The Conventions of Courtly Love
"Courlty Love" is conventionally associated with Chivalry. The ideas of "Courtly Love" were probably first expressed in the love lyrics of the 11th century Troubadours of southern France, there may also be ties to Arabic love literature. Courtly Love was eventuially codified and defined in the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Andreas Capellanus (Andrew the Chaplain) in his Latin text The Art of Courtly Love (c.1174). Scholars still do not agree as to whether any individuals ever accepted Courtly Love as a serious way of life or it was merely a court game or pleasant literary convention. It seems that lovers were tried and judged under the rules of Courtly Love in Eleanor of Aquitaine’s court, but the seriousness of the trials is certainly in question. Some of the cases were more hypothetical proofs or examples of how a lover should behave than cases involving the actions of actual individuals.
Whether seriously accepted in every day life or not, the rules of Courtly Love have found expression in numerous medieval texts and lovers had expectations for proper action of the part of themselves and their beloved based on many of these ideas. Sometimes Courtly Love seems especially chivalric, but at times (Guinevere/Lancelot/Arthur) its short comings are made quite explicit. Andreas’s text often reads like a medieval seduction manual, but it also contains many commonplaces applied to love throughout medieval literature. A similar type of love is used in Renaissance sonnets and sonnet cycles. Women could be the lovers and men the beloveds, but that was more the exception that proves the rule.
Some of the Conventions are:
- The Lover is smitten through the eyes and the beloved’s image is imprinted in his heart/brain.
- Initially, he fears to make his love known to the lady.
- He suffers from love sickness, as a result he cannot eat or sleep and his health begins to fail.
- He writes highly emotional letters to his lady. (And he spends much time lamenting his lot.)
- A go-between delivers letters between he and his lady and pleads his case for him.
- The Lady holds herself aloof from his advances.
- Eventually, she assigns him difficult tasks so he may prove his love to her.
- Once he wins the lady, the lover is ennobled and possesses all virtues and accomplishments (or he believes this will happen).
- Absolute secrecy of their love must be maintained.
- The knight is a faithful champion of his lady.
- The Lady inspires the knight to achieve more than he could without her.
- Stories differ on how innocent their love play is and on how shamefully their actions may be interpreted..
- There may be set backs in his progress to achieve his lady’s love that cause him to lose faith in himself.
- With love interests of lower station the treatment of the lady may become increasingly less noble.