Troubadours and Dante

Dante’s work definitely has similarities with Troubadours’ poetry. Among many troubadours, Bernart de Ventadorn is one who displays a persistent and sincere love for his beloved lady. In his poem “The Skylark,” Bernart shows how he cannot control his heart and the love for her:

    Alas, I thought I’d grown so wise

    In love I had so much to learn:

    I can’t control this heart that flies

                To her who pays love no return.

                Ay! now she steals, through love’s sweet theft,

                My heart, my self, my world entire:

                She steals herself and I am left

                Only this longing and desire.

He says his heart flies to her and he cannot control that even though it is his own heart. He is doing so even when the lady does not respond to his love. The word “steals” emphasizes that the one who is in action/control is the lady, not him. The phrase “sweet theft” represent the duality of love that we have been seeing in many time in this course. Even though Bernart loses the control and she pays no favorable return to his love, he still describes this love as “sweet.” The last three lines of the poem emphasizes the huge effect of her on him. He says she influences his heart, self, and entire world.

Dante displays similar imagery in section III of his poem where he says, “Love looked to me while he was holding my heart within his hands.” The image of the outside source taking control over the poet’s heart is shown in both cases (love, in this case, and the beloved lady, in Bernart’s case)

Also, just like Bernart, Dante shows his longing and disappointment by the fact that the lady does not recognizes him: “after my blessed joy was denied me, I was so grief-stricken that withdrawing from all company, I went to a solitary place and bathed the earth with bitter tears.” Here, Dante is expressing his extreme despair because the lady ignore and didn’t greet him. His description is very exaggerative, using the phrases such as “bathed the earth with bitter tears.” It emphasizes that he is so deeply in love with her that for him, she is everything he desires. When this desire is rejected, he feels like all his life is deteriorated. This idea of devoting and connecting him entirely to the lady is commonly found in Troubadours poetry dealing with courtly love. Thus, Dante is certainly following the Troubadour’s footstep in terms of the devoting attitude toward a beloved lady.