10th Blog Post - A Taste of Courtly Love

Courtly love: A romanticized beloved who, though is unattainable because of distance, status, or virtue, nevertheless fills the other with erotic desire.

“A Love Afar” –Jaufre Rudel

            The first part of the beloved is that she is usually romanticized or idealized. In this poem, we can begin seeing this in stanza 5 when Rudel claims “Above all worth her beauties shine,/Above all others, near and far.” Here, he is essentially describing her as the most beautiful woman in the world. He continues to say in stanza 6 that she has a “glorious face”. These extraordinary marks make her the romanticized woman that anyone would love.

            The beloved must be unattainable; in this poem it is because of distance. Multiple times he refers to his love being “afar” or some variant of it. In stanza 4 he asks, “Yet how we’ll ever come to meet/I know not since her land’s so far.”  Even the name of the poem shows that his love is unattainable.

            The last requirement for courtly love is the desire for a sexual relationship with the beloved. Rudel shows his erotic desire in stanza 3: “By God’s own love, what joys must lie/Within love’s citadel, afar./ If she’d consent, I’d lodge nearby/ Who now must lie alone afar.” “Love’s citadel” refers to the wall that she has around herself, and by “joys”, Rudel is referring to pleasures that he could have with her. She would only have to “consent” with him being with her.  With this, Rudel has completed the requirement for courtly love.

“A New Song for New Days”  -Guillem de Peiteus

            For courtly love, Peiteus must first romanticize or idealize his beloved. He does this with one swoop in stanza two where he describes her as “where grace and beauty spring”. He describes her as the source of the grace and beauty, making her the original beauty of them all.

            In this poem, the beloved is unattainable due to social status. This can be inferred because of the “signet ring” in stanza 2 and 4. The signet ring holds the power and authority of the noble family. One cannot have status without power or authority.  With the second quota filled, there is only one more requirement.

            Guillem de Peiteus was a womanizer, and the woman in this poem was no exception to him. His erotic desire becomes apparent in stanza 4 saying, “God grant me only that I live/To get my hands beneath her clothes!” This is an apparent longing for him to be able to have sex with the woman. With this third requirement accomplished, Peiteus has completed the requirements for courtly love.

“A Peasant Lassie” –Marcabru

            Though this is a different style of courtly love, I believe it is one nonetheless. He repeatedly romanticizes her by calling her “pretty”, “sweet and girlish”, “innocent”, “high-born”, and “fair and sassy”. He even says in stanza 7 that a fairy queen “Since, at [her] birth, bewitched [her]/With a beauty that enriched [her]/ As the loveliest peasant lassie”. This glamorizes the beauty of the young lassie, but does not deceive her.

Because he romanticizing of her did not fool her, she remains unattainable for her virtue.  She decides to keep herself as a virgin saying that, “At your price I feel no urging/To sell my state as a virgin/For the whore that folks would call me.” The loss of her virtues could result in many downfalls, so, since the man isn’t offering her anything special, she decides that is better to stay away from him.

The last requirement is for there to be erotic desire, and though this poem is full of it, it is most apparent in stanza 7 where he says, “ Still, you’d seem just twice the wonder/ If, once, I could get you under/While I was the one above you”. This is a blatant reference to sex and his desire to have her in his sheets. With this last requirement obtained, I believe the courtly love has been obtained.

With these three poets, Rudel, Peiteus, and Marcabru, we can get a sense of what fin’ amor actually is.