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In his book, The Reign of Chivalry <\/em> , Richard Barber gives a very fine summary of the courtly love tradition and the romantic tradition that it produced. I reproduce here only some of the main points of his discussion of the lyric love poetry of the troubadours. <\/p>\n 1) Courtly love, Barber argues, is the spell that \u201ctransmutes mere knighthood into chivalry.\u201d He points to \u201cfour elements in the great medieval romances of chivalry\u201d: heroism or prowess, which the courtly tradition inherits from the ancient world; the lyrics of love; marvels such as those found in the folktale; and the romance itself, which uniquely centers \u201con both the hero and heroine.\u201d <\/p>\n Troubadour poetry reflects a \u201ccontinual tension between the physical side of love, love shared and enjoyed, and the longing of an unfulfilled love.\u201d Some praise consummated love as the only true love, while others enjoy the \u201cexquisite pain-pleasure of a love which is either impossible to fulfill or is deliberately denied fulfillment.\u201d Whatever direction the poetry goes, the man\u2019s life is dominated by love, and his main object is to win his lady by gaining her favor. Thus, \u201cfrom his love stem all virtues of this world \u2013 valour, courtesy, generosity \u2013 summed up in the one word pretz, worth. The man who does not love can never hope to be as accomplished as the lover whose desire spurs him on to new achievements.\u201d As he summarizes the point later, \u201cCourtly love has a strongly moral streak in it, a kind of secular morality replacing that of the Church: the lover must keep faith, he must strive towards the grail of his lady\u2019s affections through prowess and self-improvement.\u201d <\/p>\n 3) Guillaume wrote both of physical and spiritual love, but later troubadours tended to side with spiritual love. Marcabru (writing in the mid-12th century) \u201cdistinguishes in his poems between Amars, mere carnal love, and fin\u2019 amors, spiritual love. Amars, which he describes in the bluntest terms, is insatiable lust, which gives no satisfaction; fin\u2019 amors offers not only enduring pleasure but is a way through which man may discover his own nobler nature.\u201d <\/p>\n The social setting of troubadour poetry goes some way to explaining its shape. Marriage, Barber says, was \u201cusually a matter of entirely unromantic feudal business.\u201d If a woman married well, however, she \u201cacquired a status and authority not unlike that of her lord, especially in the south, where Roman law, more favourable to women, was still current.\u201d Spiritual love meets this social condition, in that \u201cit is a kind of adulation, a tribute to grace and beauty in a world where physical love was chiefly concerned with the getting of heirs to estates. <\/p>\n Macabru, a man of humble perhaps illegitimate birth, develops a poetry that meets the situation. He cannot compete in the marriage market; but he can have a pure, spiritual love for a lady. He contrasts the virtuous path of fin\u2019 amors to the vice of an advantageous marriage, severely condemning those who follow Amars. Macabru\u2019s poetry proposes a new religion of sorts, contrasting to the orthodox Christianity of the time, even as he cites Paul and alludes to Augustine and the Apostle John for support. <\/p>\n 4) Bernart de Ventadorn has been described as \u201cthe archetype of the courtly troubadour,\u201d responsible for introducing the notion that the lover is \u201cbound in service to his lady, just as the knight was bound in service to his lord.\u201d This makes the \u201cesoteric ideas\u201d of the earlier troubadours instantly accessible to the average knight, who at least understands fealty. This is the form in which troubadour poetry enters into medieval romance, though sometimes there is the additional twist that the lady, like the liege lord, is the knight\u2019s protector in tournament or battle. <\/p>\n 5) In Germany, medieval love poetry was developed in a slightly different direction by the minnesanger, the \u201clove-singers,\u201d who flourished briefly in the 13th century. In comparison to the troubadours, these were \u201cmuch more forthright in their attitudes to love, and while acknowledging the high ideals, are equally ready to mock those who carry them to excess.\u201d German poets also often take the lady\u2019s viewpoint. Yet, German poets like Ulrich von Lichtenstein were also capable of the same feudalized passion as the troubadours. <\/p>\n 6) The perspective on love developed in medieval romance is often in tension with the lyrical tradition in courtly love. Tristan and Iseult first make an appearance in an Anglo-Norman poem of the mid-12th century. They drink a love potion, and their passion and betrayal all come from that episode. In this form, the story lacks the courtly convention that requires the knight to win the lady\u2019s devotion through his prowess; Tristan winds Iseult\u2019s love by magic. Their passion then dictates all they do, as moral considerations are overwhelmed. In his version, Gottfried of Strassbourg says that \u201cLove is so blissful a thing, so blessed an endeavour, that apart form its teaching none attains worth or reputation,\u201d but, Barber says, \u201cthe actions of his characters betray him; Tristan and Iseult betray Mark again and again.\u201d Chretien\u2019s version of Lancelot draws material from the Tristan story, but conforms Lancelot\u2019s behavior more closely to the courtly ideal and to the realities of court life: \u201cIn broad terms, Lancelot\u2019s greatest feats are performed in tournaments, while Gawain has more to do with the marvelous happenings of knight-errancy; Lancelot\u2019s love, except for its consummation, is outwardly the harmless social amusement of love-service, while Tristan offers no such polite compliments to Iseult. Precisely because he represented an imaginable extension of real and everyday court life, Lancelot was to prove the most popular of the three heroes.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In his book, The Reign of Chivalry , Richard Barber gives a very fine summary of the courtly love tradition and the romantic tradition that it produced. I reproduce here only some of the main points of his discussion of the lyric love poetry of the troubadours. 1) Courtly love, Barber argues, is the spell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature"],"yoast_head":"\n
2) After a summary of the Chason de Roland and El Cid, which he describes as \u201cthe two European epics which are most representative of the heroic poetry which a twelfth-century knight \u2013 or poet \u2013 would have known,\u201d Barber turns to the impact of troubadour poetry on chivalric romance. Troubadour poetry comes mainly from the 12th to the 14th century, and takes form in \u201ca rich, leisured society, which had time to develop a highly elaborate secular culture.\u201d Unlike the straightforward chansons de geste that preceded it, the lyrical poetry of the courtly tradition is \u201cpoetry of astonishing sophistication.\u201d One of the earliest poets, Guillaume IX of Aquitaine wrote \u201cin a very polished style\u201d in which he \u201cparodies an already complex attitude toward love in some of his songs.\u201d What sets these lyrics apart is the sense that \u201cthe centre, the pivot, and the lodestone of the troubadour\u2019s world is the lady whom he loves.\u201d Troubadour poetry focuses mainly on \u201cthe man\u2019s desire for an often distant and unattainable mistress.\u201d <\/p>\n