Romeo and Juliet: Courtly Love

Romeo and Juliet: Courtly Love

Emily Draper and Cameron Gerus

Male and Female Relationship in Courtly Love

• courtly lover served his lady
• love was adulterous
• marriage at the time was because of business interest or the seal of a power alliance
• women married: high-status, feudal lord, courtly relationship: a lower-status, no-land, knight
• husband usually a model for knight- he tried to live up to it to win lady's heart

Courtly Love in Modern Teens

• Teenagers are quick to act in love, like Romeo pursuing Juliet.
• Do not put things in perspective
• Difference from Romeo and Juliet: although both are quick to act in relationships, usually, the modern youth does not think about "marriage" as much as just "dating"

Romeo and Juliet's Courtly Love

• Developed in the late eleventh century by the Troubadours
• Sought to redefine the ideals of love and marriage
• Influence spread throughout Western Europe
• Troubadour philosophy was practically institutionalized in the thirteenth century
• Basis for a glamorous and exciting new lifestyle
• It was originally called fine love or chivalric love

Rules of Courtly Love

• Romeo is transformed by love when loving Juliet
• Romeo pursues Juliet right when meeting her
• Romeo presses for love vows and a kiss soon after they meet
• He wants her to agree to marry him from the beginning
• When Romeo is separated from Juliet, he hears wrongly that she is dead and kills himself
• the strength within them is derived from their love, which starts as Romeo's passion and turns into everlasting love.

Courtly Love Attributes

5 main principles:

• Aristocratic
• Ritualistic
• Secret
• Adulterous
• Literary

Andreas Cappelanus- 12th century Frenchman- wrote 31 rules in the "Arts of Courtly Love"..... some of the rules...

• "If love diminishes, it quickly fails and rarely revives"
• "The easy attainment of love makes it of little value; difficulty of attainment makes it prized"
• "Nothing forbids one woman being loved by 2 men or one man by two women"
• "A true lover considers nothing good except what he thinks will please his beloved"
• "When made public, love rarely endures"
• "Real jealousy always increases the feeling of love"

Stages of Courtly Love

1. attraction

2. worship from afar

3. declaration of devotion

4. virtuous rejection

5. wooing with oaths of virtue and passion

6. moans from rejection and non-mutual feelings

7. heroic deeds- win her heart

8. secretly love each other

9. endless adventures together

Aspects of Courtly Love

• knights lived by code of chivalry
• strict rules involved with courtly love
• allowed knights and ladies to love regardless of their marital state
• highly conventionalized code
• knight serves the lady like he would serve his lord
• scholars say it is "frivolous, unrealistic, and is a means of romanticizing the repressive social mores of a bygone era"

Bibliography

Alchin, Linda. "Courtly Love." <Lordsandladies.org> N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. "Courtly Love." <britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/140814/courtly-love> Web. 26 Feb. 2014.

Farrell, Scott. "Podcast 53-Courtly Love." <chivalrytoday.com/podcast-53-courtly-love-rethought> Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

Schwartz, Deborah B. "Backgrounds to Romance: Courtly Love." Backgrounds to Romance: Courtly Love. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.

Simpson, David L. "Courtly Love." Chivalry and Courtly Love. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

Courtly Love in Medieval Literature

• found little precedent in older cultures
• Latin poet Ovid described courtly love with symptoms like a sickness.
• Lovesick knights were conventional figures in medieval romance
• started as a theme in poetry, plays, etc. and later became a lifestyle for many knights and ladies

Questions

Do you think Modern teens follow the courtly love pattern at all? If so, how?

Why do you think a lot of cases of marriage in medieval times was not romantic/ true love?

Do you think the way modern teens or Renaissance teens express love is "truer"/more romantic?

Definition of Love/Pattern of Courtly Love

• sense of passion and attraction between lovers
• love overcomes obstacles and survives the impediments that keep lovers apart
• popular code that prescribed the behavior of ladies and lovers
• usually consists of: gentlemanly conduct, non-physical love, worship of lady in waiting