The works of Guillem de Peiteus are very much about courtly
love especially his “The Nothing Song”.
It goes into details about a woman who “though [he’s] not seen her,
[his] love’s strong”. This is what
courtly love is all about, being in love with someone who is unreachable. Furthermore, although they haven’t met he
assumes, she is going to break his heart because he is below her
standards. He says things like: “I’ll
just pre grieve” because he knows that he will never be able to be with his
beloved. This is very similar to Dante’s
narrative about his love for Beatrice.
He doesn’t know her very well but he is overcome with love for her. He takes it a step further than the troubadours,
however, because even being in her presence makes all of his senses stop
working. He also has dreams about Love
coming to him and talking to him about Beatrice. Like the Troubadours, Dante has no chance with
his beloved and the relationship is very one sided. Something that Dante’s story has that
Peiteus’ and the other Troubadours doesn’t is that Dante sees Beatrice on a
more consistent basis than Peiteus sees his beloved. While Peiteus has never seen the woman he is
madly in love with, Dante sees Beatrice quite often. However with Dante there is still that sense
of distance that courtly love often brings because he cannot even look at
Beatrice without getting choked up, so she might as well be far away because it
makes no difference.
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