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Vol. II , Issue I |
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Love: the intangible element, was a factor in the Middle Ages; however, its definition by society was defined by the time period. Our forefathers and foremothers loved well and long, and much poetry and literature is given to the many aspects of loving. Indeed, for many centuries -from the time of the Greeks through the seventeenth century - physicians regularly offered treatment for love-sickness, "the lovers malady of heroes," which they regarded as both a physical and a mental affliction. To better understand the supposed relationship between the sexes it is important that you know prior to 1174 women were told: In 1174, Andreas Capellanus, chaplain to Marie de France, gave the world; The Art of Courtly Love. It is now believed that he was not trying to write a serious code of conduct; instead he was trying to have a bit of fun. Courtly love required adherence to rules elaborated in the songs of the troubadours between the 11th and the 13th centuries. A nobleman in love with a married woman of equally high or higher birth had to prove his devotion by heroic deeds and amorous writings. Once the lovers had exchanged pledges and consummated their passion, complete secrecy had to be maintained. Because most noble marriages of the time were little more than business contracts, courtly love was a form of sanctioned adultery. Capellanus said: ". . . a certain inborn suffering derived from the sight of and excessive meditation upon the beauty of the opposite sex, which causes each one to wish above all things the embraces of the other and by common desire to carry out all of love's precepts in the other's embrace." The concept of "pure love" which included strongly self-deprecating behavior and servitude by a man for a distant, unattainable woman was a driving force throughout the high period of medieval love literature. From 1100 to 1300 (most intensely in the quarter-centuries before and after 1200), the language of lady love prevailed in the courts of England and Europe. The concept that women should be admired was vastly different from the misogynist writings that flourished at that time. The sin, guilt and impurities of women were being preached from every pulpit. This new position that a woman was to be worshiped and idolized gave women a new power and a new version of enslavement. For if in this "game" of love the truth was learned, then it was the woman that was punished. Her virtue was a great conquest and her value would only last as long as she was prey. If she were to yield and their tryst discovered than she was seen as the weak, wanton creature that the Church said, and the man was viewed with the admiration that any victor would receive. The art of Courtly Love had very clear, but conflicting rules: A man who is vexed by too much passion usually does not love, yet, a true lover is constantly and without intermission possessed by the thought of his beloved. And love is always a stranger in the home of avarice (jealousy), yet, jealousy, and therefore love, are increased when one suspects his beloved. There are 31 rules listed in this game of love. It was devised in such a way that almost no man could win if called in to a 'Court of Love'. However, what was to be a game soon became a societal viewpoint. The role of women and the conceptions of love have been altered ever since. Another publication can lay some claim to modifying the aspects of love: Romance of the Rose (Le Roman de la Rose), a long thirteenth-century French poem, extremely popular and influential in the Middle Ages, was written by two authors. The first part, 4,058 lines by Guillaume de Lorris, is a dream-vision allegory in which an aristocratic young man falls in love with a rosebud, symbolizing a lady or her sexual favors. The Lover is aided by a personification called "Fair Welcome" but opposed by other personifications that symbolize the personal and social restraints standing against his advances. Fear, Shame, Gossip ("Malebouche" in French; "Wikked Tongue" in a Middle English translation), and "Daunger," our word danger, which, personified as a churl wielding a club, here representing instinctive female resistance to male sexual desire. The first part was never finished; it breaks off with the rose imprisoned in the castle of Jealousy with the Lover disconsolate on the outside. Jean de Meun, an academic at the University of Paris, who continued it for another 17,724 lines, which cover religion, philosophy, history, science, sex, love, marriage, and women, took up the poem. From its teachings women were told: There is also a proper way to weep, but every woman has the skill to weep properly wherever she may be. Even when no one has caused them any trouble or shame or annoyance, they still have tears at the ready: they all weep in whatever they like, and make a habit of it. And we learn that, in short, [men] are all deceitful traitors, ready to indulge their lusts with everyone, and we should deceive them in our turn and not set our hearts upon just one of them. It is a foolish woman who gives her heart in this way. She ought to have several lovers and arrange, if she can, to be so pleasing that she brings great suffering upon all of them. If she has no graces, let her acquire them and always behave more cruelly towards those who will strive all the harder to serve her in order to win her love, while exerting herself to welcome those who do not care about it. Our ancestors enjoyed a good love story as much as we do. And, no other love story fulfills this inclination than that of Abelard and Heloise. It contains passion, forbidden love, forbidden sex, unwed-pregnancy, torture, imprisonment, longing, unrequited love, of resentment and castration.. This is a summary of their story; Pierre Abelard (1079-1142), who was by all accounts a brilliant scholar and theologian, met Heloise (1101-1164) 22 years his junior and soon was smitten with her... About Author
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A
little bit of love in the middle ages
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