Courtly Love

5) The LOVE POETRY is often misunderstood because the writers were very idealistics. They had idealized the average age and they fell in love of unreachable women.


7) IDEALIZATION OF LOVE:Refutes two theories which trace the great change in our sentiments respectively to the Germanic temperament and to the Christian religion:

I- THEORY: Christianity by its insistence on compassionand on the sanctity of the human body, had a tendency to soften or abash the more extreme brutalities and flippancies of the ancient world in human life, and therefore also in sexual matter.II-THEORY: turns on a supposedly innate characteristic in the Germanic races describes is a primitive awe of women as uncanny and probably prophetic beings.

Both theories lies in the fact that theChristian and Germanic period had existed for several centuries before “love” appeared in our sense of the word. The deepest of worldly emotions in this periods is the love of man for man, the mutuallove of warriors who die together fighting against odds, and the affection between vassal and lord.



FEUDALIZATION OF LOVE:

Poets adopted the terminology of feudalism, declaring themselvesthe vassal of the lady and addressing her as midons (my lord), a sort of code name so that the poet did not have to reveal the lady's name, but which was flattering by addressing her as his lord. Thetroubadour's model of the ideal lady was the wife of his employer or lord, a lady of higher status, usually the rich and powerful female head of the castle. When her husband was away on Crusade orother business she dominated the household and cultural affairs; sometimes this was the case even when the husband was at home. The lady was rich and powerful and the poet gave voice to theaspirations of the courtier class, for only those who were noble could engage in courtly love. This new kind of love saw nobility not based on wealth and family history, but on character and actions.