woman (worshipped by her lover, but unable to perform any
real action).
d. Church accuses courtly love as promoting adultery  (channeling it into the Virgin
Mary cult in 12th c. Europe).
e. Essential courtly love manual by Andreas Capellanus (André le Chapelain), De
amore or De arte honeste amandi, late 12th c., the court of Marie de Champagne.
f. The quintessential courtly love poem  Le roman de la rose (The romance of the
rose) by Guillame de Lorris (ca. 1230) and later extended by Jean de Meun (ca.
1275)
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g. Enormous popularity but also controversy raised by the poem  numerous later
(Geoffrey Chaucer s into English) translations and huge influence of the poem.
4. Anglo-Norman/Anglo-French literature in 12th c. England - Marie de France.
a. Unknown poetess poss. writing at the court of Henry II of England (1154-1189),
ca.1170s-1180s.
b. Composed lais (lays, stories), narrative poems of adventures in rhymed French, based
on Celtic folklore and legends from Bretagne (Brittany), dedicated to King Henry.
c. Adventure (aventure, advenire  to arrive )  a transformative event happens to the
characters.
d. Elements of magic and elements of the supernatural world.
e. Chivalry and the culture of courtly love in her lais: fidelity, adultery.
f. She displays a clear sense of self-worth: When there is in a country a man or a
woman of great reputation, those who are jealous of his or her talents often say
spiteful things (Prologue to Guigemar).
g. Also the author of Ysopet fables (fables by Aesop  bajki Ezopa), moralizing poems
with animal characters in human roles.
5. 12th c. France  intense literary activity influencing other parts of Europe (notably England):
chanson de geste, romances (Arthurian, Carolingian, ancient), love lyrics (troubadours and
trouveres), fabliaux; also music.
" Lais are related to both romances and fabliaux.
" The lais clearly written by a woman  interest in the welfare of infants, in fates of
young wives, sexual frustration.
" In 1180 Denis Piramus mentions Marie de France and the popularity of her lais: they
are "pleasing to the ladies who desire just what they offer (The Life of St. Edmund).
" Marie s characters (not only adulterous love):
" she focuses on their individuality, not on their reintegration into the society;
" they are on their own set against forces of evil (jealousy of husbands, envy of the
society);
" adultery is not always condemned (the theme of being badly married, mal mariée);
" varied views on love: unexpected, suffering, leads to disasters, unfulfilled but also
overcoming obstacles, fruition, devotion to the beloved.
from: Andreas Capellanus (late 12th cent.), De Amore (1184-86)
What is Love?
Love is an inborn suffering proceeding from the sight and immoderate thought upon the beauty of the other sex,
for which cause above all other things one wishes to embrace the other and, by common assent, in this embrace
to fulfill the commandments of love. . . .
From Whence Love is Named?
"Love (amor)" is derived from the word "hook (amar)", which signifies "capture" or "be captured." For he who
loves is caught in the chains of desire and wishes to catch another with his hook. & he who is truly captured by
love tries to attract another with his blandishments and with all his power tries to hold two hearts together with
one spiritual chain or, if they be already united, to hold them always together. . . .
What is the Effect of Love?
This is the effect of love: that the true lover can not be corrupted by avarice [i.e. greed]; love makes an ugly and
rude person shine with all beauty, knows how to endow with nobility even one of humble birth, can even lend
humility to the proud; he who loves is accustomed humbly to serve others. Oh, what a marvellous thing is love,
which makes a man shine with so many virtues and which teaches everyone to abound in good customs. . .
.
Stages of Courtly Love (Adapted from Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror)
Attraction to the lady, usually via eyes/glance;
" Worship of the lady from afar (amor de lonh);
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" Declaration of passionate devotion;
" Virtuous rejection by the lady;
" Renewed wooing with oaths of virtue and eternal fealty;
" Moans of approaching death from unsatisfied desire (and other physical manifestations of
lovesickness);
" Heroic deeds of valour which win the lady's heart;
" Consummation of the secret love;
" Endless adventures and subterfuges avoiding detection.
A selection from The Rules of Love [outlined by Anreas Capellanus]
1. Marriage is no excuse for not loving.
2. He who is not jealous cannot love.
3. Whoever is blind cannot truly love.
4. Love is always growing or diminishing.
5. Two years of mourning for a dead lover are prescribed for surviving lovers.
6. No one should be deprived of love without a valid reason.
7. No one can love who is not driven to do so by the power of love.
8. Love rarely lasts when it is revealed.
9. An easy attainment makes love contemptible; a difficult one makes it more dear.
10. Every lover turns pale in the presence of his beloved.
11. When a lover suddenly has sight of his beloved, his heart beats wildly.
12. A new love expels an old one.
14. If love diminishes, it quickly leaves and rarely revives.
15. True jealousy always increases the effects of love.
16. If a lover suspects another, jealousy and the effects of love increase.
17. He who is vexed by the thoughts of love eats little and seldom sleeps.
18. Every action of a lover ends in the thought of his beloved.
20. A lover can never have enough of the embraces of his beloved.
21. He who suffers from an excess of [sexual] passion is not suited to love.
22. The true lover is continuously obsessed with the image of his beloved.
23. Nothing prevents a woman from being loved by two men, or a man from being loved by two women.