Dante and Courtly Love

            Dante’s poems in Vita Nuova demonstrate many similarities with the courtly love tradition of the troubadours. Like the troubadours, Dante writes about his love for an idealized and unattainable woman, using religious references to underscore his devotion to this beloved.  However, Dante expands upon this literary custom by personifying love as a divine figure in itself; whereas the troubadours often referred to God as the intermediary figure between the lover and the beloved, Dante gives this role to Love. This difference can be observed by comparing Dante’s works with those of Bernart de Ventadorn, a poet who exemplifies courtly love.

            Bernart de Ventadorn’s “You’ve Asked, My Lords, for Song” contains many standard elements of courtly love. In it, the poet expresses his desire for a woman who is at an unbridgeable distance from him and the pain he suffers as a result of this separation. Though he suggests the woman has the ability to decide to be with him—as he says he will grieve “Unless [his] Lady might / Receive [him] in that place / She lies in”—he seems to attribute ultimate control over their relationship to God. As he explains, God gave him both the joys and pains of his love, and it is up to Him to “give [him] heart and mind”, suggesting that only God has the power to determine the fate of his romantic relationship. Thus, he implies that God, rather than people themselves, has control over human emotions and relations.

            While many of these characteristics can also be observed in Dante’s poems in Vita Nuova, he expands upon this tradition by personifying Love as its own autonomous being who has the power to influence his relationships. As he describes in his sonnet in Chapter III, Love came to him in a dream, carrying his beloved, Beatrice. This figure was “holding/ [Dante’s] heart within his hands” and “trembling and obedient / [Beatrice] ate that burning heart”. This suggest that Love, rather than God directly, has control over both Dante and his beloved, and the ability to influence their behavior and emotions. While there are still distance, suffering, idealization, and divine elements in his poems, Dante’s introduction of this additional central figure brings a new element to the tradition of courtly love, as he seems to suggest that love is a powerful and distinct force on its own.