Courtly Love

Courtly Love

• known in medieval France as "fine love" or fin amour

• originated with troubadours of late 11th century

• promoted new form of paganism called Gai Saber (literally, "the happy wisdom“)

• challenged and sought to redefine traditional Christian ideals of love, marriage, manhood, virtue, and femininity.

Courtly Love

• sponsored by nobles like Eleanor of Aquitaine• gradually spread throughout France and

eventually into England and Germany• l'amour courtois (courtly love) identified by

extravagantly artificial and stylized relationship--forbidden affair characterized by five main attributes

The Attributes of Courtly Love

Aristocratic: courtly love practiced by noble lords and ladies; properly in royal palace or court

Ritualistic: Couples exchanged

gifts and tokens; lady wooed according

to elaborate conventions of etiquette; songs, poems,

bouquets, sweet favors, and ceremonial gestures; she need only

return a hint of approval; she was the exalted domina--the commanding "mistress" of the affair

The Attributes of Courtly Love

Secret: lovers pledged to strict secrecy; lovers composed a universe unto themselves--a special world with its own places (e.g., the secret rendezvous), rules, codes, and commandments

The Attributes of Courtly Love

Adulterous: “fine love" was extramarital; principle attractions was escape from dull routines and

boring confinements of noble marriage; typically little more than political

or economic alliance to royal offspring; troubadours thought marriage

religious swindle; instead exalted ideal of carnal relationship whose objective was not crude physical satisfaction but sensual intimacy

The Attributes of Courtly Love

The Attributes of Courtly Love

Literary: first gained attention as subject and theme in imaginative literature; Knights and ladies were popular figures in song and fable