Courtly Love Blog Post #11

Fin’ amor or courtly love is a highly conventionalized medieval tradition of love between a knight and a married noblewoman. The troubadours developed such theme in their work in order to create sophisticated poetry, which portrays the beloved as unattainable due to social status. The works of Jaufre Rudel, Maria de Ventadorn and Gui d’Useel well describe the concept of courtly love.

Jaufre Rudel’s “A Love Afar” shows the grief of the author towards his beloved, due to the distance. The fourth stanza of the poem states, “Such tracks and trails, such land and sea, / Lie still between my love and me / That all must lie in God’s good will.” The specific line describes the physical distance of Rudel and his beloved by writing the “land and sea lie between my love and me.” In addition, Rudel somewhat accepts the “God’s good will” that could possibly imply the emotional distance of Rudel and his beloved. The circumstance must be the difference of social status; therefore, the emotional distance caused by forbidden love causes him to grief. Another evidence of the role of social rank in courtly love is present in this piece by Rudel writing “Gladly I’d lie, at her command.”

“When a Lady Loves” by Maria de Ventadorn and Gui d’Ussel is a great example of troubadour poetry in order to describe courtly love because the authors present both male and female perspectives. It is quite remarkable that d’Ussel and Rudel have such different thoughts on the social status in terms of love. When Rudel somewhat reluctantly accepts him having the lower hand in loving a noblewoman, d’Ussel writes, “A lady ought to treat her love exactly / As he treats her, with no regard to station ---- / In friendship rank is no consideration,” to state that “rank” must not play any role in terms of loving a human being. On the other hand, Maria de Ventadorn writes that “she should receive him / As a servant and an equal’s treason,” to emphasize that the rank difference between herself and Gui should also apply in their love. She also writes the phrase “down on their knees to try to win / a lady’s favor,” to emphasize once again the importance of men serving women.

In my opinion, the most important characteristic of courtly love is the difference of social status in terms of loving. Both d’Ussel and Rudel show the perspective of the disadvantages and heartache caused by being at lower positions. Then, Maria de Ventadorn is able to present the women’s perspective of courtly love to show the importance of the rank structure in courtly love.