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STUDIES AND NOTES
IN
PHILOLOGY AND LITERATURE
VOL. VI
THE ORIGINS AND SOURCES OF THE
COURT OF LOVE
BY
WILLIAM ALLAN NEILSON
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE
MODERN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENTS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
BY GINN & COMPANY, TREMONT PLACE, BOSTON
1899
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PREFACE.
THIS volume is substantially a dissertation presented to the Faculty
of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University in May, 1898, to
fulfil a requirement made of candidates for the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy.
The investigation was begun as an inquiry into the pseudo-
Chaucerian Court of Love; and in the first chapter a rearrangement
of the text of that poem, and in the seventh certain conclusions as
to its sources, represent the main results of this inquiry. But the
search for sources led naturally to a wider and wider extension of
the field, until the dissertation finally included a general account of
the rise and development of some of the leading features of medieval
love-allegory.
The number of instances I have found of the central conception
of a court held by the God or Goddess of Love and attended by per-
sonifications of abstract qualities is so large as almost to justify the
treatment of this class of allegory as a separate literary genre. The
chapter on the Statutes of Love attempts to trace the origin and indi-
cate the extent of one of the most interesting features of this genre,
and at the same time presents a body of material for the study of
mediæval social ideals. The chapter on Philobone is devoted to a
short analysis of a familiar type in the literature of the Middle Ages ;
and that on the Birds' Matins contains a collection of evidence pos-
sessing interest other than literary in its bearing on the mediæval
attitude towards religion.
iii
iv
Preface.
The section which most nearly approaches the controversial, and
which is put forth with the greatest diffidence, is that in which I
have ventured to deal with the vexed question of the existence of
the institution known as a Court of Love. The view which is here
advocated occurred to me as the result of a study of the prevailing
literary and social occupations of the earlier Middle Ages, and I have
endeavored to present it in the light of those considerations which
first suggested it. What I attempt to do is not to make any fresh
attack upon either of the parties already in the field, but to propose
a change of issue. The question, that is, as it appears to me, is not
whether or not Courts of Love ever existed, but whether the prac-
tices on which some have based the belief in the existence of
such an institution were serious or playful. That they were playful,
but yet socially important and influential, is the conclusion to which
the evidence here collected seems to point.
I owe acknowledgment to the work of scholars who have preceded
me in parts of the same field, and of whose results I have freely
availed myself. Such are the contributions of Gaston Paris to
mediæval studies generally, and, with Trojel and Rajna, to the
controversy on the institution of the Court of Love; of Raab to the
history of patristic allegory; of Dammann to that of Provençal alle-
gory; of E. Langlois to the study of the Roman de la Rose; of A.
Piaget to the history of French literature in the fifteenth century;
of L. F. Mott to the study of Courtly Love; and of many others.
Such obligations I have tried to make explicit as they occur, but I
cannot expect to have avoided omissions. For these and for the
other errors which are sure to have escaped me I can only plead
inadvertence.
The subject of the investigation was suggested to me by Professor
George Lyman Kittredge of Harvard University. To him I am
indebted, not only for his kindness in reading the whole work in proof
and for constant help and suggestion, but also for the greater part of
Preface.
V
the training which enabled me to undertake the task at all. To him
and to Professors E. S. Sheldon and A. R. Marsh of Harvard, who
also have read the book in proof and given much valuable aid, I owe
more than I can adequately express for the generosity with which
they have permitted me to draw on their time and their scholarship.
To Professors Charles Eliot Norton and Josiah Royce, and to
Mr. J. B. Fletcher, all of Harvard, to Professor C. M. Bakewell
of Bryn Mawr College, to Dr. N. C. Brooks of the University of
Illinois, to Dr. W. D. Howe of the University of Indianapolis, and
to the late Dr. R. A. Small of Brown University, I am grateful for
various services which are recorded in their appropriate places.
WILLIAM ALLAN NEILSON.
BRYN MAWR COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA,
June 30, 1899.
PREFACE
I. THE MIDDLE ENGLISH COURT OF LOVE
II. THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN ALLEGORY
盲
​A. Pagan
B. Christian
III. THE CENTRAL CONCEPTION OF THE COURT OF LOVE
A. Provençal .
B. Latin and Old French
C. Italian
D. German
E. English
IV. THE STATUTES OF LOVE
•
•
4. The Ovidian Tradition
B. Provençal
C. French
D. Italian
E. German
F. English.
V. THE CHARACTER OF PHILOBOne
VI. THE BIRDS' MATINS
CONTENTS.
•
•
■
•
•
vi
#
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A. Birds and the Love-Divinities
B. Parodies of Religious Services .
C. Parodies Sung by Birds
VII. THE IMMEDIATE SOURCES OF THE COURT OF LOVE
VIII. THE RELATION OF THE Allegory tO THE INSTITUTION
AND THE PAGEANT OF THE COURT OF LOVE
IX. THE COURT OF LOVE AFTER 1520 .
INDEX
PAGE
iii
I
8
8
17
23
24
31
109
I 20
135
168
170
181
184
202
204.
205
213
216
217
220
225
228
24.0
256
271
THE ORIGINS AND SOURCES OF THE
COURT OF LOVE.
CHAPTER I.
THE MIDDLE ENGLISH COURT OF LOVE.
nas
1
HE only extant MS. of the Court of Love is now in the Library
of Trinity College, Cambridge, and is marked R. 3. 19. This
MS. is a "miscellaneous collection of Middle English pieces of vari-
ous dates," and of these our poem is No. 59. From this source it
was printed in 1562, by Stow, in his Woorkes of Geffrey Chaucer,
newly printed with diuers Addicions which were neuer in printe before.
From the fact that this volume included poems ascribed by Stow
himself to Lydgate, it is clear that the editor did not intend to imply
that the "diuers Addicions" were necessarily Chaucer's; but the
title proved misleading, and, as a result, the Court of Love has been
included in the complete editions of Chaucer down to our own time.
The baselessness of the ascription has been completely demonstrated
by Professor Skeat," and need not be discussed here.
The part of the MS. containing the Court of Love is in a hand of
the sixteenth century, and Skeat is now inclined to place the composi-
tion of the poem after 1532, the date of Thynne's edition of Chaucer,
which he thinks the author probably used. This he supports by an
1 For an account of the age and contents of this MS., see Skeat, Chaucerian
and Other Pieces, Oxford, 1897, pp. lxxii ff.
2 See Athenæum, Nov. 4, 1876; Academy, June 3, 1878; Aug. 3, 1878; July 18,
1891; Chaucerian Pieces, loc. cit.
1
2
William Allan Neilson.
instance of parallelism between the translation of the Roman de la Rose,
printed by Thynne, and the Court of Love. The passages are these:
R. R., 2819-20
C. of L., 496-7
or of hir chere
That to thee made thy lady dere,
and all the chere
That thee hath mad thy lyves lady dere.
•
•
He mentions also the five or six poems by Chaucer which, as will be
shown later, influenced the Court of Love, and suggests that he may
have learned his metre from Scottish authors such as Henryson and
Dunbar. On these grounds, and from the general impression pro-
duced on him by the poem, he inclines to place the author with Sack-
ville, Surrey, Grimoald, and other forerunners of the Elizabethans.
These arguments do not seem to me very cogent. The parallel
with the Roman de la Rose passage has no force. The author of
the Court of Love could have known the Chaucer poems before the
publication of Thynne's edition; Henryson was dead before 1500,
and Dunbar had written all his most important work before 1510.
Again, if a passage of the Court of Love be read with one from Sur-
rey or Sackville, the earlier date of the former becomes immediately
evident. Not only is the language manifestly older, but the literary
attitude of the author is so distinctly medieval that one feels at once
that his place is rather with Hawes than with Surrey. Allowing an
interval to account for the loss of some of Hawes's inflections, we
shall probably be not far astray in fixing the date about the end of
the first quarter of the sixteenth century.
The Court of Love in its present state consists of 1442 verses in
rhyme royal.' The plot of the poem is in outline as follows :
After a prologue containing a dedication to his lady, for whose
pleasure he has written the poem, an invocation of the Muses, and
an apology to "metriciens" for his "lak of science," the poet tells
how, when he was eighteen, he was summoned by Mercury to the
Court of Love. Setting out on his journey, he overtook people
swarming like bees in the same direction; and, following them, he
¹ All quotations and references in the following pages will be according to the
text in Skeat's Chaucerian Pieces, pp. 409-47.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
M
came to a gorgeous castle glittering with gold and precious stones,
and painted outside and in with daisies to signify that Alcestis dwelt
there, who, with Admetus, acted as vicegerent for Venus. He entered
a hall hung with arras and cloth of gold, and found the King and
Queen sitting in state, wearing their crowns, and surrounded by
many courtiers, including Danger and Disdain and "the ladies gode
ninetene." He was particularly struck with admiration for the
Queen's beauty, and for her eyes, the beams of which "were shapen
lich a dart." "In mewet " he uttered a stanza expressing his wonder.
As he looked round, he saw Philobone, the Queen's "chamberer"
and a friend of his, who came and asked his errand. She particularly
wanted to know whether he came of his own accord; and when he
confessed that Mercury had been sent for him, she warned him that
the anger of the King would be sure to fall on him for his long delay
in coming to Court. He ought to have come as soon as he was wise
enough to tell a woman from a swan.
Trembling and repentant, the poet was led by Philobone into a
temple where, in a raised tabernacle, sat Venus and Cupid [appar-
ently in effigy, v. 223]. The windows and walls of the temple were
painted with the stories of Dido and Æneas, of Anelida and Arcite,
and many other princely lovers; and the building itself was thronged
with people. There were true lovers in blue, unfortunate ones in
black, priests, nuns, and hermits in white, russet, and green, all
bewailing their woful condition (v. 266).
What doth this old,
Thus fer y-stope in yeres, come so late
Unto the court?
-
But now a messenger summoned all new-comers before the King.
When the poet, trembling and pale, presented himself, the King
beheld him with stern visage and asked:
On the plea of bashfulness, and on condition of future fidelity, he
was pardoned, and handed over to an officer called Rigor, that
he might take the oath to the Statutes of the Court of Love. After
reading the twenty Statutes for men [which will be discussed later in
detail], he turned over to the Statutes for women; but just then Rigor
noticed him and sharply stopped him.
4
William Allan Neilson.
The oath having been taken, Rigor sent him back to the temple
with his fellow-neophytes, instructing them to pray, those who had
met their fate, for wisdom to guide them in service, those who were
yet "unpurveyed," for grace that their destiny might be honorable
and happy. Round the shrine they found thousands on their knees:
unfortunate lovers offering prayers for pity and vengeance, and fortu-
nate ones singing praises, extolling the omnipotence of love and its
power as exyler ay of vice and sin." The poet himself made con-
fession and prayer, and told how one night in a vision he had seen
a beautiful lady who made his heart dance a little. Who she was he
did not know, but her he should like to serve and win.
66
K
-
Close by he noticed a jewelled shrine which Philobone told him
was the sepulchre of Pity, who died from "tender herte " because she
saw an eagle tear a fly to pieces. Formerly, his guide informed him
in closest confidence, Pity was more serviceable to lovers than any
one in Court, but now nothing availed but "hot corage."
Now he is to meet the fairest lady under the sun, and Philobone
instructs him in modest behavior, warning him against forwardness,
and making rather obscure allusions to some previous little affairs
of his. They enter a chamber and behold Rosial, who is described
after the traditional fashion, with straight nose, lily brow, full red
lips, even teeth, golden hair, sweet breath, slender figure, and so on.
He is deeply wounded by Love's dart, and retires to write a "bill"
in seven stanzas. He returns and presents this, but the lady says she
does not know anything about him. He describes himself as Philo-
genet, clerk of Cambridge, maker of love songs, and writer "in art
of love." She tells him he expects success far too soon, and her
coldness causes him to faint. This moves her to relent somewhat,
and she promises to set his heart at ease; but she charges him
to keep the Statutes, granting, at his request, with a blush that
makes her name appropriate, a modification of the objectionable
sixteenth.
The lines (vv. 1020-2) which follow here sound like the end of
the tale:
Thus have I won, with wordes grete and small,
Some goodly word of hir that I love best,
And trust she shall yit set myne harte in rest.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
5
*
But instead of closing, the narrative begins again thus:
'Goth on,' she said to Philobone, ‘and take
This man with you, and lede him all about.'
So the poet sets out on another round of sight-seeing, and Philo-
bone shows him Attendaunce, Diligence, Esperaunce, Dred-to-offend,
Despair, Hope (the last two of whom offer advice to him), Lust and
Delyt engaged in debate, Liar and Flattery.
In the midst of a speech made by Flattery, probably with reference.
to Philogenet, the next stanza (v. 1093) begins with a question as to
why some people dressed in black and white and gray are so sad.
This introduces the description of a series of groups of complainants
-friars, nuns, poverty-stricken and deformed lovers, and, lastly, a
company who are "waried and misseid" by the Fates, and who
curse Nature for giving them life.
At this point we suddenly find Philogenet back among the alle-
gorical personages (v. 1177)-Contrite, Dissemble, Shamefastness,
Avaunter, Envy, Privy-thought, and Golden Love and Leaden Love.
Just as these last two enter (v. 1316), another break occurs, and
we find Rosial explaining how Pity had come to life again and
induced her to take mercy on Philogenet. The lover bursts out
into thanks to Pity and Rosial, and Rosial tells him to dwell with
her till the feast held in May by the King of Love.
The remainder of the poem (vv. 1352-end) consists of a parody of
the Matins and Lauds of the Hours of the Blessed Virgin, sung by
the birds in honor of the God of Love. After the service all the
court go forth to gather hawthorn, and pelt one another with flowers,
and the poet is smitten through the heart with a "trew-love, plited
many-fold," thrown by his lady.
In this outline it will be observed that several breaks are noted in
the continuity of the poem. Two of these are remarked by Pro-
fessor Skeat that at v. 1022, where Rosial first relents, and where
I have quoted three lines which might conceivably end the poem;
and that at v. 1316, where, after the entrance of Leaden Love and
Golden Love, Rosial abruptly begins her full confession of love.
To account for these, Professor Skeat suggests that "probably six
6
William Allan Neilson.
stanzas are lost in each case, owing to the loss of the two corre-
sponding leaves in the original from which the existing copy was
made.”1
But I am by no means convinced that at v. 1022 anything
has dropped out at all. The appearance of a conclusion in the use
of a perfect tense in v. 1020 is indubitable; but it seems to me
much more probable that at one time the poem did actually end
here, and that, when the author decided to continue the allegory, he
neglected to remove the trace of his earlier close.
As for the gap at v. 1316, it does not seem possible to avoid the
inference that some stanzas are lost, in which the second round of
the Court was completed, and Philogenet brought again into the
presence of Rosial.
But this by no means exhausts the evidence of mutilation of the
text. In the second round of the Court, which occupies exactly
those stanzas between vv. 1022 and 1317, i.c. between the gaps
recognized by the editor, we have (1) a group of allegorical figures
described; (2) a group of typical figures complainants; (3) another
group of allegorical figures; and at v. 1092, where (2) begins, and
at v. 1177, where (3) begins, the transition is so abrupt that we are
led to suspect some confusion. As the poem at present stands, the
second round seems a somewhat meaningless and confused repetition
of features occurring in the earlier part. If, however, we remove
the twelve stanzas dealing with the complainants (vv. 1093-1176),
and spell Contrite with a capital, making it the name of one of the
allegorical figures, parallel with Dissemble who immediately follows,
we find that this part of the poem runs on without interruption."
The second round of the court is now seen to have the definite object
of introducing a new kind of allegory, that dealing with abstractions,
→
J
1 Chaucerian Pieces, p. lxxiv, note 2. This explanation is hardly satisfactory,
for, allowing, as Professor Skeat does, six stanzas to each leaf, we find that the
forty-two stanzas of which the passage between the two lacunae consists would
occupy seven leaves, which, since seven is an odd number, is clearly not possible.
No number which exactly divides forty-two works any more satisfactorily.
2 Bell, in his edition of Chaucer (Lond., n. d., IV, 173), saw the appropriate-
ness of making Contrite another of the allegorical courtiers, but thought it neces-
sary to alter the line to "And there eek was Contrite, and gan repent," but this
change does not seem to be required.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
7
there being none of these in what I take to have been the earlier form
of the poem except the two or three conventional figures grouped
round the King and Queen - Danger, Disdain, and Rigor.
The twelve stanzas thus excised find a natural place after v. 266.
There they would follow and complete a passage of a very similar
character in the account of Philogenet's first visit to the temple, and
would immediately precede the summons to the King's presence.
No changes are necessary to make them fit here except a few in
punctuation, which are required to make sense in any case. Pro-
fessor Skeat prints vv. 1093-1103 without any quotation marks
whatever; but if we read them punctuated as follows, supposing
that Philogenet asks the first question and Philobone answers him,
the whole passage becomes intelligible, and the poem, except for the
hopeless lacuna at v. 1316, is now continuous.
"This is the court of lusty folk and glad,
And wel becometh their habit and array :
O why be som so sorry and so sad,
Complaining thus in blak and whyte and gray?"
"Freres they ben, and monkes, in good fay :
Alas, for rewth! great dole it is to seen,
To see thaim thus bewaile and sory been.
See how they cry and wring their handes whyte,
For they so sone went to religion !
And eke the nonnes, with vaile and wimple plight,
There thought that they ben in confusion. . .
""
It will be observed that the only accident to the MS. which we
have to assume to account for the misplacement of these twelve
stanzas (vv. 1093-1176) is the detachment of, say, two leaves and
the copying in of these at the wrong place by a later scribe.
Such are the main facts about the contents and text of the poem
into whose origins and sources we are to inquire. The characteristic
features which will form the main lines of the investigation are these:
first, the general idea of a Court like that of a feudal lord
some-
8
William Allan Neilson.
times in its social, sometimes in its legal aspect-held by Cupid or
Venus, or by representatives of these divinities, and attended by a
throng of personified abstractions acting as courtiers; second, the
Statutes of Love a series of commandments to be observed by
those who owe allegiance to the Lord of Love; third, the figure of
Philobone the person who acts as guide and adviser to the hero
of the allegory; fourth, the association of birds with Venus; fifth,
the parody of Church services as exemplified in the Birds' Litany
which closes the Court of Love. After an attempt to indicate the
beginnings of this kind of allegory in general before the mediaval
period, each of these features will be followed through the chief
medieval European literatures that dealt with such forms; next, a
chapter will be devoted to a consideration of the immediate sources
used by the author of the Court of Love; another to the relation
of the allegory to the institutions and pageants known by similar
names; and finally, some account will be given of the development
of certain of these ideas after the date of our poem.
p
CHAPTER II.
THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN ALLEGORY.
A. PAGAN.
ALTHOUGH the term allegory is commonly used to cover a consid-
erable number of literary types - types differing as much from one
another as, e.g., the Beast-fable, The Pilgrim's Progress, and the
parable of the Prodigal Son—it will be convenient to limit it for the
present purpose to that kind of symbolical narrative or description
in which the main characters are personifications of abstract ideas
and qualities.
The study of the instances of this kind of allegory in the classical
literatures is beset with peculiar difficulties, chiefly on account of its
relation to mythology. Beginning as symbols of natural phenomena,
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
9
the Greek gods gradually gathered to themselves more and more defi-
nite personalities, until they reached a pitch of anthropomorphism.
But along with this growth in individuality there was an extension
of their sovereignty into the domain of moral and intellectual quali-
ties; so that when in the later, more sceptical times there came a
decay of the belief in their separate, concrete, personal existence,
their numbers continued to receive additions from a great variety of
sources, additions made by men who found the old forms of language
and even of worship convenient means of expression long after they
had ceased to be bound by the implications of these forms. The
Neo-Platonists, for example, found room in their system for an
indefinite number of minor divinities, embodiments of various moral
and spiritual ideas, which they regarded as subordinate to the Supreme
Being, and which in name they identified with the ancestral deities of
the Greeks and Romans.' The generous hospitality offered by the
Roman Pantheon to the gods of alien nations, and the deification of
the Emperors, are other instances; and perhaps more striking from
the present point of view is the practice of raising statues to the
separate qualities of individual heroes, as to the Valor of Cæsar or
the Clemency of Augustus.
It is clear that in this last class of cases we have something very
far from the conception of the gods in Homer, and within measurable.
distance of the ideas of Beauty and Pity as courtiers of Love; yet
nothing is harder than to say where mythology ends and allegory
begins. Even if we go back to Homer we find the difficulty; for he
places abstractions like Fear, Rumor, and Strife side by side with the
great gods, though the former have no regular place in the theogony,
¹ Cf. Arthur Richter, Neu-Platonische Studien, Heft III, Die Theologie und
Physik des Plotin, Halle, 1867, p. 18: “Im Allgemeinen lässt sich darüber sagen:
Mythen bewegen sich in der Sphäre der Vorstellung, Plotins Standpunkt ist der der
Idee. Er schreibt den Mythen daher nicht als solchen Wahrheit zu, sondern sucht
die in ihnen ausgesprochenen Vorstellungen auf einen Ideengehalt zurückzuführen.
Dies geschieht: 1) dadurch, dass er sich der mythischen Namen der Götter ziemlich
willkührlich zur Bezeichnung seiner fundamentalen Begriffe bedient. . . ." Richter
goes on to give instances of the use of the names of Aphrodite, Apollo, Eros,
Nemesis, etc., in the manner described.
10
William Allan Neilson.
and it is hard to think that any one ever believed in them as actual
persons. Thus in the Iliad, iv, 439-44, we have:
ὦρσε δὲ τοὺς μὲν ῎Αρης, τοὺς δὲ γλαυκῶπις ᾿Αθήνη
Δεῖμός τ᾽ ἠδὲ Φόβος καὶ Ἔρις ἄμοτον μεμαυία,
῎Αρεος ἀνδροφόνοιο κασιγνήτη ἑτάρη τε,
ἥ τ᾽ ὀλίγη μὲν πρῶτα κορύσσεται, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα
οὐρανῷ ἐστήριξε κάρη καὶ ἐπὶ χθονὶ βαίνει.
While in one line "Epis is called the sister and companion of "Apηs,
in the next she is described in such terms as seem quite in keeping
with their context when we find them two thousand years later in the
fantastic allegory of Chaucer's Hous of Fame:
For altherfirst, soth for to seye,
Me thoughte that she was so lyte,
That the lengthe of a cubyte
Was lenger than she semed be;
But thus sone, in a whyle, she
Hir tho so wonderliche streighte,
That with hir feet she th' erthe reighte,
And with her heed she touched hevene.¹
These personifications in the passage from Homer are further differ-
entiated from the established divinities if we note, as Mr. Leaf does
in his commentary on the passage, that "the three half-personified
spirits of battle must not be regarded as siding with either party, but
as arousing alike τοὺς μέν and τοὺς δέ.”2
3
Examples of such figures from the classics could be multiplied
indefinitely; but instances pointing more directly to the mediaval
development are found in such passages as the description of the
1 Chaucer, Hous of Fame, vv. 1368-75.
See below, p. 13.
2 The Iliad, ed. by W. Leaf, London, 1886, vol. I, p. 140, note on iv, 440.
* Such are the personifications of Fear in Iliad, xv, 119; of Strife in Iliad, xviii,
535; of Fame in Iliad, ii, 93; Odyssey, xxiv, 412; Hesiod, Works and Days,
vv. 761-4; Virgil, Aeneid, iv, 173–188; Ovid, Met., ix, 137 ff.; of Envy in Calli-
machus, Hymn to Apollo, v. 105; Ovid, Met., ii, 768 ff.; of Faith in Virgil, Aen.,
i, 292; Horace, Carm. I, xxxv, 21-24; of Rage in Virgil, Aen., i, 294.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
II
Triumph of Love in the second elegy in Book I of Ovid's Amores,
where, after confessing himself the new-made prey of Cupid, the
poet addresses the god thus :
Necte comam myrto, maternas iunge columbas :
Qui deceat, currum uitricus ipse dabit;
Inque dato curru, populo clamante triumphum,
Stabis et adiunctas arte mouebis aues.
Ducentur capti iuuenes captaeque puellae :
Haec tibi magnificus pompa triumphus erit.
Ipse ego, praeda recens, factum modo uulnus habebo
Et noua captiua uincula mente feram.
Mens Bona ducetur manibus post terga retortis
Et Pudor et castris quidquid Amoris obest.
Omnia te metuent: ad te sua bracchia tendens
Vulgus 'io' magna uoce triumphe ' canet.
Blanditiae comites tibi erunt Errorque Furorque
Adsidue partes turba secuta tuas.
His tu militibus superas hominesque deosque.
Haec tibi si demas commoda, nudus eris.
Laeta triumphanti de summo mater Olympo
Plaudet et adpositas sparget in ora rosas.
Tu pinnas gemma, gemma uariante capillos
Ibis in auratis aureus ipse rotis.
Here the personifications are actually in the train of Love, and
the god himself in these lines and the rest of the elegy is repre-
sented with all the accompaniments of wings, quiver, torch, bow
and arrows, which we shall constantly find in the medieval allegories,
and which are too common in classical art to need special illustration.
Note, too, the association with birds and roses.
This Triumph of Cupid leads us to another feature of medieval
treatment of the love divinity which finds its beginnings in the
classics the Palace of Love.
It will be noticed that in the Court of Love the temple and the
palace of Venus are both introduced - the temple being a kind of
appendage to the palace. When we come to the mediaval period
further instances of this will be produced, and the connection of the
even amounting to a confusion goes very far back.
In the
two
M
12
William Allan Neilson.
Homeric Hymn to Venus, vv. 58-63, the goddess is described as going
to her shrine in Cyprus and there being bathed, anointed, and
adorned by the Graces, in preparation for her wooing of Anchises.
Similarly in Aeneid, i, 415, Venus leaves Æneas for Paphos, where
she has "sedes" as well as a temple :
Ipsa Paphum sublimis abit, sedesque reuisit
Laeta suas, ubi templum illi, centumque Sabaeo
Ture calent arae sertisque recentibus halant.
Tibullus (1, 3, 57-64) has a passage which has very plausibly been
considered as the direct source of the scene with which the Roman
de la Rose opens, and which was so widely imitated :
Sed me, quod facilis tenero sum semper Amori,
Ipsa Venus campos ducet in Elysios.
Hic choreae cantusque uigent, passimque uagantes
Dulce sonant tenui gutture carmen aues :
Fert casiam non culta seges, totosque per agros
Floret odoratis terra benigna rosis :
Ac iuuenum series teneris inmixta puellis
Ludit, et adsidue proelia miscet Amor.
In Homer all the gods have houses, and from these doubtless the
later descriptions are elaborated. The palace of Apollo in the begin-
ning of Book ii of Ovid's Metamorphoses is an example, and may also
be a source, of the gorgeous descriptions of castles such as we have
in the Court of Love:
Regia Solis erat sublimibus alta columnis,
Clara micante auro flammasque imitante pyropo,
Cuius ebur nitidum fastigia summa tegebat ;
Argenti bifores radiabant lumine ualuae.
Materiam superabat opus; nam Mulciber illic
Aequora caelarat medias cingentia terras
Terrarumque orbem caelumque, quod inminet orbi-
and so on, describing in detail the decorations.
with the Court of Love occurs in vv. 23 ff. :
K
A further parallel
1 E. Langlois, Origines et Sources du Roman de la Rose, Paris, 1891, p. 10, note.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
13
Purpurea uelatus ueste sedebat
In solio Phoebus claris lucente smaragdis.
A dextra laevaque Dies et Mensis et Annus
Saeculaque et positae spatiis aequalibus Horae
Verque novum stabat cinctum florente corona;
Stabat nuda Aestas et spicea serta gerebat;
Stabat et Autumnus calcatis sordidus uuis,
Et glacialis Hiems canos hirsuta capillos.
Alongside of this "Court of Apollo," as it may be called, may be
placed the House of Fame in Met., xii, 39-63, which, through the
imitation in Chaucer's Hous of Fame, is a source with which our
Court of Love author had a double chance of being familiar :
Orbe locus medio est inter terrasque fretumque
Caelestesque plagas, triplicis confinia mundi,
Unde quod est usquam, quamuis regionibus absit,
Inspicitur, penetratque cauas uox omnis ad aures.
Fama tenet, summaque domum sibi legit in arce
Innumerosque aditus ac mille foramina tectis
Addidit et nullis inclusit limina portis.
Nocte dieque patet. Tota est ex aere sonanti ;
Tota fremit uocesque refert iteratque quod audit :
Nulla quies intus nullaque silentia parte.
Nec tamen est clamor, sed paruae murmura uocis,
Qualia de pelagi, siquis procul audiat, undis
Esse solent, qualemne sonum, cum Iuppiter atras
Increpuit nubes, extrema tonitrua reddunt.
Atria turba tenet: ueniunt, leue uulgus, euntque
Mixtaque cum ueris passim conmenta uagantur
Milia rumorum confusaque uerba uolutant.
E quibus hi uacuas implent sermonibus aures,
Hi narrata ferunt alio, mensuraque ficti
Crescit, et auditis aliquid nouus adicit auctor.
Illic Credulitas, illic temerarius Error
Vanaque Laetitia est consternatique Timores
Seditioque repens dubioque auctore Susurri.
After the beginning of the Christian era these traditions continued
in the pagan poets. Exactly the same kind of personifications are
14
William Allan Neilson.
found in Statius, e.g., Theb., iii, 426, and Silvae, iii, 3, 1-7.
In Apu-
leius we have them not infrequently. In the story of Cupid and
Psyche in Book vi of his Metamorphoses we have several instances.
Thus Venus threatens Cupid that she will call to her aid his enemy
Sobrietas, and where Venus is persecuting Psyche these passages
occur: "Jamque fores ei dominae proximanti occurrit una de famu-
litio Veneris nomine Consuetudo statimque quantum maxime potuit
exclamat, 'Tandem, ancilla nequissima, dominam habere te scire
coepisti'"; and "Ubi sunt,' inquit [Venus], 'Sollicitudo atque
Tristities, ancillae meae?' " 2 and forthwith these servants come
forth and proceed to torture Psyche.
In Apuleius, too, we have a suggestion of the Palace of Love.
Psyche, immediately after her mysterious marriage, falls into a sleep,
and awaking finds herself in a grove in the midst of which is a foun-
tain with crystal waters. "Prope fontis adlapsum domus regia est,
aedificata non humanis manibus sed divinis artibus. . . . Summa
laquearia citro et ebore curiose cauata subeunt aureae columnae,
parietes omnes argenteo caelamine conteguntur. .
Enim uero
pauimenta ipsa lapide pretioso caesim deminuto in uaria picturae
genera discriminantur." The grove, the fountains, the precious
building materials, and the picture decorations all become regular
features of the medieval House of Venus.
3
S
But as early as Apuleius there is a change in the mental attitude.
of authors towards even the most august divinities, and what Puech
says of Claudian begins to be true long before: "Whatever care
Claudian took to conserve the traditions of the past, he yielded in
spite of himself to the influence of his age, an age in which mythol-
ogy had ceased to be more than a poetic convention, when theology,
striving after a vague deism or pantheism of the Stoic kind and
re-establishing the fabulous divinities only as attributes, as hypos
tases, deprived them of their life and their humanity. At times,
also, he seems to have planned to substitute for these ancient gods
so mocked by the Christians, less compromising abstractions."4
This treatment of mythology as a poetic convention is indeed
1 Apuleius, Met., vi, 8.
2 Ibid., vi, 9.
8 Ibid., v, I.
4 Puech, Prudence, Paris, 1888, pp. 241-2.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
1
more and more evident in the later pagan literature. Personifica-
tions occur with greater frequency. In one passage in Claudian
(flor. A.D. 400) Alecto appears surrounded by Discord, the nurse of
war; imperious Hunger; Old Age, neighbor of Death; Disease;
Jealousy; Grief, mourning in a ragged veil; Fear; blind Audacity ;
Luxury, and Poverty, her inseparable companion; Avarice, and the
Curae. Later in the same poem :
Concordia, Virtus,
Cumque Fide Pietas alta ceruice uagantur,
Insignemque canunt nostra de plebe triumphum (i, 52-4).
In another poem 2 are Patience, Temperance, Prudence, Constancy,
Avarice, and Ambition, and after an interval³:
Lictorque Metus cum fratre Pauore
Barbara ferratis innectunt colla catenis.
With a still bolder symbolism he pictures the cave of Eternity, where
Vestibuli custos, uultu longaeua decoro,
Ante fores Natura sedet, cunctisque uolantes
Dependent membris animae.¹
15
Most interesting of all to us at present is the account of the dwell-
ing of Venus to which Cupid goes in the poem De Nuptiis Honorii
et Mariae to announce to his mother his conquest of the heart of
Honorius. The abode of the goddess is in Cyprus, in a flat plain on
the top of a mountain inaccessible to the foot of man, and surrounded
by a golden wall built by Vulcan as the price of his wife's kisses.
Here there blows no wind nor does winter bring snow, but in per-
petual spring the flowers bloom, and among the trees sing only those
birds whose song has been approved by Venus. The very leaves love,
omnisque vicissim Felix arbor amat. There are two fountains, one sweet
and one bitter, in which the arrows of Cupid receive their temper :
Mille pharetrati ludunt in margine fratres,
Ore pares, habitu similes, gens mollis Amorum.
Hos Nymphae pariunt, illum Venus aurea solum
Edidit (vv. 72-5).
1 Claudian, In Rufinum, i, 25 ff.
2 Claud., De Laudibus Stilichonis, ii, 100 ff.
3 Ibid., ii, 373 ff.
4 Ibid.. ii, 431−3.
16
William Allan Neilson.
To gods and kings the Venus-born Cupid confines his attention,
while the amours of the crowd of common men are the charge of the
lesser Loves. Other divinities dwell there - Licentia, Irae, Excubiae,
Lacrymae, Pallor, Audacia, Metus, Voluptas, Perjuria, Juventus. The
description of the Palace itself may be compared with the Ovidian
Palace of Apollo':
Procul atria diuae
Permutant radios, siluaque obstante uirescunt.
Lemnius haec etiam gemmis exstruxit et auro,
Admiscens artem pretio, trabibus smaragdis
Supposuit caesas hyacinthi rupe columnas.
Beryllo paries, et iaspide lubrica surgunt
Limina, despectusque solo calcatur achates.2
"
In this gorgeous place Amor finds Venus seated "corusco solio,"
engaged in making her toilet with the assistance of the Graces."
She needs no mirror, for the admiration of all around sufficiently
reflects her beauty. She receives her son warmly, and at his request
sends for Triton and, seated on a couch of roses on his back, and
attended by a train of Loves, she crosses the waves to bless the
marriage of Honorius and Maria.
To some extent parallel to this marriage poem by Claudian is
the De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii of Martianus Capella (flor.
A.D. 425). Here the aim is didactic instead of panegyric, and the
attendant figures are Virtus, Phronesis, and the like.*
Much closer, and very evidently an imitation, is the Epithalamium
dictum Ruricio et Hiberiae of Apollinaris Sidonius (A.D. 430-483).
Here again the dwelling is the work of Vulcan, and the precious.
stones are even more elaborately described":
Profecit studio spatium; nam Lemnius illic
Ceu templum lusit Veneri fulmenque relinquens
1 See p. 12, above.
2 Claud., De Nuptiis Honorii et Mariae, 85 ff.
" Cf. the Homeric Hymn to Venus, 58-63, and p. 12, above.
4 See especially bks. i, ii, and ix.
5 C. Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius, Carm., xi, 14 ff., ed. by P. Mohr, Leipzig,
1895, p. 307.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
17
Hic ferrugineus fumauit saepe Pyragmon.
Hic lapis est, de quinque locis dans quinque colores,
Aethiops, Frygius, Parius, Poenus, Lacedaemon,
Purpureus, uiridis, maculosus, eburnus et albus.
Postes chrysolithi fuluus diffulgurat ardor;
Myrrhina, sardonyches, amethystus, Hiberus, iaspis
Indus, Chalcidicus, Scythicus, beryllus, achates
Attollunt duplices argenti cardine ualuas,
Per quas inclusi lucem uomit umbra smaragdi;
Limina crassus onyx crustat propterque hyacinthi
Caerula concordem faciunt in stagna colorem.
B. CHRISTIAN.
When we begin to deal with the Christian writers of allegory, it
becomes necessary to take account of another stream of influence
than the classical, to which hitherto we have devoted exclusive
attention, viz., that from the Scriptures.
3
Of allegory in the limited sense in which we have defined it there
is not a great variety in the Bible. By far the most frequent per-
sonification in the Old Testament is that of Wisdom. In the
Proverbs we have her crying aloud in the streets,' holding length of
days in her right hand and riches and honor in her left,² making
subtilty her dwelling, building her house and sending forth her
maidens. In the Apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon she is radiant and
fadeth not away," is easily beheld of them that desire to know her,"
goeth about herself seeking them that are worthy of her,' is the arti-
ficer of all things, and is sought by the speaker as a bride." In
Ecclesiasticus she exalteth her sons, and taketh hold of them that
seek her.10
8
We have no other figure of this kind nearly so elaborately pictured.
The people of Israel, and more particularly the city of Jerusalem, are
not infrequently represented as female figures: e.g., "Shake thyself
1 Proverbs, i, 20.
2 iii, 16.
3 viii, 12.
7 Wisdom, vi, 16.
8 vii, 22.
9 viii, 2.
4 Proverbs, ix, 1.
5 Wisdom, vi, 12.
• Ibid.
10 Ecclesiasticus, iv, 11, and passim.
18
William Allan Neilson.
1
from the dust; arise, sit thee down, O Jerusalem; loose thyself
from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion." Again,
in Psalm lxxxv, 10-11, Occur some instances that were worked very
hard by the Fathers:
Mercy and Truth are met together;
Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other.
Truth springeth out of the earth,
And Righteousness hath looked down from heaven.
:
8
4
From the mass of symbolism in the Apocalypse a few instances can
be selected the figure on the pale horse representing Death,2 another
on the red horse apparently representing War, the scarlet woman
who personifies Babylon, and most important, the figuring of the
Church as the Bride of Christ.5 The allegorical significance of these
was increased, and many passages not originally figurative were made.
so, by the well-known allegorizing tendency of the Church in the Early
and Middle Ages. One instance of the kind of allegorical story
which the early Fathers sometimes founded upon the merest hints
will be given later' from a parable ascribed to Bernard of Clairvaux.
Meantime we have to consider instances in which the Fathers turned
to Christian uses the kind of personifications the tradition of which
had come down from classical sources.
6
Tertullian in his book De Patientia, cap. 15,8 describes Patience
as a woman of calm and tranquil countenance, with forehead free
from wrinkles of sadness or anger, eyes cast down in humility, not
in unhappiness, a silent mouth, and an expression of peaceful and
innocent joy. She is clad in a close-fitting snow-white garment,
and is seated on the throne of the calmest and sweetest spirit, "for
where God is, there is his foster-daughter, Patience." Of a similar
8 Ibid., vi, 4.
4 xvii, 3.
6 xix, 7.
1 Isaiah, lii, 2. 2 Revelation, vi, 8.
For instances of the elaboration of the passage from Psalm 1xxxv, and of
the personification of Faith, Hope, and Charity from I Cor., xiii, see Raab, Ucher
vier allegorische Motive in der lateinischen und deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters,
chap. iii. He cites Heinzel, Zt. f. deutsches Alt., XVII, 43–51.
7 See p. 21, below.
8 Quoted by Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters im
Abendlande, Leipzig, 1874-87, I, 49-50.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
19
nature are the figures of Irene and Agape in Cyprian, and of Ava-
rice and Luxury in Augustine.' Soon, however, one literary type
begins to predominate in the Christian allegorical literature, — that
which later becomes familiar as the Battle of the Vices and the
Virtues, which found its first extended treatment at the hands of
the Spaniard Prudentius about A.D. 400, and its last and greatest,
after an almost continuous tradition of twelve hundred years, in the
works of Bunyan.
According to Puech,2 Prudentius probably received the suggestion
for his Psychomachia from a passage in the De Spectaculis of Tertul-
lian (c. 29). The passage runs thus:
Si scenicae doctrinae delectant, satis nobis litterarum est, satis uersuum,
satis sententiarum, satis etiam canticorum, satis uocum; nec fabulae, sed
ueritates; nec strophae, sed simplicitates. Vis et pugillatus et luctatus?
praesto sunt, non parua, sed multa. Adspice impudicitiam deiectam a cas-
titate, perfidiam caesam a fide, saeuitiam a misericordia contusam, petulan-
tiam a modestia obumbratam, et tales sunt apud nos agones, in quibus ipsi
coronamur.
This last sentence does indeed contain, as Puech says, "le pro-
gramme même de la Psychomachia." The same idea is found in
Cyprian also, in a passage not noted by Puech. "Obsessa mens
hominis et undique diaboli infestatione uallata uix occurrit singulis
[uitiis], uix resistit : si auaritia prostrata est exsurgit libido," etc.
The subject was first treated by Prudentius in his Hamartigenia
(vv. 394 ff.) in which the human soul is described as besieged by
Satan, under whom fight a crowd of vices-Anger, Superstition,
Melancholy (Maeror), Discord, Luxury, Thirst of Blood, Envy,
Adultery, Cheating, Violence, etc. In the Psychomachia the soul
is a battle-field where a series of duels is being fought; as, e.g., that
between the Christian Faith and Paganism, "the worship of the old
gods."
4
1 Augustine, Sermon 86, chap. vi, cited by Ebert, I, 237, n. 2.
2 A. Puech, Prudence, Paris, 1888, pp. 245 ff. an admirable account of the
works and influence of Prudentius, from which I have received help.
3 Cyprian, De Mortalitate, 4; Ebert, I, 59, n. 1.
4 Psychomachia, 21 ff.
www.
20
William Allan Neilson.
Prima petit campum dubia sub sorte duelli
Pugnatura Fides, agresti turbida cultu,
Nuda humeros, intonsa comas, exerta lacertos;
Namque repentinus laudis calor ad noua feruens
Proelia, nec telis meminit, nec tegmine cingi:
Pectore sed fidens ualido, membrisque retectis,
Prouocat insani frangenda pericula belli.
Ecce lacessentem collatis uiribus audet
Prima ferire Fidem, ueterum cultura Deorum, etc.
Similarly Pudicitia fights with Libido, Patientia with Ira, Superbia
with Humilitas, Luxuria with Sobrietas, Avaritia with Largitas, Con-
cordia with Discordia. One group has some Court of Love figures.
After the death of Luxuria at the hands of Sobrietas :
Caede ducis dispersa fugit trepidante pauore
Nugatrix acies. Jocus et Petulantia primi
Cymbala proiiciunt: bellum nam talibus armis
Ludebant, resono meditantes uulnera sistro.
Dat tergum fugitiuus Amor: lita tela ueneno,
Et lapsum ex humeris arcum, pharetramque cadentem
Pallidus ipse metu sua post uestigia linquit.¹
Justitia, Honestas, Jejunia, Pudor, Spes, Pompa, Vetustas, Voluptas,
and others also occur.
The influence of this work was very great not only in Spain, where,
according to Puech, it inspired the autos sacramentales (which are
often only "Psychomachies dramatiques " ") and other works, but in
many foreign countries as well. Features which may plausibly be
derived from it are to be seen in the sermons of the later Fathers,
and one cannot fail to notice how strongly it suggests the Morality
Play. It would take us too far afield to follow the descendants of
the Psychomachia down through the theological and didactic literature
of the following centuries, but one instance may be quoted to show
the persistence of that kind of allegory which Prudentius indeed did
not invent, but of which he was the first great exponent.
1
¹ Psychomachia, 432 ff.
2 See Puech, Prudence, p. 255. For the autos sacramentales, see Biblioteca de
Autores Españoles, LVIII, Madrid, 1865.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
2 I
In connection with the allegorizing of passages of Scripture origi-
nally free from any intentional parabolic signification, a sermon by
Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153), the preacher of the Second Crusade,
was mentioned. We have five Parables¹ ascribed to St. Bernard,
and all of them, though founded upon different passages of Scripture,
approach the type of the Battle of the Vices and the Virtues.
In one
of these, starting from St. Paul's chapter on Charity, he tells of a King
who had three daughters, Fides, Spes, and Caritas, whom he puts
in charge of the town of Mansoul, in which are three castles, Ratio-
nabilitas, Concupiscibilitas, and Irascibilitas. To each daughter is
assigned a castle, and each sets a guardian with attendants to watch
over it. Fides appoints Prudentia and gives her as associates Obe-
dientia, Patientia, Dispensatio, Ordo, and Disciplina; Spes appoints
Sobrietas and gives her Discretio, Continentia, Constantia, and
Humilitas, with Silentium as doorkeeper; Caritas appoints Pietas
(who is accompanied by Munditia Corporis and "congruas exercita-
tiones, videlicet lectiones, meditationes, orationes, et spirituales affec-
tiones") and Beatitudo, with Peace as doorkeeper. The whole town ist
governed by Liberum Arbitrium. These arrangements having been
made, the daughters retire, and the town is attacked by the Adver-
sary at the head of an army of wickedness. They gain entrance by
the doors of Rationabilitas and Concupiscibilitas, Liberum Arbitrium
is bound, and Blasphemia, Luxuria, and Superbia hold sway. The
three daughters seek help from their father, who sends Timor and
Gratia with an army of Virtues. Liberum Arbitrium is liberated,
and, it is hoped, will remain under the dominion of Gratia for-
ever.
·
But the Christian writers of Allegory were not exclusively occupied
with biblical subjects, and their knowledge of pagan literature is
shown in other ways than the Psychomachia might indicate. Thus
we find them turning their ingenuity in interpretation to the symbol-
ism of the God of Love himself, though in no very friendly spirit.
The features dwelt on are the usual conventions of classical art,
but they are so constantly used in that class of medieval poems that
1 See Raab, Ueber vier allegorische Motive, pp. 10, 13, 29, etc., for other Church
writings of the same kind. The present summary is based on Raab, p. 10.
22
William Allan Neilson.
we are to study that it is worth while to note one or two instances of
their treatment.
Fulgentius¹ (A.D. 540) thus interprets the stock attributes of
Venus:
Hanc etiam nudam pingunt, siue quod nudos sibi affectatores dimit-
tat, siue quod libidinis crimen nunquam celatum sit, siue quod nunquam
nisi nudis conueniat. Huic etiam rosas 2 in tutelam adiiciunt. Rosae enim
et rubent et pungunt, ut etiam libido. Rubet uerecundiae opprobrio, pungit
etiam peccati aculeo. Et sicut rosa delectat quidem, sed celeri motu tem-
poris tollitur: ita et libido libet momentaliter, et fugit perenniter. In huius
etiam tutelam columbas ponunt, illa uidelicet causa, quod huius generis aues
sint in coitu feruidae.
In a similar strain is a passage by Theodulfus, Bishop of Orléans
about A.D. 800:
Fingitur alatus, nudus, puer esse Cupido,
Ferre arcum et pharetram, toxica, tela, facem.
Quod leuis, alatus, quod aperto est crimine, nudus,
Sollertique caret quod ratione puer.
Mens praua in pharetra, insidiae signantur in arcu,
Tela, puer, uirus, fax tuus ardor, Amor. . .
8
Other passages of this sort could be quoted, but these are suffi-
cient to show the attitude of the early Churchmen towards even the
least serious of the old divinities. It was about a thousand years
before it was easy for a Christian clerk to regard the winged god
without a frown; and when we again come upon poets describing
the House of Venus without deprecating gestures, we realize that
we are in a new world, that of the love-allegories of the Middle
Ages.
1 Mythologicum, ii, 4 (on Venus).
2 Muncker in a note to this passage quotes Jerome: "Flos Veneris rosa est
quia sub eius purpura multi latent aculei." Mythographi Latini, ed. by A. van
Staveren, Amsterdam, 1742, p. 670, n. 4. Cf. also in same vol., pp. 903-4, Albri-
cus Philosophus, De deorum imaginibus Libellus, v.
3 Theodulfus, De libris quos legere solebam et qualiter fabulae poetarum a philo-
sophis mystice pertractantur, 33 ff. See edition in Monumenta Germaniae His-
torica, Poet. Lat., I, 543, and cf. parallel from Isidore quoted in note 8.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
23
In the present chapter we have attempted to discover how much
of the common material of the Court of Love allegory was a legacy
from preceding literatures. The investigation has dealt mainly with
two points the source of those allegorical figures that form the
courtiers of Venus, and the beginnings of the descriptions of the
Palace of Venus. Of both of these we have found evidence of much
more than a trace. The Palace seems to be derived almost entirely
from the classics, unless we suppose that the account of the New
Jerusalem in the Revelation may also have given suggestions. The
personifications, as was perhaps to have been expected, are found
both in the classics and in Hebrew literature. The Christian con-
tribution is increased by the patristic tendency to force an even
fourfold meaning out of all Scripture, so that the clerical mind had
its familiarity with personification increased by many instances which
would never have been recognized as such by their authors.
This matter of personification' has been dealt with much more
fully than will be possible or desirable in the succeeding chapters.
We have, as it were, been collecting material to show from what soil
the allegory of the Court of Love sprang; having realized that, we
can now confine our attention more exclusively to the growth of the
plant itself.
ta
CHAPTER III.
THE CENTRAL CONCEPTION OF THE COURT OF LOVE.
THE general principle of arrangement in this and the following
chapter will be according to language: Provençal, Old French,
Italian, Middle-High German, and English. Latin documents, be-
longing as they do to various, and often to uncertain, nationalities,
will be discussed at points where their relation to vernacular pieces
makes it most convenient.
1 For further instances of personification after Prudentius, see E. Langlois,
Origines et Sources du Roman de la Rose, Paris, 1891, pp. 63 ff.
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William Allan Neilson.
A. PROVENÇAL.
GUIRAUT DE CALANSO.
We begin with the work of a troubadour of the end of the twelfth
century, Guiraut de Calanso, who wrote his A leis cui am de cor e de
saber¹ to pay homage to a lady. It deals with three kinds of love, to
be understood as carnal, natural (i.e. that of relatives), and celestial,
but the second and third together get only three lines. The first
kind is personified as a very powerful being, conquering nobles,
princes, and kings. Not Reason but Impulse rules her court, and
never will justice be done there. So subtle is she that no man can
see her; so swiftly she runs that none can escape; so straight she
strikes that none can guard by hauberk however stout against the
dart of steel with which she gives the "colp de plazer," against the
golden arrows which she shoots from her bow, or against her finely
sharpened dart of lead. She wears a crown of gold. Though she
sees nothing, yet where she wishes to strike she never misses. She
flies lightly and is much feared. When she does evil it seems as if it
were good. Descent or wealth she does not regard.
She dwells in a palace with five portals, two of which having been
passed, the other three are easy of entrance; but the exit is hard.
Whoever can remain there lives in joy. The entrance is at the top
of four very smooth steps, which no villain can climb. Those who
fail to ascend are lodged without in the "barri," which holds more
than half the world. Outside there is a stone seat where one may
sit and play on a board any game one pleases; but the play is not
without risks.
Love makes the whole universe serve her. One she makes rich,
another to languish; one she holds down, another she makes suc-
1 Edited, with discussions, by O. Dammann, Breslau, 1891. Guiraut Riquier
wrote a commentary on this poem which Dammann thinks is the only thing of
its kind preserved. Dammann's book contains a collection of valuable material
to which I owe some suggestions.
The text may also be found in Bartsch's Chrest. Prov., 4th ed., Elberfeld,
1880, col. 163, and in Appel's Prov. Chrest., Leipzig, 1895, p. 75. For translation
see Diez, Leben u. Werke der Troubadours, 2d ed., p. 428.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
25
cessful.
She is unstable, proving faithless to her fair promises.
Naked she goes, girt with a little gold embroidery, and all her race
spring from a fire, of which they are formed [the last word is doubtful].
Several of the features in this wonderfully condensed little poem
are repeated in another by the same author¹:
Sapchas d'Amor
Com vol' e cor
E com jai nuda ses vestir
E non ve ren,
Mas fer trop ben
Ab sos dartz c'a fatz gen forbir;
Dels dos cairels
L'us es tan bels
De fin aur c'om ve resplandir;
L'autr'es d'acier,
Mas tan mal fier
C'om nos pot del sieu colp guerir;
Comandamens
Nous, si l'aprens,
I trobares, senes mentir, etc.
The all-powerful character of the divinity here goes back to the
Homeric Hymn to Venus, which attributes to her power over even
the gods, except Diana, Minerva, and Vesta. At the other extreme
of our period, this omnipotence forms the chief theme of the happy
lovers' praise of Venus in the English Court of Love. The arrows
are, of course, also a classical tradition; but the division of them
and of the darts according to material, steel, gold, and lead, — is
peculiar. Two classes we shall find frequently in Old French; and
the "Golden Love" and "Leaden Love" that enter the Court just
where one of the breaks in the Court of Love occurs are doubtless
of a similar signification. What that signification is we shall find
explained in later poems. Of the Palace we have already had
1 K. Bartsch, Denkmäler der Provenzalischen Litteratur, Stuttgart, 1856, p. 100.
2 Additional classical parallels to the Palace are quoted by Dammann: House
of the Winds, Acn., i, 50-63; of Vulcan, Aen., viii, 416; of Envy, Ovid, Met., ii,
760; of Cold, etc., ibid., viii, 788; of Sleep, ibid., xi, 592; Statius, Theb., x, 84 ;
of Mars, Statius, Theb., vii, 40.
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William Allan Neilson.
instances, and for the doors a parallel will be found in Andreas
Capellanus.
The most important characteristic in these poems by Guiraut de
Calanso is his attributing to the goddess the conventional features
of Cupid, wings, nakedness, blindness, and the bow and arrows.
The explanation doubtless lies in the fact that amor is feminine in
Provençal.
P
JAUFRE RUDEL.
The conventional features of the landscape in which the God of
Love usually has his court occur frequently in Provençal poems that
are not allegorical. Such a passage as the following from the trou-
badour Jaufre Rudel is typical:
14
Quan lo rius de la fontana
S'esclarzis, si cum far sol,
E par la flors aiglentina,
El rossignolitz el ram
Volf e refraing et aplana
Son dous chantar et afina,
Dreitz es qu'eu lo meu refraigna.
PEIRE GUILHEM (?).
A similar setting of flowers and streams and nightingales occurs,
in a more elaborate form, in a fragmentary poem by a certain Peire,
whose surname is uncertain (the MS. evidence being indecisive).
The poet, who speaks in the first person throughout," was out riding
one day, accompanied by his knights and squires, when he met a
very handsome and magnificently equipped cavalier conducting a
beautiful lady. Both of them rode strangely-colored horses whose
""
1 Bartsch, Chrest. Prov., 4th ed., col. 55.
2 For text see Raynouard, Lexique Roman, Paris, 1838, I, 405-17, and Mahn,
Werke, I, 241 ff. For translation (imperfect) into modern French see Hist. litt.
des Troubadours [Sainte-Palaye], Paris, 1774, II, 297 ff. These editors call the
author "Pierre Vidal," but Bartsch (Chrest. Prov., 4th ed., col. 265) and Stim-
ming (Gröber's Grundriss, Band II, Abt. 2, art. Provençal Litt., p. 46) call him
"Peire Guillem or "Peire Guilhem"; see also Bartsch, Peire Vidal, p. xciv.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
27
trappings were rich with jewels. They were attended by a squire
and a damsel whose long hair almost hid her from view.
The poet
offered them hospitality, and, as they seemed to prefer the open air,
he led them to a sequestered garden enclosed by a hedge of reeds,
shaded by laurels, and watered by a clear fountain. The lawn was
enamelled with fresh flowers, and the trees were full of birds singing.
The damsel spread a pavilion richly worked with gold, on which were
represented all sorts of animals and flowers. A thousand knights
could stand in it without touching each other, and yet the damsel
carried it folded up in her purse.¹ After some conversation the
poet was informed that the knight is the God of Love, the lady
Mercy, and the squire and damsel Loyalty and Modesty. The
squire carried a bow of alborn with three arrows in his girdle, one
of gold, one of Poitou steel, one of lead. The last part of the poem
is occupied with discussions of the origin and nature of love; of the
grounds which justify a man in putting away his wife, as the King
of Navarre had just done, and of the reason why the God of Love
was leading Mercy and her attendants away from the court of
Alphonso of Castile; but as the MS. is not complete, not all the
answers to Peire's questions have come down to us.
arrows.
The squire, and not the god, it should be noted, has the bow and
This was doubtless suggested by the custom of the squire's
carrying the knight's spear when no fighting was to be done; but in
the poem the squire not only carries the bow but does the shooting.
The arrows, we are told, enter by the eyes and by the ears, and
serve to unite, not to separate, hearts. Observe also the different
kinds of arrows—gold, steel, and lead, like the darts and arrows in
Guiraut de Calanso.
ROMAN DE FLAMENCA.
2
In the romance of Flamenca, though as a whole it is a quite realis-
tic picture of fashionable life about 1200, several allegorical person-
ages occur.
In one passage we have Jovens, Avolesa, Proesa, and
1 Van Bemmel, De la langue et de la poésie prov., Brussels, 1846, p. 186, thinks
this a proof of Arabic influence.
2 Roman de Flamenca, ed. by Paul Meyer, Paris, 1865.
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William Allan Neilson.
Cobezesal,¹ in another Malvestatz, Valor, Jois, Vergona, and Conois-
sensa,² all these qualities being distinctly personified; and the hero
soliloquises at length on the power of Love.³
CHASTEL D'AMORS.
The troubadours of the north of Italy who imitated Provençal
models and used the Provençal language, have also contributed to
the growth of the Court of Love tradition. One of these, whose name
is unknown, but whose nationality is betrayed by Italianisms in his
style,¹ has left, in a unique and imperfect MS., an extreme example
of the metaphorical type of the House of Love. In the beginning
of this Chastel d'Amors the speaker announces his intention of
building a noble castle. The high towers are to be hard-hearted
ladies, and no lady is to be admitted who loves unworthily, or who
is not or does not intend to be engaged in love. The gates of
speech are the entrances, and the courteous open the doors with the
keys of prayer. Immediately inside are the houses where rings and
other love-tokens are sold. The next door is fastened by sweet private
love-kisses, and this is the point where a stand must be made if the
fortress is not to be yielded. Inside all is sweetness and youth and
welcome, and up in the tower are secluded chambers for the secret
joys of love. The butlers and the cooks "son tuit de ris e de joec
et de parlar ses ennuec," and no fire is required but love, which
makes perpetual summer. No bargaining is permitted; and mortal
war is waged against husbands and jealous persons. Slanderers are
constantly attacking the ladies, who defend themselves by shooting
proverbs at them. Evasions are their bucklers, oaths their lances,
and they are able to lie with an air of truth. He who can get a
dwelling place in this castle can go there and live in safety, and
need never fear to lose what he has gained.
The particular kind of metaphor which is used in this poem is
1
2
vv. 740 ff.
vv. 231 ff.
3 vv. 3326 ff.
4 So A. Thomas in his edition of the text in Annales du Midi, 1889, pp. 183-
96. See also Bartsch, Chrest. Prov., 4th ed., col. 273 ff; Jahrbuch f. rom. und
engl. Lit., XI, 23. On the MS. see Archiv f. d. Stud. d. neueren Spr. u. Lit.,
XXXIV, 418 ff., and Gröber, Romanische Studien, 11, 433–42.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
29
found not infrequently in Old French poems, where palaces are
described as founded upon sighs and surrounded with moats filled
with tears; but I have found no example where this method is car-
ried so far as here. It is a specially pernicious kind of allegory, for
it is so impossible to visualize the things described that the concrete
side of the parable goes to confusion, and the poem is inconsistent
and incoherent throughout.
BERTOLOME ZORZI.
Very different is the romance of another Italian troubadour, Ber-
tolome Zorzi.¹ This poem connects itself with the Court of Love
conception on the other side altogether through the idea of the
God of Love as judge in lovers' quarrels.
The poet, wandering in search of a flower to cure him of his amor-
ous pains, came upon a pair of lovers under the shade of an abbey.
The man was appealing to the God of Love against being condemned
unheard, when the voice of the God was heard saying that he had
already passed judgment on the case, but would recall his sentence.
till he had listened to both sides.
g
The lady complained that the lover had brought shame on her by
babbling of the favors she had granted him. This the man denied,
accusing her of having listened too readily to slanderers. She next
charged him with having attempted her honor, and he protested that,
though he had been carried away by her beauty, he had never thought
of dishonoring her, but that she, by obeying Love's command, could,
without shame, have saved him from his suffering.
When the pleading was finished, the voice of Love was heard
again saying that the lover was guiltless of babbling, but that he had
been wrong in being so immoderate in his striving, yet that he de-
served pardon on account of his sufferings while waiting for recon-
ciliation, and that he should continue in the lady's service and she
should reward his faithfulness. The sentence was executed.
The chief importance of this romance lies in its forming a link
1 Der Troubadour Bertolome Zorzi, ed. by Emil Levy, Halle, 1883, p. 63. See
also Diez, Ueber die Minnehöfe, pp. 23 ff.
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William Allan Neilson.
between the pure allegory and the much disputed institution of the
Court of Love.¹
CHELTENHAM COURT OF LOVE MS.
The most extended instance of a Court of Love allegory in Pro-
vençal is a poem contained in a MS. of the first half of the thirteenth
century, formerly in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps. This time
Love is a regular feudal over-lord, who one fine day in spring calls
together his barons at his dwelling on the top of Parnassus. The
barons are ten in number: Joi, Solatz, Ardiment, Cortesia, Bon' Espe-
ranza, Paor, Largueza, Domnei, Celament, and Dolsa Companhia.
To each of them in turn Love makes a speech, thanking him for his
services in the past and allotting new tasks for the furtherance of the
lordship of Love. The background is the familiar one, with violets.
and other flowers, a pleasance hedged in with laurels and pines,
fountains playing into golden basins, and a hundred fair damsels
being kissed and embraced by their lovers. The door-keepers are
Pretz and Drudaria.2
Most of the other Provençal material which has a connection with,
the Court of Love will come under the chapter on Statutes. Refer-
ences to the "cort del ver dieu d'amor "8 or the "cortz de lejals
amadors " occur not infrequently in the lyrics of the troubadours,
but there is no elaboration of the idea, and the meaning is little more
than merely "the sphere of courtly love."
1 See chap. viii, below.
2 For the text see L. Constans, Les Manuscrits provençaux de Cheltenham,
Paris, 1882, pp. 66-115; or Revue des Langues Romanes, 1881, Series 3, VI, 157 ff.,
209 ff., 261 ff.
Cf. also A. Thomas, Franc. da Barberino, in Bibl. des Ecoles
franç. d'Athènes et de Rome, fasc. 35, p. 65.
8 Rich. de Tarascon, cited by Diez, Ueber die Minnchöfe, p. 21. Cf. Parnasse
occitanien, p. 385.
4 Gaucelm Faidit, cited by Trojel, Middelalderens Elskovshoffer, Copenhagen,
1888, pp. 199–200.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
31
B. LATIN AND OLD FRENCH.
The most considerable group of Court of Love poems in the early
period of Old French literature is bound together by an important.
identity of subject-matter: viz., the discussion of the comparative
merits of clerks and knights as lovers. The existence and wide
prevalence of this discussion throw a significant light upon the social
situation, in reading which it must be remembered that all the Latin
and most of the vernacular poems were written by clerks, who, of
course, gave the victory to their own side.
ROMARICIMONTIS CONCILIUM.
The Romaricimontis Concilium, or Concile de Remiremont¹ is a Latin
poem by an unknown clerk. It is preserved in a MS. dated by
Waitz, its editor, as "soweit ich mich jetzt erinnere, von einer hand
des in oder spätestens des 12n jh. geschrieben," though it is prob-
ably later.
The place "Remiremont" and the names "de Granges"
and "de Falcon" occurring in the poem, the same authority thinks
point to the southern part of the diocese of Toul, in Lorraine. The
poem is one of remarkable interest in itself; and is so important to
us as containing the earliest instances of certain features of the
Court of Love genre which were soon to become traditional, that a
full account of its contents is justifiable.
On the Ides of April, an assembly of ladies [of religion] was held
at Remiremont, where nothing but Love was discussed.
For "pu-
ellae amantes" it was held, and no men except a few honest clerks
were admitted. The doorkeeper was that Sibilia who had been a
soldier of Venus from her tender years, and had without reluctance
done whatever Love commanded.
Old ladies past the age of joy having been shut out, and all the
bands of virgins admitted, Eva de Danubrio, universally affirmed to
be "potens in officio artis amatoriae," read for gospel the precepts
of the famous doctor Ovid, and two others sang songs of love.
1 Printed by G. Waitz in Zt. f. deutsches Alt., VII, 160-7 (cf. also XXI, 65 ff.),
from Trèves MS., 1081 (LXXI). Cf. Pertz, Archiv, VII, 598, cited by Waitz.
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William Allan Neilson.
"L
After this the "cardinalis domina" stood up in the midst and called
for silence. She was becomingly dressed in a many-colored gown,
brighter than gems, more precious than gold, and hung with a thou-
sand flowers of May. This royal maid, the flower and glory of the
world, eloquent and learned, announced that she had been sent by
the God of Love, at the suggestion of April and May, to inquire into
the lives of those who were present. Elisabet de Granges rose and
stated that they served Love as well as they could. Nothing that
he wishes displeases us, and if we neglect anything, it is unwittingly.
Thus we choose to keep no regular bond with any man, nor do we
know any unless he be of our order." Elisabet de Falcon followed
and more distinctly declared that they loved the favor, praise, and
memory of clerks, whose "rule" alone held them, and whom they
knew to be "affabiles, gratos et amabiles.” Clerks were courteous
and honorable, and knew not deceit or slander; they had experience
and diligence in loving. They gave beautiful gifts and kept agree-
ments well; if they loved anything sweetly, they did not relinquish
it lightly. The breaking of foolish vows was not mortal sin. The
love of knights she declared detestable and unstable; and, though
confessing that once she and her sisters sought their notice, she
asserted that they soon discovered their guile and transferred them-
selves to the jolly clerks whose love was without vice, strong, firm,
and stable.
This view was approved by the lady cardinal; but a new speaker,
Elisabet Pompona, came forward on behalf of the knights "who go
boldly to battle for our sakes, and to please us fear neither hard-
ships, wounds nor death. Such we choose, such we make ours:
their prosperity is our happiness, their sadness disturbs our joy."
"Such an occupation," continues one Adeleyt, "pleases me more
than the psalter.
Compared with this tie, I hold our rule
light."
•
But the weight of opinion was on the other side. “We have given
ourselves to the clerks and we will not change. .. The whole country
smiles with their mirth: they praise us in all kinds of verses. Such men
do I love above all others, by the command of Venus." Knights are
blamed for levity and foolish talkativeness; they like to slander and
reveal secrets. "I have known the life and manners of all lovers. . .
•
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
33
There is no happiness, no faithfulness in the love of knights. It is
good and wise to choose clerks; their love is a great delight."
Then the chief lady summed up, and decreed the expulsion of all
who did not disown the love of knights. Faithfulness to one lover,
under pain of heavy penance, was enjoined. Never must they give
to vile knights "tactum vestri corporis, vel colli, vel femoris." Pleas-
ure taken with knights gave rise to scandal: clerks knew how to
arrange things and could keep secrets.
All responded in support of this decision and declared that the
decrees should be announced through all the churches to the con-
vent girls. An "Excommunicatio Rebellarum was drawn up: "By
the command of Venus, to you and others everywhere who yield to
the love of knights let there remain confusion, terror, contrition, and
many other curses, unless you repent and are forgiven.”
"Ad con-
firmacionem omnes dicimus Amen.
Militibus victis, cessit
""
victoria clero."
The following features of this poem are specially to be noted:
(1) The time of meeting, the Ides of April. Note also that it
is April and May who suggest to the God of Love the sending of
the cardinalis domina.
(2) The parody of the church service, reading Ovid for the gos-
pel and singing love songs for hymns, and the Excommunication.
(3) The association of Sibilia, as a single person, with Venus.
(4) The function and dress of the cardinalis domina.
(5) The qualities for which Elizabeth of Falcon praises the clerks.
and those for which she blames the knights.
(6) The unmistakably sensual nature of the love discussed.
(7) The "clerk v. knight" debate.
The second, third, fifth, and seventh points will be treated in sub-
sequent sections. The first, the placing of a Court of Love in the
spring, hardly needs explanation. Finding its root in a natural phe-
nomenon, the association of love with the springtime is probably as
old as love poetry, and is constantly appearing, in the Pervigilium
Veneris, in practically all medieval love allegories, down to the robin.
and the lapwing, the dove and the young man of the "Locksley Halls"
of our own time. The association of May 1st with Venus, which
▬▬▬▬▬▬
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William Allan Neilson.
finds its finest expression in the Latin poem just mentioned, and the
May-day festivities which have not yet quite died out, are the outcome
of the same natural causes.¹
In the case of the fourth point, we may remark that though this
poem is not in a strict sense a Court of Venus or Cupid, yet the God
of Love is represented by the Lady Cardinal in a fashion slightly
analogous to that of Alcestis in the Court of Love; and that her
dress, though not elaborately described, is of the same kind as is to
be found in the usual descriptions of the occupant of the throne of
Love. The figure throughout, however, is clearly taken rather from
the ecclesiastical than the feudal side of medieval life; and this
ecclesiastical element continues to appear, alone or mixed with the
feudal, down to the sixteenth century.
THE DE PHYLLIDE ET FLORA GROUP.
2
3
The Altercatio, as it is sometimes called, De Phyllide et Flora is
the next poem on the "clerk 7. knight" theme, and it also is in
Latin. The exact date of the poem, the name and even the nation-
ality of the writer, are unknown, though M. Gédéon Huet has
attempted to prove by parallelisms from the chansons de geste that
the author was a Frenchman. Its influence upon French poetry is,
however, sufficient justification for introducing it at this point.
One fine morning in spring Phyllis and Flora walk out into the
meadows.
Erant ambae uirgines et ambae reginae
Phyllis coma libera Flora compto crine.
¹ See Lucretius, i, 1–40, and cf. H. A. J. Munro's ed. of Lucretius, Cambridge,
1886, II, 23, n. on ll. 10, 12; and G. Paris, Les Origines de la poésie lyrique en
France, in Journal des Savants, 1891, p. 686; 1892, pp. 156–8. This last reference
I owe to Professor Marsh.
V
2 Carmina Burana, Stuttgart, 1847, pp. 155 ff., or in Latin Poems commonly
att. to W. Mapes, ed. by T. Wright, for Camden Soc., Lond., 1841, p. 258. It has
been printed also by J. Grimm, Gedichte des Mittelalters, etc., in Abhand. of Berlin
Acad., 1843, p. 218; by Von Aretin, Beyträge zur Gesch. u. Lit., Munich, 1806,
VII, 301. Cf. Hauréau, Notices et Extraits des MSS., Paris, 1880, XXIX, pt. 2,
8 Romania, XXII, 536 ff.
305-9.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
35
Y
They are alike in all respects save one Phyllis loves a knight,
Flora a clerk. Coming to a brook, they sit down in the shade of
a great pine on the bank. Sighs betray them to each other, and they
exchange love-confidences. Phyllis apostrophizes Paris, and magni-
fies the soldier's life, while Flora longs for Alcibiades, and praises
"sola felicia clericorum jura." Phyllis says that clerks are epicures
who care only to sleep, eat, and drink, while love and youth are the
soldier's food and drink. Flora ascribes such charges to envy, and
contrasts the clerk's ease and affluence with the knight's poverty and
hardship.
Sentit tela Veneris et amoris ictus,
Non tamen est clericus macer et afflictus.
Phyllis thinks she must be blind who does not see the superior glory
of the knight riding armor-clad to battle as contrasted with the lazy
clerk rising reluctantly at dawn; but Flora insists that the knight is
merely driven to his strenuousness by poverty. Finally she appeals
to Cupid, and Phyllis acquiesces.
So to Cupid they go, and many stanzas are filled with a descrip-
tion of the mule and the horse they ride. Soon they reach the Para-
dise of Love, at the entrance of which murmurs a river, and the air
is laden with sweet odors and the sounds of music.
1
Sonant omnes uolucrum lingua uoce plena :
Vox auditur merulae dulcis et amena,
Corydalus garrulus, turtur, philomena,
Quae non cessat conqueri de transacta poena.
They enter and approach the god.
Ĉirca siluae medium locus est occultus,
Ubi uiget maxime suus deo cultus;
Fauni, Nymphae, Satyri, comitatus multus
Tympanizant, concinunt ante dei uultus.
*
*
Inter haec aspicitur Cythereae natus,
Vultus est sidereus, uertex est pennatus,
Arcum laeua possidet et sagittas latus :
Satis potest coniici potens et elatus.
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William Allan Neilson.
The god holds a flower-wreathed sceptre, and three Graces, on
bended knee, offer him a cup. (Cf. the Graces attending on Venus
in the Homeric Hymn and in Claudian. See pp. 12 and 16 above.)
The maidens approach and state their case.
Amor habet iudices, Amor habet iura;
Sunt Amoris iudices Usus et Natura.
Istis tota data est curiae censura,
Quoniam praeterita sciunt et futura.
Judgment is in favor of the clerk.
This poem had a wide popularity. Two English translations of
the time of Elizabeth still exist, one by "R. S.,"¹ and one by Chap-
man.2 Four Old French poems on the same model survive, and of
these, two seem to have been written in England.
8
Florance et Blancheflor, or Le Jugement d'Amour is exactly the
same in plot as De Phyllide et Flora up to the point where the ladies
arrive at the palace of the God of Love. The description of the
dwelling is here much more elaborate, and we have the beginnings of
a new type of palace, even more fantastic than the bejewelled man-
sion of the type of Ovid's palace of Apollo. The walls are not of
stone, but of roses and other flowers, and the grounds are fenced in
with Cupid's bows. No "vilain" can pass the gates: all must bear
the seal of love. On arriving, the damsels dismount under a pine,
and two birds come down from the tree and lead them to the palace.
When the God of Love sees them he leaps from his bed, salutes them
courteously, and, taking them by the hand, seats them beside himself
and asks their needs. Blancheflor states the case, and the king [he
was a god a moment before] assembles his barons to decide the
question. When the court, which consists of birds, has assembled,
the king lays the question before them. The side of the knight is
taken by Sire Esperviers, Sire Faucons, and the Gais; that of the
clerk by Dame Kalandre, Dame Aloë, and the Rossignox. The jay
1 See Wright's Lat. Poems att. to W. Mapes, Lond., 1841, p. 363.
2 Works of Chapman, Lond., 1875, II, 43-9, The Amorous Contention of Phillis
and Flora, "trans. out of a Latin copy written by a Friar, anno 1400." The Latin
text is also given.
3 Barbazan et Méon, Fabliaux et Contes, Paris, 1808, IV, 354-65.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
37
thinks the clerk's business is to pray for souls, and the knight's to
love ladies. The nightingale offers to fight in support of the clerk's
claim, and the parrot accepts the challenge. After a fight in which
the armor consists of rose-petal helmets and the like, the nightingale
wins, and the parrot yields up his sword, confessing that the clerk is
valiant, and more courteous than any other.
At this decision Florance weeps and tears her hair. Three times
she faints and recovers: the fourth time she dies. The birds assem-
ble for the funeral, and make her a rich grave scattered with flowers,
and write as epitaph:
Ici est Florance enfoïe,
Qui au Chevalier fu amie.
!
The second Old French poem of this group is fragmentary, but so
far as it is preserved it is very close to the foregoing. It is called
Hueline et Aiglantine,' from the names of the heroines. The particu-
lar quality that each insists that her lover has most of is courtesy,
and the discussion almost takes the form of a tenson. They set off
to seek an umpire and meet two bachelors, who direct them to the
God of Love. Shortly after they come within a wall which no snow
or rain or fire can pass, and they see a palace built of flowers and
spices. They dismount by a tree in whose branches singing birds
"d'amors movent lo cenbel." Here the MS. breaks off.
2
The following extract from Hueline et Aiglantine will serve as an
example of the fantastic palace introduced in this group of poems:
Et après voient lo palais,
Ainz tel ne fu, ne n'ert jamais.
La closture est de flor de lis,
Soef en flaire li païs;
Et tuit li tré sont de cristal,
Li paleron de garingal;
Di ginbregien sont li chevron,
Et de ciprès lo freste en son.
·
· De canele est l'antravéure,
Et de basme la coverture;
Moult par est biax sanz nul redout.
1 Méon, Nouveau Recueil de Fabliaux et Contes, Paris, 1823, I, 353-63.
2 Cf. passage from Claudian on p. 15, above.
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William Allan Neilson.
S
Li conpas est de requelice,
Qui aportez fu d'outre Grice:
Li pavement sont tuit de flors,
Mil libres valent li péors;
Et moult est granz la doçors, etc. (vv. 293-308).
1
2
The two Old French poems of this group that were written in
England are the Geste de Blancheflour et Florence, in which a king
again presides and birds form the court, deciding the question by
combat in favor of the knight; and Melior et Idoine, in which the
scene is laid near Lincoln. Here there is no god of Love, and the
author himself overhears the damsels dispute as he is riding to Lin-
coln. The appeal is simply to the birds and the verdict is in favor
of the clerk.
The Debate which forms the central motive of this group of poems
is a literary form that we shall find frequently associated with the
machinery of the Court of Venus. The more remote results of this
association will be discussed in the chapter on the Relation of the
Allegory to the Institution of the Court of Love (chap. viii, below).
For the origin of the Debate itself see A. Jeanroy, Les Origines de la
Poésie Lyrique en France au Moyen Age³
The wide circulation of the Latin form of De Phyllide et Flora has
already been noted. Besides the late English translations, there is
a dramatized French version whose date is probably between 1490
and 1550.*
The inconsistency in the use of "king" or "god" for the central
personage in Florance et Blancheflor, which has been noted above, is
suggestive of the process by which the classical divine court took on
a feudal character. The birds are just about to be brought in, not
merely as attendants on the God of Love, but as barons with delib-
1
1 In a unique MS. at Cheltenham. See P. Meyer, Rom., XV, 332 ff., and Lan-
glois, Origines et Sources du Roman de la Rose, Paris, 1891, p. 15. The last stanza
states it was written in English by Wanastre and translated into French by
Brykholle.
2 P. Meyer, Rom., XV, 333; and Langlois, Origines et Sources, etc., p. 14.
Paris, 1889. See especially pp. 45 ff.
4 See p. 108.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
39
erating power, and almost unconsciously, it might seem, the poet
begins to speak of a king instead of a god.
Before going on to our next Old French author, we may notice one
or two other passages from the same collection as De Phyllide et
Flora the Carmina Burana.
References to Cupid's arrows and other paraphernalia are frequent
in the love songs of the collection, as
Venus me telo uulnerauit
Aureo, quod cor penetrauit (p. 145),
or in more detail,
Est Amor alatus puer et leuis, est pharetratus.
Ala recessurum demonstrat, tela cruentum,
Aetas amentem probat et ratione carentem.
Vulnificus pharetra signatur, mobilis ala.
Nudus formatur, quia nil est quo teneatur.
Mittit pentagonas neruo stridente sagittas,
Quod sunt quinque modi quibus associamur amori,
Visus, colloquium, tactus, compar labiorum.¹
-
The resemblance of this interpretation to those quoted from Ful-
gentius, Jerome, and Theodulfus on p. 22, above, is clear, though
there is here an appropriate absence of the grave severity of the
churchmen.
Of more significance than these is a poem which is interesting
because it seems to indicate that the allegorical machinery with which
we have become familiar in the poems lately described was already
so well known as to allow of its becoming a medium for burlesque.
The poet, speaking in the first person, tells how he was a guest,
"vino di bachatus," at an inn beside the temple of Venus. From
oul of the doors of the "almum templum" came a sound of sweet
signg, from sirens, many thought, and going up to the porter,
virgo nobilis, pulchra, statu brevi," he asked for admission. In
answer her questions he told her he was wounded with the arrow
Jem and sought a speedy cure. Venus summoned him to her
poly
Carmina Burana, Stuttgart, 1847, no. 116 b.
2
2 Ibid., no. 49.
40
William Allan Neilson.
presence, and trembling with fear he approached and knelt before
her. She asked him questions, and when he sought a cure she
promised him
Si tu das denarios monetae electae,
Dabitur consilium salutis perfectae.
The money was forthcoming, and hand in hand they went to where
they found many beautiful creatures, all alike in nature and dress,
who rose in welcome and offered seats. But Venus said, “aliud
volumus explere.”
Innuens his omnibus ipsa abire cito
Pariter remansimus in loco munito.
Solis quiescentibus strato redimito
Plura pertractavimus sermone polito.
After further details of his entertainment which leave no doubt as to
the nature of the "templum," the author says that he and his com-
panion went to bathe in a garden bath consecrated to Jove, and
thence he emerged refreshed and hungry. A feast, chiefly of fowls,
was served, and he stayed till "a Venere sum nunc allevatus num-
mis." The poem ends with an admonition to young men to heed
his experience.
The phrase "templum Veneris," the sound of singing, the porter,
the arrow, the way in which the hero is led to the goddess, the
throng of beautiful maidens all these point to a familiarity with
exactly that kind of allegory which we are studying. The cloak of
the double meaning falls off when the poem is about half finished,
and the second part is realistic rather than allegorical.
If the date of the poem were to be neglected, one might suggest
that the author had in mind rather the obscene rites that were in
some cases observed in the worship of the earthly Aphrodite, and
the practice of prostitution in connection with the temples of that
goddess in several cities, notably in Corinth; but the knowledge of
antiquity current in the middle ages was not of such a nature as to
make this at all probable. If any general inference is to be dra
from this poem at all, it is more likely that, as has been said, the
Court of Venus allegory was already familiar enough to give point u、.
a parody.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
4I
LI FABLEL DOU DIEU D'AMOURS.
There is less uncertainty as to the relations of our next example.
Li Fablel dou Dieu d'Amours' is, as Langlois makes out with con-
siderable certainty, a somewhat clumsy imitation of some form of the
story of which De Phyllide et Flora is our earliest surviving example.
It gains a separate importance, however, from the greater elaboration
of some features, and from the fact that it is probably the medium
through which the preceding group influenced the Roman de la Rose.
It is the first poem of its class, too, which is in the dream-setting
that afterwards becomes almost the rule.
The author, who writes in the first person, had a vision that he
was walking one bright May morning in a fair garden watered by a
clear brook and surrounded by a ditch and a marvellous wall within
which no "vilain " was admitted. He seated himself under a tree
with healing powers, and listened to the songs of the birds until he
almost thought himself in paradise. The nightingale called the
other birds round him, and complained of the degeneration of love.
The hawk laid the blame on the “villaine gent," but the thrush
objected to the hawk's confining love to clerks and knights. The
jay, too, was democratic, and thought that to love and be well loved
was to be as worthy and wise as a clerk. The nightingale agreed
and dismissed the assembly, leaving the lover lying delightless under
the tree.
From this dream the lover fell into another. He saw approach-
ing a maiden, whom he recognized as his lady. They met with
affectionate embraces; but in the midst of their talk a dragon
descended and carried her off, leaving him lamenting and declaring
the io of serving the God of Love. Just then the god himself
came de ag up, and, after some conversation, promised succor. He
carried off the lover to his palace, Champ Fleuri, leaving him here.
while he went to hunt the dragon. In the description of the palace.
the metaphorical element is carried one step farther than in Florance
et Blanco flor. The ditches were of sighs, the water was lovers' tears
d. by A. Jubinal, Paris, 1834. For its derivation from the Florance et
Blanchejlor debate, see Langlois, Origines, pp. 17 ff.
42
William Allan Neilson.
and so on. The gate was guarded by the Phoenix. The hero
entered and found the palace supported by pillars representing the
Months. The hall was filled with youths and maidens playing chess
and tables for kisses, but they all stopped to give him welcome,
which he acknowledged by singing a love-song. Then a girl took
him by the hand to show him the glories of the mansion, and they
visited the chamber of the god, where hung two quivers, one with
arrows tipped with lead, the other with arrows having points of gold.
Li diex d'amors qant se va deporter,
De ces saietes cui il en velt navrer,
Contre ses dars ne se puet nus tenser:
L'un fait haïr et l'autre fait amer (p. 31).
Out in a meadow under a tree his guide showed him the grave of a
king's son, over whom the birds sang of true love. This had been
her own lover who had died for her.
On returning to the house, they found the god just arrived with
the hero's lady. The hero thanked him with great joy, but immedi
ately awoke and found it but a dream.
DE VENUS LA DEESSE D'AMOR.
A great part of the Fablel dou Dicu d'Amours is reproduced in
another poem, which, though changing many details and modifying
the plot, is yet manifestly founded on it. De Venus la Deesse
d'Amor¹ is written in the third person, but otherwise follows the
model closely till we come to the dispute among the birds. When
the nightingale is describing the symptoms of lovers," the hero
exclaims that he is such a man, and frightens the bird away.
Here a
gap in the text occurs, and this is followed by a long lament on the
miseries of the lover, whose lady is absent. After this appears the
Goddess of Love attended by three damsels, all riding on mules.
The birds, who have returned, now proclaim the lover's distress and
get the goddess to promise her assistance. After inquiries concern-
ing his loyalty, Venus leads him to the Court of the God of Love,
1 De Venus la Deesse d'Amor, ed. by W. Foerster, Bonn, 1880.
2 See p. 185, below.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
43
where they are admitted on showing the seal of love. Venus is
warmly welcomed; and, going to the god's chamber, they find him
on a bed of flowers. He rises, and embraces and makes much of the
goddess. The hall is described: roses and other flowers are every-
where; the door is of coral, the building itself of crystal, the water
"qui enclot le palais sont lermes de pities." Then a girl acts as
guide, as in the model, and the lover sees the chamber, the arrows,
and the tomb. When they return to the palace, ten maidens bring
in a bier with the body of a true lover, which is given a rich funeral.
Now the goddess leads the hero before the God of Love, who
embraces her and seats her beside him, while the true languishing
lover kneels before them. A prince sounds a golden "sifflet" and
calls for silence. The goddess rises and makes a plea for the lover,
and the god grants her what she seeks, and his seal. The nightin-
gale offers to devise the charter, and gets the commission. This
charter orders the lady to return the passion of the loyal lover on
pain of fearful vengeance. But when the lover, having taken leave
of the Court, and having come to his lady, presents it, she yields at
once, and the poem ends.
Several of the features of these two poems will be spoken of in
special chapters; but at present we may note the extending use of
birds and flowers, the persistence of the two kinds of arrows and
of the guide, and the growing distinctness of the picture of a feudal
court in its double aspect of a social and a legal institution. The
courts of the feudal lords were, of course, not only the social centres.
of their territories, but were also the places where justice was admin-
istered, and even in De Phyllide et Flora this double function is indi-
cated. On the arrival of the hero or heroine, the lord and his retinue
are usually found enjoying themselves; but they are always ready
for business when a case turns up, the decision sometimes lying with
the lord himself, as in De Venus la Deesse, sometimes being handed
over to his barons, as in the Altercatio. In the poem just outlined it
is to be remarked that the god is not called Cupid, and that he seems
to be the husband or lover of Venus rather than her son.
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William Allan Neilson.
CHRESTIEN DE TROYES.
In the extant works of Chrestien de Troyes we have no extended
allegory, but there occur throughout his romances allusions to the
God of Love which point to a familiarity with the conception of him
as a feudal lord. Thus in Yvain,¹ vv. 5375 ff. we read:
Et s'estoit si tres bele et jante
Qu'an li servir meist s' antante
Li Deus d'Amors s' il la veïst
Ne ja amer ne la feïst
Autrui se lui meïsmes non.
Por li servir devenist hon,
S'eissist de sa deïté fors
Et ferist lui meïsme el cors
Del dart don la plaie ne sainne
Se desleaus mires n'i painne.
2
Again in Cligès, vv. 3865 ff.:-
Vos qui d'Amor vos feites sage,
Qui les costumes et l'usage
De sa cort maintenez a foi . .
and a little later, vv. 3886 ff.,
De peor doit serjanz tranbler,
Quant ses sire l'apele ou mande.
Et qui a Amor se comande,
Son mestre et son seignor an fet,
S'est droiz qu'an reverance l'et
Et mout le crieme et mout l'enort,
S'il viaut bien estre de sa cort.
A number of such passages could be gathered from Chrestien; others
will be found in the chapter on the Statutes.
JEAN DE HAUTEVILLE.
Contemporary with the great romance writer was a Latin poet
whose affiliations are with the allegorists of the fourth and th
1 Ed. by W. Foerster, Halle, 1891, p. 142.
2 Ed. by W. Foerster, Halle, 1888, p. 102.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
45
1
centuries, and who has a place as one of the links between these
early writers and the Roman de la Rosc. The Architrenius¹ of Jean
de Hauteville contains numerous figures belonging to the same class
of personifications which Claudian delighted in. Thus his House of
Venus (bk. i, p. 252) has quite clear evidence of his acquaintance
with that poet's works:
Jamque fatigato Veneris domus aurea, rerum
Flosculus, occurrit, monte superedita, qualem
Cantat odorifero Philomena poetica uersu.
Quae quibus intorsit odii certamina liuor
Ruffinum uitiis, Stiliconem moribus, armat,
Alternansque stylos, istum premit, erigit illum;
Neutrum describit, tacet ambos, fingit utrumque.
Hic dea uirginibus roseum cingentibus orbem
Praesidet, et rudibus legit incentiua puellis ;
Inque uiros faculas accendit, et implicat hamos.
His description of Cupid and of Dame Nature are also in the
direct line of tradition.
2
1
3
ANDREAS CAPELLANUS.
The De Arte Honeste Amandi¹ of Andreas Capellanus is so largely
devoted to the jurisprudence of love that its detailed treatment falls
under the head of Statutes of Love. Yet there occur in it certain
allegorical passages treating especially of the Palace of Love, so that
some account of it comes in at this point.
The book as we have it was probably compiled about 1200, though
there remain several difficult problems about its date, original form,
the identity of its author. The evidence for an earlier form lies
For this reference I am indebted to Professor Kittredge. For edition see
Wright's Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets of the 12th Century, Lond., 1872, I, 240 ff.
Wright's ed., bk. ii, pp. 260 ff.
* Ibid., bk. viii, p. 369.
Andreae Capellani Regii Francorum De Amore, ed. by E. Trojel, Copen-
hagen, 1892.
On the question of date, etc., see G. Paris, Romania, XII, 526 ff., XIII, 403;
P. Meyer, Les derniers Troubadours, Paris, 1871, p. 68; Brakelmann, Jahrbuch f.
engl. Lit., IX, 429; P. Rajna, Tre Studj per la Storia del Libro di Andrea
Capellano in Studj di filol. rom., 1891, V, 193–272; Trojel, Introduction to his edition.
rom..:
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William Allan Neilson.
in such facts as that in one of the decisions which it gives regarding
a question of love, the Countess of Flanders quotes the " Capellani
doctrinam."
On pp. 89 ff. of Trojel's edition there is a description of the palace
of Love differing in many interesting details from those already quoted.
This building stands in the centre of the world, and has four fronts,
each front having a beautiful portal. Here dwell the God of Love
himself and "dominarum collegia." The eastern doorway is kept
for the god; the other three are used by three classes of ladies
respectively. The ladies of the south door are always dallying about
the threshold, the door being kept open. Those of the west perpetu-
ally wander beyond the entrance. Those of the north stay within
closed doors and never look beyond the limits of the palace.
Meridianae sunt illae, igitur, quae amare uolunt et dignos non repellunt
amantes, et merito, quia, quum sint in meridie cunctae dispositae, ab ipsius
in oriente habitantis amoris meruerunt radio coruscari. Occidentales uero
sunt meretrices, quae uix aliquem amant nec ab aliquo probo inueniuntur
amari, et merito, quia quum in occidente ipsarum reperiatur habitatio sita,
igneus amoris radius ab oriente ad illas usque peruenire non potest. Septen-
trionales uero sunt illae mulieres, quae amare recusant, quamuis illae
amentur a multis, et merito, quia in sinistra positas deus non respicit ipsas,
quia sunt maledictae. Ex his uero uerbis amoris patet palatii dispositio
manifesta.
This description is given by a knight to a lady whom he wishes to
frighten out of her coldness, and it is reinforced by the account which
follows of a procession of the inmates of this palace. In his vision,
the speaker says, he saw a procession led by a man crowned with a
golden diadem and riding a beautiful horse. He was followed, first,
by a great troop of women gorgeously arrayed and each seated "in
equo pinguissimo et formoso.". A knight was in attendance on each
side, and a third led the horse by the bridle. The second troop of
women were also attended, but were in great discomfort through the
noise and confusion of the many who wished to wait on them. The
third rode in miserable garments on wretched limping horses, an
1 P. 283 of Trojel's ed. For other instances of the book's quoting itself, see
pp. 106 and 148.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
47
were without attendants. One of this last class acted as guide and
interpreted thus:
Miles quem uides cuncto populo aureo diademate coronatum praecedere,
deus est amoris, qui singulis septimanis una die praesenti cernitur adiunctis
militiae et cuique, prout bene uel male gessit in uita, mirabiliter pro cuiusque
retribuit meritis.
But this is not all. Led by his unfortunate interlocutor, the knight
follows the procession to a beautiful meadow surrounded by "pomif-
erous and odoriferous " trees, and divided by concentric circles into
three parts. In the centre of the innermost circle stood a wonderful
tree bearing all kinds of fruits, and having at its root a fountain of
nectar in which all kinds of fishes swam. Beside the tree,
in throno quodam ex auro et omni lapidum ornatu constructo regina sedebat
amoris splendidissimam suo capite gerens coronam, et ipsa pretiosissimis
sedebat vestimentis ornata auream manu virgam retinens.
At her right hand stood another gorgeous seat, empty. The streams.
from the central fountain pleasantly watered the first part, but flooded
the second, which was called "humiditas," and the water there became
very cold, though overhead the sun blazed and there was no tree to
shelter. The third zone was called "siccitas": there everything
was arid, and the air was full of fiery vapors as from a red-hot fur-
nace. All about lay bundles of thorns with a log through the midst
of each, and a strong man stood at each end of the log. But through
third and second regions a pleasant road led to the centre,
nbered with none of these things.
Plow the King of Love entered and, after embracing the Queen,
took his seat on the vacant throne. The three bands followed and
took possession of their respective regions, the members of the third
being forced to sit on the bundles of thorns while the men in attend-
ance kept the axles in motion. The knight now asked leave to go;
but his guide sent him before the God of Love, and instructed him
to pay great attention and not to forget to pray for her. So to the
god he went and sought mercy and advice, and favor for his guide.
The deity instructed him to use this vision for the salvation of all
such women as he should find resisting love; enumerated the twelve
་་
Jag
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William Allan Neilson.
}
chief precepts of love, and made some concessions to the guide.
Then the knight returned to the world.
Some of the features of this story are merely conventional, the
dream form, the meadow with its trees and fountain, the gorgeous
costumes, and the guide. Since in date Andreas probably comes
between Li Fablel dou Dieu d'Amours and De Venus la Deesse d'Amor,
it is worth noting that the relation of the God and the Goddess is the
same in Andreas as in the second of the two poems, neither of
the names Cupid or Venus being used in the prose work. Again,
though in the scene in the meadow of the Paradise of Love the God
and the Goddess are called King and Queen, the whole conception
here is borrowed from the religious rather than the feudal world; the
rewards and punishments are not such as a sovereign might inflict,
but are an adaptation of the theological conceptions of paradise, pur-
gatory, and hell. It is important also to remember that all this was
written a century before the Divine Comedy. Observe, too, that the
palace and the meadow scene are quite separate.
HUON DE MERY.
A
In Le Tornoiement d'Antechrist¹ by Huon de Mery (ca. 1235) we
have a poem which as a whole belongs to the Prudentius-Bunyan
line of allegorical tradition, but which has one passage containing a
good deal of the Court of Love machinery.
In the army of Christ, made up of Virtues and their followers,
comes Love, riding with Prowess, Courtesy, and Largess. They are
arming Love with a shield painted with flowers and adorned with
other emblems.
L'escu, qui est sanz vilenie,
A .iiii. roussignous d'argent,
A l'esprevier courtois et gent,
Qui de voler ne se repose (vv. 172-225).
Love bears also "l'arc turcois encordé d'argent," and a quiver full
of amorous darts, furnished with feathers which Love had bound to
the wood with a "blanc chevol d'Aliance." Every one would wish
Le Tornoiement de l'Antechrist, par Huon de Mery, ed. by P. Tarbé, Reims,
1851, especially pp. 51 ff. I follow the ed. of Wimmer, Marburg, 1888 (Ausg. u.
Abh., no. 76).
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
49
to be wounded with such an arrow, so that the point should remain
in his heart, for it is called "douz anemis," and no heart is proud.
enough to resist its force and refrain from becoming "douz et
atempréz et courtois.”
Car Amours a si courtois non,
Que se vileins de li s'acointe,
Amours le fet courtois et cointe,
Et le felon fet franc et douz,
Et l'orgeillous met a genouz,
Et [donte] les outredoutez (vv. 1768–73).
When the battle is joined, Virginity and Chastity are found mak-
ing successful war against Fornication and Adultery, but Cupid and
Venus come to the aid of the latter. Cupid draws his bow and Chas-
tity turns in flight. Venus holds the bow of Temptation which Love
has strung with the tresses of damsels, and shoots with a barbed
arrow at Virginity. The poet himself is struck to the heart with
this arrow, and he stretches himself on the grass while Bras-de-Fer
comforts him. Esperance holds his head, and they begin to work
necromancy on him without avail. So much is he grieved with Des-
perance that he swoons and sees a vision of Venus and a great
procession of goddesses coming to help him in his pain, -- a pain in
the heart worse than toothache, he says. Venus, Temptation, and
Amor administer a potion in a silver phial which he drains at one
draught, with such effect that if Esperance had not put a plaster of
good hope on his left side his soul would have been drawn out of his
body. But now his spirit returns and he calls for justice. The
judge acquits Venus and puts the blame on his eyes, the porters of
the castle, who left the gate open. The eyes protest, Reason replies,
and all approve. Virginity, Chastity, and their followers are put to
flight. In the long run, the Vices are overthrown.
In this passage Love, of course, instead of being the supreme
power, is only one of the abstractions taking part in the tournament,
so that it is not so absurd to find Venus herself complained of before
a judge. But the whole matter is very much confused. Love is
introduced on the side of Christ, and in excellent company, - his
attendants Prowess, Courtesy, and Largess being the regular knightly
virtues which are so constantly insisted on in the Statutes. The
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William Allan Neilson.
moral influence of love is also dwelt on here as in the later poems:
yet when the fighting once begins Love is on the side of the Vices.
This confusion is really the result of the influence of the two classes.
of models which Huon de Mery had before him. On the one hand
was the growing mass of literature in praise of Love which we are
particularly studying; on the other was the didactic allegory with a
purely moral and religious aim, and a tendency to treat love from
the ascetic point of view. When Love comes riding in, Huon is
thinking of the favorable representations; but when the fight begins
he falls into the clerical attitude and naturally enough ranges him
against Virginity and Chastity. The confusion is interesting as
being another instance of the two tendencies in this allegorizing of
love, the feudal and the religious.
M
The metaphor of the eyes as the porters at the gate of the castle of
the soul, which adds to the confusion of the figures at the close, is
one which occurs later. The bird and arrow motives reappear.
ALANUS DE INSULIS.
Another Latin poem which contributes to the collection of allegor-
ical houses and persons from which the authors of the Roman de la
Rose had to draw is the Anticlaudianus¹ of Alanus de Insulis (Alanus
Anglicus). The type is easily recognizable in the following descrip-
tion of the House of Nature:
2
In medio nemoris euadit in aera montis
Ardua planities, et nubibus oscula donat.
Hic domus erigitur Naturae.
Nec sibi dignetur conferre palatia regum,
A nostris laribus excepta beatior aula.
•
Aera metitur, altis suspensa columnis ;
Sidere gemmarum prefulgurat, ardet in auro.
Nec minus argenti proprio donatur honore (i. 4).
It is adorned with paintings too, and portraits of Aristotle, Plato,
and others. In lib. i, cap. 3, also occurs a somewhat similar descrip-
1 T. Wright, Anglo-Latin Satirical Poems, etc., II, 268 ff.
2 For influences other than those taken up here, see E. Langlois, Origines,
etc., pp. 148-50.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
5I
tion of the palace where Nature deliberates with the Virtues; in i, 7,
a portrait of Prudentia, "lilia nupta rosis"; in i, 10, of Ratio, and
in viii, 1, the House of Fortune, half on a hill and half in a valley,
at once ruinous and gorgeous, stormed against by Boreas and breathed
on by Zephyrus.
Hic est Fortunae sua mansio, si tamen usquam
Res manet instabilis, residet uaga, mobilis haeret.
ROMAN DE LA ROSE.
We now arrive at the consideration of a poem of vastly greater
importance than any mediaval document that we have yet discussed.
The Roman de la Rose is so compendious that there are few motives
of any importance in the class of poems we are here concerned
with, which are not found represented in it; and its influence was
so extensive and so profound that there are few of these poems in
the two or three centuries following which do not give evidence of
their authors' acquaintance with it. Yet M. Langlois is undoubtedly
right when he points out¹ the error of supposing that the authors of
the Roman are responsible for the prodigious predominance of alle-
gory in the imaginative work of the succeeding centuries. The
appearance of a masterpiece in any literary genre does undoubtedly
lead to a more extensive cultivation of that genre by the great crowd
of minor authors; and in this way Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de
Meun must bear their share of the blame, if blame it must be called,
of making allegory so universal in France and the countries under
literary influence from 1250 to 1550. But we have already pro-
duced sufficient instances of exactly the kind of thing of which the
Koman de la Rose is the supreme example to show that allegory was
an increasingly favorite form before Guillaume began his poem, and
to justify the assumption that it would have been more and more
extensively employed though he had never lived. It does not require
a very profound knowledge of the working of the medieval mind to
feel that in this elaborating of double meanings and this classifying
istoire de la Langue et de la Littérature française, ed. by Petit de Julleville,
Paris, 1396-7, II, 154.
52
William Allan Neilson.
and labelling of emotional states, that mind found a naturally con-
genial field for those subtle exercises in which it took delight.
It will not be necessary for our present purpose to give a complete
analysis of the 22,000 lines of the Roman de la Rose, since the poem
itself is much better known than most of those with which we have
to deal, and since such an analysis is easily accessible.¹ Our ends
will be sufficiently served if we select those features which find a
parallel in the English Court of Love or to any large extent in the
other poems of its class.
I. The dream setting is used. We have already found this in
Li Fablel dou Dieu d'Amours, and the author himself declares his
knowledge of Macrobius's commentary on the Somnium Scipionis of
Cicero. But after this poem the framework of a vision is much
more a matter of course, and the use of it by Chaucer, and through
Chaucer, by many other poets in Britain is the direct result of the
Roman de la Rose. The Middle English Court of Love, curiously
enough, is not a vision.
II. The description of a May morning at the opening of the poem
is already a tradition of long descent, and has been commented on
above (pp. 33-4). The Roman, however, has much more detail here,
and the detail becomes henceforth part of the tradition.
feature also is lacking in the English Court of Love.
This
III. The placing of the Court in a meadow surrounded by fine
trees, with streams and fountains, with abundance of all kinds of
flowers, and with birds singing - all this had already become familiar,
though here, too, the generous scale of the poem allowed a great.
deal of detail. The Court of Love uses the flowers in describing the
decoration of the palace, and the birds in the litany at the end, but,
except in the reference to the gathering of hawthorn by the court in
the last few stanzas, the action is all in-doors.
IV. The painting on the walls is suggested probably by the
mediæval fashion of decorating with some kind of fresco instead of
tapestry. The house of Nature in the Anticlaudianus has portraits
of famous men on the walls, and a lay by Marie de France (to be
¹ See Langlois in Petit de Julleville's Hist., etc., II, 111-6, and 130–44.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
53
cited in the chapter on Statutes) has further evidence of the practice.
This appears frequently in later poems, including the Court of Love.
V. The porter Idleness is another point probably suggested by
common usage. In ballads and romances the porter is a frequent
and often an important figure, and the least original poet describing
an allegorical castle might be expected to furnish a representative.
Thus little stress need be laid on the presence of a porter in the prede-
cessors of the Roman, and just as little upon Idleness here as sug-
gesting later instances. Yet it may be worth noting in passing that
Chaucer has what seems like a direct allusion to this particular
porter :
The ministre and the norice unto vyces,
Which that men clepe in English Ydelnesse,
That porter of the gate is of delyces.¹
VI. The origin of the personifications of abstract ideas acting as
courtiers has already been discussed in some detail, and further
instances have appeared in nearly all the poems analyzed. But here
again this device receives a great expansion, and several new crea-
tions, henceforth to be indispensable, appear for the first time. The
figures appearing both in the Roman de la Rose and in the Court of
Love are these: Daunger (probably original with Guillaume de Lorris),
Shame, Pity, Delight, Hope, Envy, Despair, Lust, and the goddesses
Venus and Fortune. Some qualities that appear in the Roman as
persons (e.g., Bien-Celer, Hardement, and Seürté, the Warriors of
Love) become Statutes in the Court of Love. Other characters (not
occurring in the English poem) which were probably first put into
circulation by the Roman are Bel Acueil, Male Bouche, Deduit, Dous
Regart, Dous Penser," and Dous Parler. In all, the French poem
has about fifty of these personifications.
VII. The Fountain of Love, into which no one can look without
falling in love, and which is here specially associated with the Nar-
cissus myth, is in this special form probably original with Guillaume
de Lorris. We have found a fairly constant tradition of a clear
1 Prologue to the Seconde Nonnes Tale, vv. 1−3.
2 Yet Privy Thought in the Court of Love may be regarded as an equivalent of
Dous Penser.
54
William Allan Neilson.
river or crystal fountain as one of the regular features of the flowery
meadow in which the courtiers of Love disport themselves; and the
Narcissus story would suggest the fatal quality which is here made
of general application. The magic fountain of the romances and
fairy stories may also have contributed. The motive is frequent in
the later poets, and in one or two cases becomes central. It does
not occur in the Court of Love.¹
VIII. The arrows of Cupid are more elaborately treated than
hitherto. The idea of two kinds of arrows Langlois traces to the
quivers in the god's chamber in Li Fablel dou Dieu d'Amours.
But
an indication of some similar idea we have seen in the passage in
the De Nuptiis Honorii et Mariae of Claudian, where in the abode of
Venus in Cyprus are two fountains, one sweet and one bitter, in
which Cupid's arrows are dipped. In Guiraut de Calanso we had the
same idea in his A leis cui am de cor there were three metals, steel,
gold, and lead, and in his Sapchas d'Amor two, gold and steel. But
the earliest instance is probably that noted by Professor Skeat from
Ovid, Met., i, 468 ff.:
Prompsit duo tela pharetra
Diuersorum operum: fugat hoc, facit illud amorem.
Quod facit, auratum est et cuspide fulget acuta ;
Quod fugat, obtusum est et habet sub harundine plumbum.
Guillaume de Lorris keeps this twofold division of the arrows, but
he puts five in each quiver and gives each arrow a name. The good
arrows are Beauté, Simplesse, Franchise, Compagnie, and Beau Sem-
blant (Cortoisie is added in the second enumeration, v. 1775); the
second quiver contains Orgueil, Vilenie, Honte, Desesperance, and
Nouveau Penser. The god shoots the hero with each of the five
good arrows in turn.
It seems more than likely that the Golden Love and Leaden Love
of the English Court of Love are derived from this fiction of the
arrows, but how the poet meant to treat them must remain uncertain
until we find a complete text of the poem.
¹ On these characters, see G. Paris, La littérature française au Moyen Âge, §111,
and Langlois, Origines, p. 66.
2 Chaucerian Pieces, p. 551, n. on v. 1315 of the Court of Love.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
55
IX.
The interview with the God of Love was the central point
in the group of débats and in the Fablel and its derived poem; and
it is probable that it is to be so regarded in the first part of the
Roman de la Rose also; for not only does it occupy nearly nine hun-
dred lines (1891-2776) but it contains that exposition of the com-
mandments, the pleasures, and the pains of love, which Guillaume
must have had in mind when he said in his introduction (37-38):
Ce est li Rommanz de la Rose,
Ou l'art d'amors est toute enclose.
Most of that exposition belongs to the next chapter; and it is not
necessary to dwell on the interview itself beyond noticing that the
garden in which it takes place is not as in the other poems the prop-
erty of Love, but of Deduit; and that the hero, instead of being led
up to a throne on which the god is seated in state, is followed by the
god, who shoots arrows at him, and finally accosts him.
X. The distinction between Venus as the goddess of sensual love,
and her son as the god of "l'amour du cœur " is paralleled by the dis-
tinction which the Greeks began to make between Aphrodite Urania
and Aphrodite Pandemos after Solon had condemned the latter as
the goddess of prostitution. Eros, however, never seems to have
had the higher association among the ancients; but in the Middle
Ages, after Jean de Meun, at any rate, while Amour was used in both
senses, Venus has, where any distinction at all is implied, uniformly
the more earthly signification.
XI. Of the allegory of warfare and the siege which occupies so
large a part of Jean de Meun's share of the Roman de la Rose we
have had examples covering the time from Prudentius and the church.
fathers down to the Tornoiement d'Antechrist. There is, however,
nothing of this in the Court of Love, so that to trace it farther does
not lie within our present scope.
Additional evidence of the influence of the Roman de la Rose will
be given in those sections that deal with the allegorical literature of
Italy, Germany, and England.
56
William Allan Neilson.
THIBAUT.
Closely parallel to Guillaume de Lorris's part of the Roman de la
Rose, and belonging to the same century, is the Roman de la Poire¹
of a certain Messire Thibaut. The poem gets its name, which seems
to be suggested by that of the Roman de la Rose, from a pear which
the heroine eats as she sits by the poet's side under a pear tree in
a beautiful garden. She shares it with the poet, on whom it works
like magic, setting him on fire with love in a moment.
But this is not told at the beginning. The poem opens with a
Statement in eight-syllabled verses that Love has passed on the poet
a sentence that can be recalled only by the lady for whom he writes
the romance. Then follow twelve sections of five stanzas each, not
organically connected with the Romance, but of some individual
interest. The first is spoken by Love:
Je sui li diex d'amors qui les amanz mestrai.
As leaus faz secors et de peine les trai.
De joie et de douçors tot ades les pestrai,
Et les fax traïtors a grant dolor metrai.
The second group describes Fortune; the third, Cligès and Fenice:
Je sui Cliges li amoureus et vez ci m'amie Fenice,
Qui del dart d'Amor doucereus est navrée soz sa pelice.
Mult en est li fers savorex et li diex ne fu mie nice
Qui par le tret d'un dart toz seus prist sor nos .II. chastel et lice.
In the fourth Thibaut speaks of his mistress and himself; in the
fifth, sixth, and seventh, Tristan tells of his love for Yseut, introduc-
ing the incident where Mark finds the lovers in the forest, and leaves
his glove to shade Yseut's face from the sun. The eighth has the
story of Pyramis and Thisbe, the ninth the arming for a tournament,
and the tenth the tournament itself, an allegory on a small scale,
which may be quoted in full:
Li tornaiz est criez as amorex esbatre
Vers cels qui escusez sont des amanz abatre.
Ja les ont deffiez; por les mesdisanz batre,
S'i sont entrefiez. Tuit sunt prest de conbatre.
1 Li Romanz de la Poire, ed. by Fried. Stehlich, Halle, 1881.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
57
A cest tornoiement et vieill et jovencel
Venez isnelement! Chascuns ait panoncel!
Sor mesdisant qui ment, ferez en cel moncel,
Por l'envenimement giter de lor bocel.
Envie et Covoitise, Mesdiz et Vilanie,
Desleautez, Feintise, Cruautez, Felonie,
Chascuns le mal atise et tot bienfet renie ;
Mes d'ax prendront justise amant, ge n'en dot mie.
La bataille est fermée et d'une part et d'autre
Chascuns, la teste armée, i est, lance sor fautre.
Meinte targe entamée i ot d'or fin sanz piautre.
Amant sor gent blamée fierent con sor ors [?] viautre.
Destruit sont mesdisant et veincu en l'estor.
Bien ont li fin amant gaaignié a cest tor.
Ja mes d'or en avant en chastel, ne en tor
N'auront li souduiant garison ne retor (vv. 201–20).
The eleventh section is devoted to Paris and Helen, and, after an
unimportant passage, the twelfth follows with a dedication to the
mistress. At v. 284, the introduction to the romance proper begins,
leading up to the episode of the pear and some disquisitions on the
nature of love. At v. 771 the allegorical part opens.
The poet is besieged by Love in a tower, and is hopelessly hemmed
in by the forces of the god. Biauté, Cortoisie, Noblece, and Fran-
chise appear to treat with him, and each makes a speech. While
they are still engaged in parley the god himself rides up, heralded by
the singing of birds and the noise of many instruments, with "jon-
gleurs" playing on fiddles and singing "chançons noveles." The
god himself now summons him to surrender without delay, and the
poet is so frightened that he surrenders at once, and swears allegi-
Love takes his heart as a pledge of good faith, and delivers
a harangue on degenerate and false lovers. Then all go to Paris,
which is praised as the home of all pleasant delights, and Douz
is sent to entrust the poet's heart to
ance.
16
Une dame de grant beauté,
De grant sens, de grant leauté,
De bon fet, d'enterin corage (vv. 1393–5).
58
William Allan Neilson.
The lady's charms are described at great length; but her position is
too lofty for him to cherish any hopes. He longs for death, since
success in love is hopeless, and all night he tosses sleepless because
of her. Reason comes and argues with him on the hopelessness of
his desires, and advises him to choose a place for his affections where
the case will not be so desperate. Finally he determines to send a
messenger to declare his love, and this romance is to be the means.
Just then Love appears, leading the lady with him. He tells the
poet to take her by the hand, and says she is to free him from the
prison. But soon he leads the lady away again, and shoots her
through the heart with a golden-pointed arrow. Then he calls Con-
tenence to him, and sends her to the poet to give him the lady's
heart in exchange for his own. Contenence is accompanied by Sos-
tix Penssée, Simplece, Leautez, Mensure, and Pitiez, who assure
him of his good fortune. But he must have a confirmation direct
from his lady before he is at ease; so the messengers return to the
lady, and come back with a written message. He is to take his
name (Tibaut) and read it backward, reversing the b, and the Latin
that results (tua sit)' will show that the lady is his. Left alone with
his lady's heart he asks it how he may comfort her, since she also
is suffering the pangs of love. Not daring to go to her alone, he
appeals to Love to give him "tres bon conduit," and the god sends a
nightingale to accompany him. The nightingale goes, but the poet
accompanies it only in spirit, and the lady receives the bird which
represents the romance with great joy.
If Stehlich is right in his estimate of the date of this poem, it is
probably the first important work inspired by the Roman de la Rose.
The points of likeness are obvious enough. The god seeks the lover
in both cases, but in the second poem the names of some of the
arrows appear among those of the ambassadors. The lover yields
and becomes the vassal of Amor in both cases, but in the latter the
taking of the poet's heart in pledge is used instead of locking it with
Aggtelekat
appleg
For a discussion of the interpretation of this passage, and the text of this
poem in general, Professor Sheldon has pointed out to me the reviews of Tobler in
Litbl. f. germ. u. rom. Philol., II, 437, and of Mussafia in Zt. f. d. österr. Gymn.,
XXXIII, 57-64.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
59
a key.
The pains of love are described in much the same fashion
in the two poems. Reason appears and argues with the hero against
his passion in both. The followers of Love are in part the same,
and the descriptions of feminine beauty are closely similar- a point
of more value as evidence in the thirteenth than in the sixteenth
century, when the conventions were far more hackneyed.
Attention may be drawn also to the allegory of the Tournament in
the first part of the poem, which may have been suggested by the
early forms of allegory mentioned in the last chapter, since Jean de
Meun's account of the siege and fighting in his continuation of the
Roman de la Rose was perhaps not yet written.
PHILIPPE DE REMI
Philippe de Remi, Sire de Beaumanoir (ca. 1250-1296), is better
known as the author of an important book on the Coutumes du
Beauvaisis than as a poet.
In his Salu d'Amours¹ we have a treatment of our theme some-
what more original than that which is found in the poems of
most of his contemporaries. In the form of a letter, Philippe prom-
ises to tell his lady how Dame Amour has stolen his heart, put it in
prison, and set her on guard; and he prays her to remit to him the
ten penalties which have been inflicted on him. This was how it
happened: -
One day at a dance Philippe feels himself wounded through the
eye by Love with an arrow which reaches his heart. This arrow
figures the lady's beauty: the feather is her head, and the iron is
her glance. Amour sends Orguel, Cointise, and Traïson to summon'
him to surrender, and he allows himself to be led before Amour
without resisting. Orguel accuses him of having taken the lady by
the finger. Amour promises him just judgment, and meanwhile he
leaves his heart in pledge. He is thrown into a prison called Pensée,
and guarded by the gaoler Espoir. Amour calls her vassals to the
trial, but unfortunately only the bad ones are free to come — Orguel,
Cointise, Envie, Felonie, Mesdis, and Traison. Loiauté sends his
1 Euvres de Philippe de Remi, ed. by H. Suchier, vol. II, Paris, 1885 (Soc.
des anc. Textes franç.), pp. 197 ff.
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William Allan Neilson.
messenger Sens (or Sapience) to say he is delayed by urgent affairs.
Traison draws up the judgment, which imposes ten penalties.¹
No sooner is the document read than Loiauté arrives with five of
his people, Franchise, Deboinaireté, Sens or Sapience, Pitié, and
Esperance. Orguel, Mesdis, and Envie at once depart for the court
of France. Philippe tells Loiauté and the rest what pains he is
condemned to suffer, and they all kneel before Dame Amour on his
behalf. She is unwilling to break the sentence of Traïson, but to
alleviate it she changes it from a permanent condemnation to a
merely temporary one. The limit is to be fixed according to the
pleasure of his lady, to whom he is to make "ditiés et canchons.
He is also to send her a rhymed account of his trial.
He keeps
the condition, and hence the poem.
""
The profession, genuine or affected, of writing a poem for the
pleasure of one's lady becomes hereafter very frequent, and forms
the subject of the introductory stanzas of the Court of Love. Before
Philippe, it is found in the Roman de la Rose where Guillaume prays
Or doint Diex qu'en gré le reçoeve
2
Cele por qui ge l'ai empris ;
and in lyrical poetry -- especially in Provence - it was already the
custom.
8
The locking up of his heart in prison was probably suggested to
Philippe by the passage in the Roman de la Rose where Love pro-
duces a key and locks the lover's heart. The ten pains also doubt-
less are derived, in substance, from the God of Love's exposition to
Guillaume de Lorris.¹
GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT,5
This poet was one of the most thorough-going disciples of the
school of Guillaume de Lorris. His own conception of his mission
1 For details of the ten penalties, see chap. iv, below.
2 Vv. 40-41, ed. Méon, I, 4-5.
3 Vv. 2008 ff., ed. Méon, I, So.
4 Vv. 2274 ff., ed. Méon, I, 93.
5 Euvres de Guillaume de Machault, ed. P. Tarbé, Reims and Paris, 1849.
Machaut died in 1377, at an advanced age. Paulin Paris thinks that he was from
thirty to thirty-five years old in 1346 (Le Livre du Voir-Dit, Paris, 1875, p. xv).
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
61
may be drawn from the Prologue to his Dit du Vergier. Here a
dialogue takes place between Nature, Love, and the author. Nature
tells him that she created him to sing of Love, and gives him the
assistance of three of her children, Scens, Retorique, and Musique.
Love comes to him and puts at his disposal three of her children,
Doux Penser, Plaisance, and Esperance, and commends to his respect
the honor of ladies. His other poems lead one to believe that he
faithfully lived up to his instructions.
In the Dit du Vergier the poet represents himself as walking in a
garden one April morning. A path leads him to a beautiful orchard,
full of trees, flowers, and singing birds. Lost in amorous reverie,
he passes through the orchard into a meadow, where he has a vision.
He seems to see six youths and six damsels:
Et dessus le bel arbrissel,
Qui estoit en mi le praiel,
Se séoit une créature
De trop merveilleuse figure.
Car nulle goute ne veoit
Et en sa dextre main tenoit
Un dart qui bien estoit ferré
De fer tranchant et acéré ;
Et en l'autre avoit un brandon
De feu que gettoit grant randon;
Et s'avoit pour voler II eles
Si belles, qu'oncques ne vi teles.¹
This is the God of Love. All the youths and maidens are honor-
ing him as their sovereign lord and their god. He explains to the
poet the extent of his powers in making the foolish wise and the
wise foolish, the poor rich and so on, declares his name, tells why
he is blind, explains the use of his arrows in causing the sweet
pains of love, the use of his torch in inflaming desire, and the use
of his wings in flying all over the world. The names of the youths
ance are Voloir, Doux Penser, Doux Plaisir, Loiauté, Celer,
Best of the damsels, Grace, Pitié, Esperance, Souvenir, Franchise,
Alemprance. The functions of these are explained, and the names
in aus
1 Ed. Tarbé, p. 15.
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William Allan Neilson.
given of six adversaries, Dangier, Paour, Honte, Durté, Cruauté,
Doutance. Then the god gives the poet advice for his own love
affairs to be loyal, secret, and afraid of displeasing his lady.
Le Dit dou Lion¹ recalls in some points the Middle English poem
of the Isle of Ladies, usually known as Chaucer's Dream.
On the second of April, when the hawthorn blooms, the poet,
awakened by the song of birds, goes into the country to breathe the
spring air, and finds a delicious garden in an island to which he is
borne in a beautiful boat. He is met by a lion and conducted to
a rich pavilion, in which he finds a beautiful and noble lady. The
poet, encouraged by his reception, asks where he is, and at the
request of the queen one of her knights replies. Formerly this was
not an isle, but only the rendezvous of all the lovers of the country
(who are described in classes). The lord of the place wished to
exclude those who profaned it, so he surrounded it with water and
named it "l'espérance des fines amours." Only loyal and faithful
lovers now can enter: all others would lose their lives there.
Le Dit de la Fontaine Amoureuse, or Le Livre Morpheus, is inter-
esting not only on account of the direct influence of the Roman de
la Rose which it shows in the association of the fountain with Nar-
cissus, but also because of the hints which Chaucer received from
it for The Bok of the Duchesse. The relation of Machaut to the
love-lorn prince, as well as the introduction of the story of Ceyx
and Alcyone, is clearly paralleled by the English poet. The part of
the poem which is important for our present purpose is as follows:
2
3
The poet awakes to hear a sad voice singing of the pains of love.
He takes his escriptoire and writes down the tender complaint. It
includes among other things the story of Ceyx and Alcyone. Finally
Machaut goes to find the singer, and learns that he is merely obey-
1 The analysis follows Tarbé, p. xi. For extracts, see Tarbé, pp. 40 ff.
2 Jean de France, duc d'Auvergne and de Berry. Machaut must have begun
this poem in 1360 or 1361. See P. Paris, Le Livre du Voir-Dit, p. xxx.
On this question see Sandras, Etude sur G. Chaucer, Paris, 1859, pp. 90,
291 ff.; ten Brink, Chaucer: Studien zur Gesch. seiner Entwicklung, u. s. w.,
Münster, 1870, I, 7 ff.; Furnivall, Trial-Forewords, Chaucer Society, 1871, pp.
43 ff.; M. Lange, Untersuchungen über Chaucer's Boke of the Duchesse, Halle,
1883, pp. 21 ff.; Skeat's Chaucer, I, 464.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
63
ing the commands of his lord, whose advances had been rejected by
a lady. They go to seek the unhappy lover, and find him a gentle-
man, handsome, amiable, and like the son of a king; and he leads.
the poet into a smiling garden where there is a magnificent fountain
of crystal, adorned with bas-reliefs representing the stories of Nar-
cissus and of the Rape of Helen. They sit down, and, after
Machaut has received the confidences of the lover, all three fall
asleep doubtless to allow Venus to appear in a dream. This she
does, and after telling them the story of the Judgment of Paris, she
promises her protection to the young lord, and calls before his eyes
a gracious vision of his mistress smiling and favorable. The vision
vanishes; and the gentleman goes off on a long journey, accom-
panied by the poet.¹
From the foregoing summaries it appears that, in spite of Guil-
laume de Machaut's importance on account of his influence on
Chaucer, there is little or nothing in the matter of his poems which
was not handed down to him by his predecessors.2
RAOUL DE HOUDAN.
3
The thirteenth century contributed several works to what we have
called the Prudentius-Bunyan tradition, and two of these deserve to
be mentioned in the present connection also.
4
In La Voie de Paradis of Raoul de Houdan, the poet, in the
course of his pilgrimage, is led by Grace to the House of Love :
Quar ele me mena tout droit
Par dedenz la meson Amor;
Mès ainc ne vi si grant baudor
Ne tel joie ne tel déduit
Que on me fit en cele nuit."
1 This summary follows that given by Tarbé, pp. xx, xxi. Cf. ten Brink,
Chaucer: Studien, u. s. w., 1870, I, 197 ff.
For another work by Guillaume de Machaut, see chap. vii, p. 191, below.
See p. 19, above.
4 See Œuvres complètes de Rutebeuf, ed. by A. Jubinal, Paris, 1839, II, 227 ff.
Another poem by R. de Houdan is treated later, pp. 191–2.
"Jubinal, II, 228.
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William Allan Neilson.
W
The pleasures, however, were mainly of eating and drinking:
Crémirs ert séneschaus léenz,
Qui ne fu ne couarz ne lenz
De nous trop doner à mangier, etc.¹
RUSTEBEUF.
The other poem of this class, written by the author known as
Rustebeuf,² has the same title. In it the pilgrim arrives at a House
of Avarice, the description of which recalls those exceedingly meta-
phorical palaces of love which occur in the predecessors of the
Roman de la Rose.
Du fondement de la meson
Vos dit que tel ne vit mes hom:
Un mur i a de felonie
Tot destrempé a vilonie ;
Li sueil sont de desesperance
Et li pomel de mescheance;
Li torcheiz est de haine,
D'autre chose que de faine
Fu cele meson enpalee, etc. (vv. 255 ff.).
MAHIU LE PORIIER.
3
Le Court d'Amours of Mahiu le Poriier is contained in a frag-
mentary MS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. At the point
where the fragment begins a jealous husband who has been beating
his wife for infidelity accuses her before the Court of Love which
is assembled in the Castle of Love. The "grand Bailli" presides,
assisted by twelve peers: Avisé, Perchevant, Ami, Deduiant, Maistre
Connissant, Hardi, Cremu, Soutieu [or Consillier], Biau Parlier,
Desirré, Profitant, and Atraiant. The author is a hidden spectator
of the proceedings. The bailli gives judgment against the jealous.
1 Jubinal, II, 228.
2 Rustebuef's Gedichte, ed. by A. Kressner, Wolfenbüttel, 1885, pp. 144 ff.
› See G. Raynaud, Romania, X, 519 ff., and E. Gorra, in Tobler-Festschrift,
Halle, 1895, pp. 228 ff., both of whose accounts have been used.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
65
husband. Other persons present cases dealing with love — a squire,
a regular canon, and so on, — especially a "Roi de Frise" who wants
help in the wooing of a shepherdess who persists in her preference
for a shepherd. Thirty love problems are dealt with, such as, e.g.,
that put by a "bacheler" who asks if it be possible to love loyally
against one's own will, and receives an answer in the negative; and
after eight days spent in these discussions the bailli puts under the
ban all jealous people and all "félons d'amour." But Envy besieges
and wins the castle, and forces the bailli and all his court to go to
heaven, where alone they can be secure.
Here another piece, Le Ju de le Capete, occurs in the MS., and
then follows a sequel to the Court d'Amours, of uncertain authorship.
This sequel is also entitled Le Court d'Amours. When it opens,
Envy is reigning in the Castle of Love, and is persecuting all true
lovers, who regret the passing away of the old régime. The wicked
are encouraged, and when rascals like the servant who betrayed his
master's confidence and violated his wife, tell of their exploits, Envy
laughs and applauds. The author of our poem leaves the castle
in disgust and seeks the "Roi de Frise." This king, grateful to the
bailli for helping him to win the shepherdess, collects his barons and
makes an assault on the castle, and finally Envy is called upon to
yield it again into the hands of the bailli and his court.
We have to note here the substitution of the "grand Bailli" for
the God or Goddess of Love; the occurrence of the pastourelle situa-
tion in the episode of the King of Frise; and the predominance of
the legal aspect of the Court of Love. So far, we have had no case
in which the forces of the enemy so clearly organized themselves.
into a Court of Envy, of which the courtiers were "félons d'amour,"
and in which all the laws of Love were reversed. This is, of course,
just the kind of elaboration to be looked for as the conception of
the Court becomes more and more familiar.
1 Edited by G. Raynaud, Rom., X, 524 32. This poem also has personifications,
such as Grace, Bonne Amour, Esperanche.
2 Here my summary follows Raynaud (Rom., X, 521). Raynaud believes that
Le Ju de le Capete and the second Court d'Amours are by Mahiu, as well as the
first piece in the MS.
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William Allan Neilson.
BAUDOUIN de condé.
1
Li Prisons d'Amours of the elder de Condé is a long and tedious
allegorical poem, describing, with frequent digressions, the Prison of
Love, the way in which one gets into it, the torments of the pris-
oners, and five methods of escape. Though this work belongs to the
general class of love-allegory, it contains little that is quite in the
line of tradition which we are tracing. In the description of
the foundations of the Prison d'Amour we have, however, another
instance of allegorical building materials (cf. p. 28, above). These
foundations are of precious stones love-virtues :
ļ
pan matalateral
Car c'est biautés, sens et proëce,
Honors, cortoizie et larguece,
Douce raizons, parole estable,
Simples regars et amiable,
Nobilités sans felonnie,
Acointance sans vilonnie,
Biau maintien, biau fait et biel dit,
Langue sans amer, sans mesdit,
Cuer sans venin et sans orguel,
De biel apiel, de biel aquel,
Bon los qui partout muet avance,
Entendemens et connissance (vv. 331-42).
In vv. 301-3 occur some words which seem to point to a lost poem
on a kindred subject:
Dou castiel vous ai devisé,
Se vous i avés bien visé,
Comment est fais ne comment siet.
According to Scheler, there is no such description to be found in
any of Baudouin's extant works.2
1 Dits et Contes de Baudouin de Condé et de son fils Jean de Condé ed. by
Aug. Scheler, Brussels, 1866, 3 vols., I, 267 ff.
2 Dits et Contes, as above, I, 509.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
67
JEAN DE CONDÉ.1
Among the works of Jean, the son of Baudouin de Condé, there is
one poem of great importance in the present discussion, La Messe des
Oisiaus et li Plais des Chanonesses et des Grises Nonains.2
Lying asleep one night in May, the author dreamt that he sat
under a pine in a beautiful forest, and just before dawn heard the
birds singing overhead. A papegai came flying as a messenger from
the Goddess of Love, announcing her approach and calling on all
the birds to prepare a joyous welcome. The tidings were received
with a more than earthly chorus of joy. A gorgeous throne was set
up, and here Venus took her seat to dispense justice and receive
adoration. The weather was fine, and the meadows were beautiful
with flowers and with clear brooks "courans sour menue graviele.”
Many complaints were brought before Venus, but she postponed
everything till she should have dined, first giving orders that the
nightingales should sing mass before her (devant li).
3
A detailed account of the service follows, with a sermon by the
parrot on the four virtues of lovers,* Obedience, Patience, Loyalty,
and Hope. The sermon being ended,
Tout li amant qui là estoient
En genous lor coupes batoient (vv. 297-8),
when an interruption occurred. The cuckoo, who had been driven
away into the forest, thought he would have his revenge, and came
flying over the heads of the kneeling lovers, shouting, "Tout cuku,
tout cuku!" This made everybody very angry, and a great murmur
arose. The sparrow-hawk gave chase, but the cuckoo hid in a hol-
low tree. Then service was resumed and finished, after which all
who loved "par amour
par amour" wished to go and put the cuckoo to death ;
but Venus forbade them, telling them of its origin, and drawing les-
sons of warning against villany and slander.
But now it was dinner time, and the whole company, clerks and
laymen, high and low, dames and damsels, sat down on the grass
1 Floruit ca. 1280-1345.
2 Scheler, Dits et Contes, III, 1 ff.
See pp. 225 ff., below.
* See p. 192, below.
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William Allan Neilson.
round the throne of Venus, and each had what he wished. The
courses consisted of glances, smiles, and the like, and a great chal-
ice was handed round, the contents of which only increased thirst.
There was an entremets of sighs and complaints. Some drank so
much that they became excited; others fell asleep. Next came
roasted ramprones with sauce of jealousy, and prayers with sauce of
tears. Then were given to the ladies vessels filled with fair replies
and sweet favors, and the author knelt before one beautiful girl, who
had a full dish, praying for a portion. A fair reply he got, but no
favor. Often he asked why she was so hard as to let him die of
hunger in her presence. Then the butler came with a full cup:
Mais k'un pou boivre n'en cuidai,
Et le hanap tout hors widai.
A la terre jus m'estendi,
Que riens n'oï ne n'entendi (vv. 559–62).
Yet intoxication was no disgrace, for the ladies held those most dear
who were most drunken; so he drank till he could not hold up his
head, and could neither hear nor see. The goddess called the valet
Souvenir, who roused him only to gaze at the girl more eagerly "a
.iiii. doubles" than before. Then the servants brought in a course to
appease the fever of love, - embraces and kisses, of which many
had their fill; but the author met with an angry repulse when he
tried to steal a kiss.
The feast ended with minstrelsy, and then those who had suits
came before Venus. A company of canonesses in white, escorted by
many knights, approached to lodge a complaint against the gray
nuns for stealing their lovers. The goddess wished to hear the other
side, and a gray nun, supported by many companions, replied that
the lovers had been lost through the haughtiness of the canonesses,
and won by the legitimate charms of the nuns. After hearing the
arguments, Venus in a long speech dwelt on the nature and power of
love, and finally gave a verdict for the nuns. Her decision was
accepted without contest (vv. 1216–18).
In the remaining 362 verses the poet attempts to moralize the
allegory and give it a religious signification.
The Mass of the Birds and the Sermon will be dealt with in their
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
69
appropriate chapters'; and in the forest and meadow passages we
have merely repetition of material with which we have already be-
come familiar. But the combination of the functions of Venus in
this poem is interesting. We have her first as a divine being, present
in bodily form at the rites of her own worship; next she figures as a
great feudal lady presiding at a feast which, apart from its meta-
phors, closely follows the forms of a mediaval banquet; and finally,
she is a judge, listening to pleadings, giving an exposition of the
law, and passing judgment. It is in the first of these three alle-
gorical pictures, in its distinctly religious aspect, that one finds the
most important contribution of Jean de Condé to the Court of Love
tradition. Still, even in the more hackneyed features of the poem,
Jean shows such skill in handling the allegory as to entitle him to
a place far above the crowd of minor men who had dealt with the
same theme. The metaphorical banquet belongs to the same kind
of allegory as the palace with hedges of sighs and fountains of tears.
The "plais" of the canonesses and the gray nuns obviously goes
back to débats of the type of the Altercatio.?
NICOLE DE MARGIVAL
La Panthère d'Amours introduces us to a new type.
The author follows Guillaume de Lorris and the Sire de Beaumanoir
in beginning with a dedication to his lady. Then he tells that one
night he dreamt that he was carried off by birds to a forest full of beasts
of all kinds and colors. One of these was of surpassing beauty, and
her breath so sweet that all the others, except the dragon, followed her
about. The beasts departed, and the poet was left alone. Presently
he heard a great sound of music, and beheld approaching a company
dressed in cloth of gold and other costly materials, dancing and
singing, and in the midst one of noble figure and fair countenance
and gracious manner, holding a sceptre and wearing a crown of gold
and jewels and a richly decorated robe. His horse had costly trap-
1 Pp. 192 and 225 ff., below.
2 See pp. 34 ff., above.
3 Floruit ca. 1300.
Le Dit de la Panthère d'Amours, ed. by II. A. Todd, Paris, 1883 (Soc. des
anc. Textes franç.).
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William Allan Neilson.
pings, and three knights acted as bodyguard, while the birds sang
all around. After him came a crowd of dames and damsels, knights,
squires, and clerks. He saluted Nicole and asked him who he was and
who sent him there. The poet told him about the beautiful beast;
and the stranger, after listening courteously, proposed that Nicole
should become his vassal. In answer to questions, he declared him-
self the God of Love to whom all lovers pray. He it was who hum-
bled the proud and exalted the lowly, emboldened the coward and
made timid the valiant, and was everywhere omnipotent. The poet
asked pardon and swore fealty, while the god courteously reproached
him :
Amis, tu as eü domage,
En ce que tu as ton corage
Vers moy si longuement celé (vv. 407–9).
Mounting a horse, the poet rode with the god in search of the
beast, who had retired to a fosse which was in the depths of a valley de-
fended by a thorn-hedge. The symbolism of the vision was explained
by the god. The beast is a panther, the symbol of Nicole's lady; her
sweet curative breath is her words; the dragon is Envy; the valley,
humility; the fosse, simplicity; the thorns, slanderers, and so on.
He put his horse to the hedge and rode along the valley till he
came within view of the panther. He gazed at her, but had not
courage to speak, and when he tried to get out of the valley the
thorns of the hedge scratched him, tore his clothes, and pulled him
from his horse. The god came to his rescue and extricated him from
his painful position, reproving him gently for not having addressed.
the panther. Esperance, Dous Penser, and Dous Souvenir then took
charge of the poet and led him to the mansion of Love, where his
wounds were cured and much advice was offered him.
In response
he composed a long dit (vv. 825-966). Then the God and Goddess
of Love visited him, and told him:
Me for they
Dedans le rommant de la Rose
Trouveras la science enclose.
La porras, se tu veus, aprendre
Comment vrais amans doit entendre
A servir Amors sans meffaire,
Si nous en pouons bien ci taire (vv. 1033–8).
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
71
Venus exhorted him to have courage, and he quoted in support
of his timidity some verses by Adam [de la Halle]. The goddess
advised sending the lady an emerald ring, the meaning of which,
and the manner of wearing, she explained, and she gave him verses
to send with it. Before he despatched it, he had a dream that on pre-
senting the ring he had been repulsed, and awaking he told it to the
goddess, and declared that he should never have courage to send
the missive. Then they exchanged verses, again taken from Adam
de la Halle, and after further useless exhortations to have courage,
he was told that the only way was to address himself to Fortune.
2
So with his three companions, Esperance, Dous Penser, and Dous
Souvenir, he set out for the Palace of Fortune, which is described
after the model of the same mansion in the Anticlaudianus¹ and the
Roman de la Rose. It is built on a hill of ice, and is half-gorgeous,
half-ruinous. Blind Fortune herself sits at the gate, and on her
caprice it depends whether one is welcomed by Eür, who inhabits
the beautiful part (called Prosperité), or by Meseür, who rules the
ruins (Adversité). At the moment of Nicole's arrival the goddess
happened to be angry; so he was assigned to Meseür, in whose abode
(Adversité) he dwelt for a long time. But by the influence of Grace
and Bone Volenté he was transferred to Prosperité, where “la douce
panthère" was staying, accompanied by Merci. Even now he lost
courage, but the ladies about him supported him, and finally the
panther yielded to the wishes of her mother Pitié. Then he awoke
and sang.
In this somewhat tedious poem of 2665 verses we find the Court
of Love allegory influenced by the Bestiaries. In these character-
istically mediaval productions the Panther is frequently an impor-
tant animal, and in some is made the type of Christ, the breath also,
as in the present form, being symbolical. Nicole's treatment of his
subject is rather confused. The symbolism is explained by one of
the characters in the allegory while the poet is still dreaming; we
have in one instance a dream within a dream. The Panther is finally
3
1 See p. 51, above.
2 Vv. 5944 ff., Méon, II, 89 ff.
8 See, for example, the Middle English Bestiary, 733 ff., Wright and Halliwell,
Reliquiae Antiquae, I, 225-6; Mätzner, Altengl. Sprachproben, 1, 73-4.
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William Allan Neilson.
-P
found living in the apartments of Eür, the personifications about her
being figured as women. Throughout, the poet is certainly thinking.
more of the inner meaning of his story than of the possibility of
visualizing it in the imagination.
The conception of the God of Love as riding in state, followed
by a troop of lovers, suggests the procession in Andreas Capellanus,
the Lai du Trot, the Confessio Amantis, and other works. The author's
acquaintance with the Roman de la Rose is made quite explicit. The
valley of Humility and the fosse of Simplicity recall the pilgrimage
type of allegory.
WATRIQUET DE COUVIN.
The poems of Watriquet de Couvin are rich in examples of the
kind at present under consideration, but there is little that is new.
In Li Mireoirs as Dames 2 (A.D. 1324–5) Dame Aventure conducts
the poet to see
de biauté la fontaine,
Au chastel c'on claime Thopasse.
1
As they climb the thirteen steps to the castle of Beauty, he finds
the first guarded by Dame Nature, and each of the other twelve by
a lady representing a Virtue: Sapience, Maniere, Raison, Mesure,
Pourveance, Charité, Humilité, Pitié, Debonnaireté, Courtoisie,
Largesce, Souffisance (i.e. moderate desires). All these virtues in
turn give him advice. The porter is Bonté, the chambriere Simplesce.
Beauty is described and an account is given of the attempts made
by the Virtues to keep off Forfait, Mespresure, Mot Vilain, and
other vices.
The idea of the steps is found in the Provençal poem by Guiraut de
Calanso already cited," though in Guiraut it is the steps themselves
that appear to be symbolical (see Dammann, pp. 73 ff.).
Li Dis de la Fontaine d'Amours begins with the description of a
walk taken by the poet on a May morning in a well-wooded garden,
4
1 See pp. 46 ff., above. This group of poems is discussed by me in a forth-
coming paper in Romania on The Purgatory of Cruel Beauties.
2 Dits de Watriquet de Couvin, ed. by Aug. Scheler, Brussels, 1868, pp. 1 ff.
}
See p. 24, above.
4 Scheler, pp. 101 ff.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
73
where he finds a beautiful fountain. It is guarded from the approach
of all slanderers and liars by order of Venus, the protectors being
Celer, Loiauté, and Sens. Three drinking cups, called Jonesce,
Proesce, and Largesce, are attached by chains, Vaillance, Cuidier,
and Courtoisie. The cups are in the charge of Bonne Volenté,
Avis, and Plenté. The poet drinks greedily with increasing thirst,
until, intoxicated, he stretches himself on the grass to die. But
Venus sends Espoir, who begins to restore him. Paour, however,
undoes the work of Espoir, but is in turn checked by Souvenir.
The poet is soothed to sleep and in a vision is summoned to the
Court of Venus. He is to go
Par le chemin de Verité
Gesir droit a Humilité,
En la maison de Charité (vv. 235-7).
Bonté, Bon Los, Biau Servir, Netteté, Maniere, Honnesté, Pitié are
to be visited on the way to the Court. The poet sets out, "touz
dormans," and follows the route prescribed. Arriving at the Court,
he finds an open feast spread. The viands are lovers' glances, sighs,
dangiers roasted, sweet smiles, jealousy, gilded melancholy, sauce of
kisses, and so forth. Then he awakes.
We find in La Fontaine d'Amours, as in La Panthère d'Amours, a
vision introduced into a situation already allegorical, though the
latter is not itself described as a dream as in the case of La Pan-
thère.¹ The Fontaine Amoureuse of Guillaume de Machaut and the
feast in La Messe des Oisiaus of Jean de Condé afford instances of
the other features of this poem.2 The symbolism of the cups and
chains is further elaborated by Watriquet.
Other poems by this author contain similar personifications, and
will be mentioned in the chapter on the Statutes.³
Here may be mentioned, in connection with these Fountain poems,
an anonymous work, of the end of the fifteenth century according
to Goujet, which is summarized in the Bibliothèque Françoise. It is
1 See p. 71, above. 2 See pp. 62-3, 67-8, above.
3 See pp. 193-4, below.
* Goujet, Bibliothèque Françoise, IX (Paris, 1745), 181 ff. Two printed edi-
tions of this poem are catalogued by Brunet (Manuel, 5th ed., II, 1326; III, 1122),
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William Allan Neilson.
called Le Livre de la Fontaine Périlleuse, avec la Chartre d'Amours.
The fountain represents the passion of Love, and round it are
images of Helen, Youth, Penelope, Loyalty, Cupid:
Richement assis au quart lieu
Fut Cupido Roy d'amourettes;
Bien ressembloit un puissant Dieu
Sur son trosne paint à fleurettes :
Un arc tenoit et deux sagettes,
Prest de férir grands et menus :
Ses lettres leu seines et nettes,
C'est Cupido le fils Venus.
The plot is of the same type as that of Watriquet's Fontaine
d'Amours.
RAIMON VIDAL.
La Chasse aux Médisants,' a fourteenth-century poem by Raimon
Vidal, has more than one point of special interest. It is written in
Old French, but in the poem itself there is evidence to show
what the similarity of the author's name to that of the troubadour
of the preceding century might lead one to suspect--that it was
written by a Provençal.2 Its international relations are further
complicated by the fact that it is the chief example in Old French
of that form of love-allegory which is most characteristic of Middle
High German.
On the morning of the first of May, 1338, the poet meets a com-
pany of ladies and gentlemen going to hunt a boar. There were
once two lovers, it appears, who were parted by evil reports. The
youth complained to Venus and the God of Love, with the result
that the slanderer was changed into a boar; and this is the animal
they are going to hunt. The ladies and gentlemen named as engaged
in this chase are all historical personages of the fourteenth cen-
an earlier without date, and a later, 1572. The latter was that used by Goujet.
The poet, Goujet notes (p. 182), mentions Alain Chartier.
1 Edited by A. Mercier, Annales du Midi, VI (1894), 465 ff.
2 A. Thomas, Annales du Midi, VI, 493-4· The author's name ("Remon
Vidal ") occurs in v. 68; the date (1338), in vv. 12-14.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
75
tury. Each has two dogs bearing the names of virtues. Thus Mar-
guerite de Chauvigny is there with Belacueil and Leese as hounds;
Blanche de Foys (Foix), with Beaumaintien and Dous Regart; Gensac
de Musyden, with Droiture and Valour; Ysabiau de Saissac, with
Humilité and Souffrance, and so on. Finally the boar is caught,
slain, cut up, and the parts are distributed among the ladies.
For parallels, see the German section (D) of the present chapter
(pp. 120 ff., below).
OTON DE GRANSON.1
In the Complainte de Saint Valentin, formerly ascribed to Alain
Chartier, but certainly the work of Oton de Granson, the God of
Love and St. Valentine appear to a lover who is lamenting the death
of his lady, and persuade him to take another.2
Other poems of Granson's occasionally touch upon matters con-
nected with the Court of Love, especially in expressing lovers' symp-
toms. He dwells on the lover's melancholy (Nos. 17, 20, 31)³ and
on his tendency to dream of his lady, and to brood upon her memory
at all times (Nos. 12, 23, 31).*
EUSTACHE DESCHAMPS.5
Though the importance of Eustache Deschamps in the history of
French literature is much greater on account of his influence on
verse-forms than on account of his matter, yet there are some points
worth noting in his allegorical work.
6
Le Lay du Desert d'Amours, and No. dxxxv, a ballade (the lamen-
tation of a woman over her lost youth, with the refrain
Lasse ! languir vois ou desert d'amours),'
1 Ca. 1340-1397. (See Romania, XIX, 237 ff.)
2 A. Piaget, Romania, XIX, 403-7. See the text in Du Chesne's edition of Char-
tier, 1617, pp. 759-66.
3 Piaget, Rom., XIX, 420, 424, 433-4.
4 Ibid., pp. 419, 429, 435.
5 Ca. 1345-ca. 1405.
6 (Euvres complètes de Eustache Deschamps, ed. for Soc. des anc. Textes franç.
by le Marquis de Queux de Saint-Hilaire, II, 182–92.
↑ (Euvres, III, 373-4.
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William Allan Neilson.
both contain descriptions of a gloomy plain with no green trees or
merry songs of birds the counterpart of the May-day meadow-
which may have suggested to the author of L'Hospital d'Amours the
grim picture of "Montjoye de Doulours."¹ The Lay mentions also
the fountain of Narcissus, and the God of Love with bow and arrows.
Le Lay Amoureux" is Eustache's most important work from the
present point of view. It opens with a buoyant spring song and an
account of May-day customs, and then tells of a dream which the
poet had. Walking in a wood he meets Disdain, a great vilain with
a cudgel, and after getting past him with some difficulty, he comes
into a beautiful meadow, where there is a spring, a clear stream, and
a tall pine tree.
Here he sees
un seigneur tressouverain.
Comme dieu cellui aouroie,
Car en l'air tout seul le veoie
Resplendissant, de douçour plain (vv. 112-15).
Under the pine are many persons kneeling and praying God
que sa grace leur envoie
Et s'amour au secle mondain (vv. 121–2).
He sees
The poet hides under a thorn and watches.
"this god"
(cilz dieux) send down Love in the form of an hermaphrodite,
Descendre vi celle amour digne
En un char de feu sanz courtine.
Ceulx qui du recevoir indigne
Ne furent, en eulx se bouta,
Soutivement les embrasa.
La fut la belle Proserpine (vv. 139-46),
as well as Medea, Theseus, Semiramis, Paris and Helen, Solomon,
Ovid, Aristotle, Dido, Guinevere and Lancelot, Tristan and Yseult,
and many more. Besides the famous lovers from history and legend,
there are allegorical personages present, and the discussion which
follows is carried on by these. Honour urges Jeunesce to love,
1 See p. 87, below.
2 Œuvres, II, 193 ff.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
and promises the assistance of Vaillance and Prouesce. Poursuite,
Deduis, Loyauté, Verité, Justice, Raison, Pité, and others join with
Vaillance in bemoaning the power of Orgueil, Haine, Decevance,
Mesdit, and the rest, Raison concluding with
Fy d'or, d'argent, et de chevance
Qui font toute joie cesser (vv. 273-4).
77
Then the famous lovers leave the place, giving thanks to the God
of Love. As they pass the poet, who still lies under his thorn-tree,
he feels great fear; but the God of Love and ses gens (perhaps the
allegorical personages) see him and the latter speak favorably to
their lord:
"Vez la Eustace
Qui doit bien estre en vostre grace:
Guillaume et lui noz faiz escriprent;
Venus et Juno les nourrirent.
Commandez lui de ci s'en passe,
Die tout et rien ne trespasse
Comment ancien se maintinrent
Aux presens." Lors s'esvannouirent (vv. 296–303),
and the poet awoke.
The most noteworthy feature of the poem is probably the descrip-
tion of Love as an hermaphrodite.¹ This appears to be due to an
attempt to combine Venus and Cupid in one person; but perhaps
nothing more is intended than a symbol of the god's power over
both sexes.
The hovering in the air and the chariot of fire are also
both unique, so far. The poet's spying suggests the Prologue to
Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, and is found still later in Gavin
Douglas's Palice of Honour.2
1
The poem is confused. It is not quite certain how far Eustache meant to
identify the resplendent figure in the air with the Love that descends in a fiery
chario; nor is the action clear in the last part of the narrative.
Fe pp. 160 ff., below.
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William Allan Neilson.
!
JEAN FROISSART.
The great chronicler who wrote
D'armes, d'amour, et de moralité,
left a considerable mass of poetry of the Court of Love type.¹
His Paradys d'Amour" is in the form of a dream, and opens with
the conventional May day, a wooded and flowery landscape, and the
singing of birds. The hero, an almost despairing lover, is approached
by two ladies, Plaisance and Esperance, with whom he has a long con-
versation. They conduct him to the pavilion of the God of Love,
which stands in a lande in the wood (vv. 1009-16). On their way
they fall in with Beau Semblant, Douls Regard, Franc Vouloir, and
other huntsmen engaged in "l'amoureuse chace." The god is in his
pavilion. He receives the author kindly, and commands Plaisance
and Esperance to attend him. Accordingly the three continue their
walk through the wood. In a meadow, by the side of a stream,
they find Bel Acueil, plaiting chaplets of flowers. The poet immedi-
ately kneels down before his lady and begs her to love him.
3
Lors ma dame, com bien senée,
Le chapelet qui fu estrois
Frema elle, de ses beaus dois,
De la flour où je me delitte,
Que je vous nomme margherite (vv. 1669–73).
Then she makes him kiss the chaplet, kisses it herself, and places it
on his head. He gives a movement of joy, and awakes.
Cupid in this poem is said to shoot his arrows through the eyes
¹Œuvres de Froissart, Poésies, ed. by Aug. Scheler, Brussels, 1870-2, 3 vols.
See also Froissart, Étude Litteraire sur le XIVme Siècle, by Kervyn de Lettenl.
Paris, 1857, 2 vols., and the same scholar's Étude sur la Vie de Froissart forming
vol. I of his edition of the Chroniques, Brussels, 1870. The date of Froissart's
birth is usually given as 1337; he appears not to have died before 1405.
2 Poésies, ed. Scheler, I, 1 ff.
Ma dame" is now present, in an unexplained way (v. 1477). But the nar-
rative is clear enough. The poet's discovery of Bel Acueil by the stream is
equivalent to his being kindly received by his lady.
་
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
79
into the heart (vv. 488–92), a detail that comes to be more and
more generally adopted. The lover's associates are all old friends:
Avec moi menrai Atemprance,
Avis, Maniere, et Cognissance,
Franchise et Debonnaireté,
Sens, Pité, et Humilité,
Qui tout soustenront ma banière (vv. 753-7).
Among the courtiers of love Froissart introduces several of the
heroes of romance, Lancelot, Tristan and Iseult, Gawain, Troilus,
Paris, Jason, and others. He also inserts songs, like those intro-
duced by the author of the Panthère d'Amours; as, for example, the
lay which the hero sings to the God of Love.
1
2
The Paradys d'Amour is important also from the connection it has
with English poetry. The most definite proof is the introduction of
the mysterious "Eclympasteyre" of Chaucer's Bok of the Duchesse
(v. 167), which appears in Froissart as "Enclimpostair" (v. 28).¹
Le Joli Buisson de Jonece contains some novel features. Plaisance,
Desir, Humilité, Jonece, Maniere, Pité, Doulç Semblant, and Fran-
chise engage in a literary contest, each expressing a wish in verse.
The poet acts as secretary, and the prize is a chaplet. When the
documents are all on record, Desir suggests the God of Love as a
jud and the poet, his lady, and all the abstract competitors set.
nut to find him. The journey is not finished: "on me boute; adont
je ar
veille."
in e Temple d'Onnour,³ probably written in honor of a marriage
1
X
The question which poet was the imitator is debatable. See the references
Sebeler's ed., III, xix, n. 1, and add Hales, Folia Litteraria, London, 1893,
pp. 3-5 (from Athenæum, April 8, 1882); Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, Bos-
ion, 1802, I, 245; Skeat's Chaucer, I, 462, 468; Longnon, Introduction to Méliador,
1, 1- Paris, 1895); G. C. Macaulay, Macmillan's Magazine, LXXI, 230 (Jan.,
1895) I. Bradley, Academy, Feb. 9, 1895, 125-6. These references I owe to
Professor Kittredge, a forthcoming article by whom in Englische Studien may be
exported to settle the question.
Y
with the ballade refrain "Sus toutes flours j'aime la margherite" (Paradys
d'Amai“, v. 1635), cf. Chaucer, Prologue to the Legend of Good Women, vv. 42-3.
V. 4602 ff., Scheler, II, 136 ff.
aisies, ed. Scheler, II, 162 ff.; cf. III, xlvi-xlviii.
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William Allan Neilson.
and containing moral instructions for a knight and his lady, the
poet, following Watriquet,' describes the seven steps in the temple
leading up to the seat of Honor as guarded by seven knightly and
seven womanly virtues.
2
La Cour de May has a repetition of many of the features of the
Paradys d'Amour. All the month of May Amour holds his court in
a vergier, among flowers and the joyous songs of birds (vv. 399–401).
In this park the poet finds a fountain guarded by a lady in cloth of
gold, Leesse, who welcomes him cordially. Doulce Pensée presents
him with a portrait of his lady, and Courtoisie leads him to the
dwelling of Love, which is here, as in the Paradys, a tent instead of
But the splendor is present here too:
a castle.
46
Là estoit richement tendue
Une tente sur l' erbe drue;
Les cordes d'or de Cypre estoient,
Les chevilles qui les tenoient
Estoient toutes de fin or.
La tente valoit maint tresor,
Le comble estoit à or batu,
Tele richesce onques ne fu.
De grosses perles fu brodée
Et de pierrerie eslevée :
Balais, rubis, saphirs, topasses,
Gros dyamans semés par places
Y estoient (vv. 643–55).
The enclosure is entered by means of a great portal or gate-house,
on which is the warning,
Fuyés, fuyés, fuyés de cy,
Mesdisans, felons, envieux,
Hardis menteurs, faulx orguilleux,
Parjureurs, deceveurs de dames!
Mauvais estes de corps et d'ames.
Amours vous fait commandement
Que n'approuchiés aucunement
Ce plaisant et vertueux lieu" (vv. 1440 ff.).
1 See p. 72, above.
2 Poésies, III, 1 ff.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
81
Love is very friendly to the hero, and gives him much advice,
which is often parallel to the Statutes (see chap. iv, below), though
not put into that form.
2
8
Doubts have been thrown upon Froissart's authorship of La Cour
de May,¹ and with regard to the next allegory to be mentioned, Le
Tresor Amoureux, there is still more uncertainty, Scheler holding
that it is probably not by Froissart. It is an enormous poem of over
eight thousand verses, which I cannot attempt to summarize in detail.
The framework is again a dream, in which the author beholds the
Palace of Beauty in a great park. In the palace garden stand two
magnificent tents, in one of which are
quatre dames
Belles, bonnes de corps et d'ames (vv. 121–2),—
Raison ("la bien doctrinée "), Souffisance, Congnoissance, and Lo-
yauté (vv. 171-5). Congnoissance is the chief instructor of the hero.
The tent is of a shining whiteness typifying purity and devotion, and
is crowned with three golden pommiaulz symbolizing the Trinity.
The other tent is occupied by Love, who is accompanied by Dame
Nature.
It is evident that we have here the setting of a didactic rather than
an erotic allegory, and if Froissart wrote the poem, it must have been
about the time when "moralité" was supplanting "amour" as the
source of his inspiration.
Low:
Some of the other details, however, are of interest in view of
later eatures of the Court of Love. The park is guarded by eight
occupied by Diligence, Bonté, Beauté, Honneur, Maniere,
ilusalité, Atrempance, and Courtoisie (vv. 325-49). Dangier is
huissier; Paour, concierge; Grace, treasurer; Hardement, constable;
Deduit, grand chamberlain, and so on (vv. 303-4, 313-14, 323, 405 ff.).
n the poem as a whole there is more about Truth than about
Love. There are long debates, first between the author and a squire
(111, 85 ff.), and then between Congnoissance and Amour (vv. 2695 ff.),
on the relation of the pursuits of Love and Arms and similar subjects.
1 See Poésies, III, lvii-lx.
2 Ibid., III, 52 ff.
3 Ibid., III, lxii-lxvi.
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William Allan Neilson.
It thus appears that, in spite of the considerable bulk of his poet-
ical work, Froissart's original contributions to the love-allegory are
slight. Most of these have already been remarked upon. His pref-
erence of tents to castles; his elaboration of the feudal offices; and
his extensive mingling of didactic with love-allegory (if Le Tresor be
his) are the main points.
LES ÉCHECS AMOUREUX.
The anonymous author of the poem known as Les Échecs Amou-
reux introduces an unwonted amount of classical learning into his
work. The last part of it, indeed (fo. 54b-fo. 65b of the Dresden
MS.), has been edited by Körting as a translation from Ovid.' The
poem as a whole has not been accessible to me, but from the very
full rubrics quoted at the end of Körting's extract the following
outline has been put together.
2
After a description of spring, the author tells how Nature appeared
to him and advised him to see the world. Having set out with this
purpose, he meets Pallas, Juno, and Venus, escorted by Mercury,
who asks him to pronounce anew the Judgment of Paris.³
3
The poet decides in favor of Venus, who then talks graciously with
him, especially of her sons Jocus or Deduit and Cupid, and of the
"Vergier de Deduit." After Venus leaves him, he sets out for the
forest of Diana. Here he meets the goddess herself, whom he
describes. She has much to say against Venus and her Garden
of Delight, to seek which, nevertheless, the author immediately pro-
ceeds. On arriving there, he is welcomed by Courtesy, and is allowed
to go all about and see its beauty and variety. There he sees the
God of Love and his retinue, and describes his beauty and rich
dress and crown. Leesce and Doulz Regart are the god's constant
companions. Following the Roman de la Rose, the author describes
¹ Altfranzösische Uebersetzung der Remedia Amoris des Ovid, ed. by G. Körting,
Leipzig, 1871. The poem as a whole is contained in MS. O. 66, in the Königl.
öffentliche Bibliothek in Dresden, and also in a MS. in the Library of St. Mark's,
Venice; but it has never been published in full.
2 Assisted here and there by Körting's brief summary in his Einl., pp. viii-ix.
* Professor Kittredge draws my attention to the strong resemblance between
this and Froissart's L'Espinelle Amoureuse, vv. 396 ff., ed. Scheler, I, 98 ff.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
83
"le rosier et les roses et le lieu ou Jalousie fist Bel-Acueil emprison-
ner," and the fountain of Narcissus. Deduit he finds playing chess
with a damsel. After the game is finished, the damsel, at the request
of the God of Love, plays with the author and defeats him, where-
upon Deduit presents her with a chaplet and urges the author to try
again. The God of Love tells how he and Venus, his mother, serve
Nature, and how Deduit and Oyseuse serve them. Diana is afterwards.
discussed, and the conversation ends with the author's pretended
homage to the god. Then the author is left to meditation. This
results in a lamentation which causes the god to return, to talk at
length on the power of Venus, and to give some commandments.
The conversation turns on different ways of seeking satisfaction in
love, by violence, gifts, enchantment, etc., each method being.
illustrated by examples from the classics. The god then leaves him.
alone once more, and he thinks of the lady that he loves.
Pallas now appears and presents the claims of Reason as against
love and carnal delights, enumerating the rules laid down by Ovid in his
Remedia Amoris. She exalts the life contemplative over the life amo-
rous, and then, following Il Tesoro of Brunetto Latini, she expatiates
on l'aris and its University, on the King of France, on princes and
governments, on society and its origins, on virtues and vices, etc., etc.
Although the general composition of this work makes it stand out.
clearly from the mass of erotic allegory, there appears from the out-
line to be little or nothing in it, save the game of chess from which
it takes its name, which is not to be found in Ovid, the Roman de
la Kos, Brunetto Latini, and the literature generally current in the
fourteenth century. The three special sources mentioned the author
seems to have had before him as he wrote.¹
CHRISTINE DE PISAN.
The famous controversy on the character of woman that was raised
by Jean de Meun's attacks on the sex in the second part of the Roman
de la kose does not in itself concern us here." But one of the poems
Q
Körting's Einl., pp. ix-x.
For the debate on the morality of the Roman de la Rose, see A. Piaget, in
Etudes Romanes dédiées à Gaston Paris, l'aris, 1891, pp. 113-20.
***
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William Allan Neilson.
called forth by that controversy happens to have a framework which
brings it into the Court of Love category. L'Epistre au Dieu d'
Amours¹of Christine de Pisan was written, as she herself tells us in
vv. 799-800, in 1399, and it is in the form of a letter from Cupid to
all his subjects, reproving men for their ill-doing and ill-speaking
towards women, and defending women against the charges brought
by Jean de Meun and his followers. The opening and closing verses
show clearly Christine's conception of Cupido as a feudal sovereign.
The poem begins thus:
Cupido, roy par la grace de lui,
Dieu des amans, sanz aide de nullui
Regnant en l'air du ciel trés reluisant,
Filz de Venus la deesse poissant,
Sire d'amours et de tous ses obgiez,
A tous nos vrais loiaulx servans subgiez,
Salut, Amour, Familiarité.
Savoir faisons en generalité
Qu'a nostre Court sont venues complaintes
Par devant nous et moult piteuses plaintes
De par toutes dames et damoiselles,
Gentilz femmes, bourgoises et pucelles, etc.
In the closing lines the legal machinery of feudalism is even more
elaborately copied, though the mention of excommunication repre-
sents the religious aspect which so persistently mingles with the sec-
ular in these allegories. The God is passing sentence on false lovers
and other "vilains ":
Si soient tuit
De nostre Court chacié, bani, destruit,
Et entrediz et escommenié,
Et tous noz biens si leur soient nyé,
C'est bien raison qu'on les escomenie.
Et commandons de fait a no maisnie
Generaument et a noz officiers,
A noz sergens et a touz noz maciers,
A noz prevoz et maires et baillis,
1 Euvres Poétiques de Christine de Pisan, ed. by M. Roy (Soc. des anc. Textes
franç.), II, 1-27.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
85
Et vicaires, que tous ceulz maubaillis
Et villennez soient trés laidement,
Injuriez, punis honteusement,
Pris et liez, et justice en soit faitte,
Donné en l'air, en nostre grant palais,
Le jour de May la solempnée feste
Ou les amans nous font mainte requeste,
L'An de grace Mil trois cens quatre vins
Et dix et neuf, present dieux et divins' (vv. 779–800).
Then follow the signatures.
ALAIN CHARTIER.2
Through his poem La Belle Dame sans Mercy Alain Chartier became.
(unintentionally, as it seems) involved in the controversy of which
Christine's Epistre formed a part. To clear himself he wrote the
Excusation de Maistre Alain, contre ceux qui dient qu'il a parlé contre
les Dames en son livre nommé La Belle Dame sans Mercy." In this
poem he represents Love as appearing to him, drawn bow in hand,
just before dawn, and reproaching him. Alain asserts his innocence,
alleges the inoffensiveness of his book, and appeals to Love to judge
the case.
Love lowers his bow, puts the arrow back in the quiver,
and says:
Puis qu'à ma court tu te reclames,
l'en suis content, et tant t'en di,
Que ie remetz la cause aux Dames.
Then the poet awakes:
Pour ce me rens à vostre Court,
Mes Dames, et la foy pleuy
D'obéir à droit sans enuy
Ainsi qu'amours l'a commandé.
1 For a comparison of this poem with Hoccleve's Letter of Cupid, see Furnivall's
edition of Hoccleve for E. E. T. S., Lond., 1892.
2 Chartier is said to have been born in 1386. The date of his death is uncertain.
See G. Paris, Rom. XVI, 414; XVIII, 320; and cf. Rom. XXII, 1
152 ff.
8 Œuvres, ed. Du Chesne, Paris, 1617, pp. 525 ff.
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William Allan Neilson.
In spite of this seeming recantation, we have a poem with full
Court of Love machinery in which Alain returns to his charges
against the cruel beauty. In Le Parlement d'Amour' he says that,
being ordered by Love to make a new ballade in honor of his lady,
he lay down on a couch, where he fell asleep and had a dream.
In the midst of the most beautiful of gardens, which was on a rock
of topaz, was Love with a bow in his hand. The garden was full of
cypresses and rose-trees, and was watered by a fountain "és quatre
corniers." Birds sang in the trees, and the gate was guarded by
Dangier. In the midst was an audience chamber (auditoire) of green
marjoram, on which were designed in flowers the stories of Paris and
Helen, and of the Chatelaine de Vergy, who had loved without
reproach in thought, word, or deed. It was written with marigolds
on the turf that Love was going to hold his parliament in that place,
to dispense justice. There were twelve presidents, of whom Franc
Vouloir was the first; Espoir was "procureur des cas"; and Desir
was advocate. The crowds of people who were thronging to the
Parliament all seemed to be making their way towards Souvenir, the
Clerk of Court. Doulx Pensier, the huissier, called for silence, and
the Clerk bade him to call to audience
2
Celle, qui outre la deffence
D'amours, auoit cueur endurcy,
Qu'on appella en ma presence
La belle Dame sans mercy (p. 697).
She came, blushing like fire for shame, and weeping for fear of
Love. Then Desir gave an exposition of the prerogatives of Love,
and enumerated at great length the charges against the rebel dame.
He ended by advising that she be enclosed in grief and guarded by
pain and sorrow and grievous languor.
The lady asked for counsel; but, though Franc Vouloir granted
her request, no one dared to act for her. So she sought delay,
which was permitted. Then the poet awoke and wrote his ballade.
¹ (Euvres, ed. Du Chesne, pp. 695 ff.
2 For the form of this name see Raynaud, Rom. XXI, 145, 157, 158. Du
Chesne's text (p. 696) has "du verger la Chastelaine."
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
87
In this poem the legal aspect of the Court is predominant through-
out; but in another poem formerly ascribed to Chartier, L'Hospital
d'Amours (ca. 1441)¹ we have the religious element prevailing,
mixed with what might be called the pathological aspect of love,
which is here elaborated for the first time.
The poet, who is enjoying himself in the Assembly of Pleasure,
sits down beside his lady and begins to plead his cause; but, being
repulsed, is thrown into a deep melancholy. That night, as he lies in
bed, wishing in his misery for death, he falls into a waking dream.
He seemed to be walking along a thorny road called "Trop dure
Responce," which led him to the bottom of a valley, where he found
a great desert, "Montjoye de Doulours," a dismal place of tears.
Every tree was full of "gens pendus" who had, like Phyllis, hanged
themselves in despair. Under the trees flowed a river full of drowned
lovers, among whom he recognized Hero and Leander. There, too,
was the fatal Fountain of Narcissus. Swords he saw, stained with
the blood of suicides like Pyramus and Thisbe; and a fire fed by
lovers, who, like Dido, had given their bodies for fuel. In this dis-
mal region, beyond the limits of law and nature, no creature could
live the rain was tears; the wind, sighs; the thunder, a hideous cry.
From this desert of despair he was delivered by Esperance and
Sapience, who entered into him invisibly, like spirits. He was car-
ried off, "plus que le cours " to a blessed place called the "Hospital
d'Amours." The Hospital was built on a rock of ruby; its walls
were of crystal above, and of dark marble below, and it was sur-
rounded by a flowery hedge. At the door Bel-Accueil, who bore the
keys, gave him a gracious welcome, and led him to Courtoisie,
the enfermiere. Within he found thirteen hospitaliers: Dame Pitié
(the Prioress), Loyaulté, Simplesse, Verité, Congnoissance, Humilité,
Richesse, Largesse, Maniere, Jeunesse, Liesse, Beauté, Courtoisie.
There were three Counsellors, Honneur, Entendement, and Souvenir;
Pitié had two servants, Regard and Humble Maintenir; the chief
physician was Espoir. Courtoisie asked his symptoms, and led him
1 Œuvres, ed. Du Chesne, pp. 722 ff. The correctness of the ascription of
this poem to Chartier was doubted by Clément Marot. See Piaget, Romania,
XIX, 403-4.
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William Allan Neilson.
away for treatment. They passed the hostel of Pitié, the Prioress,
and entered a great hall full of patients, at the end of which was a
glorious chapel, in which service was going on. In the chapel was an
altar, on which were two images, one of Venus with firebrand and
diadem, and one of Cupid with his arrows. The leader of the sing-
ing was Liesse, and the priestess Conscience, who that day was cele-
brating the mass of Pyramus and Thisbe. Making obeisance to the
shrine as he passed, the poet came to another apartment, where he
found a bed on which Courtoisie made him lie down, while she sum-
moned the doctor. Espoir came, felt his pulse, diagnosed the case,
and gave him some eaue de gratieux penser," which put him to
sleep. When he woke Pity came to comfort him, and he asked her
for "ung franc baisier." She was willing to allow him this, but Love
had made Dangier his gardener, and no tree was so closely guarded
as "franc baisier." Yet by her urgent request Dangier was won
over; and, helped by Espoir, the sick lover staggered to the garden,
where, among many ladies, he found his mistress and got the kiss,
which restored his health at once.
، ،
Having offered thanks and taken his leave, he returned to the
Hospital, and thence found his way to the Cemetery. There he
found buried true lovers like Tristan and Lancelot; there, too, lay
Alain Chartier, "saige et loyal," the victim of La Belle Dame sans
Mercy.¹ Through a postern he passed into a sad valley, where
lay the unburied bodies of Love's excommunicated, — among them
Jason, Demophon, Æneas, Narcissus, La Belle Dame sans Mercy,
and Briseyda.
Now his desire returned to him, but Dangier denied him access to
his lady. The hospitaliers did their best for him. Espoir, the physi-
cian, recommended a sacrifice to Love, advising him to avoid thought,
seek cheerful company, read pleasant stories, and above all keep him
(Espoir) in mind, since he could cure all such griefs except when
they were mortal. Only Love himself could melt the lady. So to
1 This passage has been regarded as decisive against Chartier's authorship.
See Petit de Julleville, Hist. de la langue et de la litt. franç., II, 374; Goujet, IX,
176; Catalogue Rothschild, I, 246; G. Paris, Rom., XVI, 413. Cf. also René of
Anjou's Le Livre du Cuer d'Amours Espris (p. 91 and n. 1, below).
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
89
Love the poet turned his tear-blinded eyes, but could not find words,
and swooned away.
When he recovered consciousness, he prayed
to him for mercy, recalling former miracles in the cases of Penelope,
Echo, Pygmalion, and others. Then he fell asleep and dreamt that
Love rose and, calling him his son, gave him encouragement, and
asked why he had stopped writing songs in his honor. Had he lost
his good will, or did he think the god had lost his power? He said.
no to both questions; he knew that only Love or death could re-
lease him from his present pain. After further reproaches on one
side and professions of repentance on the other, Love took pity and
told him to return to the garden, where he should find Dangier asleep.
Then he awoke, went to the garden, and found Dangier asleep.
Near by was his own lady. Her he told all about his case and the
god's promises, and entreated her not to make Love a liar. She
changed color, said she could not disobey so great a lord, and granted
"ung franc baisier." He returned to the chapel to sacrifice a turtle-
dove made of laurel-wood in token of gratitude. Then he thanked
the ladies in the Hospital for their kindness, after which he sud-
denly awoke. The poem ends with a wish that the vision may come
true.
It has seemed worth while to give a somewhat full summary of
this poem for several reasons. First, it is, as literature, one of the
most interesting of its century. The scheme of the allegory is much
more original than usual, and it is carried out with vigor and con-
sistency. The description of the chapel of the God of Love as
a part of the larger building, and as containing images of Cupid and
Venus is closely paralleled in the English Court of Love. The con-
ception of the Hospital and that of the cemetery were both new, and
both were imitated very soon. The picture of the Valley of Despair
is done with such grimness and power as to suggest the Divine
Comedy.
RENÉ OF ANJOUL
Closely associated with the foregoing, both as the friend and ad-
mirer of Alain Chartier and as the imitator of the Hospital d'Amours,
comes King René the Good. In the whole range of the fifteenth
1 A.D. 1408-80.
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William Allan Neilson.
century there is perhaps no figure presenting more, and more varied,
points of interest than this monarch. As King of Jerusalem and of
Sicily, and as Duke of Bar, of Lorraine, and of Anjou, he was of
the first importance socially and politically; that he was an artist
of no mean skill is proved by the graceful drawings he made in illus-
tration of his books; he appears as a moral reformer in his substitu-
tion of the games of the Fête-Dieu¹ for the licentious "Jeux des
Fous," and as a musician in composing the accompaniments for
some of these ceremonies; and, finally, as a writer, he exchanged
ballades with the Duke of Orléans, composed an extensive work on
chivalry, and wrote a very long allegorical poem inspired by the
Roman de la Rose and the Hospital d'Amours. It is to this very ver-
satility, no doubt, that the almost complete neglect of his claims to
recognition as a man of letters is due.2
Le Livre du Cuer d'Amours Espris³ (A.D. 1457), as René's allegory
is called, is a work, partly prose and partly verse, in the form of a
vision.
One night the author dreams that his heart leaves his breast, and
armed and equipped by Desir sets out to seek Doulce Mercy. His
equipment includes a helmet, "timbré tout de fleurs d'amoureuses
pensées," a sword, and a shield of "esperance pure" with three forget-
me-nots on it. His horse is Franc Vouloir. After a long series of
adventures, in which the usual personifications take part (Jalouzie,
Melencolie, Bel Acueil, Tristesse, Humble Requeste, Honneur, Lar-
gesce, and many more), and in which allegorical place-names occur
(such as the manor of Bon Repos, the river of Tears, the forest of
Longue Actente, the bridge Pas Perilleux, and the plain of Pensée
Ennuyeuse), the Heart with his two companions, Desir and Lar-
gesce, comes to the seacoast and sets sail for the Isle of the God
of Love. As they approach the island they see a beautiful castle;
1 For details as to the Court of Love element in this celebration, see pp. 253-4
ff., below.
2 It has been remarked that a curiously similar oblivion obscured for centuries.
the literary reputation of René's princely contemporaries, Charles d'Orléans and
James I. of Scotland.
8 (Euvres Complètes du Roi René, ed. by le Comte de Quatrebarbes, vol. III,
Angers, 1846. The date is given in the work itself (p. 195).
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
91
somewhat nearer the shore is a fine church, which forms a part of a
great establishment called L'Ospital d'Amours. The church, with
"tout le pourpris de leans," was built on a rock of diamond. The
walls were of marble and jasper, and the roof was covered with plates
of enamelled silver. The Heart and his companions are entertained
at this Hospital, of which Courtoisie is the enfermiere and Pitié the
prioress.
Behind the church is a cemetery, which the Heart is eager to see,
because he has heard that Alain Chartier and other notabilities are
buried there. On the portal of the cemetery are blazoned the arms
of many great personages, who have visited the Hospital and who
by thus, as it were, hanging up their shields have testified their sub-
jection to Love. Under each blazon is an inscription written "comme
en épitaphe," telling whose the arms are and why their owner had
come thither.
A long list of the blazons and inscriptions is given.
It includes those of David, Hercules, and Theseus, Julius Cæsar
and Mark Antony, Launcelot and Tristan, Charles Quint, Gaston
Phébus, Comte de Foix, and King René himself. After examining
the portal, the Heart and his companions enter the cemetery. It
contains many tombs, six of which attract the visitor's particular
attention. They are those of Ovid, Guillaume de Machaut, Boc-
caccio, Jean de Meun, Petrarch, and Alain Chartier, and they stand
together in an enclosure by themselves. When the Heart asks Dame
Courtoisie to whom some of the other tombs belong, she refers him
to "the book of L'Ospital d'Amours, written by a clerk of Tournay.""
Then she shows him, outside the cemetery, the bodies of Love's ex-
communicates, unburied and frightful to see.
After hearing mass in the church for the souls of two lovers newly
slain through jealousy, the Heart visits and kisses the relics (such
things as a vessel of the water in which Leander was drowned), and
1"Elle lui dist que s'il en vouloit savoir, qu'il lisist et regardast le livre de
l'ospital d'Amours que jadis fist ung jeune clerc natif de Tournay et que assez lui
en deviseroit" (p. 133). This passage is valuable, not only as an acknowledg-
ment of the source of King René's description of the Hospital, etc., but as evi-
dence that he knew that L'Hospital d'Amours was not written by Alain Chartier.
See p. 87, above.
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William Allan Neilson.
Pitié takes a book and makes him swear to serve Love loyally hence-
forth, and keep his commandments.
Leaving the Hospital with his two companions, Desir and Lar-
gesce, the Heart sets out for "le beau chastel de Plaisance du dieu
d'Amours," while Pitié penetrates to the chamber of Doulce Mercy,
the object of his wanderings. This lady is shut up in the manor of
Rebellion, where Dangier and Reffus hold her a close prisoner.
The chamber is guarded by Honte, Crainte, Jalouzie, and by two
Mesdisans, spies of Malebouche. Pitié prepares the lady to wel-
come the Heart.
Meantime the hero and his comrades come in sight of the castle :
Ce très bel chastel de Plaisance estoit fondé sur une roche d'esmeraude,
en laquelle y avoit vaines de dyamans nayfz, foison et si grant quantité que
on y veoit presqu'autant ou plus de dyamans que d'esmerauldes. Les quatre
pans des murs dudit beau chastel estoient de cristal, et y avoit à chacun pan.
au bout d'une grosse tour faicte de chailloux de rubiz fins et reluisans, etc.
(pp. 145–6).
At the gate the wanderers are met by Bel Acueil, who consents to
ask the God of Love to receive le Cuer's homage. Love replies
favorably and the companions enter the castle, escorted by Bel
Acueil. In the courtyard they find Oyseuse, who tells them that the
God of Love is "en bien estroit conseil" with his mother Venus,
and must not be disturbed. She shows the new-comers the wonders.
of the castle until Love is ready to receive them. When, finally,
they enter the great hall, they find the god in royal raiment, "et
tiroit sayettes et moult fleiches par les fenestres de la salle à la
vollée hors, et pas ne lui chaloit sur qui elles cheussent." Bel Acueil
presents the Heart to Love. Desir begs the god to receive the
stranger into his service and to lend him the aid of his knights in
the conquest of Doulce Mercy. Love is in no hurry, and meantime
they are well entertained. After dinner Dame Venus enters, a
council is held, and orders are issued for the campaign. The quest
is undertaken by the Heart, Pitié, Bel Acueil, Promesse, and Hum-
ble Requeste. Doulce Mercy is won and is being conducted to the
Castle of Love, when the old enemies, with Dangier at their head,
reappear and attack so violently that, in spite of the Heart's valor,
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
93
the lady is recaptured, his friends fall, and he himself is severely
wounded. Pitié, who has been hiding in a thicket during the fight,
finds the Heart more dead than alive. She restores him to con-
sciousness, and takes him to the Hospital of Love, where he wishes.
to spend the rest of his days in prayer.
8
In this work three main streams of influence are evident. The
opening part, with the symbolical armor and the wandering adven-
tures, belongs to the class of La Voie de Paradis and Guillaume de
Digulleville's Pèlerinage. The armor passage, which is frequently
paralleled in religious allegory, is doubtless to be traced to St. Paul 2;
from the elaboration of the same idea we have pieces like Henryson's
Garment of Good Ladies. The second part is confessedly imitated
from L'Hospital d'Amours, even to details like Courtoisie the enfer-
miere, and Pitié the prieuse. The addition of the relics is new,
but is in keeping with the description of the chapel and its services
in the earlier poem. The concluding section with the rescue and
loss of the lady shows the influence of the Roman de la Rose most
distinctly. The work stands apart (though not quite alone) among
the allegories as being partly in prose and partly in verse.
CHARLES D'ORLÉANS.4
Charles, Duke of Orléans, father of Louis XII. of France, was a
friend of King René's, and, as has been said, joined him in the fash-
ionable amusement of writing lyrics in competition. He was taken
prisoner by the English at the battle of Agincourt (Oct. 25, 1415),
and remained in England till he was ransomed in 1440. During
these twenty-five years the captive duke doubtless found abundant
leisure for writing poetry, and a large body of his verse has come
down to us. His extant works consist chiefly of love-poems cast
in the elaborate verse forms that were fashionable in his time, and
of poems bewailing his captivity. Among the love-poems is the
It was also influenced by the romans d'aventure, as many details show.
2 Ephesians, vi, 13–17.
3 Poems and Fables of Rob. Henryson, ed. by D. Laing, Edinburgh, 1865, pp. 8 ff.
4
a.d. 1391-1465.
94
William Allan Neilson.
so-called Poème de la Prison,' an allegorical piece, forming the setting
for a number of ballades, rondeaux, and chansons.
The arrange-
ment of Charles's poems in the order designed by him is a task
which has not yet been successfully accomplished, so that it is not
possible to tell which of these short poems he intended to be con-
tained in the whole, of which the allegory forms the framework.
For our main purpose, however, the allegory alone is of first impor-
tance, and an outline of that follows.
When the poet first came into the world, he tells us, he was given
in charge to a lady called Enfance and later to Dame Jeunesse. One
St. Valentine's morning Jeunesse woke him and invited him to go
with her to the God of Love. On arriving at the gate of a pleasant.
manor, they were admitted by the porter, Compaignie. Bel Acueil
and Plaisance welcomed them and led them before the God of Love,
who was surrounded by courtiers singing and dancing. Jeunesse.
presented Charles as a scion of the house of France, and Love wel-
comed him, saying he had known his father and others of his lineage,
and asking if he had been struck by his dart yet. Then he handed
him over to Plaisant Beauté, with orders to give him no rest till she
had made him one of Love's vassals. She was to think of her con-
quests over Samson and Solomon, and keep up her reputation.
When Beauté sat down beside Charles, he could not keep his eyes
off her; so she sent a dart through them to his heart, which leapt
for joy. He sent a thought to remove the dart, but in vain, and in
great distress and deadly pale he threw himself at Love's feet. Love
laughed at him and recommended a doctor, and joked him about his
quick overthrow. At the instance of Beauté Charles yielded, and
she then went to Love, announced his repentance, and begged
mercy on his behalf. Love appointed Beauté his deputy, and she
laid down four chief commandments which Charles had to swear to
obey, and six minor rules which it would be well for him to follow."
He was then duly sworn; Bonne Foy, chief secretary of Love, made
out the "lettre de retenue," Loyaulté sealed it, and it was delivered
to him. This letter was a document drawn up in legal form, admit-
1 Poésies Complètes de Charles d'Orléans, ed. by Charles d'Héricault, new ed.,
Paris, 1896, I, 1 ff.
2 Cf. pp. 200-1, below.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
95
ting Charles to the service of Cupid and Venus, granting him all the
privileges of their realm and the assistance of their officers, and stat-
ing that they had received his heart in pledge as a surety for hist
loyalty. At this point the allegorical part of the French poem as we
have it is interrupted, and the ballades begin; but a contemporary
English translation,¹ apparently made from a lost MS., carries on the
narrative. The "lettre de retenue" Charles received with gratitude
and humility, and promised life-long service. In exchange for his
heart he asked for another his lady's, since she had his. At this
Love looked sad, and said he lacked wit in supposing his lady could.
give her heart to every one who asked it. She must have her choice;
and Charles's business was to devise ways of winning her in a fitting
fashion. Charles turned to look at Beauty, but finding her sur-
rounded by Disdain and cruel Danger, he was afraid to speak lest
he might make his case worse, especially since Pity was asleep. So
he decided to write a bill beseeching her to grant him some of her
were it only a piece of the size of a pin's head - to save his
life. Withdrawing with Hope into an arbor, he sat down with the pen
and paper which he supplied, and tried to write something pleasing.
The ballades, etc., may be supposed to be the results of his efforts.
heart-
After the ballades the allegory is again taken up in the French
MSS., and is continued in a series of short pieces in a variety of
forms of verse. The first of these is the Songe et Complainte. In
this Charles tells how one night in a dream there appeared to him an
old man whom he thought he had seen before, but whom he failed
to recognize. The visitor, however, explains that he is Aage, who
had come once before from Dame Nature, bearing the letters charg-
ing Enfance to deliver the hero to Jeunesse. Raison, Aage said,
had complained to Nature of the many faults committed by Jeunesse
and Charles; and he warned the poet that this was no light matter,
because Vieillesse, “la mère de courrous," would soon attack him,
and that, since she could not be escaped, he had better give up Folie.
and Love, while he still had Jeunesse. No one could serve satisfac-
¹ Poems, written in English, by Charles, Duke of Orleans, ed. for the Roxburghe
Club by G. Watson Taylor, London, 1827, pp. 3-9. Cf. G. Bullrich, Ueber Ch.
d'Orléans und die ihm zugeschriebene engl. Uebersetzung seiner Gedichte, Berlin, 1893.
96
William Allan Neilson.
torily both Amour and Vieillesse, and Amour ought to excuse him
now that his mistress was dead. Every one mocked an old man
in love; but while a man was still young he might honorably aban-
don love "6 comme par Nonchalance," and no one could say it was
through compulsion, but it would be clear that it was because of
faithfulness to the memory of his peerless lady. So he ought humbly
to ask the God of Love to release him from his allegiance, and,
thanking him for the benefits received while in his service, retire
honorably. With his fellow-subjects, too, he should first clear all
scores, asking pardon for any offences he might have committed
against them. Such was the advice of Aage, who concluded his
speech with a warning against Fortune, who would be certain to try
to hinder him from the course recommended, holding up the terrors
of ennui, but who should not be trusted, for she was as false as the
moon.
Trembling like a leaf the poet awoke and resolved, though much
depressed at the prospect, to follow the old man's counsel. So he
determined to write a request for an honorable discharge, which
would stop the mouths of slanderers, and to present it to Amour at
his next feast.
La Requeste follows, "aux excellens et puissans en noblesse, Dieu
Cupido et Venus la déesse." The petition recounts the poet's faith-
ful service, and asks that on account of the death of his lady and
the impossibility of his ever loving again, he should get back his
heart and be freed from his oath; and that Bonne Foy should be
ordered to make out a letter of quittance. If this is done, he
promises to pray for Love and to remember the favor that he has
received and is going to receive through his "bonne mercy."
La Despartie d'Amours, which comes next, consists of nine bal-
lades and two other pieces. The first ballade tells how he presented
his petition at the next parliament held by Amour, and how the god
urged him to throw aside his grief and seek another mistress. In
the second, the poet insists on the hopelessness of this, and pleads
for the granting of his request. In the third the god politely regrets
the poet's determination, acknowledges his faithfulness in the past,
and promises to grant his wish. The fourth tells of the passing
of the quittance by the parliament, and of the replacing of his heart
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
97
in his bosom. Then follows the formal quittance, in which Amour,
counselled by Franc Desir, declares Charles free from his oath, and
vouches that he leaves the service of Love, not "par deffaulte, for-
fait ou vice," but solely because of the death of his lady, to whom
he wishes to remain as faithful as the widowed turtle-dove to her
mate. The letter is sealed and dated from the castle of Plaisant Recept
on the day of the Feste des Mors. In the fifth ballade he is so over-
come by grief that when Amour in pity offers him his assistance, he
is unable to speak, and takes his leave without a word, while Amour
hands him over to Confort, who, in the sixth ballade, leads him to
the manor of Nonchaloir. In the seventh, Passe-Temps, the governor
of this mansion, receives him, and approves of his resolve to spend.
the rest of his life there. Confort is sent back to report to Amour
his favorable reception. The letter which Confort bore to Amour fol-
lows, and in it Charles says that he shall always be eager to hear
news of Amour; that he is in good spirits in the house of Noncha-
loir; that he hopes to stay there till he has to go to end his days
with Vieillesse, a prospect which is gloomy enough but which is still,
thank God, far off; that he sends back Confort, for whose good
company he is grateful, and who will ask pardon for him if, through
Non Savoir, he does not address the god properly; that he wishes
now to thank Amour for all past benefits, a thing he was unable to
do at the moment of parting, on account of his emotion; and that he
will pray the Almighty to grant Amour honor and long life, and vic-
tory over the company of false Dangier.
In the eighth ballade Charles wishes to try whether he still pos-
sesses his old power of rhyming, and in the last he says that the
plaster of Nonchaloir which he had applied to his heart has so cured
him that he is now in good condition and forever proof against
the "amoureuse maladie." He strains his eyes to catch a glimpse
of his old enemy Plaisant Beauté, but they are "si treshastis, et
trop plains de leur vouloir." The mood with which the poem closes
is expressed in the last envoi :
Quant je voy en doleur pris
Les amoureux, je m'en ris;
Car je tiens pour grant folie
L'amoureuse maladie.
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William Allan Neilson.
Though the story is told with the elegance for which Charles is
famous, and without many of the crudities which disfigured most of
the poems we have had to deal with, yet it cannot be claimed that he
has added anything of importance to the material of love-allegory.
The general scheme is very familiar, though we may perhaps discern
a touch of realism in the picture of the royal court, as, for exam-
ple, when the god graciously calls to mind members of Charles's
family when he is first presented. The figure is the feudal one
throughout, never the religious. The "lettre de retenue" we had in
germ as far back as the charter granted by the God of Love, in De
Venus la Deesse d'Amor¹; and the commandments have been often
paralleled. The exchange of hearts is found in Le Roman de la Poire.²
Samson and Solomon are stock examples of the power of woman.
The conceit about Enfance, Jeunesse, and Vieillesse, and the cure at
the mansion of Nonchaloir are the most individual points.
In the treatment throughout, however, it is to be remarked, Charles
is less bound by convention and more alive to the psychological sig-
nification of the allegory than the great majority of the poets of his
type.
JEAN DE GARENCIÈRES,8
René of Anjou was not the only friend with whom Charles of
Orléans entered into a friendly rivalry in verse-making; and among
the duke's somewhat numerous personal poems we find one ballade,
entitled Orléans contre Garencières. In the poems of this Jean de
Garencières, there occur frequent references to the God of Love in
terms of the feudal allegory (phrases, for instance, in which Jean
promises to serve him "ligement"), and in his L'Enseignement du
Dieu d'Amours several Court of Love features appear.
4
As the author rode, full of melancholy, through a meadow one
beautiful May day, he heard a voice ask:
แ
Que n'es tu amoureux?
Je te promect que c'est un beau mestier!"
1 See p. 43, above.
2 See p. 58, above.
8 On Jean de Garencières and his works, see A. Piaget, Romania, XXII,
His poems fall in the first quarter of the fifteenth century.
4 Printed by Piaget, Romania, XXII, 434-8. The poem consists of twenty
eight-line stanzas.
422
ff.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
99
The poet inquires who his adviser is:
Il me respont: "Cellui qui a renon
De departir de joye largement."
sire, je ne sçay vraiement
"Helas
Se vous n'estes le dieu des amoureux?
LL
Oyl," fait il "sers moy bien loyaument,
Je te jure de te faire joyeulx."
""
He is inclined to follow this advice; but the lady on whom he
has set his heart is surrounded by admirers, some of them “plus
grans maistres" with every advantage over the poet in appearance
and accomplishments. But the god encourages him, and, after giv-
ing him instruction, leaves him with a promise to lend assistance.
MICHAULT TAILLEVENT.
Le fondement est de merancolie,
Et les murs sont faiz de desconfiture;
Le mortier est d'amere confiture.
1
In L'Ediffice de l'Ostel Dolloureux d'Amours of Michault Taille-
vent, a little poem consisting of six ballades, we find another instance
of the metaphorical building. The Ostel is the place where lovers
come to make complaints.
2
Et puis après, afin qu'en hault se dresse,
Il y a mis, pour la maison conclure,
Comble de dueil et de dure destresse.
))) 8
In the same MS. is another poem of Taillevent's, also consisting
of six ballades. It is La Resourse et Reliefvement du Dolloureux
Hostel, a sort of counterpart of the former, showing "comment il
faudrait réparer 'l'ostel dolloureux' pour en faire 'l'ostel de paix et
d'amour glorieux, des plaisirs, des joyes, des grands soulas, de plai-
sance pleniere.'
1 Piaget, Romania, XVIII, 449 ff.; cf. Picot, ibid., pp. 644-5. Taillevent was a
surname; the poet's real name being Michault Le Caron. He was valet de chambre
to Philippe le Bon, and was dead in 1458.
2 Cf. p. 28, above.
8 Piaget, Romania, XVIII, 450.
•**..
******
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William Allan Neilson.
....
OCTAVIEN DE SAINT-GELAIS,1
La Chasse d'Amours² of Octavien de Saint-Gelais is in the form of
a dream. The first part is chiefly political. It consists of a lament
by La France on the state of the country, a kind of Fall of Princes
after Boccaccio, instructions to rulers, and other miscellaneous mat-
ter. Coming at last to the love-allegory, the author imagines himself
in the Forest de Gracieux Desir, where he finds the Royne d'Amours
lamenting the injuries done her by Faux Semblant. Cupid is trying
to console her, and Jeunesse also offers help. Beaulté is the queen's
page, Plaisant Regard her "mignon de chambre," Loyaulté her sec-
retary, Bel Accueil her chancellor, Bonne Foy keeper of the seal,
Hardiesse her counsellor, and Deduit Joyeulx her "maître-d'hôtel."
It is resolved to pursue Faux Semblant, and they get the assistance
of the huntsman Espoyr de Joüir, with his dogs Legier Couraige,
Soing, and Travail. The chase is described with many digressions,
and, all the company having returned to the Château de Plaisance,
"l'Amant Parfait," a young man who had rendered great service in
the Forest, is rewarded by being acknowledged a vassal of the
Royne d'Amours. Beaulté reads to him the ten statutes, Bonne Foi
administers the oath of allegiance, and Loyaulté reads the "lettre de
retenue." The statutes and the letter are taken from the Poème de la
Prison with only slight alterations. Now l'Amant Parfait and Love
1 A.D. 1468–1502.
La
2 This poem forms a part of La Chasse et la Departie d'Amours, published by
Antoine Vérard in 1533 as by Octavien de Saint-Gelais and Blaise d'Auriol.
Chasse is commonly ascribed to Saint-Gelais, and La Departie (see p. 101, below)
to d'Auriol. Both poems have been shown by Goujet, X, 246-7, 308-9, and
Piaget (Romania, XXI, 584 ff.) to contain extensive plagiarisms from the Poème de
la Prison of Charles d'Orléans. Picot (Romania, XXII, 254) thinks that Vérard
must be charged with this plagiarism; but see Piaget's reply (Romania, XXII,
254 ff.). Of La Chasse it is the portion relating to l'Amant Parfait which comes
from Charles, even the ballades, etc., being mostly copies or adaptations of his
lyrics. Piaget (Romania, XXII, 259, n. 3) is inclined to attribute to Blaise d'Au-
riol nothing but a "traité de rhétorique" contained in La Departie. He sug-
gests Simon Bourgoing as a possible author of some portion of the composite
work (ibid., p. 256), and is disposed to limit the authorship of Saint-Gelais to a
very small part of the whole (ibid., p. 259, n. 2).
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
ΙΟΙ
change hearts, and when, accompanied by Jouissance, the lover
meets at the gate of the Château de Liesse the appointed lady,
another exchange of hearts takes place. The courtship proceeds
with extensive digressions on the praise of ladies and such topics,
and finally the allegory ends with a multitude of rondeaux, etc.,¹ on
all the phases and situations of love.
La Departie d'Amours, a sequel to La Chasse, is of uncertain
He
authorship.2 In the absence of the lover his mistress has died.
utters many complaints, but finding these of no avail, he falls sick
and makes his will:
Premierement à la haultesse
Du Dieu d'amours donne et envoye
Mon esperit, et en humblesse
Luy suppliant qu'il le convoye
En son Paradis, et pourvoye ;
Car je jure que loyaulment
L'ay servy de veuil desireux;
Advoüer le puis donc vrayement
Devant tous loyaulx amoureux.
Oultre plus veuil que la richesse
Des biens d'amours qu'Amour foulloye
Departis soyent en grant largesse
Aux vrais Amans."
The lover then falls asleep. Age appears and gives him advice
that leads him to go to the Chasteau de Plaisance and present to
Dame Amour and her son Cupid a request that they should give
him back his heart and release him from all his engagements. After
endeavoring in vain to make him change his resolution, Amour tells
Loyauté to make out a "lettre de quittance," which is presented to
the lover, along with his heart wrapped in black silk. This mourn-
ful sight moves the lover to tears, and Amour sends Bon Confort to
accompany him to the House of Nonchalloir, where Passe-Tems
¹ Mostly plagiarized from Charles d'Orléans (see p. 100, n. 2).
2 See p. 100, n. 2, above. I follow the summary given by Goujet, X, 302 ff.
8 Goujet, X, 305-6.
I 02
William Allan Neilson.
holds sway.
He is delighted with his welcome there, and sends a
letter back to Amour by Bon Confort thanking her for her many
kindnesses, and asking for news occasionally. He continues to
dwell under the roof of Passe-Tems, writing ballades and rondeaux
to amuse himself.
8
A great deal of the same kind of allegory, but moralistic rather
than erotic, is to be found in Le Sejour d'Honneur,' by Octavien de
Saint-Gelais. This work, which is partly in prose, suggests, in sev-
eral respects, King René's Livre du Cuer d'Amours Espris, and in
the course of it the writer takes occasion to eulogize both that author”
and Alain Chartier. The allegory is a slightly veiled autobiography,
the Sejour d'Honneur being merely an episode. The poet falls
asleep while meditating in his chamber. Sensuality appears to him
in the shape of a lovely woman and leads him by the roads of Fleurie
Jeunesse and Deduit Mondain to the Port de Mondaine Liesse,
whence they sail to the island of Vaine Esperance. Leaving this
he sails, still accompanied by Sensualité, to an unknown land. He
traverses the Forest d'Adventures and at last arrives at the Château
d'Honneur. P. Lange gives evidence to show the author's acquaint-
ance with Chaucer's Hous of Fame, and believes that Saint Gelais.
influenced Gavin Douglas both in the Palace of Honour and in King
Hart.5
4
MARTIN LE franc.®
7
Mention has been made of the controversy on women that arose
in consequence of the attack made on the sex by Jean de Meun.
One of the most important books on the side of the defence was Le
Champion des Dames of Martin le Franc. The poem is very long,
8
1 Goujet, X, 251-81 (from the edition of Vérard, Paris, 1519). He dates the
poem 1489 or 1490.
5 See pp. 160-3, belɔw.
6 A.D. ca. 1410–61.
2 Ibid., X, 271–2.
8 Ibid., IX, 160-1.
7 See p. 83, above.
4 Chaucers Einfluss auf die Originaldichtungen des Schotten Douglas, in Anglia,
VI, 69, 83-7.
8 Goujet, IX, 188-214. On Le Franc, see A. Piaget, Martin Le Franc,
Lausanne, 1888, and Romania, XVI, 382 ff., XVIII, 319 ff. Le Champion dates.
from ca. 1442. There are two printed editions: Lyons, ca. 1485, and Paris, 1530.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
103
is in five books, and is occupied with the attacks of Malebouche on
women and love, and their defence by Franc Vouloir.
Malebouche and his army assault the Château d'Amour, and so
frighten the inhabitants that Love has to descend to restore con-
fidence. The herald Bouche d'Or parleys with the enemy. A
description is then given of Love, his followers, and his castle.
This is described as a temple with altars, priests, a cemetery,' and
so on. The priestess is Charité, the curé Sens Abesti, and the
attendants in the refectory are Foi, Esperance, and Charité. There
is a garden, too, where the retinue of the god dance and play.
Franc Vouloir, irritated by the insolence of Malebouche, goes out
to defend the ladies; but the contest turns out to be legal, not mili-
tary. An old "image de Verité," which had long stood neglected
in a dark corner, is chosen judge, and a long argument ensues.
Malebouche gets the aid of Vilain Penser, and the attack is renewed.
Sacred and profane history are ransacked for instances of the in-
famy of women, and every conceivable charge is brought against
them. The defence is conducted in a similar fashion, with digres-
sions on such subjects as ecclesiastical politics and the Immacu-
late Conception. The statutes of the Poème de la Prison of Charles
d'Orléans are quoted and commented on.2 Franc Vouloir is victori-
ous and Malebouche dies of chagrin.
From this very much abbreviated summary it is evident that
Martin reproduced the stock material in the controversy on the
morals of women, taking much from the very man whom he was
especially answering, Jean de Meun. In the Court of Love frame-
1 In the cemetery the poet saw the tomb
De celle qu'on va mal disant,
La belle dame sans mercy,
Et de laquelle on va lisant
Comme de dame au cœur noircy.
Elle n'est pas en l'ospital,
Comme ne sçay qui l'a songié :
Elle est en tombeau de cristal,
Ouvré richement et forgié (15 b ff.).
Quoted by G. Paris, Rom., XVI, 410.
Cf. p. 88, above.
2 For a similar poem only slightly related to the Court of Love type, see Le
Chevalier aux Dames, Goujet, X, 139
ff.
104
William Allan Neilson.
work he used the Roman de la Rose and the erotic allegories of his
own century. His conception of the sovereignty of Love is not at
all consistent. At the opening of the poem the figure is military,
and the God of Love descends into the besieged castle to reassure
his people. But when the castle is described, it has indeed the
usual pleasure grounds attached, but the building itself becomes a
temple with ecclesiastical furniture and attendants, like the chapel in
the Hospital d'Amours. Again, when Franc Vouloir champions the
cause of the ladies, the dispute becomes purely legal, Truth is taken
as judge, and the God of Love is lost sight of altogether. In fact,
the poet too indiscriminately picked up from contemporary models
fragments of different allegorical conceptions, no one of which was
particularly well-fitted for his purpose of a prolonged debate, and,
failing to give them any unity by a vigorous individual treatment,
produced a poem which is, to an unusual extent even in the fifteenth
century, an artistic monstrosity.
PIERRE MICHAULT.
La Danse des Aveugles,' in prose and verse, takes the form of a
dialogue between Entendement and the author, but this dialogue
takes place in a dream. This accords with an increasingly preva-
lent tendency. As the Middle Ages wore to an end and the intel-
lectual attitude became more rationalistic, it was more and more felt
as imperative to resort to some such device as a dream to justify the
fantastic machinery of the allegory. In De Phyllide et Flora and its
French derivatives the poets frankly place the pleasure gardens of
the God of Love within easy riding distance of the quite earthly and
natural opening scene, while the fifteenth century Hospital d'Amours
has a vision within a vision in its effort to avoid the palpably absurd.
Yet it must be remembered that the English Court of Love, though
dating from the sixteenth century, is not a dream; and it is prob-
able that in many cases this device was simply an unthinking imita-
1 See Goujet, IX, 361 ff., whose analysis is here followed. Pierre Michault was
a contemporary of Michault Taillevent (p. 99, above), with whom he has been
often confused: see Piaget, Romania, XVIII, 439 ff.; Picot, ibid., pp. 644-5.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
105
tion, direct or indirect, of the Roman de la Rose, which in turn
derived it from the Somnium Scipionis.
In a dream, then, Pierre Michault is conducted into a spacious
place where there are three parks crowded with people. In each
park is enthroned one of "les Aveugles"- Love, Fortune, and
Death. In the first park, seated on a beautiful throne, is a young
prince, naked, blindfold, and holding in his hand a drawn bow. He
is accompanied by his mother Venus (for it immediately appears
that the young prince is Cupid), by Fol Appétit, and by Oiseuse.
The god explains in great detail his almost supreme power, and the
methods by which he gains his victories. Fortune and Death are
similarly treated.
SIMON BOURGOING.
This poet, valet de chambre to Louis XII., introduces into his book
of instructions for a young prince, L'Espinette du Jeune Prince,¹ an
allegory, in which the prince and his poet guide come, in the course
of their wanderings, before Venus and the God of Love. The
divinities converse with a hermit, who rails at them, and with a
young churchman, who is seduced into staying with them. The
prince has an audience in his turn. Venus and Cupid try to enlist
him under their standard; but since, according to the title, he is
"conquerant le Royaulme de bonne Renommée," he has strength
enough to resist, and subsequently is received into the Château des
Vertus.
MARTIAL D'AUVERGNE.2
This poet, whose Arrêts d'Amour have played such an important
part in the history of the belief in the institution of the Court of
Love, has not a great deal to contribute to the history of the alle-
gory.
His L'Amant rendu Cordelier, though in the form of a dream,
is not strictly an allegory; yet his familiarity with such poems as we
9
1 Goujet, X, 165 ff., who cites an edition by A. Vérard, Paris, 1508. As to the
possible connection of this poet with La Chasse et la Departie d'Amours, see
p. 100, n. 2, above.
2 Ca., A.D. 1440-1 508.
8 Ed. by A. de Montaiglon for Soc. des anc. Textes franç., Paris, 1881.
106
William Allan Neilson.
are investigating is shown by the recurrence of figures like Dangier,¹
Malebouche, Faulx Parlant, Faulx Semblant, Faulx Raport, and
Love (as a person).
Preceding the "arrêts" themselves, which are in prose, there
occurs, by way of prologue, a description in verse of the Parlement
d'Amours in which the decisions are rendered. Though much of the
gorgeousness of the traditional Court of Love is retained, the god
or king is replaced by a president, and legal imagery prevails. The
parliament takes place in September, not in May.
1 For example,
2
Le Président tout de drap d'or
Avoit robbe fourrée d'ermines,
Et sur le col un camail d'or,
Tout couvert d'esméraudes fines
Plusieurs Amantz et Amoureux
Illec vindrent de divers lieux
Les ungs de paour serroient leurs dens :
Les aultres esmeuz et ardans,
Tremblans comme la feuille en l'arbre.
Nul n'est si saige, ne parfaict,
Que quant il oit son jugement,
Qu'il ne soit à moitié deffaict,
Et troublé à l'entendement.
"
LE JARDIN DE PLAISANCE.
3
This anonymous compilation, the full title of which is Le Jardin
de Plaisance et Fleur de Rhetoricque, seems to have been intended as
a collection of both precepts and examples in the art of poetry. It
begins with a versified treatise on rhetoric, and the pieces which.
•
•
Raison est souvent endormie,
Mais jamais Dangier ne sommeille (vv. 345-6).
2 For the Arrêts themselves see Les Arrêts d'Amour, etc., with commentary
in Latin by Benoît de Court [ed. by Lenglet-Dufresnoy], Amsterdam, 1731. See
also p. 202, below.
8 Goujet, X, 396-408. The edition cited is Le Jardin de Plaisance et Fleur de
Rhetoricque, "contenant plusieurs beaulx livres," etc., Paris (1547). He also
cites editions, without date, at Paris and Lyons.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
107
follow are very miscellaneous both in kind and in authorship. Some
of them, such as the Parlement d'Amours of Alain Chartier, we have
already discussed under their respective authors; others are anony-
mous. The fourth piece, Le Chief de Joyeuse Destinée, is an allegor
ical romance meant to show that love is the source of all good and
all evil. It has the familiar figures of Doux Regard, Bon Avis,
Loyauté, Soupçon, Haut Vouloir, Secret Penser, etc., and a descrip-
tion of the Palais d'Amours. The Jardin de Plaisance of the title
is the scene in which many of the episodes, otherwise unconnected,
take place. For example, there is a morisque in which l'Amoureux
Languissant, Envieuse Jalousie, and others perform; and a number
of ballades, rondeaux, and similar poems are introduced as the pro-
ductions of the lovers who frequent the garden. The volume as a
whole is so loosely put together that Goujet surmises that the com-
piler died before completing his work, and that the contents of his
portfolios were published haphazard by some one who did not
understand his design.
PIERRE GRINGORE.¹
2
In Le Casteau d'Amours of Pierre Gringore, the poet represents
himself as meeting two young men, one downcast, coming from the
Castle of Love, the other cheerful, going to it. In the conversation
that ensues, the downcast youth (le venant) speaks from experience
of the pains he has suffered there, while the cheerful one (l'allant)
maintains that great joys are to be expected. He is not deterred
by the warnings of le venant, but hurries off towards the castle. The
poet follows.
The porter, Belle Chiere, admits them to a marvellous
place, whence flows
1
liqueur acceptable
Pour rauigourer ung mort monde.
In the base court they find seven men lying dead the victims of
loving madly. They are warned against such frenzy and are ad-
vised, if they desire a lady, to take the quiet and honorable way of
marriage.
1 Ca. A.D. 1475-1534.
2 Poésies des XVe et XVIe Siècles, Paris, 1830-2, No. 2 (1830).
108
William Allan Neilson.
This last point is significant. When the inhabitants of the Cas-
teau d'Amours begin to advise marriage we know that we are near
the end of the allegorical period, and that the game of Courtly Love
is almost played out. The date of the poem is unknown, but is
probably about the beginning of the sixteenth century.
LE DEBAT D'UN MOINE ET D'UN GENDARME.
This section of our investigation began¹ with a group of poems
whose common point was the discussion of the comparative worthi-
ness of knights and clerks as lovers. So persistent was this motive
that the last Old French work with which we have to deal before
the date of the English Court of Love is a farce 2 upon the same sub-
ject. Cupid, seated on a throne, makes a speech about his power.
A young girl comes to appeal to him for help, and is advised to take
a lover rather than a husband. Two candidates, a young monk and
an old gendarme, present themselves, and dispute for the possession
of the girl. Before deciding the question, Cupid tells each of the
three to sing a song.
Then the gendarme says to the girl:
D'ailleurs étant avec le Moine,
Votre honneur sera déconfit.
She answers:
Moins d'honneur et plus de profit.
The god, seeing what the girl's preference is, decides as usual in
favor of the monk.
With this farce we conclude the enumeration of the poems in Old
French, written before the time of the English Court of Love, which
have the idea of the God or Goddess of Love holding a court either
as their centre or as an important part of their framework. The
poems which merely contain allusions to this conception, or which
1 See p. 31, above.
2 Farce nouvelle, contenant le débat d'un jeune Moine et d'un vieil Gendarme,
par devant le Dieu Cupidon, pour une fille, fort plaisante et récréative, à 4 person-
nages, summarized in La Vallière, Bibl. du Théâtre François, Dresden, 1768, I, 10-
11 (from Recueil de plusieurs Farces, Paris, 1612). La Vallière dates it "towards
the end of the fifteenth century."
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
109
have it as only a minor part of their machinery, are so common that
were they also to be included, our fifty would be more than doubled.
C. ITALIAN.
Allegory, as a special literary form, plays a very much smaller part
in the literature of Italy than in that of France or England during
the centuries on which we are engaged. We do indeed find allegor-
ical figures occurring frequently enough in Italian poems, and occa-
sionally whole works belonging to this class; but there does not
seem to have been a time, like the period of French literature that
we have just been dealing with, when this was the form that a poet
turned to, almost as a matter of course, when he wished to use his
imagination or to write of love. Dante, to be sure, used the alle-
gorical method a great deal: the Vita Nuova is tinged with allegory,
and the Divine Comedy has much in it that can be so described.
But in both cases it is the detail about which this statement can be
made; for the former has no plot in the sense in which the French
allegorical romances have plot, and, in spite of the parabolic signifi-
cation of such figures as Virgil and Beatrice, the outlines of the epic
are the outlines of the poet's actual beliefs regarding the next world.
The reason for this contrast between the French and the Italian
medieval literature is not far to seek. Allegory is a characteristically
medieval form; and in Italy the Middle Ages began so late and the
Renaissance came so early that that country never had the oppor-
tunity to fall completely under the spell that held France from the
time of the Roman de la Rose till the end of the fifteenth century.
Thus Petrarch, in spite of the fact that he wrote perhaps more pure
allegory than any other Italian, was at the same time an enthusiast
for the New Learning.
But if the more formal part of the Court of Love tradition is not
prominent in Italy, many of its minor features abound. The poets
of that country, with their delicate and subtle treatment of the pas-
sion of love, give us much material for the history of the growth of
the chivalrous ideal. In this they show their indebtedness to Pro-
vençal sources of inspiration; and of their intimacy with French
poetry generally there is abundant evidence.
IIO
William Allan Neilson.
SER DURANTE.
2
The earliest genuine specimens of love-allegory in Italy are direct.
borrowings from France. The Roman de la Rose was widely known¹;
and Il Fiore, by a certain Ser Durante, whose identity has not yet
been perfectly ascertained, though not exactly a translation, is a
condensation, in two hundred and thirty-two sonnets, of the same
poem. The elaborate descriptions, the mythological, philosophical,
and sociological digressions are cut out, though most of the personifi-
cations, except Nature and Genius, are retained. Bel Acueil, whom
the exigencies of gender led Guillaume de Lorris to make a young man,
becomes here for similar reasons a girl, Bellacoglienza. This con-
densed version has no title in the MS., the name Il Fiore being chosen
by M. Castets from the fact that "Fior" occurs instead of "Rose"
throughout. The opening stanza will illustrate the method of treat-
ment:
Lo dio d'amor con su' arco mi trasse
Perch' i' guardava un fior che m'abellia,
Lo quale avea piantato Cortesia
Nel giardin di Piacier; e que' vi trasse
Sì tosto, c'a me parve che volasse ;
E disse: I'sì ti tengo in mia balia.
Allo[r] gli piaque, non per voglia mia,
Che di cinque saette mi piaghesse.
La prima à non Bieltà, per li ochi il core
Mi passò; la seconda, Angielicanza,
Quella mi mise sopra gran fredore;
La terza Cortesia fu san dottanza;
La quarta Compagnia, che fè dolore;
La quinta apella l'uon Buona-Speranza.
1 See the so-called Detto d'Amore, ed. by S. Morpurgo in Propugnatore, Nuova
Serie, I, i, 18 ff. This fragment belongs to the thirteenth or fourteenth century,
and is an imitation rather than a translation of the Roman de la Rose. Cf. also
Zt. f. rom. Phil., XII, 573, and Romania, XVII, 640, and see A. D'Ancona, Il
Romanzo della Rosa in italiano in Varietà storiche e letter., Milan, 1888, II, 1. For
these references I am indebted to Professors Marsh and Sheldon.
2 Il Fiore, poème Italien du XIIIe siècle, en ccxxxii sonnets, imité du Roman
de la Rose, par Durante, ed. by F. Castets, Montpellier, 1881. Cf. also Revue
des Langues romanes, XXXV, 307 f. A better edition is that by G. Mazzatinti,
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
I II
BRUNETTO LATINI.
Another work which has some resemblances to the Roman de la
Rose is Il Tesoretto¹ of Brunetto Latini. This poem, which is only
less comprehensive than the same writer's prose Trésor, contains a
passage in which Nature, who has been instructing the poet in all
sorts of things, from the stories of Creation and Redemption to the
subject of biology, directs him to a great plain 2 in which he finds
emperors and kings and great lords, and above all an empress Virtue
with four queenly daughters, Prudenza, Temperanza, Fortezza, and
Giustizia, each in her own palace holding a court. Each has several
attendant virtues, of whom only Cortesia, Larghezza, Leanza, and
Prodezza are named (cap. 14, vv. 81–2).
But in the nineteenth chapter we have a much closer approach to
the Court of Love scheme. In the beginning of May the poet is
led to
Un bel prato,
Fiorito d'ongne lato,
Lo più riccho del mondo,
and we know the God of Love is at hand.
Io uidi dritto stante
Ignudo un frescho fante,
Ch' auea l'archo, e li strali,
E auea penne, ed ali (xix, 81-4).
About him are four "donne valenti," Paura, Disianza, Amore, and
Speranza.
GUIDO CAVALCANTI.
The named arrows occur also in a sonnet of Guido Cavalcanti's."
Love is represented as holding three arrows in his hand
La prima dà piacere e disconforta,
E la seconda disia la vertute
De la gran gioia che la terza porta.
Inventario dei MSS. ital. delle Biblioteche di Francia, Rome, 1888, III, 611-730,
with an introduction by E. Gorra, pp. 419-610; but this I have not seen.
1 Il Tesoretto e il Favoletto, ed. by G. B. Zannoni, Florence, 1824, pp. 1-232;
critical ed. by Wiese, Zt. f. rom. Phil., VII, 334 ff.
2 Chap. xiii.
8 Guido Cavalcanti e le sue Rime, by P. Ercole, Leghorn, 1885, sonnet xxii, p. 307.
II 2
William Allan Neilson.
According to the interpretation of Rajna,¹ the first is Beauty, the
second Desire, and with both of these the poet has been wounded.
The third, Pity, does not reach him on account of his lady's hardness.
DANTE.
4
In the Vita Nuova, Love is often personified: as, for example, in
the garment of a pilgrim," or as a youth in white raiment. Frequently
he is described as a lord giving commands. Lovers are his liege-
men (“i fedeli d'amore ")." Once he is a lord of fearful aspect who
appears holding the lady in his arms and feeding her with the burn-
ing heart of the poet.
6
The description of the Earthly Paradise' which occurs in the end
of the Purgatorio (Cantos xxvii ff.), with its flowers and singing birds
and clear stream, may be regarded as belonging to the same tradition
as the landscape that we find so often in those French poems in
which the Court of Love is held out of doors.
Quelli che anticamente poetaro
L'età dell' oro e suo stato felice,
Forse in Parnaso esto loco sognaro.
Qui fu innocente l' umana radice;
Qui primavera sempre, ed ogni frutto;
Nettare è questo di che ciascun dice (xxviii, 139–44).
1 As given by Ercole, p. 308.
2 Vita Nuova, § 9, sonnet v.
8 Ibid., § 12.
PETRARCH.
8
In Petrarch's Trionfo d'Amore we are refreshed to find some
novelty in the setting, though most of the detail is familiar.
↑ Ibid., §§ 4, 9, etc.
6 Ibid., §§ 3, 8, etc.
• Ibid., § 3, sonnet i.
7 For this suggestion I am indebted to Professor Marsh.
8 I Trionfi di Francesco Petrarca, ed. by C. Pasqualigo, Venice, 1874, pp. 34 ff.
See also Rime di Francesco Petrarca, ed. by Mestica, Florence, 1896, pp. 521 ff.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
113
One spring the poet had a vision in which he saw
Sopr' un carro di foco un garzon crudo
Con arco in mano e con saette a' fianchi,
Contra le qual non val elmo nè scudo;
Sopra gli omeri avea sol due grand' ali
Di color mille, e tutto l'altro ignudo:
D'intorno innumerabili mortali,
Parte presi in battaglia e parte uccisi,
Parte feriti da pungenti strali (i, 23–30).
A certain friendly shade explained to the poet that all this came by
love.¹ The shade also pointed out and named to Petrarch some of
the famous lovers who followed the triumphal. car of Amore (Julius
Cæsar, Hercules, Demophoon, Jason, Venus and Mars, Lancelot and
Guinevere, Tristan and Iseult, and others), sometimes sketching
their sad history. The poet was trembling at the proofs thus given
of the power of love,
2
Quand' una giovinetta ebbi da lato,
Pura assai più che candida colomba.
Ella mi prese; ed io ch'avrei giurato
Difendermi da uom coperto d'arme,
Con parole e con cenni fui legato (ii, 89-93).
2
Here follows an account of his own sufferings as a lover, and many
complaints against the unsatisfactoriness of the God of Love. Tamed
now, he looked about him to see if there were any poet there among
the rout. He saw Orpheus, Pindar, Virgil, Ovid, Catullus, Propertius,
Tibullus, and many others, Greek, Italian, and Provençal.
Then the whole company followed the god across country to his
mother's kingdom, in a delectable isle in the Ægean which had
been sacred to Venus in heathen times. Here they came into a
lovely valley.
There Love celebrated his triumph, in the account of which occur
a number of abstractions, hardly personified, yet treated in a manner
1 "Questo per amar s'acquista,” i, 42.
Ratto domesticato fui con tutti
I miei infelici e miseri conservi (iii, 5–6).
114
William Allan Neilson.
approaching the kind of personification that we have seen in the
English Court of Love:
Errori, sogni, ed immagini smorte
Eran d'intorno al carro triunfale;
E false opinioni in su le porte;
E lubrico sperar su per le scale;
E dannoso guadagno, ed util danno;
E gradi ove più scende chi più sale;
Stanco riposo, e riposato affanno D;
Chiaro disnor, e gloria oscura e nigra;
Perfida lealtate, e fido inganno;
Sollicito furore e ragion pigra (iii, 139–48).
It will be observed that the abstractions, which are almost per-
sonifications in the first of the lines quoted, run into those paradox-
ical conceits which occur all through the Middle Ages, and which
were so fashionable among the early Elizabethans.
In the isle of Venus Petrarch was brought to a wretched prison,
or Hades, in which he was confined for a long time, finding relief at
last in a consideration of the nature of Love and in pitying his
fellow-prisoners. Some of these are represented as telling him their
tragic stories.
The Trionfo della Castità gives an account of the final defeat of
Love by the forces of Chastity."
The "Triumph" form which Petrarch used here and in the similar
poems on Death, Fame, Time, and Divinity, was, of course, suggested
by the Roman triumphs awarded to successful generals. Ovid had
used it in a Triumph of Love,2 which has been already quoted. It
was a favorite motive in medieval art, appearing, especially in Italy,
in paintings and carvings as well as in poetry. A century after
Petrarch it was freely employed by Francesco Colonna,*
1 The conflict reminds one of some parts of Huon de Mery's Tornoicment de
l'Antechrist (see pp. 48 ff., above),
2 See p. 11, above.
3 Another instance of the form occurs in the Trionfo dell' amore sopra i suoi
ingrati, by Francesco di Buonanni Malecarni (A.D. 1442). See Veselofsky,
Novella della Figlia del Re di Dacia, p. xcv, Appendix I.
4 See on Triumphs, Charles Ephrussi, Etude sur le Songe de Poliphile, Paris,
1888, pp. 49 ff. For Colonna see p. 117, below.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
115
The happy valley in the Isle of Venus recalls the older descrip-
tions, such as that of the goddess's abode in Cyprus in Claudian's
De Nuptiis Honorii et Mariae.¹
BOCCACCIO.
In his Amorosa Visione,2 which takes the form of a dream, Boc-
caccio tells how, following a beautiful lady, he enters a noble castle
with letters of gold over the door, which read thus:
Ricchezza, dignità, ogni tesoro,
Gloria mondano copiosamente,
Do a color che passan nel mio coro:
Lieti li fo nel mondo, e similmente
Do quella gioia che Amore promette
A' cor che senton suo arco pugnente (cap. 3).
Entering, he sees a hall painted with portraits of philosophers, poets,
and historians, and with the Seven Sciences and other symbolic
figures. The paintings are described at great length. Among them
is the picture of a most lovely woman, "La Gloria del mondo,"
enthroned and crowned, holding a sword and an apple of gold.
Around her are a throng of mythological, scriptural, historical, and
romantic figures. In a green meadow (still in the painting) the poet
sees Love, a beautiful youth with golden hair, winged, clad in cloth
of gold, and holding a bow and two arrows, one of gold and the
other of lead. Round him are many worshippers, some gay and
jocund, others sad and sighing grievously. Seated beside him in
great honor is a lady like an angel, whom the poet supposes to be
"her who was formerly adored in Cyprus." There are also paint-
ings of many legendary love-episodes, from Jove and Europa to
Tristram and Iseult.
The lady who is acting as guide then leads the poet into another
hall, where Fortune, with her favorites and victims, is depicted on
the walls. He is next conducted into a beautiful garden adorned
with a wonderful fountain. Here are many lovely ladies singing,
1 See p. 15, above.
2 Opere volgari, vol. XIV, Florence, 1833.
116
William Allan Neilson.
י
dancing, and picking flowers. With one of these he falls desperately
in love. She lends a favorable ear to his suit, but, on a sudden, he
awakes, and is very sorrowful.
In La Teseide¹ occurs an elaborate Court of Love scene which is
familiar to English readers through Chaucer's transcript of it in his
Parlement of Foules.?
Ma
Tra gli albuscelli ad una fonte allato
3
Vide Cupido fabbricar saette,
Avendo egli a' suoi piè l'arco posato,
Le qua' sua figlia Voluttade elette
Nell' onde temperava, et assettato
Con lor s'era Ozio, il quale ella vedette,
Che con Memoria poi l'aste ferrava
De' ferri ch'ella prima temperava (bk. vii, st. 54).
There were many other figures about, Leggiadria, Adornezza,
Affabilitate, represented by Plesaunce, Aray, and Lust in Chau-
cer, Diletto, Gentilezza, Bellezza, Giovinezza, and others. In the
midst, raised on lofty columns, was a temple, around which danced
young men and maidens, and above which doves were flying.
Monna Pace sat before the door and beside her Pazienza, while
within, the altar-flames were fanned by sighs caused by Gelosia.
Priapus held the highest place in the temple. There were also
many relics in the sanctuary, showing the power of love, - broken
bows of Diana's band, Atalanta's apples, and the like. The walls
were painted with the stories of Pyramus and Thisbe and many an-
other lover. In a more secret part of the temple she (i.e. Palemo's
personified prayer) found Venus, the door guarded by Ricchezza.
Inside it seemed dark at first, but presently on a great bed she saw
the goddess lying with her beautiful golden hair all about her, her
breasts uncovered, and a thin gauze lying over the rest of her body.
Bacchus and Ceres sat on either side, and in her hand the goddess
held the apple which she won in the Vale of Ida.*
1 Opere Volgari di Giovanni Boccaccio, IX, 229 ff. (Florence, 1831).
2 See p. 142, below. Cf. Skeat's Chaucer, I, 67 ff.
The subject is l'alemo's prayer, personified.
'4 Bk. vii, sts. 55-66.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
117
1
2
The proofs of Boccaccio's familiarity with the Court of Love tradi-
tion are so clear throughout this passage that they need hardly be
pointed out. The resemblance of the stanza quoted, especially in
the matter of the arrows, to the similar scene in Claudian ¹ may be
remarked. The temple, with love-trophies for relics, we have seen
in French allegory, but the instances are considerably later in date
than Boccaccio. Besides the passage in the Parlement of Foules,
the Knightes Tale (vv. 1918 ff.) shows some traces of Chaucer's
acquaintance with the present description, though the fact of his
having already used it in the Parlement of Foules prevented him
from repeating it in full."
FRANCESCO COLONNA"
In the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili" of Francesco Colonna we have
one of the most extraordinary documents dealt with in the whole course
of our investigation. The book is the product of a man essentially
mediæval in his cast of mind, but filled with an indiscriminating
enthusiasm for the New Learning. Thus we have a sort of autobio-
graphical allegory of a love affair, hopelessly confused in plan, full
of absurd digressions on a variety of subjects, but especially burdened
with architectural descriptions, and written in Italian disfigured by
the most reckless importation of words from Latin, Greek, Hebrew
in fact from every source accessible to the author.
Finished in 1467, the volume remained unpublished till the very
end of the century, when it had the good fortune to appear with the
addition of a hundred and seventy-two interesting and admirable.
wood-cuts, by whom is uncertain. Owing largely to these illustra-
tions, it had a great popularity in France, where it was republished
(in translation) at least six times. An English translation of the first
1 See p. 15, above.
2 See p. 91, above.
8 Cf. Skeat's Chaucer, V, 77.
4 Ca. 1433-1 527.
5 First edition, by Aldus Manutius, Venice, 1499.
French translation is that of Claude Popelin, Paris, 1883.
(ed. of 1863), IV, 778; and Supplément (1878), p. 268.
Margaret, prot
The best edition of the
See Brunet's Manuel
118
William Allan Neilson.
book was made in the time of Elizabeth, and this version, if not good
in itself, is at least written in a style which is wonderfully appropriate.'
It is fortunately not necessary to give an outline of the whole of
this production; but a few passages will show what a Renaissance
treatment did for some of the commonplaces of the Court of Love.
After a variety of adventures, Poliphilus comes, led by five nymphs.
(his senses) to the palace of Queen Eleutherillida, whose surround-
ings are on the usual gorgeous scale of magnificence. I quote from
the Elizabethan translation :
In the midde prospect, opposite against our going in, upon a degreed
regall throne, set full of glystering stones in a maruelous order, farre more
excellent than the seat in the temple of Hercules at Tyre, of the stone
Eusebes. The Queene with an imperiall Maiestie sitting vppon it, goddesse
like, and of a woonderfull magnanimitie in countenance: gorgiously appar-
relled in clothe of goulde, with a sumptuous and curious attyre vpon hir
head of a purple couler, with an edging of Orient Pearle, shadowing ouer
hir large forhead, aunciently and princelike, euer pressing hir plemmirrulate
trammels of hayre, as blacke as iet descending downe hir snowie temples,
and the rest of the aboundance of hir long hayre, fastned rounde in the
hinder parte of her head, and deuided into two partes or tresses, lapt about
this waye and that waye, behind hir small eares, over hir streight propor-
tioned head, and finished in the crowne with a flower of great Orient and
rownd Pearles, such as be found in the Indian promontorie Perimula.2
There is a great deal of this kind of thing, descriptions of ban-
quets, ingenious fountains, a game of chess with living figures, and
then "my love Polia" comes on the scene "with a comely grace and
unexcogitable elegancie." The result is the usual one.
htt
The archer Cupid, in my wounding heart hauing his residence, like a
Lord and king, holding me tyed in the bands of Love, I found my selfe
pricked and grieuously tormented, in his tyrannous and yet pleasant
regiment."
1 The Strife of Love in a Dream, being the Elizabethan version of the first book
of the Hypnerotomachia, ed. by A. Lang, London, 1890, from the edition "printed
for William Holme," 1592. The translator, "R. D.," has been thought to be one
Robert Dallyngton. I am indebted to the courtesy of Professor Charles Eliot
Norton for permission to use his valuable collection of editions of Colonna.
2 i, 9, ed. Lang, p. 117.
3 i, 13, ed. Lang, p. 193.
8
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
119
In the fourteenth chapter of the first book begins a series of
Triumphs, in each of which the Love divinity is represented. The
influence of Petrarch is marked.
Vppon the fore-ende [of the first triumphal car] I beheld Cupid, with a
great number of wounded people and Nations, marueiling to see him shoote
into the ayre¹. [In the second car he again appears] aloft in the skyes,
with the sharpe heades of his golden arrowes, wounding and making bleede
the bodyes of dyuers foure-footed beastes". . . [In the third, Cupid shoots
into the sky, and on the other end of the car he is represented as being
chastised by Venus." In the fore-end of the fourth he shoots into heaven
and causes Jupiter to fall in love with a mortal nymph, while] in the hinder
end was Iupiter sitting in a tribunal seate as a iudge, and Cupide appear-
ing limping before him, and making grieuous complaints against his louing
mother, bicause that by hir means he had wounded himself extreemly with
the loue of a faire damsell, and that his leg was burnt with a drop of a
lampe, presenting also the yoong Nymph and the lampe in her hand.4
*
•
In another passage, in a description of tablets representing the
Seasons, an interesting confusion of Venus and Spring, and of their
symbols, occurs.
This first was a faire goddesse, hir treces flieing abroad, girded with
roses and other flowers, vpon a thin vpper garment couering her beautifull
and pleasant proportion. She helde hir right hand ouer an ancient vessell,
in maner of a chafing-dish, called Chytropodus, sending foorth a flame of
fire, into the which shee did cast roses and flowers, and in the other hand she
held a branch of sweete myrtle, full of berries. By hir side stoode a little
winged boy smiling, with his bowe and arrowes. Ouer hir head were two
pigeons. And vnder the foote of this figure was written Florido veri S
But it would be disproportionate to select all the passages in this
Renaissance monstrosity that are parallel to features of the Court of
Love allegory. A temple of Venus, which, however, has little resem-
blance beyond the name to the type with which we have become
familiar, occurs later, and is the scene of important events in the
8 P. 211.
2 P. 207.
1 Ed. Lang, p. 202.
A P. 214.
It will be observed from his treatment of the Psyche story that
Colonna had not read Apuleius very carefully.
bi, 17, ed. Lang, PP. 242-3.
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William Allan Neilson.
wooing of Polia. Cupid's two kinds of arrows appear again, and are
distinguished in the usual way in a passage which will serve as an
example of Colonna's Italian.
None palesemente sapiamo, che nella sua marauegliosa pharetra contiene
due dissimile sagitte. La una di fulgoroso oro figurata. Laltra di livido
& nephasto plombo. La prima di sforciato amore & uehemente, uiolentis-
simo gli cori ad irritabondo amare accende. Laltra in opposito intollerabile
superbia & rabido & prompto odio excitante, prouoca & displicibile
crudelitate.¹
The chief importance of the Hypnerotomachia in this study is in
the fact of its being permeated with the imagery and symbolism of
love-allegory. Its original contribution is of the slightest; and there
is no reason to suppose that it reached England before our Court of
Love was written. But the work as a whole is one more proof of the
prevalence of the literary forms we are studying.
D. GERMAN.
Love-allegory in Middle High German poetry grew up less com-
pletely under the influence of French literature than was the case in
either Italian or English. As a result, it developed one or two char-
acteristic forms found either not at all or to a much smaller extent
in the other countries. Of such forms the most individual is the
allegory of the Love-chase, where the woman is represented by
the prey, and the dogs and other accompaniments of the hunt are
the qualities and devices used to win her.
ALLEGORIES OF THE LOVE-CHASE.
The earliest example which I have found is the poem known as
the Königsberger Jagdallegorie, dated by its editor "about the middle
of the thirteenth century. )) 2 The author is unknown, but appears
from his dialect to have been an Alemannian."
In this work a hunter is represented as setting out after a hind,
8 Ibid., p. 255.
1 Bk. ii, chap. 4. Cf. p. 140, below.
2 Ed. by K. Stejskal in Zt. f. deutsches Alt., XXIV, 254-68.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
121
with his four good hounds Trôst, Harre, State, and Triuwe. But he
has no success: the hind outstrips his dogs, and the hunter himself,
worn out and dejected, utters a long lament, throws himself down,
and is apparently about to give up the chase. A wise man hears his
complaint and asks for details. Learning that he has pursued this
hind for some ten years, the wise man advises him to dismiss his.
hounds and set three others, Zwifel, Wenken, and Falsch, on her
track. The hunter rejects this counsel with contempt.
The poet,
however, who has overheard the conversation, determines to try hist
luck. He has no trouble in finding Zwifel, Wenken, and Falsch, and
with their help he soon catches the hind. He is leading her by a
cord when Minne and her company (gesinde) come up.
The poet
immediately addresses Minne, calling for judgment against the hind:
a good hunter had pursued her with good hounds for more than ten
years in vain, and now she has been taken in one day by the aid of
these false dogs. Minne calls on her son to give judgment.
"Mich dunket recht," sprach dô hin wider
“daz man si lege nider
Ir sun,
Und ir breche die zen ûz" (vv. 237-9).
This opinion apparently meets with the approbation of all.
Ez was allessamment slecht
Die urteil dô und ôch daz recht (vv. 247-8).
Minne then departs, and the poet closes with general reflections on
the culpability of women who reject true love and accept false.
In this poem the line between the native chase-allegory and the
borrowed Court of Love is not very well concealed. The accusing
of a hind, hunted down with hounds, of all the crimes of the cruel
beauty, before a court of human beings (or divinities in human shape),
can hardly be called artistic. Stejskal holds that in this poem we
see in German "zum ersten male abstracte wesen personificiert."
The most famous and influential allegory of this class in Middle
High German is the Jagd of the Bavarian Hadamar von Laber,¹
1 Hadamar's von Laber Jagd, u. s. w., ed. by J. A. Schmeller, Stuttgart, 1850;
also ed. by Karl Stejskal, Vienna, 1880. The Jagd probably dates from ca.
1335-40.
I 22
William Allan Neilson.
which, though not strictly a Court of Love poem, is too important in
the general class of love-allegory to be disregarded here.
The hero rides out one morning to find a love, and follows his
Heart, which is figured as a hound. He is also accompanied by
the hounds Gelücke, Lust, Liebe, Genâde, Fröude, Wille, Wunne,
Trôst, State, Triuwe, and Harre, and in the course of the poem other
personifications take part. He meets an experienced sportsman and
gets advice. The Heart comes on the track of a splendid animal,
and is wounded by it. Wolves (i.c. informers) appear. The hunter's
horse falls lame through loss of a shoe; so, following on foot, the
hero is left behind by the dogs. An interview with a second adviser,
a venerable man this time, takes place. Finally, through the efforts
of Wille, State, and Triuwe, and the Heart, he comes within reach of
the prey. Brought so near, the hunter is somewhat abashed, and
while the wolves put the hounds to flight the prey escapes, leaving
the Heart more deeply wounded than ever. Further conferences
with experienced persons take place, and the rest of the poem con-
sists of complaints by the hunter about his ill-fortune, which, however,
are not unmixed with expressions of hope for ultimate success.¹
The similarity of the general plot to that of the Königsberg alle-
gory, and the identity in name of some of the dogs, suggest a connec-
tion between the two poems. Frau Minne and her court, however,
do not appear in Hadamar's Jagd.
Die Jagd der Minne² is, in turn, an imitation of Hadamar. The
general plan is the same, the hounds being named Wille, Liebe, Trost,
Haren, Stäte, Treue, Trawren, Zweifel, Mühe, Freude, and Mass.
Another hunter appears whose hounds are Unverschwiegen, Fälschen,
Triegen, Lügen, Unstät, Treulos, Wankel, Neid, Kall, Rüg, Schande,
Schalk, Rum, and others.
1 The number and the order of the stanzas of this poem differ much in different
manuscripts, and there are frequent digressions. Schmeller (Vorrede, pp. xvii f.) has
taken the trouble to extract the substance of the narrative and to give it in a sum-
mary form, using sometimes one manuscript, sometimes another, in the arrangement
of the material. I have followed this summary, which is skilfully drawn up.
2 Lassberg, Lieder Saal, II (1822), no. cxxvi, pp. 293–307. A poem called
Der Minne Jagd, which, if not a translation, is probably related to this school, is
mentioned by Goedeke in the Low German section of his Grundriss, I, 464.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
123
Of the same school is Der Minne-Falkner,¹ in which a favorite
hawk, which has run wild and taken flight, is the object of the poet's
despairing pursuit. The love divinities do not take any part in the
action of the allegory, but at the beginning of the second stanza
occur the lines
Venus, Amor, und Cupido
Wenent gewalt und wunder zaigen,
which seem to imply an unexplained trinity in the godhead of Love.
Still another is a fifteenth-century poem called Die Verfolgte
Hindin.2
These poems have occasional details similar to those that are
common in the French love-allegories, the spring landscape and
passages magnifying the power of love, for example, but, except
in the case of the Königsberger Jagdallegorie, the actual Court of Love
does not appear in the allegories of the hunt.
DIE MINNEBURG.
This central motive, however, is by no means lacking in Middle
High German literature. The inedited fourteenth-century poem
known as Die Minneburg³ is an important and elaborate example.
The allegory one of the most fantastic in medieval literature — is
the work of an anonymous rhetorician, and is stated by Ehrismann
4
1 Printed as Dritter Anhang to Schmeller's edition of Hadamar's von Laber
Jagd, Stuttgart, 1850, pp. 171 ff. Schmeller (Vorrede, p. xix) remarks that the
author mentions "der weise von der Laber" in st. 170, p. 205. Professor Kit-
tredge suggests that the idea of the poem may have come from the song of the
Kürenberger, "Ich zôch mir einen valken" (Minnesangs Frühling, 3d ed., p. 8).
The editors of Des Minnesangs Frühling quote various parallels to this song,
among them an Italian sonnet of the thirteenth century (F. Trucchi, Poesie ital.
inedite, Prato, 1846, I, 54); cf. also Wallner, Zt. f. d. Alt., XL, 290–2.
2 Keller, Fastnachtspiele aus dem fünfzehnten Jahrhundert, Stuttgart, 1853, III,
1392-9.
8 Carefully studied by G. Ehrismann in Paul u. Braune's Beiträge, XXII,
257-341 (July, 1897). I am indebted for this reference to the courtesy of Dr.
N. C. Brooks. I have followed Ehrismann's analysis, which is superior to that
given by Raab, Ueber vier allegorische Motive, pp. 36 f.
4 On Wilken's mistaken ascription of the Minneburg to Egen von Bamberg,
see Ehrismann, Beiträge, XXII, 331.
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William Allan Neilson.
to be, after Hadamar's Jagd, the most popular of the love-allegories
of the fourteenth century. The following summary will give some
idea of its contents:
One hot day the poet comes into a wild mountain region through
which flows a torrent. By means of a raft he reaches a beautiful
meadow, and soon sees a strong castle, guarded by giants, lions, and
dogs. These are put to sleep by a great storm, which also drives the
poet into the castle for shelter. Inside the castle is a round pillar,
provided with five "spiegelfenster," and wonderfully wrought with gold.
and precious stones. While he is marvelling at this, the chamberlain
appears and welcomes him, tells him that the castle is called Minneburg,
and opens the pillar for him. Inside, behind the windows, stands the
figure of a man made of glass, and above this, the figure of a woman
made of steel. When the female figure bends, it sees in the glass
man the reflection of all that shows through the windows. Once
there appears the reflection of a man, on which the woman gazes till
she becomes pregnant and bears a child,—a strong boy, knowing all
languages, but with eyesight that grows weaker as he grows older,
until he becomes quite blind.
In the second chapter the poet seeks everywhere for a wise man
to explain to him the nature of the child. At length he finds in
Alexandria one Meister Neptanaus, whom he takes back with him to
the Minneburg, to interpret the mysteries. Neptanaus explains that
the child is love (Minne); the castle is a pure woman; the lion' is
her sense of honor which keeps her from shame; the giants are her
relations; the dogs are gossips and slanderers. When these guards
sleep the lover may enter without harm. Further, it is explained
that the pillar also represents a pure woman: the five windows are
her five senses, the glass man her reason, the steel woman her free-
will these last being the father and mother of love.
The third chapter is chiefly of a didactic nature, consisting of the
answers of the master to the child's questions on the nature of love.
There are also some verses about the poet's own love affairs.
In the fourth chapter the child goes to walk with his "jungfrau
Cupido or Begirde. They come to a beautiful castle, guarded in the
1 In the first chapter there are several lions, but only one is here explained.
})
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
125
same manner as the Minneburg. Cupido incites the child to take
this stronghold, and there follows a description of an attack on the
castle by the attendants of the child-Unmasse, Unsittigkeit, Un-
besonnenheit, and the like, and of its defence by Masse, Stärke, and
Weisheit. Negotiations follow, in which the counsels of Weisheit
prevail; the child and the lady of the castle come to an understand-
ing. The result of their union is a child called Widerminne. In the
castle, which is now named "daz edel hûs zu Fröudenberc," there
is joy without end.
ers.
In the fifth chapter the child and his amie go out to walk one Sun-
day before the castle, and are attacked by a great crowd of slander-
On the advice of Weisheit, the child hides himself with his
company, and the castle-gates are opened to the assailants. They,
however, fail to find the child; so they go away, leaving him master of
Freudenberg. Now that peace is restored, the child wishes to show
his gratitude to his attendants, Treue, Weisheit, and Gerechtigkeit,
for their help. Every true lover who has a well-founded complaint
against his lady may come to Minne for justice. The Court of Love
here becomes judicial: Weisheit, Gerechtigkeit, and Treue lead their
servants - loving knights and squires before the judgment seat
of Love, and he gives sentence against the ladies in the case. The
poet himself is identified with one of these servants, and takes the
opportunity to pour forth endless love complaints. At this point
the manuscript mercifully breaks off. So far as the construction of
the plot is concerned, there is no reason why the poem should ever
have stopped.
The investigation of all the sources of this conglomeration of
didactic and lyric with the most involved allegorical material would
be a task large enough for a separate treatise. Here it must be suffi-
cient to select a few interesting points.
The account of the Minneburg in the first chapter, with the island,
the raft, the giants and lions, and the storm, suggests the machinery
of the Arthurian romances or a more direct borrowing from popular
fairy-lore, rather than the scenery of the allegorical poems of France.
The doubling of many of the features in the poem is also remark-
able. There are two symbolical representations of a pure woman;
there are two generations of children — first Minne born of Reason
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William Allan Neilson.
A
and Free-will, and then Widerminne, the child of Minne; there are
two castles, Minneburg and Freudenberg; two contests, one for the
taking of Freudenberg, and one with the slanderers after the lady is
won; and finally the purely social picture of life in the feudal court
at Freudenberg gives place to a legal court where cases are tried and
judgments given. It is in these last respects that the German poem
comes nearest to the usual Court of Love type. The symbolism of
the pillars and windows and steel woman and glass man are more
nearly unique. The introduction of the poet's own love affairs is, of
course, common.
DAS KLOSTER DER MINNE.
Another somewhat extensive poem of this class, but conforming
to a greater extent to the usual type, is Das Kloster der Minne.¹
Here the poet wanders, on the conventional May morning, into the
depths of a forest, where he sees a lady riding alone. She is very
beautiful and magnificently attired in green samite. He hides be-
hind a tree and grasps her bridle as she passes. She threatens
him with the anger of her mistress Minne, who is a queen, and, in
answer to the poet's questions, she tells him of a magnificent Klöster
built for Minne by a wise master, where she resides, surrounded by
a multitude of her subjects. The life of these merry devotees is
described, and the size, splendor, and arrangements of the place are
told, with directions how to get there.
The messenger then rides on and the poet sets out to find the
Kloster. The tracks of the lady's horse guide him out of the forest,
and the rest of the way, which leads through a beautiful country, is
plain enough, and he soon comes in sight of the building. The
gates are standing open, and at that moment a company of ladies
and gentlemen come out to dance on the green before the Kloster.
Some of these the poet recognizes as old acquaintances, but nobody
seems to know him.
1 Lassberg, Lieder Saal, no. 124, II, 205-64. Ehrismann mentions in Paul u.
Braune's Beiträge, XXII, 302, a dissertation on this poem by Georg Richter,
Beiträge zur interpretation des mhd. gedichtes Kloster der Minne,' Berliner diss.,
1895. This I have not seen.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
127
Suddenly there is heard the sound of a bell which hangs near the
gate and is never sounded except by a stranger in search of some
adventure. A squire, it appears, has brought to the knights of the
convent a challenge from five hundred stranger knights to engage in
a great tourney. Excitement runs high. The poet at last musters
courage to address a lady of his acquaintance whom he sees among
With
the throng. She greets him well and presents him to others.
her he passes through the gate and across the courtyard into a mag-
nificent palace, which is described. The rule of the order is ex-
plained to him: Minne is over them all; it is to please her that
they have adopted this conventual life; Minne has given them an
abbot, an abbess, and other officers. The poet also sees certain
offenders who are undergoing penance: with two he holds some
conversation, a telltale (claffer) and a boaster (rümser). From a
terrace or balcony the poet and his guide look down into the court-
yard, where the convent-brothers are preparing for the tournament.
Never were there monks who looked so much like knights (V. 1109).
The tournament is then described.
After some further conversation, the lady consents, at the poet's
request, to show him Minne, whom he has long wished to behold.
She accordingly conducts him to a part of the convent where he
sees many ladies, knights, and squires making love. He still in-
quires for Minne, and asks if she is coming soon, but his instructress
tells him that in looking at these lovers he is seeing Love. The
lady takes this further opportunity to explain the nature of love
how it is over all, and so on. From this comes a familiar conversa-
tion, in which they grow more and more intimate, and when at last
the poet is going to take his leave they agree, to meet again in
twelve days. So, after drinking to their speedy reunion, the poet
goes off, determined to return and die in the order.
The name of this poem would lead one to expect the religious
figure to be the prevalent one; but, in spite of the repeated men-
tion of the "Ordensregel" and the passage on penance, the picture
as a whole is that of the gay life of a feudal court. Curiously
enough, the goddess herself remains in the background, and at
one point the poet refers to her as merely an abstraction; and we
have the interesting combination of the rôles of guide and mistress
128
William Allan Neilson.
1
in the lady of his acquaintance whom the poet meets before the
Kloster. The solitary maiden in the forest is a very frequent figure
in German allegory, and it is a mark of the effect of physical sur-
roundings that the forest is a much more constant element in the
landscape of German poetry than in that of the other countries
whose literatures we have to discuss. The allegorical signification
is not pushed nearly so far in Das Kloster der Minne as in Die Min-
neburg; and at times it seems to be almost lost sight of while the
poet is carried away by his zeal in describing the chivalrous scenes
that make up the greater part of the material of the poem.'
FRAU VENUS UND DIE MINNENDEN.
In Frau Venus und die Minnenden² some of the characteristics of
Das Kloster der Minne are repeated. A lover loses himself in a
forest; but, following a sound of music, he comes out into an open
field where he finds a great crowd of people of all nations and
religions bowing before a huge pavilion. He presses through them,
and, entering the tent, finds Frau Venus surrounded by a large
crowd of lovers to whose complaints she is listening. Everything
seems to be spoken in foreign languages, but later the lover hears a
damsel present a complaint in German, and follows her example.
Venus explains that the lady to whom her lover is faithless is in a
far worse case than a man similarly situated. However, she prom-
ises to do justice in both cases. The poet is then carried away by
the press, and goes home.
1 For the religious figure Professor Sheldon draws my attention to the interest-
ing parallelism in the Yvain of Chrétien de Troyes:
Li autre parloient d'amors,
Des angoisses et des dolors
Et des granz biens qu' an ont sovant
Li deciple de son covant (vv. 13-16).
See note on v. 16, p. 274, in Foerster's larger edition of Yvain (Halle, 1887) and
cf. Tobler in Holland's 3d edition of the Chevalier au Lyon, Paris, 1886, p. 3.
The idea of the convent, of course, recalls the Romaricimontis Concilium (pp. 31 ff.,
above) and those other poems in which the religious figure has been prominent.
2 Lassberg, Lieder Saal, no. 32, I, 233-44.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
129
THE HÄTZLERIN MS.
Der Mynn Gericht¹ also opens with the poet's walking in a forest
and hearing the birds sing. He finds a lady who has long wan-
dered there. Her hair has been cut off; she is clad in a single
garment, and her naked feet are torn and bleeding. She tells how
once she had refused to listen to the wooing of a youth, and how at
last the case had been brought before the Court of Love, consisting
of Queen Venus and five ladies, Ehre, Treue, Stätigkeit, Sälde, and
Liebe. Liebe spoke for the youth, and Stäte took the damsel's part.
The decision went against the damsel, who was condemned to wan-
der in the wood for seven years.
She was now undergoing this
punishment. The poem ends with her entreaty to the author to tell
her story to all good women, that they may be warned in time.
2
Of the same type and in the same manuscript is Ain Mynn Red
von Hertzen und von Leib. The poet is out in search of adventure
and comes through a forest into a flowery meadow, where, by a
spring, he finds a beautiful tent. Six ladies are singing and dan-
cing, Minne, Liebe, Stäte, Zucht, Tugend, and Scham, and "Fraw
Venus sang ze tantz.”³ He presents his complaint to Venus and
seeks advice, his Heart and his Body arguing the case. Venus
teaches him seven virtues which are written in the Book of Love,
after which the poet goes home.
Ich bin fraw Mynn,
Der lieb schulmaistrin.*
P
In a poem Von zwain Swestern, also in this MS., we find Venus
in the unaccustomed rôle of schoolmistress. The elder of the two
daughters of a knight loves the son of a bourgeois. She is induced
by her sister to think shame of the affair and wish to give it up.
But a magnificent lady appears and announces herself:
She then gives the faithless girl some severe blows on her snow-
white hand for her want of constancy.
¹ Liederbuch der Clara Hätzlerin, ed. by Haltaus, Quedlinburg and Leipzig,
1840, no. 56, pp. 226-30. The Hätzlerin MS. is dated 1471.
2 Liederbuch, no. 47, pp. 211–14.
4 Liederbuch, no. 18, pp. 163 ff.
8 Venus and Minne are the same person in this poem (see vv. 193–203).
130
William Allan Neilson.
Says Venus,
MEISTER ALTSWERT.
In Daz alte Swert, the poem that gives the title to the Altswert
volume,' Venus is again instructress, though in a somewhat more
dignified way. She encourages the author, whose lady, he says,
rejects him
Umb daz ich mittel jare zil
Uff mir haben und tragen
Und sie mit sorgen beladen (p. 5).
4
Ein gestanden swert ist goldes wert,
So man der niuwen niht engert (p. 7).²
The dream motive occurs in a long poem in the same collection
known as Der Kittels Here the poet is summoned to "Fraw Venus
lant "
by the voice of an unseen messenger which comes to him
between sleeping and waking. He rises from his bed and seeks
this unknown country. Accompanied by his squire, he rides far
and wide, till he loses his way in a great wood. After five days'
wandering he goes to sleep under a tree. In a dream, the mysteri-
ous messenger comes and leads him into "Fraw Venus lant.”
4
Leaving him in a beautiful garden, his guide goes to the castle of
Venus to announce him. A damsel of surpassing beauty, clad in a
silken "Kittel" (whence the name of the poem), enters the garden :
....
Durch die bluomen in richem schin
Erluhten ir die füzelin (p. 25).
She has come from "Keiserin Venus" and the five queens, Ehre,
Treue, Stäte, Liebe, Maze, to conduct the poet into the castle. He
is charmed with her, and they embrace and hold a long conversa-
tion. At last she leads him into the castle, past a gigantic porter,
and so into the great hall, which is adorned with all sorts of wonder-
1 Meister Altswert, ed. by W. Holland and A. Keller, Stuttgart, 1850, pp. 1-10.
2 Cf. Der Kittel, in the same volume, p. 57, vv. 32-3.
8 Daz alte Schwert and Der Kittel are probably by the same author, and date
from the middle of the fifteenth century.
Ein nebelkappe hat er an,
Ich weiz, obe ez wer wip oder man (p. 18).
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
131
ful things, including portraits of King Arthur, Wigeleis, and other
heroes. In the palace he finds Venus and the five queens, who
make him welcome.
Venus has sent for the poet, she tells him, to learn the truth
about the "falsche nuwe minne" which, she has heard, prevails in
Alsace. The reply is a satire on contemporary manners. After this
Venus gives the poet much instruction with regard to true love.
She then takes him to her treasury and offers him rich presents, but
he wishes for nothing but the favor of his lady, his "G. in dem.
Kittel." Venus gives him an emerald, which she declares will
ensure the success of his suit, and he takes his leave, filled with joy.
Do krat der han, ez was tag!
The printed collections from which have been drawn the exam-
ples so far described contain several other poems with the same
kind of personifications; as, for example, Des Spiegels Abenteuer,
which has Frau Treu and Keiserin Aventiur; and there are some
still unprinted whose titles indicate that they belong to the Court of
Love category.²
DIE MINNE UND DIE EHRE.
There is still another type of Court of Love poem peculiar to Ger-
many, that in which Venus appears not as judge, but as one of
the parties in the case. Such a poem is Die Minne und die Ehre
3
1 See Meister Altswert, pp. 117 ff.
2 Instances are: (1) a poem, without title, in the Heidelberg fifteenth-century MS.
Pal. Germ. 313, fo. 409 a., described by F. Wilken, Gesch. der Bildung, Beraubung
u. Vernichtung der alten Heidelbergischen Büchersammlungen, Heidelberg, 1817,
p. 414, as "Der Frau Venus, Königin der Minne, Gericht über einer Frauen
Hertigkeit, nebst der Liebe Regeln und Orden"; see also Bartsch, Die altdeut-
schen Handschriften der Universitäts-Bibl. in Heidelberg, Heidelberg, 1887, no.
148, p. 72 (also, with title Von dem Ellenden Buoben, in Pal. Germ. 344, fo. 1 a;
see Bartsch, no. 172, p. 100; Wilken, p. 428); (2) a poem entitled Spruchgedicht
in Pal. Germ. 393, fo. 20, described by Wilken, p. 463, as “Klagen einer Lieben-
den und ihres Anwalds vor der Frau Minne, Stät, etc. . . . über die Untreue
ihres Ritters, und Entscheid der Richterinnen"; see Bartsch, no. 215, p. 128.
Cf. Goedeke, Grundriss, I, §§ 83-4.
8 Lassberg, Lieder Saal, no. 205, III, 239 ff.
132
William Allan Neilson.
The author tells how one beautiful May morning he was driven by
the restlessness of love to walk in the fields. In a wood nearby he
heard the noise of a carriage and he hastened thither to see what it
meant. The carriage was richly adorned with gold and in it sat three
fair damsels. The poet followed them until they came to a place
where Frau Venus sat "an ir gericht" in a tent with her companions.
There the ladies sprang out of the carriage, and one of them, Frau
Ehre, immediately began to accuse Venus (now called Minne) to her
face as she sat there. Ehre complained that Venus made so many
people abandon her that the number of her followers was much
diminished, and so on.¹ Venus said that she was sorry if there was
any offence, but that she was only doing what she had always done.
She simply made people fall in love, and if any lover abandoned
Ehre it was not her fault. This Ehre and her companions had to
grant; so the two parted in friendly fashion just as the day began
to break.
2
Die Minne vor Gerichte is just such another poem, Minne being
again impeached by Gerechtigkeit, supported by Zucht, Tugend,
Bescheidenheit, Mass, and Schame. Ehre is the judge.
THOMAS MURNER.
3
Among the many poems inspired by the Narrenschiff of Sebastian
Brant, one, Die Gäuchmatt of Thomas Murner, contains some Court
of Love features. The chapters Venus Gewalt (pp. 30-5), Wenus
lere vnd ermanung zu allem wyppliche Geschlecht (pp. 83–9), and the
enumeration of the usual classical and biblical love affairs, all suggest
a knowledge of the current love-allegories. In this book, too, there
is a chapter Frouw Venus berg (pp. 186-9), which, with an accompany-
ing woodcut, shows traces of the influence of the Tannhäuser legend.
1 Note especially vv. 130-3:
Nu gastu an vnrechten wegen
Vnd brichest mit gewalt für:
Din bog, din stral, din brinent für
Tuot mich vil kombers liden.
2 Lassberg, Lieder Saal, no. 29, I, 195–208.
8 Ed. by W. Uhl, Leipzig, 1896. The poem was first published at Basel in
For this reference I am indebted to Dr. N. C. Brooks.
1519.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
133
THE TANNHÄUSER LEGEND.
The name of the Venusberg, and the points of similarity between
that palace of perpetual delights and the allegorical Court of Love,
make it necessary to say something of the relations of the story of
Tannhäuser to the subject of the present discussion.
The points of similarity are these: the gorgeous hall; the abun-
dance of means of sensual enjoyment; the throngs of fair women; the
Queen of Love as presiding personage; and a young hero gaining
admission to all this. On the other hand, let it be noted that in the
Tannhäuser story there is no conscious allegory whatever; that there
is no feudal figure employed; that the hero is seduced into taking
part in the revels, whereas in the Court of Love poems he is usually
a candidate whose admission is a matter of more or less uncertainty ;
and that beyond the name Venus and the fact that her attractions
are those of sensual love, there is no trace of the classical in the
legendary goddess.
This becomes more apparent if we strip the legend of its more
modern accretions.' The story of Tannhäuser as it is most familiar
to-day in the music-drama of Richard Wagner is a combination of
several elements originally quite distinct. Two of these might at
first sight seem to emphasize the relation between the legend and the
Court of Love, viz. the Wartburg poetic contest, and the name of
the minnesinger Tannhäuser. But the Wartburg contest, though
going back to a thirteenth-century poem on Heinrich von Ofterdingen,
was not associated with our story before the present century.
The connection with the name Tannhäuser is older, though still
comparatively late. A poem by Hermann von Sachsenheim (d. 1458)
represents Tannhäuser as the husband of Venus. Two others of about
2
¹ See G. Paris, La Légende du Tannhäuser, in Revue de Paris, March 15, 1898
(pp. 307 ff.), and Le Paradis de la Reine Sibylle, in Revue de Paris, Dec. 15, 1897.
From these articles most of the material for the analysis given here is derived.
Cf. also W. Söderhjelm, Antoine de La Sale et la légende de Tannhäuser, in Mé-
moires de la Société Néo-Philologique à Helsingfors, II, 101 ff., Helsingfors, 1897.
2 See Goedeke's Grundriss, I, 294, Die Mörin, in which the poet is seized by an
old man and a dwarf and accused of inconstancy in love by a negress, acting for
Frau Venus, before King Danhauser. Cf. Der Schatz in Altswert, pp. 70-116, in
134
William Allan Neilson.
the same date tell of the repentance of Tannhäuser after he has lived
some time in the mountain. The popular German ballad which is
responsible for the wide circulation of the legend did not take shape
till the sixteenth century. Now the dates of the minnesinger Tann-
häuser are from about 1205 to about 1270, and there does not exist
anything in his extant verses to connect him with the legend. But
there was a certain rhythmical and musical form attached to one of
the kinds of verse invented by him, known in its two varieties as the
long and the short "ton" of Tannhäuser; and it is in the long "ton
of Tannhäuser that the earliest poetic versions of the legend are
written. In this association Paris sees a probable explanation of
the introduction of the minnesinger's name into a story of which the
hero was previously anonymous.
"}
The name Venusberg" does not appear in the legend earlier
than that of the minnesinger, and the supposition that it was a sub-
stitute for a phrase containing the name of an old Germanic divinity,
Holda or Berchta, is invalidated by the facts that these names are
no more ancient than the fourteenth century, and that the person-
ages themselves have nothing in common with Venus. The sugges-
tion that Venus replaced Freya loses its force when it is pointed out
that we know nothing of Freya in a subterranean palace, alluring
mortals from the world of men. The identification of the mountain
with the Horselberg in Thuringia is a figment of the present century.
54
Thus we have left only those elements of the story which are also
found in Italy, and found there earlier than in Germany- the tale
of a knight who is enticed into a palace of sensual delights where a
queen reigns over crowds of beautiful girls, and whose remorse leads
him to abandon the palace and seek atonement.
Of this Italian story we have two main versions: one, the Guerino
il Meschino of Andrea da Barberino, written in 1391; and the other,
the account given in the Salade of Antoine de la Sale of a visit
to the Monte della Sibilla in the Apennines near Norcia, where the
legend had become localized. La Sale represents the story as cur-
rent among the peasantry of the district, and we have other evidences
which a dwarf again conducts the poet to the Venusberg, where Frau Venus gives
him a crown with twelve tines, each representing a virtue.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
135
of the wide fame of this mountain as the abode of a supernatural
being. The journey to seek absolution from the Pope is found in
both versions, the repentant sinner being successful in the earlier,
though not in the later. In Guerino il Meschino the divinity still
retains much of the Sibylline character, for the hero goes to seek her
in her capacity as a revealer of the unknown. He resists her entice-
ments to remain, and absolution is granted him because he thus
overcomes temptation. In the version in the Salade, the Pope at
first refuses absolution in order to emphasize the greatness of the
offence, and only yields when the knight, hopeless of salvation for
his soul, has returned to the mountain to make the most of what
remains of the life of the body. The incident of the budding staff
as cause of the Pope's repentance appears first in Germany; but all
this matter of absolution is quite clearly the result of church influ-
ence. Laying that aside, we have the legend in its original pagan
form. This form Paris is inclined to regard as of Celtic origin and
as having reached Germany from the Celtic west by way of Italy.
It belongs, he conjectures, to the group of beliefs about a happy
other-world which appear very widely in folk-tales, especially in those
countries that have come under Celtic influences.
Thus we are able to account for the quasi Court of Love elements
in the Tannhäuser story on grounds altogether remote from mediæval
love-allegory.'
E. ENGLISH.
In England love-allegory in the vernacular began comparatively
late, and the reason is fairly obvious. The form was essentially an
artificial courtly form, meant to appeal to the cultivated if not to the
learned mind, and this kind of verse in England was written almost
entirely in French until the fourteenth century was well advanced.
1 Compare with the articles by Paris (cited above, p. 133, n. 1), Erich Schmidt,
Tannhäuser in Sage und Dichtung in Nord und Süd, LXIII, 176 ff., Nov., 1892,
to which is appended an extensive bibliography, and J. G. T. Grässe, Der Tann-
häuser und der ewige Jude, Dresden, 1861, especially p. 17. On Celtic beliefs
about the Happy Other-world, see Alfred Nutt's essay in K. Meyer's Voyage of
Bran, Lond., 1895, and cf. W. H. Schofield on the Lay of Guingamor in the
Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, V, 221-43, Boston, 1896.
136
William Allan Neilson.
How much of the extant French poetry of this type was actually
written in England it is not easy to determine; but the Geste de
Blancheflour et Florence and Melior et Idoine¹ are sufficient to prove
that even in the first stage of its development the Anglo-Normans
were in close touch with the movement.
ROBERT GROSSETESTE.2
8
The first poem with which we have to deal in this section is in
many respects typical. Le Chasteau d'Amour of the famous Bishop
of Lincoln is not properly speaking a love-allegory at all, but it con-
tains at least one passage too closely akin to certain features of the
Court of Love to be neglected. Grosseteste's poem was written in
French, but it was translated into English as early as the beginning
of the thirteenth century. Other English translations followed, and
a long extract from it was incorporated into the fourteenth-century
Northumbrian poem Cursor Mundi (vv. 9517 ff.).*
The other titles of Grosseteste's book, Carmen de Creatione Mundi,
and Vie de doux Jesus Christ, indicate its general nature, and empha-
size again the importance of the early church allegory in the deriva-
tion of some of the features of the Court of Love.
After an account of the Creation and the Fall, the Debate between
the Four Daughters of God as to the salvation of mankind, and
1 See p. 38, above.
2 A.D. 1175(?)-1253.
8 R. Grossetete Carmina Anglo-Normannica. Robert Grossetete's Chasteau
d'Amour, etc., ed. by M. Cooke, Lond., 1852, for Caxton Society (containing
both the French original and the English version from Egerton MS. 927); Castel
off Loue by Robert Grossetete, ed. by R. F. Weymouth, Lond., 1864, for Philol.
Soc. (containing the English version edited from the Vernon MS. and Additional
MS. 22283); an English version, ed. by J. O. Halliwell, Brixton Hill, 1849, for
private circulation, mainly from a fourteenth-century MS. See also Minor Poems
of the Vernon MS., ed. by Horstmann, E. E. T. S., 1892, pp. 355 ff., for the Vernon
and the Egerton versions; the latter is also edited by Hupe, Anglia, XIV, 415 ff.;
cf. XII, 310 ff., and XIV, 393 ff. An incomplete version in Ashmole MS. 61 is
edited by Horstmann, Altengl. Legenden, N. F., pp. 349–54.
4 Cursor Mundi, ed. for the Early Eng. Text Soc. by R. Morris, Lond.,
1874-93, II, 548 ff. Haenisch (I, 23* ff.) concludes that this extract is from the
French and not from any of the English versions; cf. Hupe, Anglia, XIV, 421.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
137
Isaiah's prophecy of the Messiah, the author gives a description
of a splendid castle- an allegorical representation of the body of
the Virgin. The castle stands on a high and polished rock. It
is enclosed by walls and ditches, painted with bright colors, and
strengthened by towers, barbicans, and so forth. In the highest
tower is a fountain whence spring four streams that fill the ditches.
In this same tower is a white throne, to which seven steps lead and
which is canopied with a rainbow. It is explained that this castle is
our shield against our enemies. The polished rock is Mary's heart,
the green color betokens her faith, the blue her hopeful and humble
service, the red her holy love (la seinte charité). The four towers are
the cardinal virtues; the seven barbicans are the seven other virtues
that quell the seven deadly sins. The well is Mary's mercy, which
can never be exhausted; and the brilliant throne is Mary's soul,'
which God made his seat.
The resemblance of this castle in its situation, decorations, and
fortifications, to the mansion of Venus is quite clear. The interpre-
tation faintly suggests the other and more metaphorical type of castle."
Before we come to any genuine Court of Love poem in English, we
have a piece of evidence of familiarity with the conception, drawn
from a non-literary source. In the Gentleman's Magazine for Febru-
ary, 1835, Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick describes certain ancient carved
caskets, and one of these has what is manifestly a representation of
a Castle of Love. He calls it a lady's casket of ivory, of the time
of Edward II. "The top contains the particulars of the siege of the
Château d'Amour, or, as it was also termed, the Castle of Roses.
In the left compartment is the castle, with ladies on the battlements
hurling down roses on their assailants, and over the gateway an angel
shooting with a longbow at the son of a knight, who has his cross-
bow charged with a rose. Another knight is scaling the walls with
a rope ladder, while two others are employed with a trepid, loading
3
1 The references for this passage are these: Caxton Soc. ed., French, vv. 571 ff.,
English, vv. 371 ff.; Philol. Soc. ed., and Horstmann, Vernon MS., vv. 667 ff. ;
Halliwell's ed., pp. 29 ff.; Cursor Mundi, vv. 9877 ff.
2 See pp. 28 ff., above.
8 On Ancient Caskets of Ivory and Wood, "from The Analyst, a magazine
published at Worcester," Gentleman's Magazine, New Series, III, 198 ff.
138
William Allan Neilson.
it with roses, that by the force of this projectile they may make a
decisive impression on the fortress. In the right-hand compartment
the ladies are seen on the battlements, and over the gateway, wel-
coming the knights; while two, on horseback, in front, are about to
engage two warriors completely armed, each party fighting with a
bunch of roses. The centre compartment represents a joust where
one of the combatants has his shield charged with three roses.
The casket has also scenes from Arthurian story and other romantic
material.
"" 1
The so-called angel is doubtless Cupid. In any case, the general
treatment and the profusion of roses indicate that Meyrick is in the
main correct in his interpretation of the scene."
GOWER.
In the Confessio Amantis³ of John Gower the Court of Love ap-
pears completely developed, and serves as the framework for the
whole poem.
In the month of May the poet goes out to walk in the woods, and,
coming to a green plain "the wood amiddes" he begins to bewail
his love pains. In answer to his moans there appear both the King
and the Queen of Love.
The king is wroth at him, and departs with a frown, but before
going,
A firy dart me thought he hente
And threwe it through min herte rote (I, 46).
But Venus asks who he is and what is his malady. He replies that
he is
"a man of thine
That in thy court have longe served
And axe that I have deserved
Some wele after my longe wo” (I, 47).
1 Gentleman's Magazine, New Series, III, 199–200.
2 But compare with festivals described on pp. 255 ff., below.
3 Confessio Amantis of John Gower, ed. by Reinhold Pauli, 3 vols., London,
1857.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
139
She says that there are many "faitours" such as he may prove to
be, but asks for more detail. This he promises if his life lasts, and
she recommends that he confess himself to Genius, her own Clerk.
Genius appears with a "benedicite," and in order to make the con-
fession exhaustive he begins to go over the seven deadly sins, with
illustrative stories.
Having exhausted the sins and all their subdivisions, the con-
fessor (bk. viii) advises Gower to give up love; but the poet says.
this is not possible and asks for the good offices of Genius with
Venus and Cupid. After debate Genius agrees to carry a letter
written with the tears of the lover. The letter despatched, the poet
awaits the result. Suddenly Venus appears and asks his name, but
does not encourage him,
For loves lust and lockes hore
In chambre accorden never more (III, 356),
and advises him to make "beau retrete."
and thinks he sees
At this rebuff he swoons,
Cupide with his bowe bent;
And, like unto a parlement
Which were ordeined for the nones,
With him cam all the world atones
Of gentil folke, that whilom were
Lovers, I sigh hem alle there (III, 357–8).¹
There is great noise of music, and in the company Gower sees
Tristram and Isolde, Lancelot and Gunnor, Galahot and his lady,
Jason and Creüsa, and many others. Elde comes towards Venus
with slow music, followed by David with Bersabee, Solomon with
more than a hundred wives and concubines, Samson, Aristotle,
Virgil, and other old men. These aged lovers pray to Venus for
him. Finally Cupid comes and withdraws his "firy lancegay
(III, 369); Venus applies a cooling ointment to the poet's wounded
heart, his temples, and his reins, and shows him his wrinkled face
in a mirror. Genius bestows absolution, and Venus, having pre-
>>
¹ Pauli's erroneous punctuation of the passage has been corrected.
140
William Allan Neilson.
sented Gower with "a paire of bedes blacke as sable and some
parting advice to "tarry in her court no more," vanishes (III, 375).
Significant details, especially with reference to Cupid's arrows,
occur frequently throughout the intermediate books. For example,
Cupide which hath every chaunce
Of love under his governaunce,
Sigh Phebus hasten him so sore,
And for he shulde him haste more
And yet nought speden ate laste
A dart throughout his hert he caste,
Which was of golde and all a-fire,
That made him many fold desire
Of love more than he dede.
To Daphne eke in the same stede
A dart of led he caste and smote,
Which was all colde and nothing hote.'
Gower is here borrowing directly from Ovid, and as this passage in
the Metamorphoses is the source of so many similar references (as,
for example, that quoted from the Hypnerotomachia)" it may be as
well to give the most important lines:
Dixit, et eliso percussis aere pennis
Inpiger umbrosa Parnasi constitit arce
Eque sagittifera prompsit duo tela pharetra
Diuersorum operum: fugat hoc, facit illud amorem.
Quod facit, auratum est et cuspide fulget acuta ;
Quod fugat, obtusum est et habet sub harundine plumbum.
Hoc deus in nympha Peneide fixit; at illo
Laesit Apollineas traiecta per ossa medullas.
Protinus alter amat, fugit altera nomen amantis.3
But the greater part of the ideas in the framework of the Con-
fessio Amantis as it has been sketched above come not directly from
the classics, but from the French models that have been already
1 Confessio Amantis, Bk. iii, Pauli, I, 336.
2 See p. 120, above.
8 Met. i, 466-74. Cf. also Gower, Confessio Amantis, ed. Pauli, II, 44, and
III, 351, etc.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
141
fully exhibited. The personal application to Gower's own old age
has already been paralleled¹; but the other features are easily
recognized. Genius is borrowed from the Roman de la Rose, and
the idea of using the form of a Confession might easily be suggested
by any of the poems where Venus's temple figures prominently.
CHAUCER.
The poems of Chaucer which were written during the periods
when he was strongly influenced by French and Italian models 90
abound in the conventions of the Court of Love allegory that it is
not at all wonderful that an uncritical age should have attributed
the English Court of Love to him. The single fact of most impor-
tance in considering his relation to love-allegory in general, is his
translating the Roman de la Rose. This gave him at the outset of
his poetical career a profound and apparently a sympathetic acquaint-
ance with the most prolific love poem of the Middle Ages; aħd
traces of its influence are easily found throughout most of his works
written before 1386, and occasionally even after he had begun the
Canterbury Tales.
The Book of the Duchesse, though not an allegorical poem in any
strict sense, has several of the stock features of that class. There
is a description of the dwelling of Morpheus (vv. 153-71); the birds
are jubilant on May morning; the setting is a dream; Fortune is
personified:
The dispitouse debonaire
That scorneth many a creature (vv. 624-5);
there is a list of famous lovers, Medea and Jason, Phyllis and
Demophon, Dido and Æneas, Echo and Narcissus, Delilah and
Samson (vv. 725-39); and the description of the Duchess, though
more elaborate than usual and with more emphasis on character, is
yet distinctly of the regular type that prevails from the Roman de la
Rose to the English Court of Love.
Mention has already been made of Chaucer's debt in this poem
1 See, e.g., pp. 95 ff., above.
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William Allan Neilson.
to Le Dit de la Fontaine Amoureuse of Guillaume de Machaut,' and
of his borrowing from Froissart.2 The lines,
For that tyme Youthe, my maistresse,
Governed me in ydelnesse (vv. 797-8),
may possibly have suggested to Charles d'Orléans the character and
office of Jeunesse in the Poème de la Prison.
In the Compleynt of Mars, Compleynt to his Lady, Compleynt of
Venus, and others, we have examples of a form of poem that occurs
as part of the Court of Love and often also in other allegories.³
The Parlement of Foules shows close relations to the Court of
Love convention, though its main situation is that borrowed from
the Anticlaudianus, in which Nature is the presiding goddess.¹ The
form is again that of a dream, and the debt to the Somnium Scipionis
and the commentary of Macrobius is not only openly acknowledged,
but Africanus himself acts as guide to the hero as he enters the
"parke, walled with grene stoon." This park is the regular Court
of Love meadow, the description being characterized by the tend-
ency towards lists, as of trees and beasts, which seems especially
common in Middle English poetry. The descriptions of Cupid and
the Temple of Venus which follow are translated, as has already
been noted, from the Teseide of Boccaccio. The courtiers are
Plesaunce, Aray, Lust, Curtesye, Craft, Delyt, Gentilnesse, Beautee,
Youthe, Fool-hardinesse, Flaterye, Desyr, Messagerye, Mede, and
others. The temple is of brass, founded upon great pillars of jasper,
and its ministers and altars, its representations of Priapus, Venus,
Bacchus, and Ceres, and its wall-paintings of famous love-stories are
just as in Boccaccio.
G
The Consolation of Boethius, translated by Chaucer, contains sev-
eral personifications such as Philosophy, Fortune, Rhetoric, and
Music, belonging naturally to the type of the abstractions in Clau-
dian and Martianus Capella. The picture of Philosophy (Prose i)
has much in common with Virgil's Fame," the main features of which
4 See p. 50, above.
5 See pp. 116-17, above.
1 See p. 62, above.
2 See p. 79, above.
8 The Compleynte to Pity is dealt with in chap. vii.
See p. 10, n. 3, above, and cf. passage from Ovid quoted on p. 13.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
143
occur in the Hous of Fame. In Boethius, too, occurs a passage on
Love which may not be without significance in connection with the
frequent outbursts on the sovereignty of Venus or Cupid.' The
same passage is imitated in the Troilus.2
The rest of Troilus, though dealing with the same natural phe-
nomena as the love-allegories, has wonderfully few parallels to show.
The description of the heroine conforms to the type in some degree,
and Troilus finally gains his end by swooning (iii, 1092), just as
Philogenet and many other heroes do. His sleeplessness and the
other indications of his distressful condition are similar to the symp-
toms that will be remarked upon among the statutes in the next
chapter. But it is to be observed that these are all points where
the allegories approach realism, not where the Troilus approaches
allegory. Had it been the other way, Troilus and Criseyde would
not stand out in such magnificent contrast as it now does, against
the mass of barren and characterless production for which the muse
of allegory is responsible.
The Hous of Fame has a double claim to be mentioned in an
account of the growth of the type of allegory which we are studying.
3
4
First, the main part of the poem, dealing with the House of Fame
proper, belongs to the genus of descriptions of divine habitations,
a genus of which the Palace of Love is a species. The House of
Fame stands on the summit of a hill difficult of access. This feature
is paralleled in Claudian and in Alanus de Insulis, and its origin
is probably to be found in the classical conception of the top of
Olympus as the dwelling-place of the gods. In Chaucer, the moun-
tain is of ice, and on it are inscribed many names of famous men,
though on the south side these names have been thawed almost to
illegibility. The building itself is of "stone of beryle" (v. 1184),
and in this respect may be compared with the gorgeous descriptions.
of the Castle of Love already cited, which appear as early as Ovid."
In some instances the costly material is used also for the rock on
1 Boethius, De Consolatione, Bk. ii, metre 8.
2 iii, 1744-57; see Skeat's Chaucer, II, 483.
Court of Love, vv. 591–5.
* See pp. 16, 17, above.
With this may be compared
See p. 50, above.
6 See p. 12, above.
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William Allan Neilson.
which the palace is built, as in the case of the rock of diamond in
King Rene's poem.' The gorgeousness of the interior, the music,
the pomp of the feudal court, the statues of famous men, the crowds
of suitors, the dream-setting all these are familiar features in
Court of Love poems.
Secondly, there is an actual Temple of Venus in Book ii of the
Hous of Fame. This building is of glass, splendid with jewelled
pinnacles, "curious portreytures," golden images, and "riche taber-
nacles." Within is a picture of the goddess.
Naked fletinge in a see.
And also on hir head, pardee,
Hir rose-garlond whyt and reed,
And hir comb to kembe hir heed,
Hir dowves, and daun Cupido,
Hir blinde sone, and Vulcano,
That in his face was ful broun (i, 133-9).
The walls are decorated with scenes from the first book of the Aeneid."
4
The Prologue to The Legend of Good Women is of still greater
importance for our purpose, on account of its relations to the Eng-
lish Court of Love. The dream-setting and the "jolly tyme of May
both reappear; Daunger and Pitee are personified; and the Daisy
makes its first important appearance in literature. Its praises had.
already been sung by Guillaume de Machaut in his Dit de la Fleur
de lis et de la Marguerite, and this Chaucer doubtless knew; but
there seems reason to believe that Chaucer had a special personal
liking for the flower that thenceforth was to have so honorable a
place in English poetry, and that his affectionate treatment of it
here is the result of his own feeling rather than merely an imitation
of Machaut. Froissart's Dittié de la flour de la Margherite' may also
have been known to Chaucer.
""
1 See p. 91, above; but cf. Garrett, Studies on Chaucer's House of Fame, II, in
Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, Boston, 1896, V, 157-75, for
similar instances from folk-tales.
2 For a discussion of the sources of this poem see Rambeau, Englische Stu-
dien, III, 209 ff.
8 Text B, vv. 160-1.
See also Skeat's Chaucer, III, xxxi-xxxii.
4 Ed. Tarbé, p. 123.
↳ Poésies, ed. Scheler, II, 209 ff. See also p. 79, above.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
145
In the Legend the God of Love appears in a meadow, not in. a
castle. He is gorgeously arrayed
In silke, enbrouded ful of grene greves,
In-with a fret of rede rose-leves,
The fresshest sin the world was first bigonne.
His gilte heer was corouned with a sonne,
In-stede of gold, for hevinesse and wighte;
Therewith me thoughte his face shoon so brighte
That wel unnethes mighte I him beholde;
it
And in his hand me thoughte I saugh him holde
Two fyry dartes, as the gledes rede;
And aungellyke his winges saugh I sprede (B, vv. 227–36).
This is the first passage in which I have noted the God of Love
wearing a halo, and this feature, along with the title "Seyntes
Legende of Cupyde" applied to the whole poem, and the phrase
1
Seynt Venus" (B, 338), suggests strongly the religious figure which
we have found alternating with the feudal. The picture of Cupid
strolling in the flowery meadow with his queen and train is, of course,
very close to the situation in the Roman de la Rose, and even in the
earlier poems of the Altercatio group.
The function of Alcestis as the queen of the God of Love, as well
as her transformation into a daisy, is original with Chaucer, and
forms the clearest proof of the acquaintance of the English Court of
Love poet with his works. The description of the lady is individu-
alized in Chaucer by the device of making her dress represent the
different parts of the daisy.
The anger of the God of Love and expiation by the writing of
poetry are frequent motives.
In the Knightes Tale Chaucer again draws the main features of
his Temple of Venus from Boccaccio, but his treatment of the origi-
nal is much freer than in the Parlement of Foules. The personified
abstractions, instead of being represented as walking about, take
their place along with sighs and tears as mere wall paintings (vv.
1060-76). There are pictures also of the "Mount of Citheroun," the
garden with the porter Idleness, Narcissus, Solomon, and the rest.
1 Introd. to Man of Lawe's Prologue, C. T., B, 61.
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William Allan Neilson.
The statue of Venus is like that in the Hous of Fame,
fleting in the large see,” and
LYDGATE.
Biforn hir stood hir sone Cupido,
Up-on his shuldres winges hadde he two;
And blind he was, as it is ofte sene;
A bowe he bar and arwes brighte and kene (vv. 1105-8).
The temples of Mars and Diana are of a similar type.¹
Pag
2
"naked
The influence of Chaucer's allegorical poems upon the works of
his successors down to the date of the Court of Love was very strong;
and in no one is it more clearly evident than in John Lydgate (1370?—
1450?). If we accept the chronology outlined by Schick in the
Introduction to his edition of Lydgate's Temple of Glas, this influ-
ence is most apparent in the disciple's early and most imaginative
period, about 1400–12.
The first poem of Lydgate which approaches the Court of Love
type is the Flour of Curtesye, which shows especially the influence
of the Parlement of Foules. We have the St. Valentine's Day set-
ting, with the prominence of birds; but the main part of the poem is
devoted to the praise of the lady in whose honor it is named. Per-
sonifications such as Malebouche, Envy, and False Suspicion occur.
3
The Complaint of the Black Knight begins with a description of
May and has an elaborate landscape of the familiar type. Personi-
fications like those in the preceding poem are more frequent.
4
The Assembly of the Gods has descriptions of Venus and Cupid
which are worth noting:
By him sate Dame Venus with colour crystallyne,
Whoos long here shone as wyre of goold bryght.
1 The discussion of the actual relation of Chaucer to the English Court of
Love is held over for chap. vii.
2 Skeat, Chaucerian Pieces, pp. 266–74.
8 Ibid., pp. 245-65.
4 Ed. O. L. Triggs, Chicago, 1895 (Univ. of Chicago, English Studies, I; also
E. E. T. S.). On conventional materials in this poem, see the editor's Introduction,
pp. 1 ff.
In the quotations that follow I have made some changes in punctuation.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
147
Cryspe was her skyn; her eyen columbyne.
Rauysshed myn hert, her chere was so lyght.
Patronesse of plesaunce be named well she myght.¹
A smokke was her wede, garnysshed curyously.
And aboue all other she had a wanton ey.
On her hede she weryd a rede copyr crowne.
A nosegay she had made full pleasauntly (sts. 54-5).
Then was there set the god Cupido,
All fresshe and galaunt and costlew in aray,
With ouches and ryngs he was beset so
The paleys therof shone as though it had be day.
A kerchyef of plesaunee stood over hys helme ay.
The goddesse Ceres he lookyd in the face
And with oon arme he hyr dyd embrace (st. 43).
This same collocation of Cupid and Ceres is found in Boccaccio,
Teseide, vii, 66, where Bacchus also is of the company; and Boccaccio
is imitated by Chaucer, Parlement of Foules, v. 276. The jewels and
other features of both descriptions are, of course, familiar enough.
2
The Temple of Glas, however, is the poem of Lydgate's which is of
the highest importance for the present study. The plot is as follows:
One winter night the author went to bed sad at heart, and dreamed
of being carried in spirit to a Temple of Glass on a rock of ice.
He entered and found the walls painted with the portraits of many
famous lovers, kneeling as they presented "bills" to Venus. Dido
was there and Medea, Penelope, Alcestis, "who was turnyd to a
daiesie," and many another. He saw also thousands of lovers com-
plaining to the gods of hindrances such as envy, jealousy, slander,
"daunger," poverty, and the like. But last of all he saw a peerless
lady, whose beauty and character are described in great detail, kneel-
ing before the statue of Venus and holding in her hand a bill to the
effect that she was dying for love and prayed for help. Venus
answered favorably, promising to send joy after pain. The maiden
was grateful and promised faithful service.
1 Triggs prints "he named well se myght."
2 Ed. for E. E. T. S. by J. Schick, Lond., 1891.
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William Allan Neilson.
Apart from the crowd of worshippers who were thronging round
the altar was a love-sick knight, torn between Hope and Dread, who,
after a long soliloquy, approached the oratory and prayed for aid in
the wooing of his lady. She, it appeared, was the one who had just
been seen in the pains of love for this same knight. So Venus
smilingly gave him hope, and laid down a long series of rules for his
observance, finally sending him forth to seek an interview with the
lady. In fear and trembling he went and presented his complaint,
which the lady received blushingly, but which she referred to Venus.
Together they went before the goddess, who bound them with a
golden chain heart to heart, and added further instructions.
Now all the people in the temple joined in singing praises to
Venus, and in offering prayers for the happiness of these two. The
poet was awakened by the music, and ends with a dedication to his
lady.
Borrowings from Chaucer appear throughout this poem with great
frequency. The Temple of Glass itself on the rock of ice is, of
course, taken directly from the Hous of Fame; Alcestis and the
Chaucerian story of her transformation into a daisy appear both in
the allegory itself and in the Complaint¹ which in some manuscripts
is appended to it; references to the Tales of the Knight, the Squire,
and the Merchant occur; and minor allusions are scattered through
the whole poem. Lydgate also shows an acquaintance with the
Ovidian form of the story of Phoebus and Daphne already quoted 2:
I saw, hov Phebus with an arow of gold
Iwoundid was, puru3 oute in his side,
Only bi envie of pe god Cupide,
And hou pat Daphne vnto a laurer tre
Iturned was, when she did[e] fle (vv. 111–15).
Mention is made of the De Nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae of Mar-
tianus Capella," and other instances of Lydgate's proverbially famous.
learning abound.
Further details of this poem will be found in the next chapter,*
1 See Schick's edition, pp. 59-67.
2 See p. 140, above.
8 See p. 16, above.
4 See pp. 208-9, below.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
149
and its special relation to the English Court of Love will be discussed
in chap. vii.
HOCCLEVE AND SIR R. ROS.
Contemporary with these poems of Lydgate's is Thomas Hoc-
cleve's Letter of Cupid, translated in 1402 from Christine de Pisan's
Epistre au Dieu d'Amours which was written in 1399, and which
has already been examined.2 Hoccleve rearranges the matter of the
poem and makes some additions which need not be discussed here.
Another translation may be mentioned at this point, though it was
probably made nearly fifty years later, that by Sir Richard Ros, of
Alain Chartier's La Belle Dame sans Mercy. Nothing of importance.
for our present purpose is added in the English version.
1
THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF.
4
The Flower and the Leaf, long attributed to Chaucer, and modern-
ized by Dryden, is an anonymous poem of the fifteenth century.
The God of Love does not appear in it; but it has several important
details linking it to the Court of Love class. It begins with a May
morning, and the description of a walk in a grove where the heroine.
(for it purports to be written, or at least told, by a woman) finds an
arbor in which she sits down to listen to the song of the birds.
Presently there comes from the grove a procession of gorgeously
arrayed ladies, all clad in white, laden with jewels, and wearing gar-
lands of green leaves of laurel, agnus-castus, and woodbine. These
are followed by a crowd of knights correspondingly apparelled, who
engage in jousts, those wearing laurel proving the victors. Then
they join the ladies in dancing under a great laurel tree.
Next appear another company of knights and ladies clad in
green and garlanded with flowers, who do reverence to a flowery
¹ Hoccleve's Minor Poems, ed. Furnivall for E. E. T. S., 1892, I, 72 ff.; Skeat,
Chaucerian Pieces, pp. 217-32; cf. pp. 499–501.
2 See p. 84.
8 Furnivall, Political, Religious, and Love Poems, E. E. T. S., 1866, pp. 52-80;
also in Skeat, Chaucerian Pieces, pp. 299-326.
4 Chaucerian Pieces, pp. 361-79.
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William Allan Neilson.
"tuft," while one of them sings "a bargaret in praising the daisy,"
with the refrain, "Si douce est la margarete." But as the sun
rises high their flowers wither, and shortly a storm comes and
drenches them with rain, while those who are crowned with leaves.
are safe under the laurel from both rain and sun.
Now the queen of the fortunate band comes forward to offer help.
Her followers make fires and dry the drenched ones and anoint
their sunburnt faces. Finally both companies ride away together.
The speaker now leaves the arbor and meets a solitary lady in
white, who explains that the first group were the Ladies of the Leaf,
and their queen was Diana. Those of them who bore agnus-castus
had remained virgins; those with laurel had made "victorious
name"; those with woodbine had never been untrue in love. The
knights were the Nine Worthies, the Knights of the Round Table,
the Twelve Peers of Charlemagne, and the Knights of the Garter.
The Ladies of the Flower had been led by Flora, and her followers
were such as loved idleness, hunting and hawking, playing in meads,
"and many other such lyk idle dedes." The writer decides to
choose the Leaf for her own allegiance.
2
The fact that the procession and the different degrees of merit
among the ladies bear a slight similarity to the scene described in
Andreas Capellanus' has led Professor Morley to mention this
poem as merely a variant of the Lai du Trot story. That tradition
may have influenced the form of The Flower and the Leaf, but this is
the most that can be said.
The landscape, the costuming, and the rôle of the queens are
the main points connecting this poem with the Court of Love. The
influence of Chaucer and probably of Lydgate worked on the
authoress.
THE ASSEMBLY OF LADIES.
The same lady, according to Professor Skeat," wrote some years
later The Assembly of Ladies, a poem still more nearly approaching
4
1
¹ See pp. 46 ff., above.
2 English Writers, Lond., 1887-95, IV, 221.
8 Chaucerian Pieces, pp. lxii-xx.
4 Ibid., pp. 380-404.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
151
the Court of Love model, and important also as helping to show the
continuity of the tradition from Chaucer and Lydgate to the time of
the English Court of Love.
In this work the allegory takes the form of a dream which a lady
relates to a knight. She dreamed that a lady in blue, called Perse-
veraunce, summoned her to the house of Loyalte, called Plesaunt
Regard. Diligence served as guide; a robe of blue was provided.
for the heroine also; Discrecioun, the chief purveyor, was met near
the gate; the porter, Countenaunce, admitted them; the steward was
Largesse, the marshal of the ball was Bel Chere, the chamberlain
Remembraunce, the secretary Avysenesse; and every one was clad
in blue. A great number of ladies soon arrived, and after some
delay all were led into a great hall of the usual type, with walls of
beryl and crystal, on which were engraved stories of Phyllis and
Demophoon, Pyramus and Thisbe, Antony and Cleopatra, the love-
lorn Anelida, and many more. On a platform was set a throne en-
crusted with jewels, on which presently the lady of the palace took
her seat and received the "bills" of the throng. Each petition had
a French motto, "Sans que jamais," "Entierment vostre," and the
like, and they complained of the faithlessness and instability of
lovers, and so on. The bills were handed over to the secretary, and
the lady announced that
Within short tyme our court of parliment
Here shal be holde, in our palays present (vv. 720-1),
when redress should be given to all. So the crowd departed and
the dreamer awoke.
Here it will be observed that the regular function of the Queen of
Love is performed by a lady whose name is not given after she
appears, but who is once mentioned at the beginning as Loyalte.
The attendant figures are familiar, as is the use of blue as the color
of constancy. The poem is peculiar in having no male figures in it,
except the man to whom the dream is related and his companions.
The allegory proper is purely an "assembly of ladies."
The presumption arising from the fact that the narrator repre-
sents herself as a woman seems neither to require nor to receive
much strengthening from the stress which Professor Skeat lays on
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William Allan Neilson.
the elaborate descriptions of costume. I cannot think his argument
1
for the identification of the authoress with the writer of the Flower
and the Leaf at all conclusive. The parallelisms quoted are extremely
frequent commonplaces, and the attributing of the different treat-
ment of the final e to a later period in the lady's life is too easy
to be convincing. The movement of the verse of the two poems
seems to my ear very different. Professor Skeat has himself noticed
the frequency of run-on stanzas in the Flower and the Leaf, and the
absence of them in the Assembly. A similar statement can be made
about the lines; for in the former poem full stops and semicolons
are much more frequent in the middle of lines, and run-on lines
also occur oftener. The common authorship must be regarded as
at least not proved.
JAMES 1. OF SCOTS.
2
The attempts that have been made to establish an immediate
connection between the Kingis Quair of James I. of Scots and the
English Court of Love make it necessary to analyze the former in
some detail.
The poem begins with the account of a sleepless night and of
the impulse that led the author to write the book. This forms a
kind of prologue (sts. 1-13).
After an apostrophe to his unripe youth and an invocation of the
Muses, the poet tells how one spring, when he was about ten years
old," he was put on board ship to be taken abroad. But the ship
was captured by enemies, and he was thrown into prison, where he
had to remain nearly eighteen years. There he used to complain
bitterly against Fortune's cruel treatment of him; and once, getting
up early to seek comfort, he went to the window and looked down
into the garden, where the nightingales were singing love-songs. As
he stood watching them he began to wonder how true all the talk
about the rapture of love might be; and, looking down into the gar-
1 Chaucerian Pieces, p. lxvi.
2 Ed. by Skeat for the Scottish Text Society, Edinburgh, 1884.
3
Not fer passit the state of innocence,
But nere about the nowmer of 3eris thre (st. 22).
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
153
den again, he saw the fairest woman his eyes had ever rested on,
and suddenly his heart
became hir thrall
For euer, of free-wyll (st. 41).
said:
As he watched her, he speculated on whether she was a goddess or
a woman; and, concluding that she was human, he offered thanks
to Venus for receiving him into her service, and prayed for mercy.
Looking down once more at the lady, he envied her little dog, and
began to reproach the nightingale for having fallen silent when
Here is the tyme to syng, or ellis neuer (st. 59).
He was at his wit's end to know how to rouse the nightingale to a
sense of the occasion without scaring her away, when she burst into
song again, to the melody of which he made a prayer to the lady.
Then all the birds took up their song in praise of Love and May,
and again he gave it words.
But now the lady turned and passed out of the garden, and the
lover was left to bewail his plight. Worn out at length with weep-
ing and complaining, he threw himself on his knees at the window,
and, with his head on the stone, dreamt.
Suddenly, it seemed to him, a great light blinded him, and a voice
I bring confort and hele, be nozt affrayde (st. 74).
At once he was caught up through the air and came to the great
crystal Palace of Venus, which he found thronged with lovers, some
of whom had died in Love's service after a long life, and now, with
the heroes of romance, and love-poets such as Ovid and Homer, were
attended by Good Will. Others, young people who had been true
lovers but had been cut off in middle age, were attended by Cour-
age. A third group, people of religion, who had forsworn Love,
and repented afterwards, but had not had courage to serve him
openly, were attended by Repentance. All this a voice explained
to him. Beyond a curtain stood a multitude who came to present
complaints, some because they had been shut up in cloisters in their
youth, some about unhappy marriages, some of being cruelly parted
from their true lovers.
154
William Allan Neilson.
In a chair of state sat Cupid with a bent bow in his hand. By
him hung, "in a case," three arrows, headed with gold, silver, and
steel, respectively, and fit to inflict wounds of greater or less severity,
the last being the worst. In an alcove lay Venus, attended by Fair
Calling and Secrecy. Her the poet saluted, and prayed for mercy
and for help in his suit. Venus answered favorably, but said that
on account of his imprisonment the matter was not altogether in her
hands. She dwelt on his inferiority to his lady, and sent him to
Minerva for counsel, with Good Hope as his guide. She also told
him to remonstrate with men for their neglect of her laws,
neglect that she felt so deeply that she wept. (Her tears are the
rain which causes the flowers to spring to pray men to be true in
love; in proof of which it may be noted that the birds cease from
song when it rains.)
a
The poet thanked Venus, and set off for the palace of Minerva,
to which he was admitted by Patience. Minerva received him
graciously, and gave him much moral advice, quoting Ecclesiastes
to induce him to bide his time, and promising him aid if his inten-
tions were strictly honorable. Having been assured on this point,
she said she would use her influence with Fortune in his behalf.
The mention of this goddess leads to a digression on chance and
necessity.
Returning to earth, the lover found himself in a fair plain beside a
river, and there he saw all manner of beasts (which are enumerated
each with an epithet, in the manner of the lists of trees, etc., already
noticed).¹ Within a "round, walled place" he found Fortune, and
before her feet was her wheel, on which a multitude of people were
clambering, some of them falling into a dreadful pit below, whence
they never came up. When he called for Fortune's help she admitted
that hitherto he had had bad luck, but said it was going to turn
now. With this he was led to the wheel, stepped upon it, and, just
as Fortune, telling him to hold on, took him by the ear to say fare-
well, he awoke.
His distress was not at all abated when he came to his senses,
and he prayed for some token of assurance that his dream boded
1 See p. 142, above.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
155
good. He went to the window, and there alighted on his hand a
white dove bearing a branch of red gillyflower, on the "lists" of
which was written in gold a message bidding him be of good cheer,
for his cure was decreed in heaven. This he read again and again,
and pinned it above his bed. Gradually his pain died away, and
Fortune so well fulfilled her promise that he gained both his free-
dom and his love.
With thanks and rejoicings and apologies, and a dedication to
Chaucer and Gower, the poem closes.
The relation of this poem to Lydgate's works on the one hand
and the Court of Love on the other will be discussed in a later chap-
ter.¹ At present we may note that there are here all the most impor-
tant Court of Love features: the abundance of flowers and birds
and their use as erotic symbols; the courts of Venus, Minerva, and
Fortune with the allegorical figures and the shades of departed.
lovers in attendance; the palace of crystal and the meadow watered
by a river; the instructions to the true lover, and the binding together
of the whole by the thread of the hero's love-story. The most strik-
ing thing about the poem as a whole is the extent to which this
mass of convention is vitalized, every detail being given a significa-
tion for the individual case, so that we are left with an impression
of reality such as we get from no other poem of the type. Even if
the arguments recently put forth against King James's authorship of
the Kingis Quair had not been met on technical grounds of language
and history, they would not have been convincing. It would still
have remained well-nigh impossible to believe that there existed in
the fifteenth century a poet, anonymous and hitherto unsuspected,
with sufficient dramatic capacity to produce a work bearing through-
out the marks of emotion which should appear profoundly personal
but which should yet in fact be only imagined. Such an achieve-
ment as the writing of this poem by any one but the hero of it
would imply not only the use, but the mastery, of a form of art
utterly unknown in the Middle Ages; and the Kingis Quair, what-
ever we may assert about its freshness and vitality, remains in form
an essentially medieval production.
2
1 See pp. 232 ff., below.
2 See pp. 235 ff., below.
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William Allan Neilson.
THE ISLE OF LADIES.
This poem, more commonly known as Chaucer's Dream,' is far
from being a pure Court of Love poem. It is a mixture of the
allegorical type with the supernatural romance, and it abounds in
features characteristic of those mediæval productions which drew
their materials from popular fairy-lore.
The Dream is the vision of a May night.
Within an yle me thought I was,
Where wall and yate was all of glasse (vv. 71–2).
This island was peopled with beautiful ladies, all young but one,
and she was still lusty. To her the author had to give an account
of himself; but before she passed judgment the queen arrived, and
with her a strange knight and the poet's lady. This knight had
seized the queen on the rock whither she had gone to gather the
apples of perpetual youth, health, and pleasure for her maidens; and
the poet's lady had come to her rescue, after which all three came to
the isle. When the knight was asked his intentions he swooned, but
was brought back to consciousness after many tender attentions from
the queen.
Just then the God of Love arrived with a fleet of 10,000 ships, all
about which birds
Sate and song with voice full out,
Ballades and layes right joyously (vv. 716-17).
The walls of glass and gates of gold were of no avail in keeping
out the mighty lord who came with bow in hand.
Approaching the
1 Aldine Chaucer, ed. by R. Morris, Lond., 1891, V, 86–154. Brandl, Engl.
Stud., XII, 175 ff., interprets this poem as an allegorical account of the match
between Henry V. and the fair Katherine of France; see also W. Hagedorn,
Ueber d. Sprache ciniger nördlicher Chaucerschüler, Göttingen, 1892, p. 20. But
cf. Engl. Stud., XIII, 24. On the resemblance of the poem to Le Dit dou Lion
of Guillaume de Machaut, I have already commented (p. 62, above).
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
157
queen he reproved her for having so long refused to serve him and
so long neglected his laws :
And bent his bow and forth he goth
A pace or two, and even there
A large draught, up to his eare,
He drew, and with an arrowe grounde
Sharpe and new, the queene a wounde
He gave, that piersed unto the hearte,
Which afterward full sore gan smarte,
And was not whole of many yeare (vv. 786–93).
The god then prophesied to the knight a speedy recovery, and
addressing the poet's lady he recommended the poet as a faithful
servant. The lady was well-disposed towards him. The queen now
came and presented a bill to Cupid in which she promised life-
long devotion, The god read it with a smile and called a council
for the next day.
The next day arrived, and the god was seated in state in the midst
of the throng. A long speech was made by "a counsayler, servant
of Love," the conclusion of which was a promise from the god to
put all parties in accord before he left the island. Another swoon-
ing scene took place. The poet's lady set sail, and the poet, running,
into the water after her ship, was almost drowned and was taken on
board unconscious. Vitality returned only with the gift from his
lady of one of the magic apples.
The rest of the poem does not bear on the present inquiry.
The two elements already referred to (p. 156) are easily detected
here. The meadow, the walls of glass and gates of gold, the throngs
of fair ladies, the God of Love with attendant birds, the arrows, the
reproving of the stubborn beauty, the swooning lovers, the throne of
state and the council-all this is familiar Court of Love machinery.
On the other hand, the part played by boats, the magic apples, the
seizure and rescue of the queen, are clear traces of the supernatural
romance. The ballade with which the poem closes contains some
statutes which will be discussed in the next chapter.
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William Allan Neilson.
*.
THE PARLIAMENT OF LOVE.
MS. Ff. I. 6, fol. 51, in the Cambridge University Library, written
in a fifteenth-century hand, contains a short poem called The Parlia-
ment of Love.¹
1
Draw near, says the poet, all ye that will learn of love, and hear
Houth loue made late his parleament,
And sent for ladyes of every londe
And al tho men that lovers were
Within a castell feyre ande stronge.
Katalog
W
A company of gentlewomen sang a ballade instead of the mass, and
after the song all the ladies went into a chamber and took their
places according to rank, the Goddess of Love being enthroned
above them. But one lady so smote the poet with her beauty that
he retired to a corner
A litle bill for to compile,
Vntoo thys lady wych was soo faire.
•
The text of this "bill" ends the poem.
This short work contains nothing new, and is only one more proof
of the familiarity of the Court of Love tradition in the fifteenth
century.
LANCELOT OF THE LAIK.
Romance and allegory come together in another fifteenth-century
poem, the Scottish Lancelot. The romance proper is introduced
by a kind of prologue.
One April morning when the poet was walking in a beautiful
garden full of flowers that represented to him his lady, he fell into
a sleep or ecstasy and had a vision.
A bird appears, sent by the God of Love, to reprove him for his
witless complaining. Any one who does nothing to move his lady,
1 Ed. by F. J. Furnivall, for E. E. T. S., in Political, Religious, and Love Poems,
Lond., 1866, pp. 48–51.
2 Lancelot of the Laik, ed. for E. E. T. S. by W. W. Skeat, Lond., 1865. Writ-
ten ca. 1490-1500.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
159
not even by telling his love, deserves to suffer. Ovid is quoted
against the policy of concealing one's feelings. But it is useless to
try to escape love: the poet must either seek the remedy or continue
to suffer. He replies to all this that it is useless for the servant to
dispute with the lord: Love knows why he smote him with this
hopeless passion. Fool," says the bird, "there is no woman so
high as to despise or hate a man who is worthy to be of Love's court,
and shows her faithful service." The poet is charged either to speak
out to the lady, or to write a complaint and make a treatise
ec
Of love, ore armys, or of sum othir thing (v. 147).
So with a farewell the bird flies off, and the poet awakes, and deter-
mines to write of Lancelot. The romance follows.
ROBERT HENRYSON.
In Henryson's Testament of Cresseid¹ are to be found several of
the Court of Love features.
Calchas, the father of Cresseid,
Wes keeper of the tempill, as ane preist,
In quhilk Venus and hir son Cupido
War honourit (vv. 107–9).
After Cresseid was cast off by Diomede, she came back to her father.
One day, entering an oratory in the temple, she reproached Venus
and Cupid with such vehemence that she fell into an ecstasy, and
saw a vision. She heard Cupid the king ring a bell that summoned
the seven planets from their spheres. First came Saturn, described
as a personification of winter; then Jupiter, amiable and garlanded
"as it had been in May"; Mars, armed and foaming at the mouth;
Phœbus, riding in his chariot of the sun; Venus, who "with ane
eye lauch, and with the uther weip"; Mercury, with book in hand
and carrying a box of drugs; and last Cynthia, with the man-in-the-
moon painted on her breast. Mercury is chosen "to be foir-speikar
in the parliament," and Cupid charges Cresseid with having slandered
1 Poems and Fables of R. Henryson, ed. by D. Laing, Edinburgh, 1865, pp. 75-
97. Also in Skeat, Chaucerian Pieces, pp. 327-46.
160
William Allan Neilson.
his mother and himself. It is agreed to leave the sentence to Saturn
and Cynthia, who condemn her to the loathsome life of a leper.
(The rest of the poem does not concern us here.)
This "parliament" is, to be sure, not strictly a Court of Venus;
but it is a court of the gods on a question to which Venus and Cupid
are parties, and in which love is the principal matter. The descrip-
tion of Venus departs entirely from the tradition, all the stress being
laid on her character :
Richt unstabill, and full of variance,
Mingit with cairfull joy, and fals plesance (vv. 235–6),
while Jupiter has the hair like gold wire and the May garland (vv.
174-5, 177).
GAVIN DOUGLAS.
The list of Court of Love poems in the sixteenth century opens
with Gavin Douglas's Palice of Honour¹ (1501). Here we have not
only a picture of the Court of Venus on the march, but in the Palace
of Honor itself a mansion which conforms closely to the type of
building usually inhabited by the God or Goddess of Love, but which
we have before found used for other divinities, as, e.g., in Chaucer's
Hous of Fame.
torrent.
After a Prologue in praise of May, the poet describes a vision in
which he finds himself in a desert place through which runs a hideous
As he is complaining against the instability of Fortune, he
perceives approaching a cavalcade of ladies and gentlemen, in the
midst of whom there sits in a jewelled chariot a magnificently beau-
tiful queen, in purple and gold, attended by twelve damsels and a
"lustie rout" of lords and ladies. After they pass, two wretches, who
turn out to be Achitophel and Sinon, ride up and explain that it is
Minerva, Queen of Sapience, who has just gone by, and that the
twelve damsels are the sibyls,
Cassandra eik Delbora and Circes,
The fatall sisters twynand our weirdis out,
Judith, Jael, and mony a Prophetis (i, st. 13).
¹ Poetical Works of Gavin Douglas, ed. by John Small, Edinburgh, 1874, I, 1-83.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
161
The crowd, he continues, includes many famous wise men; and the
whole procession, which is to be followed by the courts of Diana and
Venus, are going to the Palace of Honor. The two caitiffs then
move on, and the poet is left alone.
Soon, however, he sees Acteon, in the form of a stag, torn by
hounds, and immediately there follows Diana riding on an elephant
and attended by a scanty train, including Jephtha's daughter, Vir-
ginia, and other famous virgins. Next he hears a sound of music,
and in a car of a degree of gorgeousness extraordinary even for
a Court of Love poem, Venus appears, drawn by twelve coursers
trapped in green velvet, with golden harness. Beside the goddess
sat her son :
He bair a bow with dartis haw as leid,
His cleithing was als grene as ane huntair,
Bot he forsuith had na eine in his heid (i, st. 39).
The account of the music which accompanies this car gives the poet
an opportunity to display his knowledge of musical terms and the
names of instruments. Mars rides on horseback beside Venus, and
in the account of those who follow her chariot Douglas shows his
familiarity with Chaucer by his choice of such lovers as Arcite,
Palamon, and Emily, Troilus and Cressida, Ceyx and Alcyone,
Alcestis, and Griselda. As they ride past, the poet, who is watching.
all from a hiding-place in the tree, is moved to sing "a ballet of
inconstant love," in which he insults Venus and Cupid. The god-
dess hears and is wroth, and he is dragged before Mars, Cupid, and
Venus to answer the charge of blasphemy brought by a clerk called
Varius. In reply he denies her jurisdiction, first, because “ "ladyis
may be judges in na place," and, second, because he is a "spirituall
man." Naturally this does not pacify the goddess, and when the
First Part of the poem ends the poet is trembling lest she condemn
him to death or transform him into a beast.
In the Second Part, however, an interruption is caused by the
arrival of the Court of the Muses, attended by a great crowd of poets,
ancient and modern. To Calliope Venus submits the case, and at
her suggestion the author is pardoned on condition that he "say
sum breif or schort ballat" in praise of Venus, and promise not to
refuse the next reasonable request which she shall make of him.
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William Allan Neilson.
He recites the "ballat" on the spot, and is set free. He gives
thanks to Calliope, who places him under the charge of a sweet
nymph, and he sets off with the Muses on a tour about the world, in
the course of which they come to the "Musis caballine fontane."
There a scene after the style of the Court of Love meadow is
described, and in a tent the Muses have a banquet, while Ovid and
other poets recite their verses to them.
In the Third Part the poet and his guide finally arrive at the
Palace of Honour, situated on the summit of a "roche of slid hard
marbell stone,” which shines like glass. The top of this hill the poet
reaches only by the aid of the nymph, who takes him by the hair and
carries him up. On the top of the hill is a lovely meadow, in the
midst of which stands the palace. This is most imposing, with lordly
towers and carvings and precious stones. Here the poet again finds
Venus enthroned, and before her
Stude emerant stages twelf, grene precious greis,
Quhairon thair grew thre curious goldin treis (iii, st. 21).
By her side is blind Cupid. Facing her is a mirror, more wonderful
than Canace's,¹ in which all the events of history are to be seen. The
goddess recognizes her quondam prisoner, and after some conversa-
tion gives him a book2 to put in rhyme. More details about the palace
are given: Lawtie (Loyalty) is the keeper and Patience the porter,
Charity master of the household, Constance the king's secretary,
Liberality treasurer, Innocence and Devotion "clerkis of closet and
cubiculairis," and so on. The hall of Prince Honor is described
in the traditional fashion with decorations from natural phenomena
and classical story, and the magnificence of it all, and finally of its
lord, is such as to cause the poet to swoon. His nymph restores
him, preaches him a sermon on honor, and finally leads him out to
show him the garden. But as he crosses the moat he falls off the
tree which serves as a bridge, plunges over the head" into the
water and awakes.
(6
Nearly all the forms of the Court of Love are represented here:
the form with a procession found earliest in Ovid's Triumph of Cupid
1 In Chaucer's Squire's Tale.
2" By thys boke," says the marginal comment, "he menis Virgil."
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
163
and later in Andreas,¹ Nicole de Margivale,2 and Petrarch³; the
court in the meadow, represented here by the trial-scene of the poet
and the feast of the Muses by the Castalian spring; and the court
in the palace, represented by the Mansion of Honor itself. The
legal aspect appears in the trial-scene just referred to.
The allegor-
ical courtiers are found in the officers of the household, and the
representative figures from history and romance occur half a dozen
times. Douglas seems to have been very well read in this class of
poetry as well as in the classics; and suggestions must have been
gathered from many sources. Chaucer's Hous of Fame is the work
to which he seems to owe most.
4
The Palice of Honour so thoroughly represents Douglas's allegor-
ical powers that it is hardly necessary to dwell on his other poem of
this class, King Hart. This is an allegory on the life of man and
belongs rather to the didactic than to the erotic type. It is full of
personifications, and there are descriptions (for example, that of the
castle of Dame Plesance) which resemble the familiar Castle of
Love.
WILLIAM DUNBAR.
6
The Golden Targe of Dunbar is an allegory of the assault of Love.
on the heart of the poet and its defence by the golden shield of
Reason.
Beginning with a description of the song of birds and the bloom-
ing of the flowers on a May morning, the poet tells how in a dream
he saw Nature, Venus, Aurora, Flora, and many another divinity
come by ship into a beautiful meadow. They danced and sang by
the river, and the poet crept through the leaves to see. But the
Queen of Love saw him and bade her archers come against him.
1 See p. 46, above. 2 See pp. 69 ff., above. 8 See pp. 112 ff., above.
4 Cf. P. Lange, Chaucer's Einfluss auf die Originaldichtungen des Schotten
Gavin Douglas, Halle, 1882.
5 Poetical Works, ed. Small, I, 85-120.
• Poems of William Dunbar, ed. by J. Small for the Scottish Text Society,
Edinburgh, 1889-93, II, 1-10, and by J. Schipper in Denkschriften der kais. Akad.
d. Wissenschaften zu Wien, Phil.-hist. Classe, XL, iv, 10-23.
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William Allan Neilson.
And now a whole army of personified feminine attractions, Fair
Having, Fyne Portrature, Lusty Chere, Womanhood, Youth, and
many others, headed by Beauty, attacked him, but
Resoun, with schelde of gold so clere —
In plate and maille, as Mars armypotent,
Defendit me, that nobil cheuallere (vv. 151–3).
At first Reason succeeded in repulsing the assailants; but Venus
sent Dissymilance, with the pick of her army, including Presence,
and Presence cast dust in Reason's eyes so that he was befooled.
Then the poet, wounded almost to death, yielded to Beauty. Very
soon, however, the whole company re-embarked, and with the noise
of their parting salute the poet awoke. He concludes with a loyal
apostrophe to his masters, Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate.
The idea of collecting all the divinities in the Court of Love
meadow has not occurred in any previous example; and Dunbar's
personifications, though familiar enough, are handled with a good
deal of vigor.
The Thrissil and the Rois¹ is a poem after the model of the Parle-
ment of Foules, Dame Nature being the presiding deity. She makes
the Lion King of Beasts, the Eagle of Birds, and the Thistle of
Flowers, crowning the Rose as his queen while all the surrounding
creatures rejoice. The occasion of Dunbar's poem (the marriage of
the king) was similar to that of Chaucer's. Both in this poem and
in The Golden Targe we have May personified as a fresh maiden “in
brycht atteir of flouris forgit new," a point which seems original
with Dunbar.
2
8
In Bewty and the Presoncir we have another allegorical love-con-
test, which, though not properly a Court of Love, has yet so many of
its features as to deserve mention. The lover gazes on his lady till
he has no power to resist, and Fresche Bewty shuts him up in the
castle of Penance, where Strangenes is porter, Comparison captain,
Languor warden, and Scorn jester. At the suggestion of Gud Houp
1 Schipper's edition, in Denkschriften, XL, iv, 2-10; Small's edition, II, 183–189.
2 The Thrissil and the Rois, vv. 15 ff.; The Golden Targe, vv. 82 ff.
Schipper, XL, iv, 23-26; Small, II, 164 ff.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
165
he writes a "bill," which Lawlines bears, along with Fair Scherwice.
These enlist Petie, the castle is assaulted, and, with the help of Lust,
Thocht, and Bissines, is taken. Strangenes is burnt in the lodge;
Skorne has his nose pierced and is banished; Comparisone is burned
alive, and Sklander, who had appeared as soon as victory was assured,
is chased away by King Matremony.
STEPHEN HAWES.
The Pastime of Pleasure' (ca. 1506), the latest English allegory
before the Court of Love which we shall discuss, is too long to be
dealt with in detail; and in the following analysis many parts that
are not strictly in the line of the investigation will be very slightly
indicated.
The hero, La Grande Amour, meets Fame as a lady on horseback,
surrounded with tongues of fire and accompanied by the hounds.
Governaunce and Grace. (This is the only instance of allegorical
hounds I have met with outside of German literature.) She tells him
of the great beauty of La Bell Pucell, directs him to the tower of
Doctrine, and departs, leaving the greyhounds with him. He finds
the tower, which is of copper, and which stands on the summit of a
craggy rock. Its turrets gleam with images of gold. Within, the
walls are draped with arras, on which is pictured a foreshadowing of
his own adventures. The officers of the household are named in the
fashion just noted in the Palice of Honour. Countenance is the
porter, the marshal is dame Reason, the butler Curteis Continuance,
the chief cook Temperance, the chamberlain Fidelity, and the high
steward Liberality. Dame Doctrine sends the hero to Grammar,
Logic, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, and Music, who all have quarters in the
establishment. At the tower of Music he meets La Bell Pucell,
dances with her, and falls deeply in love. He also gets acquainted
with Counsel, who gives him much good advice. On further inter-
views with La Bell Pucell, the hero wins her favor; but their union
is postponed. After visits to Geometry and Astronomy, he goes to
1 The Pastime of Pleasure, reprinted from edition of 1555, Percy Society, Lond.,
1845.
166
William Allan Neilson.
the Tower of Chivalry, where he offers prayer in the temple of Mars.
Mars advises him to make oblation to Venus, but Fortune stands by
and mocks. Minerva leads him to King Melyzyus, who knights him,
and he gets armor:
For fyrst, good-hope his legge harneys sholde be;
His habergion of perfyte ryghtwysenes;
Gyrde faste wyth the gyrdle of chastite,
His riche placarde should be good besines,
Brandred with almes so full of larges;
The helmet mekenes, and the shelde good fayth ;
His swerde Goddes worde, as saynt Poule sayth (chap. 28).
Thus accoutred, he rides forth with Sir Truth, Sir Fidelity, Sir For-
titude, Sir Consuetude, Sir Justice, Sir Misericord, Sir Sapience, Sir
Curteysy, Sir Nurture, and Sir Concord, who escort him for some
distance. After an encounter with False Report, he comes to the
temple of Venus.
•
There sate dame Venus and Cupide her sonne,
Which had their parliament ryght newly begone.
To redresse lovers of their payne and wo,
Whiche in the temple did walke to and fro.
And every one his byll did present
Before Venus in her hyghe parliament (chap. 29).
The temple is walled about with ivory and is all of gold. Dame
Sapience is secretary, and to her the lover makes appeal, and she
consents to draw up a "Complaynt to Venus" for him. This sup-
plication, which contains a summary of his previous adventures,
requests that Venus send Cupid to let the lady know what he is
suffering for her. Venus gives him hope, and instructs him to be
patient and faithful, while she tells Sapience to write a letter exhort-
ing La Bell Pucell to show favor to La Grande Amour. This letter
is given
Under our signet, in our court ryall,
Of September, the two and twenty day (chap. 31),
and is sent by Cupid. The lover offers a turtle dove to Venus and
departs.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
167
Later he meets, and with his sword Clara Prudence overcomes, a
giant with three heads (Falsehood, Imagination, and Perjury), where-
Per-
upon Verity, Good Operation, and Fidelity congratulate him.
severance, meeting him, tells of La Bell Pucell's favorable reception
of the letter from Venus and her resistance to Disdain and Strange-
ness. After more fights with giants and other adventures, he
finally arrives at the mansion of La Bell Pucell, who, with Peace,
Mercy, Justice, Reason, Pleasaunce, Grace, and Memory, receives.
him graciously into her gorgeous house. Suddenly Venus and Cupid
arrive to hasten the marriage, which takes place next day, Lex
Ecclesiae officiating.
but at last Age comes and arrests the hero.
Confession, Contrition, Satisfaction, and
and Remembrance writes his epitaph.
buried is visited by Fame, by Time, and finally by Eternity.
Grande Amour and La Bell Pucell live together for many years;
He has interviews with
Conscience, then dies,
The temple where he is
In spite of the enormous length of this work, it will be seen from
the outline that the material and the general treatment are far from
novel. The poem is excessively diffuse and wearisome, so much so
that one suspects irony in the title.
Yet the allegory of Stephen Hawes suggests considerations of
some importance. It is about three hundred years later than the
Fablel dou Dieu d'Amours and Venus la Deesse; and from these three
hundred years we have found still extant so many examples of
the Court of Love type that we are justified in saying that, even if
none is lost, there was produced on an average one every three years.
for three centuries. Yet the development of the characteristic ideas
in the interval has been extremely small. The personification of
the sciences is as old as Martianus Capella; the allegorical armor
is taken from St. Paul; the gleaming palaces are found in Ovid; the
fights with the many-headed giants are only a slight step beyond
Prudentius. The combination of these things, digressions on natural
phenomena and all, was already familiar in the thirteenth century;
and, indeed, Hawes's poem is very close in parts to Li Fablel and
the Roman de la Rose. Here and there we may find points taken
from men nearer his own day; but the advance from the poems we
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William Allan Neilson.
have just mentioned is no greater than we might expect to be made
in one generation by a single man of genius. Yet Boccaccio, Pe-
trarch, and Chaucer, to mention only three, had used the form.
There could hardly be a more striking evidence of the barrenness
and perniciousness of allegory.
CHAPTER IV.
THE STATUTES OF LOVE.
1
IN the summary of the plot of the English Court of Love in the
first chapter, mention was made of certain statutes which Philogenet
had to sign. From the manner in which they are introduced, these
commandments might be expected to be in the form of laws for the
regulation of the conduct of the subjects of the Lord of Love; and
to some extent this is the case. The first one of the twenty, for
example, demands loyalty to the King and Queen of Love; while,
with a transference to the religious figure, the fourth exhorts subjects
to seek to extend the kingdom of Love, to
Stiren folk to love, and beten fyr
On Venus awter (vv. 324-5).
But in the great majority of the statutes, the God of Love and his
kingdom or court are quite lost sight of, and the rules become state-
ments of the ideal of conduct for the medieval gentleman, of the
traditional symptoms of lovers, or of precepts for seduction. The
task of classification is not an easy one; for in addition to the fact
that these divisions, from the very nature of the subject-matter, run
into one another, the poet occasionally found a difficulty in making
his exposition of a particular principle end with the end of a stanza,
and, in order to complete the stanza, threw in an additional precept
having no close connection with that contained in the former part.
As, however, these addenda are usually repeated in the principal
1 See p. 3, above.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
169
part of another statute, we can afford in most cases to ignore them
without neglecting any point of importance.
The following classification is made merely for working purposes,
and it should be understood that the groups are by no means mutually
exclusive.
i.
iv.
xix.
: : F:
iii.
vii.
ix.
X.
xii.
xiii.
xiv (b).
xv (a).
To be patient.
To be meek and afraid of being over-bold.
To be conscious of inferiority to one's lady.
To think nothing of pain for her sake.
To be thoughtful to please her.
To believe no evil of her.
To defend her honor and reputation at all costs.
xviii. To keep one's person and dress neat and clean.
xiv (a).
xvii.
XX.
THE TWENTY STATUTEs.
A. LAWS OF THE KINGDOM OF LOVE.
To be true to the King and Queen of Love.
To stir up others to love.
"Ech other day see that thou fast for love.”
viii.
xi.
xv (b).
xvi.
B. RULES OF CHIVALROUS LOVE.
Secretly to keep councell of love."
To be constant to one's lady.
66
V.
vi. To wander alone musing on her.
C. LOVERS' SYMPTOMS.
To be sleepless when the lady is cruel.
To dream of enjoying her love.
To be interested in love even when one is old.
To be wretched in her absence.
D. PRECEPTS OF SEDUCTION.
To be persistent in one's suit.
To know how to make love by coughs, smiles, sighs, etc.
"Her appetyt folow in all degree."
“Seven sith at night thy lady for to plese,
And seven at midnight, seven at morow-day."
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William Allan Neilson.
Group A seems the natural result of the Court of Love conception
but plays a very small part in the development of the code.
Group B is a collection of the principles which pervade the litera
ture, as they must have pervaded the society, of the chivalrous epoch
and the ideas represented will be found abundantly, both formally
drawn up, as here, and informally expressed or implied, in the mate
rial collected in this chapter.
Group C consists of ideas which are naturally to be found with
great frequency in love-poetry whether allegorical or not, but which
are more rarely drawn up in lists.
Group D, which is less fully represented in the present poem,
is still important, since in some of the earlier poems it includes the
greater number of the rules. Statute xvi is not properly a statute of
seduction, of course, but is placed here for convenience as belonging
to that side of the subject which deals with the more sensual aspect
of love. It seems to be quite original with the author of the English
Court of Love.
A. THE OVIDIAN TRADITION.
A complete discussion of the ideas represented by these statutes
is quite impossible here. It would imply not only the tracing of the
development of the erotic precepts of Ovid as they spread through
mediaval Europe, but also a study of the growth of the whole chival-
rous ideal and its expression in lyric, in romance, and in books of
conduct and courtesy, as well as in allegory. The present chapter
must be regarded as little more than a collection of material for such
a study from the particular part of the field represented by the class.
of works treated in the previous chapter.
Even for this limited purpose, however, it is necessary to go back
to the Ars Amatoria. The advice given by Ovid in this poem
belongs as a whole to Group D; yet in some of its precepts we find
the beginnings of rules belonging in their later associations to other
groups.
Thus Statute xiii of the Court of Love, which
Whylom is to thinke
What thing may best thy lady lyke and plese (vv. 393-4),
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
171
goes on to recommend the lover to devise something,
Some hert, or ring, or lettre, or device,
Or precious stone; but spare not for no price (vv. 398–9).
So in Ovid, Ars Amatoria, ii, 163:
Secum habet ingenium, qui, cum libet, Accipe' dicit.
XV
เ
And here it may be said once for all, that in each case the spirit
of the entire poem determines into which group a rule should be put.
In Ovid the whole matter of winning the lady's good-will, of which
the giving of presents is a detail, is simply a basely conceived means
to an immoral end. Thus, if a rule retained this character, it would
belong to Group D. But in the Middle Ages, in that part of the
literature inspired by the finer side of courtly love, the spending of
thought, pains, or money to please one's lady is part of the quasi-
religious worship offered her; and, to whatever extent this had a
sensual basis, it was still one side of knightliness.
Again, Statute xviii is
Cf. Ars Amatoria, i, 513 ff.:
That thou eschewe
With sluttishness thyself for to offend;
Be jolif, fresh, and fete, with thinges new, etc. (vv. 471 ff.).
Munditie placeant, fuscentur corpora Campo;
Sit bene conueniens et sine labe toga;
Lingua ne rigeat; careant rubigine dentes ;
Nec uagus in laxa pes tibi pelle natet :
Nec male deformet rigidos tonsura capillos:
Sit coma, sit trita barba resecta manu.
Et nihil emineant et sint sine sordibus ungues,
Inque caua nullus stet tibi nare pilus.
The rule for complaisance in Statute ix and in the latter part of
And ay what thing that she thee will forbede,
Eschew all that, and give her sovereintee,
Her appetyt folow in all degree (vv. 432-4) –
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William Allan Neilson.
finds its counterpart in Ars Amatoria, ii, 197 ff.:
Cede repugnanti: cedendo uictor abibis;
Fac modo quas partis illa iubebit agas.
Arguet arguito; quicquid probat illa, probato.
Quod dicet, dicas; quod negat illa, neges.
Riserit adride; si flebit, flere memento.
Imponat leges uultibus illa tuis.
Recommendations to concealment are frequent in Ovid; but here
again the lower ethical level is apparent, for while in the chivalrous
codes consideration for the lady is the motive insisted on, in Ovid it
is fear of the husband or the desire to carry on more intrigues than
one without exciting the suspicions of the different mistresses.
The same thing holds of the rules in Group C. The paleness and
sleeplessness of lovers, instead of being the genuine symptoms of the
passion-struck youth, appear in Ovid as shams assumed for the pur-
pose of working on the feelings of the intended victim. Take, for
example, Ars Amatoria, i, 729 ff.:
Palleat omnis amans; hic est color aptus amanti.
Hoc decet, hoc stulti non ualuisse putent.
Arguat et macies animum; nec turpe putaris
Palliolum nitidis imposuisse comis.
Attenuant iuuenum uigilatae corpora noctes
Curaque et in magno qui fit amore dolor.
Ut uoto potiare tuo, miserabilis esto;
Ut qui te uideat, dicere possit 'amas.'
Of Group Dit is hardly necessary to quote particular instances
from Ovid, since, as has already been said, the Ars Amatoria as a
whole might be placed in this category. The eleventh Statute is
closely paralleled in the fourth elegy of the first Book of the Amores:
Me specta nutusque meos uultumque loquacem ;
Excipe furtiuas et refer ipsa notas.
Verba superciliis sine uoce loquentia dicam :
Verba leges digitis, uerba notata mero, etc. (vv. 17–20).
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
173
The Court of Love has :
Thy signes for to con
With y and finger, and with smyles soft,
And low to cough, and alway for to shon,
For dred of spyes, for to winken oft :
But secretly to bring a sigh a-loft (vv. 379-83).
IMITATIONS AND TRANSLATIONS OF OVID.
In forming an opinion about the erotic literature and the literary
tastes of the Middle Ages, we must not regard Ovid merely as a
classic whose reputation was known to all while his books were read
only by the few. The number of translations, paraphrases, adapta-
tions, and moralizations of his works which were current through-
out Western Europe, but especially in France, prove him to have
been popular in a sense in which this word can be used of very few
classical writers.¹
2
One of the earliest medieval works to show Ovid's influence is
the Latin "comedy" (of about the twelfth century), known as Pam-
philus de Amore. The plot of the piece consists in the seduction of
a girl, Galatea, by a young man Pamphilus, with the aid of an unscru-
pulous old woman. It opens with a soliloquy on the pains of love
by the young man. He appeals to Venus, and in answer to his
reproachful prayers the goddess appears and gives him counsel as to
how to obtain his desires. It is in this speech by Venus, and after-
wards in some of the instructions of the old woman that the parallels
to our statutes occur. Naturally most of them fall in Group D.
Much stress, for example, is laid on Persistence:
Tunc illam multo temptamine saepe fatiga (v. 131).
Ergo tuis primum si non fauet illa querelis,
Arte uel officio fac tamen ut faueat (vv. 81-2).
¹ See G. Paris, Hist. Lit., XXIX, 455 ff., and La Poésie du Moyen Âge, Paris,
1885, pp. 189–209, for French versions of Ovid in the Middle Ages, and cf. Rom.,
XXII, 271 ff. Cf., also, Legrand d'Aussy, Fabliaux ou Contes, Paris, 1879, II,
265, 270, 274.
2 Pamphile, ou l'art d'être aimé, ed. by A. Baudouin, Paris, 1874.
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William Allan Neilson.
The duty of being merry is also insisted on:
Gaudia semper amat et ludicra laeta iuuentus
Et iuuenum mentes hoc in amore ligat.
Laetum semper ei te laetis uultibus offer :
Est cum laeticia pulcrior omnis homo (vv. 101-4).
Advice to bribe the lady's servants (vv. 125 ff.) and many other
points show the author's indebtedness to Ovid.
Baudouin gives a list of no fewer than sixteen editions of this
work from about 1470 to an uncertain date, probably in the seven-
teenth century.
This includes two French paraphrases and an
Italian version. Besides these closer imitations, we have proof of
the influence of the Pamphilus in the character of the procuress in
the famous fifteenth-century Spanish tragi-comedy Celestina,' which
in turn was translated and imitated very widely throughout Europe.
Much closer to Ovid is Maistre Elie's version of the Ars Ama-
toria, the chief departure from the original being in the substitution
of Paris for Rome, and the consequent adaptation of the passages
dealing with the customs of classical times to suit the French life of
the thirteenth century.
A similar adaptation forms the main part of La Clef d'Amors,³ in
which the God of Love appears to the poet in a dream and asks
him to draw up the rules of the doctrine of love for the guidance of
lovers. This exists in a fourteenth-century MS.
L'Art d'Amors,* by a certain Jacques d'Amiens, is a free translation
from Ovid with the insertion (vv. 466-1035) of specimen conversations
between a lover and his lady, after the manner of Andreas Capellanus."
1 Celestina, by Fernando de Rojas, Barcelona, 1886. English Elizabethan
translation, Calista and Meliboca by James Mabbe, ed. by Fitzmaurice Kelly,
Lond., 1894. The Archpriest of Hita also shows the influence of the Pamphilus :
see his Poestas in Sanchez, Colección de Poesías Castellanas, Madrid, 1790, vol. IV,
especially pp. 135-9. I owe this last reference to Professor Marsh.
2 Maître Elie's Ueberarbeitung der ältesten frans. Uebertragung von Ovid's
Ars Amatoria, ed. by II. Kühne and E. Stengel in Ausg. und Abhandl., No. 47,
Marburg, 1886; see especially Kühne's Prolegomena.
3 Ed. by E. Tross and H. Michelant, Lyons, 1866; and also by A. Doutrepont
in Suchier's Bibliotheca Normannica, Halle, 1890.
Ed. by G. Körting, Leipzig, 1868.
5 See p. 177, below.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
175
Paris mentions also L'Art d'aimer by one Guiart, and a fourteenth-
century prose translation with a commentary, fragments of which
are preserved.
The Latin manual of conduct known as Facetus¹ (i.e. "cour-
teous") is also indebted to Ovid. After some generalities, advice
on education and the choice of a career, matters of dress and the
care of the person, the author goes into an Art of Love, which takes
up vv. 131–384 (out of a total of 510), after which he returns to gen-
eral advice on conduct. A Catalan version from the second half of
the fourteenth century expands the amatory part and follows it up
with a diatribe against women. In both versions the moral tone
remains Ovidian in the parts dealing with love.2
As a further evidence of the popularity of the Ars Amatoria may
be quoted a passage from Marie de France,³ describing a wall
decoration.
La chambre ert peinte tute entur.
Venus, la deuesse d'amur
Fu tres bien mise en la peinture;
Les traiz mustrë e la nature
Cument hom deit amur tenir
E leialment e bien servir.
Le livre Ovide, u il enseigne
Coment chascuns s'amur estreigne,
En un fu ardant le gettout,
E tuz icels escumenjout,
Ki ja mais cel livre lirreient
Ne sun enseignement fereient (vv. 233–44).
The Goliardic authors of the Carmina Burana knew Ovid well.
Sometimes they quote him exactly, as in a precept of secrecy (cf.
Court of Love, Statute ii):
Praecipue Cytherea jubet sua sacra taceri ¹ ;
The work begins with the verse, "Moribus et vita quisquis vult esse facetus."
There is a second Latin poem entitled Facetus, and a third called Fay- or Fagi-
facrius: see Hauréau, in Notices et Extraits, XXVII, ii, 15-20.
Both the Latin poem and the Catalan version are edited by Morel-Fatio,
Romania, XV, 192–235. * Carmina Burana, p. 222; Ars Amatoria, ii, 607.
Lai de Guigemar, in Die Lais der Marie de France, ed. by K. Warnke, Halle,
1885, p. 14. I owe this reference to the courtesy of Mr. W. D. Howe.
176
more frequently we have merely similarity of idea, as in the version
of the same commandment which occurs in the poem called by
Langlois Carmen de Rosa¹:
William Allan Neilson.
Pange lingua igitur
Causas et causatum
Nomen tamen dominae
Serva palliatum,
Ut non sit in populo
Illud diuulgatum,
Quod secretum gentibus
Extat et celatum.
ANDREAS CAPELLANUS.
The De Arte Honeste Amandi of Andreas Capellanus is by far the
most important and interesting Ovidian document of the Middle Ages.
Whatever may be finally proved concerning the personality of the
author or the date of the work, there can be no doubt that it is a
product of the courtly society of the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine
and her daughter Marie de Champagne, and that its author was a
person who had full opportunity to observe the workings of the
social code to which these ladies gave their sanction. The book of
Andreas gives us the theory of that system the practice of which is
concretely presented in the romances of Chrétien de Troyes; and
for scientific purposes the abstract statement is more illuminating
than the concrete, for the elements of the new code are more easily
analyzed in it.
The ascetic ideal upheld by the medieval church could not in
the nature of things appeal permanently to a fashionable society,
so that, when the reaction came, the pendulum not only swung away
from celibacy, but, passing the point of married chastity, went to
the other extreme, and a system of conduct grew up in which the
central point was adulterous love. But to social anarchy the human
spirit is always in the long run averse; and no sooner had the
revolt to license taken place than there began to grow up round
the new immorality a system of checks and restrictions, perhaps
1 Carmina Burana, p. 141.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
177
less burdensome but no less elaborate than those which surrounded
the old ecclesiastical code. It is of this immorality, with its checks.
and restrictions, its conventions and traditions, that the work of
Andreas is a manual.
The plan of the work is taken from Ovid, who thus lays down the
scheme of the Ars Amatoria :
Principio, quod amare uelis, reperire labora,
Qui noua nunc primum miles in arma uenis.
Proximus huic labor est placitam exorare puellam :
Tertius, ut longo tempore duret amor.¹
The same threefold division may be detected in the opening sen-
tence of Andreas:
Est igitur primo uidere, quid sit amor, et unde dicatur amor, et quis si
effectus amoris, et inter quos possit esse amor, qualiter acquiratur amor.
retineatur, augmentetur, minuatur, finiatur, et de notitia amoris mutui, e
quid unus amantium agere debeat altero fidem fallente.
The italicized phrases which correspond to the three things stated
as aims in Ovid, whom to love, how to win her, how to keep
her, — form the kernel of Andreas's book. In chap. vi of bk. i,
which includes more than half the work, there are given imaginary
conversations between lovers of various ranks, as, for example, ple-
beius ad plebeiam, plebeius nobili, nobilis plebeiae, nobilior nobiliori, and
so on. It is in one of these, that in which loquitur nobilis nobili,
that the account of the palace of love and the procession of lovers
already quoted 2 occurs. Other chapters deal with the love of clerks,
nuns, rustics, and courtesans; another with twenty-one love deci-
sions, and still another with the rules of love. A third book has
been added on the model of the Remedia Amoris, and it is devoted
chiefly to the vices of women. There is no attempt made in this
last part to be consistent with the first two.
There are two sets of rules given in the Chaplain's book. The
first and shorter" is that given by the God of Love to the knight
1 Ars Amatoria, i, 35-8.
* See Trojel's edition of Andreas, p. 106.
2 See p. 46, above.
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William Allan Neilson.
who sees the vision of the Palace and Purgatory of Love. These
are on the whole moral rules, all coming under Group B, and in
some cases corresponding to the statutes of the Court of Love.
There are twelve in all, commending the virtues of Generosity (i),
Constancy to one only (ii), Truthfulness (v), Secrecy (vi), Obedi-
ence (vii), Modesty (viii), Courtesy (xi), Moderation (xii), and
forbidding slander (ix), babbling (x), the seducing of another man's
mistress (iii), and the holding of intrigues with a woman whom one
would be ashamed to marry (iv).
The longer set of thirty-one rules' is not so high in moral tone.
These also profess to have high authority. The story is told of a
British knight whose lady refused to grant him her love unless he
brought her the hawk which perched in Arthur's hall. After many
adventures and contests, and with much machinery of magic ban-
quets and gorgeous castles and terrible giants, the knight achieves
his quest, and at the same time finds attached to the hawk's perch a
"chartula, in qua regulae scribuntur amoris, quas ipse amoris rex
ore proprio amatoribus edidit."
These regulae, however, are laws rather than commandments,
statements of what naturally occurs in matters of love rather than
rules to be obeyed. This distinction appears even when the subject-
matter is the same as in the direct commands of the statutes of the
Court of Love. Thus, corresponding to the rule of Secrecy, we
have:
Qui non celat, amare non potest (ii),
and
Amor raro consueuit durare uulgatus (xiii).
So Constancy is represented by
Nemo duplici potest amore ligari (iii);
and
Verus amans alterius, nisi sui [var. sue suae] coamantis ex affectu, non
cupit amplexus (xii),
is modified in
Biennalis uiduitas pro amante defuncto superstiti prescribitur amanti (vii),
1 Ed. Trojel, pp. 295–312.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
179
and apparently contradicted in
Unam feminam nil prohibet a duobus amari et a duabus mulieribus
unum (xxxi).
Similarly Generosity is not commanded, but it is stated that
Amor semper consueuit ab auaritiae domiciliis exsulare (x).
Other laws coming under Group B are:
Probitas sola quemque dignum facit amore (xviii),
Amor nil posset amori denegare (xxvi),
and
Non decet amare quarum pudor est nuptias affectare (xi).
Group C, of the Symptoms of Lovers, is represented by several
items :
Omnis consueuit amans in coamantis aspectu pallescere (xv);
In repentina coamantis uisione cor contremescit amantis (xvi);
Amorosus semper est timorosus (xx);
Minus dormit et edit, quem amoris cogitatio uexat (xxiii);
Quili
Verus
amantis actus in coamantis cogitatione finitur (xxiv);
mans assidua, sine intermissione, coamantis imagine detinetur
(328).
But many of the sections of this code cannot be included in any
one of the four groups into which the statutes of the Court of Love
fell. The first one, for instance, is a frank statement of the place of
marriage in this discussion of love :
Causa coniugii ab amore non est excusatio recta.
Most of the others are observations on what one might call the
natural history of love, bits of love-lore, some of which were
doubtless traditional sayings, and others evolved by the author in
The scholastic spirit of elaboration of detail. Such are these:
Semper amorem crescere uel minui constat (iv) ;
Mar est sapidum quod amans ab inuito sumit coamante (v);
Masculus non solet, nisi plena pubertate, amare (vi);
Weño, sine rationis excessu, suo debet amore priuari (viii);
Amire nemo potest, nisi qui amoris suasione compellitur (ix);
Facil perceptio contemptibilem reddit amorem, difficilis eum carum
facit haberi (xiv);
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William Allan Neilson.
Nouus amor ueterem compellit abire (xvii);
Si amor minuatur, cito deficit et raro conualescit (xix);
Ex uera zelotypia affectus semper crescit amandi (xxi);
De coamante suspicione percepta zelus et affectus crescit amandi (xxii) ;
Amans coamantis solatiis satiari non potest (xxvii) ;
Modica praesumptio cogit amantem de coamante suspicari sinistra
(xxviii);
Non solet amare quem nimia uoluptatis abundantia uexat (xxix).
The wide circulation and influence of Andreas are well proved.
Twelve manuscripts of the Latin version, the earliest (Vaticanus,
coll. Ottobonianae No. 1463) being probably of the thirteenth cen-
tury, are extant. In the thirteenth century it was twice translated
into French; in the fourteenth, twice into Italian; and in the fif-
teenth, twice into German. Mention of the book occurs several
times in the thirteenth century, and traces of its influence, even
where no name is mentioned, are not infrequent.
About the author, the date, and possible earlier forms of the book
many questions still remain unsettled.' That parts of the book were
in circulation before it took the shape in which it has come down
to us seems to be proved by the fact that it quotes itself: as, for
example, when the knight who describes the palace of love ends his
list of precepts with the words:
Sunt et alia amoris praecepta minora, quorum tibi non expediret auditus,
quae etiam in libro ad Gualterium scripto reperies,2
where the words "libro ad Gualterium" agree with a description of
the work of Andreas frequently found in manuscripts of the book
itself and in allusions to it elsewhere.
It further appears that lists of rules of love other than those given
by Andreas were known to the society which he describes. The
1 For the state of the question down to 1892 see the introduction to Trojel's
edition. See also G. Paris, Journal des Savants, 1888, pp. 664-75, 727-36, and
Romania, XIX, 372; F. X. Wöber, Der Minne Regel von Eberhardus von Cersne
aus Minden, 1404, Vienna, 1861; and cf. F. Bech, Germania, VII, 481, and VIII
268-70, Litterarisches Centralblatt, 1893, col. 288-9, and Rom., XXVIII, 119–20.
2 Ed. Trojel, p. 106. For other instances see pp. 283 ("capellani doctrina ")
and 148.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
181
rule quoted in the following passage does not occur in either of the
codes already described:
Verus amans nunquam potest amorem exoptare nouitium, nisi primitus
ob certam iustamque causam prioris cognouerit aduenisse defectum. Quam
regulam nostri quidem experimento cognoscimus esse uerissimam.¹
Neither do we find elsewhere the rule condemned here:
Non est igitur amoris regula, quam dixistis, quum falsa reperiatur et
fallax, scilicet ut amantium rarus aspectus amoris faciat attenuari poten-
tiam 2
the reference being to a speech by the lady who held that
Regula nobis demonstrat amoris, quod amantium quotidianus aspectus
crescere facit amorem."
The fact pointed to by these allusions was one to be looked for.
The practice of discussing fine points in love was a fashionable
amusement before the earliest date possible for Andreas's book;
the substance of his codes must have been drawn from these dis-
cussions, and it was natural that the principles involved should
sooner or later take the form of laws.
B. PROVENÇAL.
The troubadours draw up no formal codes like those in the Court
of Love and Andreas. They constantly refer, however, to the vir-
tues which are required by the statutes, and in some of these refer-
ences different virtues are grouped together. Thus in the A leis cui
am de cor e de saber by Guiraut de Calanso there are four steps
leading up to the door which Guiraut Riquier explains thus:
Le premiers es onrars,
El segon es selars,
El ters es gen servirs,
El quartz es bos sufrirs.
4
1 Ed. Trojel, p. 263.
2 Ibid., p. 140.
8 Ibid., p. 139.
4 See p. 24, above. But on the meaning of the steps, see also Dammann,
pp. 73 ff.
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William Allan Neilson.
Again in Gaucelm Faidit¹ several statutes can be recognized in the
lines:
Chant e deport, joy, domney e solatz,
Ensenhamen, largueza e cortezia,
Honor e pretz e leyal drudaria.
But more frequently the virtues are mentioned singly. In Ber-
nart de Ventadorn the obligation to secrecy is thus acknowledged:
Mas s'a lieys plazia
Que m fezes qualque be,
Ieu li juraria,
Per lieys e per ma fe,
Qu'el bes que m faria
No fos saubutz per me.2
In the same poet we find constancy represented:
E vos etz lo meus jois premiers,
E si seretz vos lo derriers,
Tan quant la vida m'er durans.³
and again :
The determination to do or suffer anything to give his lady pleasure
is also found in Bernart:
Re mais non am ni sai temer,
Ni ja re no m seri' afans,
Sol mi dons vengues a plazer¹;
En son plazer sia,
Qu'ieu sui en sa merce;
S'il platz que m'aucia
Ieu no m'en clam de re."
1 Raynouard, Lexique Roman, I, 373.
2 Mahn, Werke der Troubadours, Berlin, 1846–82, 1, 15.
3 Ibid., I, 21.
4 Ibid., I, 34.
↑ Ibid., I, 15.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
183
The second part of the fourteenth statute of the Court of Love,
commanding the lover to believe no evil, appears in Peire Rogier ¹:
Bos drutz non deu creire auctors
Ni so que veiran sey huelh
De neguna forfaitura
Don sap que sa domna 'l trays;
So que dis qu'a fait alhors
Creza, sitot non lo jura,
E so qu'en vi dezacuelha.2
The examples just given all belong to Group B. Lovers' symp-
toms are even more frequent. Sleeplessness is particularly common :
Ben sai la nueg quan mi despuelh
El lieg que no i dormirai re;
Lo dormir pert, quar ieu lo m tuelh,
Domna, quan de vos mi sove."
This same kind of thing is exemplified rather frequently in the
Flamenca. The following lines describing the love-anguish of Guillem.
are typical :
Apres manjar Guillems intret
En sa cambra, lai si pauset,
Si pausar pot hom appellar
Tremblar d'angoissa ni sudar,
Estendillar e trassallir,
E badaillar e sanglotir,
Planer, sospirar e plorar,
Estavanir et ablesmar (vv. 3306–13).
¹ Professor Sheldon draws my attention to a striking group of instructions in
another poem by this poet, Ges en bon vers non posc falhir, especially the last two
stanzas. See Bartsch, Chrest. Prov., 4th ed., 1880, col. 81-4; and Mahn, Werke,
I, 123-4.
2 Mahn, Werke, I, 119.
3 Bernart de Ventadorn in Mahn, Werke, etc., I, 19. For other instances see
Arnaut de Marueil in Mahn, I, 153; Bernart, ibid., I, 24; I, 38, etc.
On the gen-
eral theme see Diez, Die Poesie der Troubadours, 2d ed. by Bartsch, Leipzig, 1883,
Leben u. Werke der Troubadours, 2d ed. by Bartsch, Leipzig, 1882; Stimming, art.
on Provenzalische Litt. in Gröber's Grundriss, II, Abt. 2, pp. 1-69; and L. F.
Mott, The System of Courtly Love, Boston, 1896. To this last work I am
indebted for several of the references just given.
* Roman de Flamenca, ed. by P. Meyer, Paris, 1865. Cf. vv. 2999 ff.
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William Allan Neilson.
In the Provençal Cour d'Amour already described,' the names of
Love's barons show the same group of ideas that we find in Group
B of the statutes-Joi, Solatz, Ardiment, Cortesia, Bon' Esperanza,
Paor, Largueza, Domnei, Celament, and Dolsa Companhia.
Finally in the Breviari d'Amor, a manual of conduct begun by
Matfre Ermengaud in 1288, these ideas, found scattered through the
writings of the troubadours, are collected and arranged. The author
himself describes the part dealing with love as "le perilhos tractat
d'amor de donas segon que han tractat li antic trobador en lors can-
SOS." 2
Rules are laid down for ladies as well as for their lovers.
3
They are instructed to be neat, to have good manners both in the
house and in the street, to be gay and courteous, to keep good com-
pany, and not to stop to speak on their way from church. If any
one seeks their love they are not to shriek or complain to their hus-
bands, for such as make most noise are not the most careful guard-
ians of their honor. A lady should be sweet and gracious, yet
dignified and reserved, and ought to snub sharply all coarse and dis-
courteous lovers. A specimen dialogue after the fashion of those in
Andreas is given.*
C. FRENCH.
In this matter of the Statutes of Love, as in the case of the central
conception of the Court, Old French literature furnishes the largest
contribution. Incidental allusions in narrative poems and formal
1 See p. 30, above.
2 Le Breviari d'Amor de Matfre Ermengaud, ed. by Gabriel Azaïs, Béziers and
Paris, 1862-81, II, 430. Cf. Raimon Vidal, So fo el temps com era iays, ed. by
Max Cornicelius, Berlin, 1888, which I have not seen, but which, from the descrip-
tion given by Stimming, Gröber's Grundriss, II, Abt. 2, p. 12, seems to deal in a
comprehensive way with much of the same material as Matfre.
8 Ibid., Cosselh a las donas, II, 522.
4 The main points in the Cosselh als Amadors are these: Larguesza (vv. 31,965
ff.); Ardimen (vv. 32,125 ff.); Cortezia (vv. 32,191 ff.); Umilitat (vv. 32,270 ff.) ;
Domney, "l'art de courtiser les dames d'après les règles de la chevalerie" (vv.
32,327 ff.); Alegransa (vv. 32,378 ff.); Retenemen, i.e. restraint, moderation
(vv. 32,430 ff.); Ensenhamen (vv. 32,499 ff.); Proeza (vv. 32,568 ff.). The ex-
position of each virtue is supported by quotations from the troubadours.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
185
lists in didactic and allegorical works combine to form a plentiful
stream from the twelfth century downwards.
It is in the first of these ways, i.e., incidentally, that the story-tellers
of the time of Queen Eleanor and her daughter contribute. In Marie
de France the qualities of knighthood are those implied in the con-
stant approving use of the adjectives pruz, curteis, vaillant, hardi,
fier, franc, large, and sage. In Chrétien de Troyes the same virtues
are emphasized, and in the Cligès 2 especially several of the traditional
symptoms recur frequently.
1
Vos qui d'amor vos feites sage,
Qui les costumes et l'usage
De sa cort maintenez a foi,
N'onques ne faussastes sa loi,
Que qu'il vos an deüst cheoir,
Dites moi, se l'an puet veoir
Rien qui por amor abelisse,
Que l'an n'an tressaille et palisse? (vv. 3865–72.)
The necessity for secrecy is also fully recognized, and the heroes
live up to the requirements of such theoretical passages as this in
matters of paleness, fainting, and sleeplessness.
3
In Venus la Deesse d'Amors, when the lover lies listening to the
songs of the nightingale, the bird shows an intimate knowledge of
the tradition:
Hom qui bien aime doit auoir cuer ioli
Et souent tristre et irie et mari.
Si doit trambler mainte fois san froidor
Et doit suer mante fois sans chalor
Et sospirer et cangier sa color
Et de pensees languir et nuit et ior.
ROMAN DE LA Rose.
The commandments laid down by the God of Love in the work
of Guillaume de Lorris are not numbered, but otherwise they are
1 See E. Schiött, L'Amour et les Amoureux dans les Lais de Marie de France,
Lund, 1889.
See p. 42, above.
2 Ed. W. Foerster, Halle, 1888.
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William Allan Neilson.
24
clearly conceived as statutes to be observed by all true lovers. They
almost all come under Groups B and C, and are on the whole elevated
in tone.
The main points, severely condensed, are these ':
Group B. — To leave villany and act as a gentleman (English,
VV. 2175-2222; French, vv. 2159-94).
To avoid ribaldry; to serve and honor women, defend them against
slander, and endeavor to please them and get their good-will (Eng-
lish, vv. 2223 ff.; French, vv. 2195 ff.).
To avoid pride, and yet to be careful and neat in dress and per-
son (English, vv. 2239 ff.; French, vv. 2211 ff.).
To be always cheerful (under which come more detailed instruc-
tions as, to use one's accomplishments to entertain people,
by making mirth, by feats of horsemanship, by singing, playing,
dancing, and composing songs) (English, vv. 2290 ff.; French,
vv. 2261 ff.).
To be liberal in gifts (English, vv. 2328 ff.; French, vv.
2297 ff.).
Then, more concisely, the requirements are summed up in the
English version, vv. 2342 ff. and the French text, vv. 2310 ff., as
follows: to be courteous, void of pride, merry, liberal; to love with-
out repentance; to dwell in thought on coming meetings; to give the
heart entirely, and to one only.
GROUP C. The main symptoms are given in the passage imme-
diately following the foregoing, thus: solitariness, alternations of
heat and cold, absent-mindedness, restlessness in absence, insatiable
desire to look on the lady, bashfulness, secret haunting of her neigh-
borhood, dumbness in her presence, sleeplessness, dreaming of her
and waking to disappointment, humility, rising before dawn and
going to her house in all weathers, and leanness.
GROUP D. The clearest trace of the Ars Amatoria is found in
the instructions to give presents to the maid and other servants
(English, v. 2720; French, v. 2668).2
1 References to the English version are to Skeat's text, and references to the
French version are to the edition of P. Marteau, 5 vols., Orléans, 1878-80.
2 But see notes in Marteau's edition, passim.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
187
In Jean de Meun's part of the Roman de la Rose a short passage
occurs in which the principal points are gathered into a few lines:
Vilenie
Doi foïr, et que ne mesdie;
Salus doi tost donner et rendre ;
A dire ordure ne doi tendre ;
A toutes femmes honorer
M'estuet en tous tens laborer ;
Orgoil foïr; cointe me tiengne,
Jolis et renvoisiés deviengne ;
A larges estre m'abandoingne;
En ung seul leu tout mon cuer doingne (vv. 10,768–77).¹
From this point on, though differences of phrasing and differences
of stress occur, the general character of these statutes is fairly
constant.
HUON DE MERY.
Huon de Mery (ca. 1235), in Le Tornoiement d'Antechrist," makes
Prowess, Courtesy, and Largesse the attendants of Love.
THIBAUT.
8
Li Romanz de la Poire of Thibaut is full of allusions to the
qualities of knightly lovers. The ambassadors sent by Love to the
hero have each certain lessons to inculcate, Franchise especially
insisting on the lover's being "douz et franz et afetiez" (v. 1074),
on the importance of cortoisie (v. 1081), on absence of pride (v. 1092),
on courage (v. 1114), and on his obligation to serve, fear, and honor
his lady (v. 1091). The speech of Love himself (vv. 1234 ff.) on
the degeneracy of the lovers of the time continually lays stress on
the same qualities, and the passage in which the lover describes his
agony of despair abounds in the usual symptoms (see especially
vv. 1986 ff.).
¹ Ed. Marteau, III, 26. It should be said also that the directions for personal
cleanliness follow Ovid closely.
2 Ed. Tarbé, p. 51. See p. 48, above.
» See p. 56, above.
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William Allan Neilson.
8
Similar symptoms are alluded to in an anonymous Lai d'Amours¹
(ca. 1250), in which Love's arrow is called
Li darz qui fait muer colors,
Li darz qui ocit et refride, . . .
Li darz qui les dormanz esveille, etc. (vv. 408 ff.).
RICHARD DE FOURNIVAL.
2
La Puissance d'Amour of Richard de Fournival (d. before 1260)
is a prose Art of Love in which instructions are given for choosing
and winning a lady. Four kinds of love are distinguished, and
appropriate methods of procedure are recommended for each.
1. He who loves "pour honneur et pour miex valoir" should have
agreeable speech, generosity, courtesy, and diligence in seeking to
please his lady.
2. He who loves with a view to marriage should be gentle, kindly,
and desirous of a good reputation.
3. He who loves for solace and companionship "doit estre baus et
jolis en point et en saison," ought to get the lady's confidence, never
to bore her, and ought to induce her to accept gifts.
4. He who loves for profit also receives appropriate instructions.
The Conseils d'Amour of the same author is a book of directions for
conduct in love affairs written for a "sister." " 8 These do not touch
the statutes at many points or closely, being much taken up with
advice against arrogance on the one hand and too ready yielding on
the other. It is with reference to the first of these points that an
adaptation of the story of the Lai du Trot from Andreas Capellanus
is introduced.
DOTRINE D'AMOR.
From a MS. dated 1287, F. Wolf has printed a Dotrine d'Amor,*
the chief part of which is taken from Andreas Capellanus, some
4
1 Ed. by G. Paris, Romania, VII, 407-15.
*Analyzed by P. Paris in Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes, 1e sér., II, 43–7.
8 See P. Paris, ibid., pp. 47 ff.
4 F. Wolf, Ueber einige altfranz. Doctrinen und Allegorien von der Minne, in
Denkschriften der kais. Akad. d. Wissenschaften zu Wien, Phil.-hist. Classe, 1864,
XIII, 178 ff.
•
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
189
passages being literally translated. It contains Li comandemenz
d'amors: 66
'donques chascuns qui viaut amer, covient savoir huit
principax comandemenz d'amor, se il viaut joir de lui":
1. Cortoisie sanz aucune vilenie.
2. Largece sanz avarice.
3. Non amer fame d'autrui.
4. Non amer fame de religion.
5. Non eschafer-soi de celi que no covient d'amor.
6. Estre creenter d'amor.
7. Honorer les fames an totes guises.
8. Ardimanz sanz coardise.
ROBERT DE BLOIS.
Le Chastiement des Dames¹ of Robert de Blois consists of instruc-
tions to ladies on their relations to men and on behavior generally.
Some of these coincide with the statutes, and still further resem-
blances, treating of love less specifically, occur in the passage which
follows the Chastiement proper. Secrecy is thus commanded:
S'aucuns de vostre amor vous prie,
Gardez ne vous en vantez mie;
C'est vilonie de vanter (vv. 163–5).
Neatness of person :
Voz mains moult netement gardez,
Sovent les ongles recopez,
Ne doivent pas la char passer,
C'ordure n'i puist amasser (vv. 463–6).
Then more concisely:
Amors essauce cortoisie,
Amors het toute vilonie,
Amors contrueve les chançons,
Amors fet doner les biaus dons.
Amors ne set rien de perece,
Amors est mere de larguece (vv. 910–15).
1 Barbazan and Méon, Fabliaux et Contes, Paris, 1808, II, 184-219. See also
P. Meyer, Romania, XVI, 25 ff., XVII, 282 ff.; and Robert von Blois sämmtliche
Werke, ed. by J. Ulrich, Berlin, 1889-95, III, 62, 70, II, 120.
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William Allan Neilson.
The symptoms of love are also given:
Tout lor solaz, toute lor vie,
Et main et soir est de muser
Privéement, et de pensser (vv. 957–9).
\
La dolors que li amanz sent,
C'est souspirer et baailler,
Petit dormir et moult veillier,
Sanz froidure sentir, trambler,
Et sanz trop chaut avoir suer,
Mangier petit et boivre mains,
Estendre, pleindre et estre sains;
Descolorer et amaigrir,
Et mas et pales devenir (vv. 1039–47).
PHILIPPE DE REMI.
The ten pains inflicted by Trahison on the lover in Philippe de
Remi's Salu d'Amours' turn out to be merely symptoms of love-
sickness. They are the following: (1) to remain always in the
prison of Pensée; (2) to sigh; (3) to doubt; (4) to be wakeful; (5)
"d'estendillier "2; (6) to burn with desire; (7) to carry always in
his heart the image of his lady; (8) to be jealous; (9) to be alter-
nately hot and cold; (10) to despair.
1
GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT.
3
4
In Guillaume de Machaut's Dit du Vergier the same symptoms
of fever, change of color, and sighing are found, and the god, ad-
vising the poet about his love affairs, tells him to be loyal, secret,
and diligent in pleasing the lady."
RAOUL DE HOUDAN.
Li Romans des Eles" of Raoul de Houdan is a didactic allegory
designed to teach knights true courtesy. There is a kind of knight,
1 See pp. 59-60, above.
4 Ed. Tarbé, p. 27.
2 For the sense cf. Rom. XXIII, 130, n. 2, and Suchier's ed., II, 379.
↳ Ibid., pp. 37-38.
"See p. 61, above.
6 Ed. by Aug. Scheler, Brussels, 1868. See also F. Wolf, Ueber Raoul de
Houdene in Denkscriften der kais. Akad., Vienna, 1865, XIV, 153 ff.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
191
says Kaoul, who so prides himself on his valorous deeds that he
thinks he can dispense with the more elegant virtues. But "la
Promesse est vaine et ne confère aucun titre à l'estime, si elle n'est
pourne de deux ailes, qui sont Largece et Cortoisie." Each of
these wings is composed of seven feathers, Largece, the right wing,
containing (1) Hardement, the mother of Largece; (2) freedom
from petty economies; (3) lack of ulterior motives in giving; (4)
faithfulness in keeping promises; (5) giving quickly; (6) giving
nerously; (7) “bel doner à mangier.”
gone
Coltcisie, the left wing, consists of (1) honor to Holy Church;
(2) absence of pride; (3) absence of boasting; (4) joyfulness and
respectful treatment of women; (5) absence of envy; (6) guarding
the tongue from slander and ribaldry; (7) being a lover and a
pation one.
Though this poem is not strictly a Court of Love poem at all, and
though the precepts are meant to direct chivalrous conduct gener-
y, it is to be noted how close the list comes to the usual com-
mandments of love.
BAUDOUIN de condÉ.
A novel way of indicating the qualities of the true lover appears.
in the Prison d'Amours of Baudouin de Condé.¹ Here the Prison
is described as founded on precious stones :
Car c'est biautés, sens et proëce,
Honors, cortoizie et larguece,
Douce raizons, parole estable,
Simples regars et amiable,
Nobilités sans felonnie,
Acointance sans vilonnie,
Biau maintien, biau fait et biel dit,
Langue sans amer, sans mesdit, etc. (vv. 331-8).
JEAN DE COndé.
j de Conde's La Messe des Oisiaus² has a unique importance.
igious type of the Court of Love allegory so predominates
When
2 See pp. 67 ff., above.
1 See p. 66, above.
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William Allan Neilson.
over the feudal that the commandments, instead of taking a legal.
form, are thrown into a sermon delivered by the Parrot.
Four virtues, the preacher says, must be cultivated by all lovers.
1. Obedience. The lover must obey his lady in everything that
may please her, in word and deed.
2. Patience. He must willingly suffer the grief, pain, evil,
fatigue, and labor that come from loving, and must never complain.
If he is slandered, he must suffer in silence and not give place to
anger that might bring on annoyance.
3. Loyalty.
He is no lover who is not loyal. He must keep
secret all his trysts, bring peace and honor to his lady, and never
wish to change her for a richer or more beautiful one.
4. Hope. He must joyfully live in hope to attain his desires,
and must “son cors tenir joliement.”
It is hardly necessary to point out that though the form of state-
ment is changed here, the subject-matter is simply that of the usual
statutes.
CHASTEL DE LEAL AMOUR.
Another novel form of the statutes, probably also showing eccle-
siastical influence, is found in the Chastel de leal Amour,¹ where
they appear as the answers to questions in a kind of catechism.
I. Du chastel d'amours vous demeauns
Dunt est li primer fundement ?
D'amer lealment.
2. Or me nomez le mestre moeurs
Qe plus li fet fort et seurs?
Celer sagement.
3. Dites moi qy sunt kernels,
Les siates et les quariaus?
Regard atreiaunt.
4. Només moi ly porter et ly gaite
Qe l'entrer deferme et gayte.
D'amy danger.
1 MS. of the fifteenth century, formerly no. 8336 in Sir T. Phillipps's library
at Cheltenham. See P. Meyer in Romania, XIII, 503-5, whose text I follow.
He mentions five other MSS. of the same work: Bulletin de la Soc. des anc.
Textes franç., 1875, pp. 26 and 30.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
193
5. Q'est la clef, saver m'estoet,
Qe la porte defermer poet?
Continuelment prier.
6. Nomez la sale & le manoir
La ou poet primes joye avoir.
Doucement dalier.
7. Après la garde me nomez
Par quels le chastel est gardez.
Par contenyr nettement,
Par honorer tote gent,
Par vestir corteisement,
Par tenyr simplement.
8. Dites, sire, q'est la dart d'amour vileyn
Qe come pys me fet joe le plus eym?
Faus semblaunt.
21. Quele chose est que les amauns plus alleve
& que prymes les fet joye avoyr,
E memes cele chose plus les greve,
E les fet mettre en nounchaloyr?
Richesse.
WATRIQUET DE COUVIN.
1
In the poems by Watriquet de Couvin already described there are
abundant allusions to the virtues prescribed by the statutes, Cour-
toisie, Largesse, Netteté, and so on. Somewhat more explicit is
the Dis du Preu Chevalier," in which the knight is instructed as to
the way to "haute prouesce" by the stages of Vigour (whence he
sets out), Renommée, the hostel of Courtoisie and Largesce, Valour,
and Hardement, to Prouesce, Science, Loiauté and Vraie Amour."
The same author's Dit des huit Couleurs represents Venus as direct-
ing young bachelors in the ways of "prouesce" and love. The
instruction is given by way of interpreting the "eight colors" of a
4
1 See pp. 72, ff., above.
2 Dits de Watriquet de Couvin, ed. by Aug. Scheler, Brussels, 1868, pp. 187 ff.
» Prouesce and the three other virtues live together (vv. 252-5).
4 Ed. Scheler, pp. 311 ff.
3
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William Allan Neilson.
marvellous peacock. Li Dis de l'Escole d'Amours¹ is of the same
class and puts emphasis
En beau priant en temps et liex,
Et que li cors est gais et liez (vv. 113–14).
Other works of Watriquet de Couvin abound in similar impli-
cations.
The close resemblance between Froissart and Watriquet de Cou-
vin has already been pointed out.2 In Le Temple d'Onnour (ca.
1386) the figure of the steps, which we found in Guiraut de Calanso
and also in Watriquet, is elaborated as follows: the knights guard-
ing the steps by which the bridegroom ascends represent the virtues
of Avis, Hardement, Emprise, Atemprance, Justice, Loyauté, Lar-
gece; and the ladies guarding the steps at the bride's entrance are
called Maniere, Humilité, Francise, Courtoisie, Carité, Pité, and
Fois. This poem contains also a sermon bidding the knight honor
the church and be to his friends
and to his enemies
JEAN FROISSART.
Debonnaires, courtois et gens
Et douls com pucelete en feste (422–3),
Fel, outrageus, hardis et fiers (v. 425).
The instructions given by Love in La Cour de May³ are directed
against lying, boasting, and "tristesse," and consideration for ladies
is strongly insisted on. The inscription over the portico, against
liars and deceivers, has already been quoted. In the same poem,
Congnoissance also dwells on "leauté en couraige," "verité en
langaige," and "honnesté en usage" (vv. 76 ff.).
4
The statutes of Group A are also represented by the God of
Love's commandment:
De moy tousjours servir et craindre,
and in the advice of Courtoisie:
Tenir vers amours leaulté
Puisqu'il lui a fait feaulté (vv. 1481–2).
2 See p. 80, above.
1 Ed. Scheler, pp. 355 ff.
8 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
195
LES ÉCHECS AMOUREUX.
The rubrics of Les Échecs Amoureux¹ indicate that in this poem
Venus gives commandments, and three of the virtues which she
inculcates are mentioned: Loyalty, Secrecy, and Diligence.
LA PUISSANCE D'AMOUR.
An unpublished MS. of the second half of the fourteenth century
contains another Puissance d'Amour (to be distinguished from
Richard de Fournival's), called also Consaus d'Amours." It is a
dialogue in prose between the author and the Duke of Brabant, and
the first part is after the manner of Andreas Capellanus. The five
qualities of a lover are thus stated: (1) qu'il soit discret; (2) qu'il
soit boins; (3) qu'il ne soit ireux; (4) qu'il ne soit orghilleus; (5)
qu'il soit loiaus.
CHRISTINE DE PISAN.
The conception of the Statutes of Love was familiar enough to
Christine de Pisan. They are given, for example, in L'Epistre au
Dieu d'Amours³ :
Et ceulz tienent mes vrais commandemens,
Justes, loiaulz, et bons enseignemens ;
Si leur deffens villenie et meffait,
Et leur commans poursuivre honneur de fait,
Estre loiaulz, secrez et voir disans,
Larges, courtois, et fuïr mesdisans,
Humbles et doulz, jolis et assesmés,
Fermes et frans, poursuivré a estre amez,
Armes suïr a ceulx qu'il apartient
Loz acquerir. Qui en ce point se tient,
Sache pour vray que ne lui fauldray mie
A lui donner dame belle et amie (vv. 73-84).
1 See pp. 82 ff., above.
2 F. Wolf, Ueber einige altfranz. Doctrinen, etc., in Denkschriften der kais.
Akad. d. Wissenschaften zu Wien, Phil-hist. Classe, 1864, XIII, 135 ff.
3 Euvres Poétiques, ed. by M. Roy, Paris, 1886–96 (Soc. des anc. Textes franç.),
II, 3; and see p. 84, above.
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William Allan Neilson.
Several of Christine's ballades are devoted to describing the ideal
knight and lover. No. lxiv of her Cent Balades, beginning
1
Sages et bons, gracieux et courtois,
Doivent estre par droit tous chevaliers,
is an excellent example.
$
LE LIVRE DES CENT BALLADES.
One of the most interesting as well as one of the most exhaustive
treatments of the character of the true lover in mediæval literature
is to be found in Le Livre des Cent Ballades," which may have been
written by the famous Maréchal Bouciquaut and his companions.
The editor dates it between 1386 and 1392. The instructions for
knightly conduct are fitted into the following framework :
The young man who tells the story represents himself as meeting,
on the road between Pont de Cé and Angers, an old knight who
guesses from his appearance that he is in love. This conjecture
turning out to be correct, it gives the veteran an excuse for explain-
ing in a long series of ballades the rules of loyal and honorable
love, which Amour had given him when he was in the same case.
These rules are in substance as follows.
To be joyous day and night, to be envious of no one, to love God,
to destroy no good man's reputation, to support no bad cause, to love
his lady, to praise ses faiz, ses riz, ses jeux," and to be curious to
find things to please her (v, xxiv, etc.).
(L
""
To be "gent, "doulz et plaisant," not to be too silent but to
speak seasonably and graciously, to clothe himself neatly, not to
slander any one (vi, vii, etc.).
To be generous in giving, to be secret, not to be proud, to sing,
dance, joust, and fight well (vii, ix).
If one's own country is at peace, to get the lady's consent to go
abroad to war; to discipline one's followers (viii).
To spare no pain, peril, or labor to win honor (ix).
By following these commands, the old knight says he had won the
1 Euvres, I, 65; cf. also I, 55.
2 Le Livre des Cent Ballades, ed. by De Queux de Saint-Hilaire, Paris, 1868.
For authorship, etc., see the editor's Introduction and Rom., I, 370.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
197
love of the loveliest of all ladies, and life had been paradise to him.
The youth declares his resolve to follow the same path (li), and after
expatiating further on the beauty of loyalty and the misery of false-
ness, the old knight takes his leave (lii).
The youth next finds himself in the midst of a joyous company
disporting themselves on the banks of the Loire. But he strays off
alone to gaze on the water and think of his mistress, when a lady,
observing his lovesick appearance, comes to him with advice.
She
is surprised at his determination to be loyal, and prophesies great
dejection for him if his mistress should turn out to be unkind to him.
The instructions she offers are on a much lower plane than those of
the old knight, though some are naturally the same. Thus she too
tells him to be "gracieux, secret, débonnaire, joieux, plaisant, . . .
lié, gent, joliz, et gaillart" (lxii, lxxviii, xcii). But the burden of
her discourse is not to be too discriminating, to be pleasing to all
women, and to take what favors they offer him. Persistency is
especially recommended:
Mais les belles que prierez,
Poursuivez-les jusques en fin
Humblement . . . simplement,
without long speeches but also without long intervals, and main,
soir, nuit, et jour" (lxiii). Flattery is to be used. She dwells at
great length on the risks he runs by placing his love entirely on one
woman, and displays great ingenuity in her casuistry.
But the youth remains unconvinced, and they agree to refer the
question to some knights of renown in love and war.
The lady
refuses to defend sheer unfaithfulness, but wants to know whether
Qu'estre secret et plaisant,
Pourchaçant
En mains lieux joie pleniere,
Ne soit fait de vray amant.
Thirteen ballades in reply are given, the great majority favoring
1
the position of the old knight.
See especially the eleventh :
J'aray Dame et Seigneur
En ciel un Dieu, en terre une Déesse.
1 For the 12th and 13th see L. Pannier, Rom., I, 367-73.
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William Allan Neilson.
In this book we have very clearly opposed two different ideals of
love, of both of which we have had abundant indications in the two
preceding centuries, though we have not before found them thus
clearly contrasted. That of the lady is the old attitude which is
most clearly represented by Ovid and his medieval imitators, with
some of the grossness left out, but with an essentially immoral
element at the heart of it. It is lower than the usual troubadour
ideal, inasmuch as that made much of the virtue of loyalty to one
woman at a time. That of the old knight, on the other hand, is
loftier than the troubadour's, since it is clearly honorable love with
a view to marriage which he recommends and praises. It includes
all the nobler attributes of the medieval "gentle " knight, and all the
reverential devotion to woman which characterizes the chivalrous
youth of all times. It is, on the whole, the finest ideal to be found
in the field which we are at present attempting to cover, in the
twelfth, thirteenth, or fourteenth century. In the fifteenth, parallels
are more easily discovered.
A very delightful picture of the realization of this ideal is to be
found in the life of the famous chevalier who is supposed to be one
of the authors of Le Livre des Cent Ballades. In Le Livre des Faits
du Maréchal Bouciquaut,' we read that when the "gracieux jouvencel'
began to feel the arrows of love he became more pleasant and gracious
than ever. He made poetry, was more careful about his dress, and
constantly sought to distinguish himself in arms to win his lady's
favor. If she was present no one surpassed him "en gracieuseté
et courtoisie, en chanter, en danser, en rire, en parler, et en tous
ses maintiens." He wrote chansons and rondeaux, and recited them
in such a way as to convey secretly to his lady their application to her.
77
Ains devant elle et entre toutes dames estoit plus doux et benigne que
une pucelle. Toutes servoit, toutes honoroit, pour l'amour d'une. Son
parler estoit gracieux, courtois, et craintif devant sa Dame. Si celoit sa
pensée à toute gent, et sagement savoit jecter son regard et ses semblans
que nul n'apperceust où son cuer estoit. Humblement et douteusement
servoit Amour et sa Dame, car il lui sembloit qu'il n'avoit mie assez faict
de bien pour si haute chose requerre et demander comme l'amour de dame.
Here surely was the knight without reproach!
1 See Appendix to Saint-Hilaire's edition of Le Livre des Cent Ballades.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
199
the wolfenBÜTTEL MS.
More formally stated, but somewhat similar in spirit to the rules
of the old knight in Le Livre des Cent Ballades are ten command-
ments "moult honnêtes" drawn up by an unknown author, which
"fait Amours à ses sergens, auxquels tous cœurs loiaulx doibvent
doulcement et sans contredit obéir." The statutes are these:
I. C'est que d'orgueil et d'envye soit exempt en tous temps.
II. La parole ne dye qui a nulley puist estre nuisans.
III. A toute gent soit acquointable en parlers plaisans.
IV. E toutes villonies soit par tout eschievans.
V. D'estre faitis et quointes doibt tousjours estre en grans.
VI. De honnourer toutes femmes ne soit ja recreans.
VII. En toutes compaignies sois et lyes et ioians.
VIII. Nulx 2 villains mots ne soit hors de sa bouche partans.
IX. Soit larges aux petis, aux moyens et aux grans.
X. En ung tout seul lieu soit son cœur perseverant.
Qui ces commans ne garde
Secret et obéissant,
Aux biens d'amours qu'on garde,
Ne soit participant.
ALAIN CHARTIER.
In the works of Alain Chartier the statutes are nowhere formally
drawn up, though the traditional qualities are often mentioned.
Thus in La Belle Dame sans Mercy Secrecy is commanded:
Nul ne se doit enamourer,
S'il n'a cueur de celer l'emprise :
Car vanteur n'est à honnorer,
Puis que sa langue le desprise.3
1 Quoted by De Roisin in his translation of Diez (Essai sur les Cours d'Amour),
Paris, 1842, p. 81, note, from a XV century MS. in the library at Wolfenbüttel.
2 Printed Aulx.
3 Euvres, ed. Du Chesne, 1617, p. 521; cf. the Middle English translation by
Sir Richard Ros, vv. 737-40, Skeat, Chaucerian Pieces, p. 322.
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William Allan Neilson.
The names of the "Hospitaliers" in the Hospital d'Amour¹ are
almost all names of qualities required by the statutes.
CHARLES D'ORLÉANS.
The statutes 2 in the Poème de la Prison of the Duke of Orléans
are divided into two groups: (1) four commandments which every
subject of the God of Love must swear to observe; (2) six rules to
which the lover takes no oath, but which are recommended as likely
to be of service. Beauté it is who, under instructions from the god
himself, draws up these rules and administers the oath.
The four imperative precepts are these: (1) to hold the God of
Love as "seigneur and souverain," to be a faithful subject, and to
spare no pains in his service; (2) to love in one place only; (3)
to keep counsel, and not to give slanderers occasion to talk, by fool-
ish words and glances; (4) not to boast of ladies' favors. In these
we have, as it were, the binding rules of the game, the first being,
like the first in the English Court of Love, a formal statute in keep-
ing with the feudal situation, and the others the points which were
absolutely essential if the practice of courtly love was to go on at all.
Most of the six minor rules ought to come under Group B, as
simply regulations for gentlemanly conduct; but they are stated with
the proviso that no lover is bound to keep them "se son prouffit n'y
voit." The poet, then, regarded them rather as devices to help in
winning the lady (a sort of elevated version of the Ovidian precepts),
and so they may be referred to Group D.
Le premier est qu'il se tiengne jolis,
Car les dames le tiennent à grant pris.
Le second est que tres courtoisement
Soy maintendra et gracieusement.
Le tiers point est que, selon sa puissance,
Querra honneur et poursuivra vaillance.
1 See pp. 87 ff., above. The poem is no longer ascribed to Chartier.
2 Poésies complètes de Ch. d'Orléans, ed. by Charles d'Héricault, Paris, 1896, I,
10-12.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
201
Le quatriesme qu'il soit plain de largesse,
Car c'est chose qui avance noblesse.
Le cinquiesme qu'il suivra compaignie
Amant honneur et fuiant villenie.
Le sixiesme point et le derrenier
Est qu'il sera diligent escollier,
En aprenant tous les gracieux tours,
A son povoir, qui servent en amours.
C'est assavoir à chanter et dansser,
Faire chançons et balades rimer,
Et tous autres joyeux esbatemens (sts. 37-8).
These commandments will be discussed further in the chapter on
the immediate sources of the English Court of Love.
LAWS OF THE ROUND TABLE.
It will be remembered that in the account of the longer Code
d'Amour in Andreas Capellanus a legend was told connecting it
with the court of King Arthur. This association appears again in
some of the later prose romances, where there are to be found lists
of Laws of the Round Table, giving the qualities requisite before a
knight was admitted to fellowship in Arthur's hall. The following
group is representative, though much longer codes occur.
1. All knights must give proof of extraordinary prowess.
2. They must have shown honor and respect to ladies, and, at
some time, love.
3. One knight must not try to gain another's lady.
4. A knight must not take love favors from a damsel if she
seriously resists.
5. A knight must never refuse a lady's request, and must be pre-
pared to undertake battle for her, especially if it is to save her honor.
6. A knight must observe strict silence about favors granted him
by a lady, and about this only may lie.2
1 See chap. vii, below.
2 I follow the account in Bibl. Univers. des Romans, Paris, July, 1776, pp. 100-2,
which cites Le Roman du Roi Artus et des Compagnons de la Table Ronde, Paris,
1488, 3 vols. See also Hist. Univ, des Théâtres, IX, 229 ff., Paris, 1780.
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William Allan Neilson.
MARTIAL D'AUVERGNE.
1
The lover's symptoms appear again in L'Amant rendu Cordelier of
Martial d'Auvergne (vv. 161–214). The insistence on cheerfulness,
which occurs so often elsewhere, appears in an amusing form in the
fortieth of the same author's Arrêts d'Amours² in which
Une dame contre son amy demande qu'il soit condemné à fuyr com-
paignies melancholieuses, et que la court meist telle provision en sa per-
sonne, qu'il deveinst joyeux, comme il avoit esté.
D. ITALIAN.
Formal codes of love occur very seldom in Italian literature.
the Sicilian school we naturally find, as we found in the Provençal
troubadours, single statutes, especially belonging to Group C, scat-
tered through the lyrics. Thus, for example, we have the paleness
of the lover mentioned by Re Enzo (A.D. 1225-72):
Ed in tanti tormenti
Abbondo in mala guisa,
Che'l natural colore
Tutto perdo, sì'l cor si sbatte e lagna.³
In
4
Later, in Guittone d'Arezzo, we have a series of twenty-four son-
nets which Goldschmidt takes together as forming a kind of Ars
Amandi. These consist chiefly of the commonplaces of the trou-
badours, but show also the influence of Andreas Capellanus and
Ovid. Thus sonnets 406-8 define Love; 409 advises the lover to
declare his passion; 410 suggests different courses according to
the lady's attitude; 411 shows that too much responsiveness must
not be looked for at once; 412 provides for the lady's coldness; 413
interprets her glances; 414 shows how further behavior must be
determined by the relative social positions of the lovers. It is clear
¹ Ed. by A. de Montaiglon, Paris, 1881, for Soc. des anc. Textes franç., p. 12.
2 For an account of these Arrêts, see p. 243, below.
» Nannucci, Manuale della Letteratura italiana del Primo Secolo, 3d ed., Flor-
ence, 1874, 1, 69; D'Ancona e Bacci, Manuale della Lett. ital., I, 37.
4 D'Ancona and Comparetti, Le antiche Rime Volgari, Bologna, 1875-88, IV,
82 ff.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
203
that it is to Group D that Guittone chiefly contributes; yet more
lofty qualities are found in passages like this:
E' vuole esser l'om soferente bene
Ver tutta noia che di ciò gli avengna,
Et quanto più la donna orgolglio tene
Più umil far la sua parola e dengna.¹
Other poets commend Secrecy, Falsehood for the sake of Love,
and so on; and the figure of the steps of Love which we found first
in Guiraut de Calanso seems to have been copied from him by the
Abbate di Tiboli in a sonnet which occurs in a tenzone written with
Jacopo da Lentini.2
We have, however, an anonymous sonnet" which comes much
nearer the regular Court of Love Statutes than these fragmentary
references. It gives eight commandments, all on the traditional lines:
Otto comandamenti face Amore
A ciascun gentil core innamorato :
Lo primo che cortese in ciascun lato
Sia; è'l secondo, largo a tutte l'ore;
Non amar donna altrui è 'l terzo onore ;
Rilegion guardar dal quarto lato ;
Ben provedere porre sì 'n su' grato
È 'l quinto che de' l'omo avere in core.
Or lo sesto è cortese al mi' parere,
Che d'esser credentier fermo comanda;
Col sette a presso, onoranza tenere
Al' amorose donne con piacere ;
Donandoci poi l'otto per vivanda,
Che ardimento ci dobiamo avere.
FRANCESCO DA BARBERINO.
A collection of statutes with a Court of Love setting occurs in Li
Documenti d'Amore of Francesco da Barberino, in the fourteenth
1
¹ D'Ancona and Comparetti, no. cdxxviii.
2 D'Ancona and Comparetti, no. cccxxvi, and cf. Zt. f. rom. Phil., X, 586.
8 Ibid., cmxlix, V, 253.
4 The account given here is drawn from an analysis by A. Thomas, Franc. da
Barberino et la Littérature Provençale en Italie au Moyen Age, in Bibl. des Ecoles
franç, d'Athènes et de Rome, fasc. 35, Paris, 1883, p. 57.
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William Allan Neilson.
century. By Amore, however, the author means, not the Cupid of
the usual Court of Love allegory, but "the principle of all good."
Hence the statutes are general instructions in morals, etiquette, and
worldly wisdom. The plot, so far as it concerns our subject, is as
follows:
At the request of Love, the poet collects the servants of the
god at his castle. Then through Eloquence, Love promulgates his
statutes, the "Documenti" which are to be observed by all who
aim at the glory of serving him. These have been collected by
twelve ladies, with such names as Patience, Hope, Prudence, Glory,
Justice, Innocence, Gratitude, and Eternity; and the poet is charged
to communicate the laws to all who are not able to be present at the
parliament.
Each chapter opens with a miniature representing one of these
ladies, and there follows an explanation of the miniature, after which
the allegory is dropped for pure didacticism.
E. GERMAN.
In Germany we do not find in connection with the statutes any
such characteristic national forms as we found in the central idea of
the Court of Love allegory. The numbered commandments occur
several times, but the virtues insisted on are those with which we
are already familiar.
In Die Zehen Gebote der Minne,' a poem of the last half of the
thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century, the following are
the points of which expositions are given: (1) Triwe, (2) Zuht, (3)
Stätichait, (4) Gedulde, (5) Hübeschait, (6) Milt, (7) Verswigenhait,
(8) Balthait, (9) Mass, (10) Beschaidenhait. The virtue of " Mass"
or Measure, which we have not usually found in such lists, is, of
course, merely a borrowing from the books on conduct in general, in
which it held a very important place. The poem ends by enjoining
women to favor those who obey these commandments, and to be
chaste and faithful.
¹ Miscellancen zur Geschichte der teutschen Literatur, ed. by B. J. Docen, Munich,
1807, II, 171–88.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
205
In Ain Mynn Red von Hertzen und von Leib,¹ which has already
been noticed," Venus teaches the hero seven virtues from the Book
of Love. These are as follows:
Die erst ist hübsch mit stättem mut,
Die ander triu vor valsch behut,
Die dritt gut sitt mit freyem leben,
Die viert milt mit masz geben,
Die fünfft mit rümen und verschwigen,
So bist du lobs unuerzigen,.
Die sechszt manhaft mit guter tatt,
Die sibent zier mit guter watt (vv. 213–20).
Der Mynn Regel," in the same collection, similarly names Zucht,
Er, Masz, Scham, Triu, Stätt, Verschwigen, and Rechte Vorcht.
5
Der Mynn Regel of Everhardus Cersne, or Cerlne (before 1404),"
has already been noted as a close imitation of Andreas Capellanus.
The Hätzlerin Liederbuch has also a poem on table-manners (Von
Tisch Zucht) which touches the statute about personal neatness ;
and in Germany, as in the other countries, we have an abundance
of books on behavior in general. From Wilken's and Bartsch's
accounts of the manuscripts in the University Library at Heidelberg,'
and from the lists given in Goedeke's Grundriss, it appears that a
number of German statute poems are not yet published.
F. ENGLISH.
In bringing together the instances of Statutes of Love in Middle
English it is important to keep in mind the fact of the translation.
and wide circulation of the Roman de la Rose.
¹ Liederbuch der Clara Hätzlerin, ed. by C. Haltaus, Quedlinburg and Leipzig,
1840, no. 47, pp. 211 ff.
2 See p. 129, above.
3 Ibid., no. 58, pp. 238 ff..
* Der Minne Regel von Eberhardus Cersne aus Minden, ed. by F. X. Wöber,
Vienna, 1861.
See p. 180, above.
• Ed. Haltaus, no. 71, pp. 276 ff.
7 See the works cited p. 131, note 2, above.
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William Allan Neilson.
CHAUCER.
In The Compleynt of Venus¹ Chaucer has so changed the ballade
of Oton de Granson 2 which he was translating, that instead of the
usual lover's praise of his mistress which the French poet wrote, we
have a lady's praise of her lover. Hence the qualities which the
lady selects for mention are worth comparing with the statutes.
She delights in the manhood and the worthiness, the truth and the
stedfastness, the "gentilesse," bounty, wisdom, "governaunce," and
"noblesse" of the lover and says that
notwithstanding al his suffisaunce,
His gentil herte is of so greet humblesse
To me in word, in werk, in contenaunce,
And me to serve is al his besinesse,
That I am set in verrey sikernesse (vv. 17-21).
The second ballade of the same poem, following the original more
closely, gives us some symptoms:
As wake a-bedde, and fasten at the table,
Weping to laughe, and singe in compleyning,
And doun to caste visage and loking,
Often to chaungen hewe and contenaunce,
Pleyne in sleping, and dremen at the daunce,
Al the revers of any glad feling (vv. 27–32).³
Apart from the translation of the Roman de la Rose, however,
there is no formal issuing of commandments by Love in Chaucer ;
though many of the individual qualities occur incidentally. The
Troilus, especially, is full of lover's symptoms and contains definite.
directions to the lover as to patience, secrecy, etc.¹
4
1 Skeat's Chaucer, I, 400 ff., where the French also is given from Piaget,
Romania, XIX, 411 ff.
2 See p. 75, above.
8 Cf. Granson's poem in Rom., XIX, 414.
4 See for symptoms Troilus and Criseyde, i, 445 ff., 1072 ff.; and, for directions,
the conversations of Troilus and Pandarus in i, 806 ff., ii, 981 ff., etc.
Professor
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
207
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF LOVE.
The English Court of Love makes mention of certain statutes for
women which the hero was not permitted to read. We have once
or twice found, for example, in the Cosselh a las donas in the Breviari
d'Amor,¹ and in the Conseils d'Amour of Richard de Fournival,2
instructions for ladies, but hardly anything so formal as The X Com-
maundementes of Loue which is printed in Stow's 1561 edition of
Chaucer. These are:
1. Faithe.
Faithe is the first and principally to tell
Verie loue requireth soche credence
That eche beleue other as true as the Gospel
Without adlaucion [7. adulacion] or flatteryng audience.
2. Entencion.
Your lover to please doe your busie cure.
3. Discrecion.
In your dealyng euer be discrete,
and consider whether a man is worthy of your confidence, and if so
Poinct by discretion your hour, time, and place
Conueniently methyng with armes to embrace.
4. Pacience.
humble obedience.
pet Madde
Assuage your lover's wrath with soft words and
Kittredge also reminds me of the qualities which the hen in the Nonne Prestes
Tale demands in a husband:
We alle desyren, if it mighte be,
To han housbondes hardy, wyse, and free,
And secree, and no nigard, ne no fool,
Ne him that is agast of every tool,
Ne noon avauntour, by that god above! (vv. 93–7.)
2 See p. 188, above.
1 See p. 184, above.
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William Allan Neilson.
5. Secretnesse.
Secretlie behaue you in your werkes
In shewing countenance or meuyng of your iye.
6. Prudence.
8. Pitie.
Make priuy to your deling as few as ye maie
For .iii. may kepe a counsel if twain be awaie.
7. Perseueraunce.
Set not your loue in so feruent wise
But that in goodly hast ye maie refreine
If your louer list you to dispise.
Loue him onely, and refuse all newe-
9. Measure.
Be piteous to hym as womandhod requireth
That for your loue endureth paines smarte.
10. Mercie.
A p
Take mesure in your talkyng, be not outrage.
To hym that bounde is in loues lace
Shewe fauour, ladie, and be not merciles
Lest ye be called a common murderes.
The anonymous composer of these commandments twice refers to
"Romance myn aucthor," which may point to an original, or may
be merely an instance of what seems to have been a meaningless.
phrase with many medieval writers. The "Romance de la Rose"
is referred to in support of Measure.
LYDGATE.
The instructions given by Venus to the knight in Lydgate's Tem-
ple of Glas¹ belong for the most part to Group B. The rule to be
Euer bisie, weies forto sech
All trwe louers to relese of her peyne,
Sip pou art oon (vv. 1168-70),
1 See p. 147, above.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
209
might be taken as belonging to Group A. The commandments here
are not numbered, but are given in a loose way, the same idea often
recurring several times. The main points, however, are these:
1. To be "feipful in hert and constant as a walle," "trwe
withoute chaunge."
Euer in stidfastnes
Rote thin hert, and voide doubleness (vv. 1152–8; cf. 1187 ff., and 1201 ff.).
Cf. Court of Love, Statute iii.
2. To be "humble and meke," "lowli of pi spech to riche and
poure" (vv. 1154, 1166–7). Cf. Statutes vii and ix.
3. To be "secre" (v. 1154). Cf. Statute ii.
4. To "haue in reuerence Thes women al for pi ladi sake.
euermore vndirtake Hem to defend (vv. 1159–63).
5. To "be curteis ay" (v. 1166). Cf. Statute xviii.
6. To be "ai fressh and welbesein (v. 1167).
xviii.
>"
THE ISLE OF LADIES.
7.
“Of no wizt haue disdein . . . and neuer for cherisshing þe to
mych auaunte" (vv. 1170-2). Cf. Statute v (a).
8. To “be lusti eke, deuoid of al tristesse . . . euer be iocond"
(vv. 1173-9).
9.
Al vertues biseli pou sue, Vices eschew" (vv. 1180–1).
"For no tales pin hert[e] not remue (vv. 1182-3). Cf.
Statute xiv (b).
10.
II.
11. "None opirs beauty lat in pin herte myne" (vv. 1188-90).
Cf. Statute iii.
12. To help all true lovers (vv. 1168-71). Cf. Statute iv.
The substance of all these commands, with the possible exception
of the last, will be at once recognized as belonging to the tradition.
>>
Cf. Statute
Be diligent, awake, obey, and drede,
And not too wild be of thy countenaunce,
1 See p. 156, above.
The closing ballade of The Isle of Ladies¹ contains some of the
usual commandments :
21Ο
William Allan Neilson.
But meeke and glad, and thy nature feede,
To do each thing that may her [do] pleasance.
When thou shalt sleep, have aie in remembrance
Thimage of her which may with lookes softe
Give thee the blisse that thou desirest ofte (vv. 2220–6).¹
SIR THOMAS CLANVOWE.
At the end of a manuscript of The Cuckoo and the Nightingale, or
The Book of Cupid, God of Love,2 Professor Skeat has discovered the
words "Explicit Clanvowe," and he identifies this person with a Sir
Thomas Clanvowe who was well known at the courts of Richard II.
and Henry IV.
The poem consists chiefly of a dispute about love between the
two birds (the nightingale holding that from love "cometh al good-
nesse"), and the statutes are implied in the following lines:
Al honour, and al gentilnesse,
Worship, ese, and al hertes lust,
Parfit joye, and ful assured trust,
Jolitee, plesaunce, and freshnesse,
Lowliheed, and trewe companye,
Seemliheed, largesse, and curtesye,
Drede of shame for to doon amis ;
For he that trewly Loves servaunt is
Were lother to be shamed than to dye (vv. 152–60).
JAMES 1. OF SCOTS.
The instructions issued by Venus in the Kingis Quair are even
less formal than those in the Temple of Glas. Only one or two are
actually stated as commands; three or four others are quite clearly
indicated in a passage where Venus charges the poet with messages
to men, reproaching them for their neglect of her laws; and one or
two more are implied in the names of attendants and other persons.
1 Morris's Aldine Chaucer, V, 153.
2 Chaucerian Pieces, pp. 347–58, and Introd., pp. lvii-lxi. Cf. also E. Vollmer,
Das mittelengl. Gedicht The Boke of Cupide, Clanvowe zugeschrieben, kritische
Ausgabe, Berlin, 1898.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
2 II
These are supplemented by precepts of a like nature laid down by
Minerva, to whom Venus sends the poet.
I. Commandments of Venus.
·
1. Contynew in my seruise,
Worschip my law, and my name magnifye
That am 3our hevin and 3our paradise (vv. 855-7).
This command, which is parallel to Statute i of the Court of Love, is
followed by some verses which show clearly that it was the religious
rather than the feudal metaphor which the poet had in mind (vv.
858-61)..
2. The general command to urge men to obey her laws (vv. 799--
847) might also be considered as belonging to Group A, though
these laws in detail (3, 4, 5, 6, here following) belong rather to
Group B.
3. The songis new, the fresch carolis and dance (v. 842).
4. The lusty lyf, the mony change of game,
the lusty contenance (vv. 843-4).
5. The fresche array (v. 844).
6. The besy awayte, the hertly obseruance (v. 845).
This point appears also among Minerva's instructions :
Be . . . diligent hir merci to procure,
Noght onely in thy word, for word is noght
Bot gif thy werk and all thy besy cure
Accord thereto (vv. 918–22).
7.
"Secretee" is the "chamberere" of Venus (v. 675).
8. And 3it, considering the nakitnesse
Bothe of thy wit, thy persone, and thy myght,
It is no mach, of thyne vnworthynesse
To hir hie birth, estate, and beautee bryght (vv. 757-60),
a passage which is meant to inculcate the necessity for humility.
Cf. "be meke" in v. 918.
II. Commandments of Minerva.
1. To be virtuous and to trust in God (vv. 897-917).
2. Be trewe . . . and stedfast in thy thoght" (v. 918).
66
3.
Abyde thy time” (v. 927).
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William Allan Neilson.
4. The recommendation to diligence and thoughtfulness appears
in I, 6, above.
Both Venus and Minerva preach to the poet at considerable
length, and embroider their precepts with similes and exclamatory
passages, as, for example, that against the false lover; but the list
just given embraces all the actual points made by either.
For attendants whose names imply qualities insisted on by the
statutes, see pp. 153-4, above.
R
STEPHEN HAWES.
In The Pastime of Pleasure¹ Hawes puts the following instructions
into the mouth of Venus in chap. xxx:
And specially I gyve to you a charge
To fyxe your love, for to be true and stable
Upon your lady, and not to fle at large
As in sundry wise for to be variable,
In corrupt thoughtes vyle and culpable;
Prepence nothing unto her dishonesty,
For love dishonest hath no certaynte.
WILLIAM DUNBAR.
Among Dunbar's poems there is a short piece of three stanzas,
which has no Court of Love setting, but which nevertheless consists
entirely of Advice to Lovers. The chief points are: (1) to beware
of evil-report; (2) not to be miserly, "skerche in our spending ";
(3) "Be layth alway to do amiss or schame"; (4) to be secret;
(5) to be true; (6) not to be a liar; (7) not to be a tattler; (8)
"Be nocht of langage quhair ze suld be still "; (9) “Be nocht our
prowd, thinkand ye haif no peir"; (10) "Be ye so wyiss that vderis
at 30w leir"; (11) “Be nevir he to sklander nor defame"; (12)
"Be of 30ur lufe no prechour as a freir."
¹ Percy Society ed., 1845, p. 149.
2 S. T. S., ed. by Small, II, 162; Schipper's edition, p. 323, Vienna Acad.
Denkschr., XLII, iv, 21-3.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
213
CHAPTER V.
THE CHARACTER OF PHILOBONE.
THE function of Philobone in the Court of Love is twofold: first,
she is a guide, who shows the lover round the court and the temple,
and, second, a go-between, who introduces the lover to the lady and
gives him advice to help in winning her.
The necessity for a person to act as guide and interpreter arises
from the allegorical nature of the poem. The elaborate symbolism
demands explanation, and it is more artistic to have a dramatis per-
sona perform this than to have the author break into the narrative in
his own person.
2
The Somnium Scipionis from book vi of Cicero's De Republica is
usually regarded as the main source of the dream-form in mediæval
literature. Guillaume de Lorris mentions it as well as the Commen-
tary on it by Macrobius, in the opening of the Roman de la Rose
(vv. 7 ff.), and Chaucer quotes it at least four times. It is in this
work that we have the prototype of Philobone in her first capacity.
Scipio the younger has been hospitably entertained by Masinissa,
and, after much talk about his illustrious adoptive grandfather,
retires to rest. Scipio the elder appears to him in a vision, and
reveals to him the secrets of the after life and many of the workings
of the universe.
The influence of this vision upon the author of the Divine Comedy
is generally admitted; and the similarity of function between the
elder Africanus on the one hand, and Virgil and the other figures
who act as guides in the Divine Comedy on the other, is not the least
obvious of the parallelisms between Dante and Cicero.
Chaucer's obligation is even more clearly confessed. In the Par-
lement of Foules, after a Proem giving an outline of "Tullius of the
dreme of Scipioun," the elder Scipio appears in a vision to Chaucer
himself, and leads him into the park in which the scene of the Parle-
1 Immediate source is, of course, meant. Visions occurring in Greek literature,
e.g., that of Er in Plato, doubtless count among ulterior sources.
2 Skeat's Chaucer, I, 505-6, n. to v. 31 of Parlement of Foules.
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William Allan Neilson.
2
ment is laid. The eagle in the second book of the Hous of Fame
does the poet a similar service, and so, in the third book, does the
unknown man who takes him to the House of Rumour.¹ In the
German poem Die Minneburg we have two men: first, the cham-
berlain, who explains the elaborate symbolism of the pillars and
glass figure; and, second, Meister Neptanaus from Alexandria, who
interprets the allegory of the castle as a whole. In Petrarch the
melancholy shade of a fellow Tuscan ³ explains to the poet the mean-
ing of the different features of the Trionfo d'Amore.
3
4
But the business of cicerone in the medieval allegories, especially
in France, is usually given to a maiden. In the procession that fol
lows the God of Love in Andreas Capellanus, it is one of the ladies
doomed to purgatory that tells the knight the reason of the fates of
those he sees. In the Fablel dou Dieu d'Amours" a nymph escorts
the lover round the palace and shows him the grave of her own dead
knight. In the Roman de la Rose various ladies, such as Idleness
and Courtesy, explain things to the hero. Influenced by this model,
doubtless, King René makes Oyseuse, "la belle amie du dieu
d'Amours," and Bel Acueil show to the Heart and his companions
the wonders of the palace of the god."
In the Kloster der Minne' the fellow-countrywoman whom the
hero meets and with whom he views the tournament, not only
explains to him the rule of the Kloster, but gets along so well with
him that before the end of the poem they are lovers. This is an
unusual development.
8
The lady in the English Flower and the Leaf who tells the poetess
the meaning of the costumes of the two parties of knights and ladies
is herself a member of the train of the Queen of the Leaf. So also
the nymph who guides Gavin Douglas in the Palice of Honour, lift-
ing him up steep mountains by the hair, fishing him out of the moat
when he falls over the bridge, and reviving him when he faints, is a
lady of the court of Calliope."
¹ Hous of Fame, bk. iii, vv. 1868 ff.
2 See pp. 123 ff., above.
8
See p. 113, above.
4 See p. 47, above.
5 See p. 41, above.
6 See pp. 89 ff., above.
7 See p. 127, above.
8 See p. 150, above.
9 See p. 162, above.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
215
The other function of Philobone seems to point to an altogether
different ancestry. In the Court of Love itself, as has been said,
she arranges the meeting between Philogenet and Rosial, and gives
Philogenet hints for becoming behavior; thus:
Well, all is well! Now shall ye seen," she seid,
"The feirest lady under son that is :
Come on with me, demene you liche a maid,
With shamefast dred, for ye shall spede, y-wis,
With her that is the mirth and joy and blis:
But sumwhat straunge and sad of her demene
She is, be ware your countenaunce be sene
(4
Nor over light, ne recheless, ne to bold,
Ne malapert, ne rinning with your tong" (vv. 729-37).
Now Philobone is a perfectly proper and a very friendly young
woman, and it seems almost ungentlemanly to hint that she may
have low connections. Yet this match-making side of her character
leads us to compare her with the obnoxious figure of the procuress
who plays so important a rôle in love-stories from the classics
onwards.
The most important appearance of this type of character in Ovid
is that of Dipsas,' who, however, is represented as instructing the
mistress how to gain the lover. The most frequent go-between on
behalf of the man is the maid-servant, such as Nape' or Cypassis,"
who is bribed to speak well of the lover to her mistress and lead her
to think favorably of him.
The most important medieval source for this type is the figure of
the old woman in Pamphilus. Her function is to prepare the mind
of the girl, to arrange meetings, and to give the hero hints as to
methods of attack. Many of the later examples of this type of char-
acter, such, for example, as Celestina in the tragi-comedy of that
name," are imitated from the hag in Pamphilus; while others, male
(like Pandarus) as well as female, have an independent origin. Even
1 Amores, i, 8.
4 See pp. 173-4, above.
2 Ibid., i, II.
5 See p. 174, above.
3 Ibid., ii, 7-8. Cf. also Ars Amat., i, 351 ff.
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William Allan Neilson.
1
in Pamphilus, however, all the directions for seduction are not given
by the old woman; the goddess Venus herself, as has been noted
in chap. iv, gives precepts of no lofty ethical tone. The author
of the Panthère d'Amours also, who shows a tendency to use his
divinities with somewhat scanty reverence (as in his making Cupid
serve as interpreter of the symbolism of the Panther 2), makes Venus
advise with the lover, suggest the sending of rings and verses, and
attempt to stir up his courage to seek a personal interview.
There is no doubt that the author of the Court of Love had a
pretty wide knowledge of the class of literature of which his own
poem is an example, so that both of these types must have been
familiar to him. The situation being what it is in the Court of Love,
it required no extraordinary imagination to combine the rôles, and
thus to produce the character of Philobone.
CHAPTER VI.
THE BIRDS' MATINS.
THE Court of Love closes with a service sung by birds in honor of
the God of Love.
A -.-- một
On May-day, whan the lark began to ryse,
To matens went the lusty nightingale
Within a temple shapen hawthorn-wise;
He might not slepe in all the nightertale,
But "Domine labia," gan he crye and gale.
"My lippes open, Lord of Love, I crye,
And let my mouth thy preising now bewrye" (vv. 1352–8).
The eagle sang "Venite," the falcon "Domine, Dominus noster,"
the popinjay "Celi enarrant," the goldfinch "Domini est terra,"
and the wren "Jube, Domine," as the first lesson; the robin and
the turtle-dove the second and third lessons, and so on through a
1 See pp. 173-4, above.
2 See p. 70, above.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
217
series of parodies of Matins and Lauds, all of which can be recog-
nized in the medieval prayer-book. After the Amen,
1
.. furth the cokkow gan procede anon,
With "Benedictus" thanking god in hast,
That in this May wold visite thaim echon,
And gladden them all whyl the fest shall last :
And therewithall a-loughter out he brast,
"I thank it god that I shuld end the song,
And all the service which hath been so long" (vv. 1422-8).
In this passage (vv. 1352-1428) there is a combination of two
distinct features found more frequently apart in mediæval literature:
(1) the association of birds with the love-divinities, and (2) the paro-
dying of religious services. These will first be taken up separately;
and then the occasional instances of their combination will be given.
A. BIRDS AND THE LOVE-DIVINITIES.
The association of birds with Venus goes back, of course, to the
classics, where the goddess is constantly represented as drawn in a
car by doves, or as having doves flying around her. In the sixth
book of the Eneid, Virgil, speaking of Æneas, says:
Tum maximus heros
Maternas agnoscit aues.
2
In the Triumph of Love already quoted from Ovid the god cries
"Maternas junge columbas." Tibullus, in the picture of the Elysian
Fields to which Venus leads him, writes:
passimque uagantes
Dulce sonant tenui gutture carmen aues³;
and examples could be multiplied indefinitely.
Fulgentius, who explained everything in classical mythology, has
already been quoted in his account of Venus's special guardianship
over doves, "quod huius generis aues sint in coitu feruidae."
1 For details see Skeat, Chaucerian Pieces, pp. 552-3.
2 See p. 11, above.
8 See p. 12, above.
4 See p. 22, above, for context.
Q
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William Allan Neilson.
The mating of birds in the early spring as one of the first signs of
the new season, and the prominence that this phenomenon attained
in literature in connection with St. Valentine's Day, must also have
gone to emphasize the association.
2
The very first group of mediæval Court of Love poems shows us
the tradition firmly established. The barons forming the court of the
King of Love in Florance et Blancheflor are birds, and the nightingale
and parrot settle the dispute by wager of battle.' The nightingale in
the Fablel dou Dieu d'Amours presides at a discussion on the worthy
lover, and in Venus la Deesse the same bird gives the description of
the "hom qui bien aime," already quoted among the statutes. In
the Fablel, when the hero comes to the grave of the king's son who
was slain fighting for a maiden, he says:
Oysiaus i ot; por l'ame del signor
Qui la gisoit, cantent de vrai amor (p. 31).
Venus appears with eight doves in the Roman de la Rose,* and in
the description of the God of Love we read:
But nightingales, a ful gret route,
That flyen over his heed aboute,
The leves felden as they flyen;
And he was al with briddes wryen,
With popinjay, with nightingale,
With chalaundre, and with wodewale,
With finch, with lark, and with archaungel
3
(English translation, vv. 909-15).
The description of the armor of Love in the Tornoiement d'Anté-
christ" includes a shield with silver nightingales and other birds on
it. The approach of the God of Love to the castle in the Romanz
de la Poire" is heralded by the song
Des rossignox et des kalendres
Et des autres oiseillons mendres,
Oriox, merles et mauviz (vv. 1122-4).
1 See pp. 36-7, above.
2 See p. 41, above.
See pp. 42 and 185, above.
4 Ed. Marteau, III, 396, v. 16441.
See p. 48, above.
"See p. 56, above.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
219
Birds sing round the God of Love as he rides at the head of his
train in the Panthère d'Amours,¹ and round his throne in the Parle-
ment d'Amour."
In Chaucer, the Compleynt of Mars, which begins,
Gladeth, ye foules, of the morow gray,
Lo! Venus risen among yon rowes rede!
is sung by a bird on St. Valentine's Day. On the same day the
Parlement of Foules is held, and there the sparrow is called "Venus
sone" (v. 351). In the Prologue to the Legend of Good Women, a
lark announces the coming of the God of Love, and in his meadow
somme songen clere
Layes of love, that ioye hit was to here,
In worshipinge and preisinge of hir make.
And, for the newe blisful somers sake,
Upon the braunches ful of blosmes softe,
In hir delyt, they turned hem ful ofte,
And songen, 'blessed be seynt Valentyn !
For on his day I chees yow to be myn,
Withouten repenting, myn herte swete!'
And therwith-al hir bekes gonnen mete,
Yelding honour and humble obeisaunces
To love (Version B, vv. 139–50).
It is on St. Valentine's Day also that the lark, in the beginning of
Lydgate's Flour of Curtesye, sings:
Awake, ye lovers, out of your slombringe (v. 10),
Take upon you the blisful holy charge
To serve love, whyl your lyf may dure,
With herte, body, and al your besy cure,
For evermore, as Venus and Cipryde
For you disposeth, and the god Cupyde (vv. 17-21).
All about the ships of the God of Love, in the Isle of Ladies, birds
Sate and song with voice full out,
Ballades and layes right joyously,
As they cowth in here harmony (vv. 716-18).
1 See p. 70, above.
2 See p. 86, above.
8 Chaucerian Pieces, p. 266.
* See pp. 156-7, above.
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William Allan Neilson.
"The lytil
The Kingis Quair is full of the love-songs of birds.
suete nyghtingale" sang "the ympnis consecrat off lufis vse," and
"lo the text":
Worschippe,. 3e that loueris bene, this May,
For of 3our blisse the kalendis are begonne,
And sing with vs, "away, Winter, away!
Cum, Somer, cum, the suete sesoun and sonne!
Awake for schame! that haue your hevynnis wonne,
""
And amorously lift vp your hedis all,
Thank Lufe that list 3ou to his merci call (vv. 232–8).
Again, in the conceit in which Venus calls the raindrops her tears,
she claims the birds as peculiarly in sympathy with her (vv. 820-3).
In the introduction to Lancelot of the Laik,' it is a bird that comes
to the love-lorn hero as a messenger from Cupid. Dunbar, who
calls them "Venus chapell clarkis," " makes "the mery foulis, blis-
fullest of chere," sing "to dame Venus, lufis mychti quene
ballattis in lufe, as was the gyse."
In the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili¹ birds echo the name of Adonis
around his tomb (i, 24).
Besides all these instances of definite association with Venus or
Cupid, there must be kept in mind the constant presence and sing-
ing of birds in the conventional May-morning landscape which intro-
duces so many Court of Love poems.
1 See pp. 158-9, above.
2 The Golden Targe, v. 21.
•
B. PARODIES OF RELIGIOUS SERVICES.
We have noticed from time to time in previous chapters a tend-
ency of the prevailing metaphor in the Court of Love to change
from the feudal to the religious. A temple sometimes accompanies.
and sometimes replaces the castle; prayers with incense and offer-
ings take the place of legal pleadings; and an altar with a statue
appears instead of a throne occupied by a living sovereign. It has
already been remarked also, that the religious forms that thus crept
8 Ibid., vv. 102 ff.
* See pp. 117 ff., above.
q•
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
221
into the allegory were not those consistent with the worship of a
pagan deity, but were rather those of medieval Christianity.
Venus, in fact, was put in the place of the Virgin; or rather, the
modes of adoration of the Virgin were transferred to the shrine
of Venus.
Auxiliary to this was the fashion of using the terminology of
religious devotion towards a lady, in non-allegorical poetry. This
was not confined to the attitude implied in the resolution in the Livre
des cent Ballades,
J'aray Dame et Seigneur,
En ciel un Dieu, en terre une Déesse (p. 225),
but led to the use of biblical and religious phrases in quite alien fields
of erotic verse. An example is found in Guillaume de Machaut's
Dit du Vergier, where Love speaks at length on his power of mak-
ing the foolish wise and the wise foolish,' exalting the lowly and
humbling the proud, with an obvious allusion to Scripture. So
Bernard de Ventador compared a kiss to the joys of Paradise, and
thought a day spent in a love adventure worth a hundred. Arnaut
Daniel was willing to hear masses and burn candles to gain his
lady's favor.2
More formal and elaborate, and more strictly entitled to be called
parodies, are the Paradiso, Purgatorio, and Inferno of lovers in
Andreas Capellanus and the parallel passages; and the reading of
Ovid and singing of love-songs instead of the Gospel and Psalms
for the day in the Romaricimontis Concilium. In Venus la Deesse
d'Amor¹ a bier with the body of a true lover is brought in, and a
funeral service is held in the temple of the God of Love.
Paternosters and Credos were frequently made the vehicles of love
sentiments and others quite as far removed from their original mean-
ings. Thus, in the Patenostre d'Amours," a lover regrets the inac-
1 Cf. I Cor., iii, 18-20, etc.
2 For these and other instances see P. L. Ginguené, Histoire littéraire d'Italie,
Paris, 1824, 1, 307-8.
See pp. 31 ff., above.
4 See pp. 42 ff., above.
6 Barbazan et Méon, Fabliaux et Contes, IV, 441–5.
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William Allan Neilson.
cessibility of his lady, working in the phrases of the prayer with
little enough appropriateness: e.g.,
Et dimitte nobis. Por qoi,
Dame, n'avez merci de moi?
Debita nostra. Douce amie,
Por Dieu le filz Sainte Marie
6
Vous pri qu' aiez merci de moi,
Quar je vous aim en bone foi (vv. 57–62).
4
5
Similar instances are the Patenostre du Vin,' the Credo au Ribaut,2
in which a debauchee mixes the words of the Creed with regrets
for his wickedness, the Patenostre a l'Userier, and the Credo a
l'Userier, in most of which, however, the words of the prayer or
the Creed are not welded into the general sense of the passage. It
ought to be said, too, that these are not in the proper sense bur-
lesques, i.e. there is no attempt made to ridicule the sacred things.
parodied, but only a borrowing of sacred formulas to give piquancy
to the secular matter.
Somewhat more literary skill is shown in the De Profundis des
Amoureux. Here the Latin phrases actually join in sense to the
French verse, and the "
and the "depths" of love are substituted for the
theological conception.
3
Dedans le goulfre tenebreux,
Où sont amoureux interdis,
Plungé suis, moy, pouvre amoureulx,
Las, ouquel lieu, de profundis
Clamavi à celle que j'ayme,
Par qui suis ainsi tourmenté;
Las, c'elle m'y laisse en ceste flamme,
Secours n'ay nul, sinon ad te,
Domine Cupido, mon maistre,
Domine es preux et hardy.
1 Jubinal, Jongleurs et Trouvères, pp. 69–72.
2 Barbazan et Méon, IV, 445-52.
8 Ibid., IV, 99–106.
4 Ibid., IV, 106–14.
5 In the Credo au Ribaut, however, this is done very cleverly.
• Montaiglon, Recueil de Poésies franç., etc., Paris, 1855 ff., IV, 206 ff.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
223
It concludes thus:
Sicut erat ainsi seray,
In principio vueille ou nom,
Et nunc et semper l'aymeray
In secula seculorum,
Then follow the
in excelsis: —
Amen.
2
The same collection contains the Patenostre des Verollez, avec une
Complaincte contre les Medecins,' and the Pater Noster des Angloys, a
political satire.
3
The most elaborate example in English is the Venus Mass of
John Lydgate. This begins with the Introibo ("Introibo ad altare
Dei," etc.),
Wyth all myn Hool Herte entere
To fore the famous Riche Autere
Of the myghty god of Love
Whiche that stondeth high above
In the Chapel of Cytheron
I will wyth gret devocion
Go knele and make sacrifyse
Lyke as the custom doth devyse (p. 390).
Confiteor, Misereatur, Officium, Kyrie eleyson, Gloria
Worsshyppe to that lord above
That callyd ys the god of love,
Pes to hys seruantes euerychon
Trewe of herte, stable as ston
That feythful be (p. 392),
the Oryson, and, finally, the Epystel in prose, in which, after greet-
ings to all faithful brethren, the clerk speaks of his own life as that
of "an errynge pylgrym in the seruyse of the myghty and dredful
god of loue." He calls to mind the examples of Troilus, Penelope,
Polyxena, Dido, the "holy legende of Martyrs of Cupydo,” and
1 Montaiglon, I, 68-72.
2 Ibid., I, 125–30.
8 Ed. by T. F. Simmons for E. E. T. S. in the Lay Folks Mass Book, Lond.,
1879, pp. 389 ff.
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William Allan Neilson.
many more; and ends by asking for the prayers of the brethren
sum mercy fynde, or that the god of love enspyre my
that he may
“ ໄ
ladyes herte of hys grace what I endure for hyr sake.”
In the Parliament of Love¹ the company "songe a balad stede of
the masse."
The Dregy of Dunbar, maid to King James the Fyift being in Striuil-
ling,' is a parody on the Dirige, made "in order to relieve the King
out of the state of purgatory" at Stirling, where he was staying in
the Franciscan convent, and bring him back to his courtiers at
Holyrood. It begins:
We that ar heir in hevins glory,
To 30w that ar in purgatory,
Commendis ws on our hairtly wyiss.
The style of the burlesque may be gathered from the Lectio prima :
The Fader, the Sone and Haly Gaist,
The mirthfull Mary, virgene chaist,
Of angellis all the ordouris nyne,
And all the hevinly court devyne,
Sone bring 30w fra the pyne and wo
Of Striuilling, every court-mannis fo,
Agane to Edinburchis ioy and bliss,
Quhair wirschep, welth and weilfar is,
Pley, plesance and eik honesty:
Say 3e amen, for cheritie.
Then follow the Responsio (“Tu autem Domine "), second and third
lectiones with responses, and the whole ends with an Oremus in
Latin.
A slight reference to the same kind of thing, probably after the
date of the Court of Love, occurs in Sir David Lindesay's Testament
of Squyer Meldrum," where the squire in ordering his funeral says,
Se that ze thoill na Priest in my Processioun,
Without he be of Venus Professioun :
1 See p. 158, above.
2 See Schipper's edition in Denkschriften, etc., XL, ii, 41–3.
8 See Works of Sir D. Lyndesay, E. E. T. S., Pt. III, 1868, p. 371.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
225
Quhairfoir, gar warne all Venus chapel clarks,
Quhilk hes bene most exercit in hir warkis,
With ane Bischop of that Religioun,
Solemnitlie gar thame sing my saull mes,
With organe, Timpane, Trumpet, and Clarion.
Of the same period, in France, is the anonymous Tenebres des
Pauvres Prisonniers, a parody of the matins for the Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday of Holy Week.'
C. PARODIES SUNG BY BIRDS.
The combination of the two features, the history of which has
just been examined, did not begin with the author of the English
Court of Love. The most extensive and elaborate example of the
religious service sung by birds in honor of Venus is a poem already
outlined, La Messe des Oisiaus 2 of Jean de Condé, written two cen-
turies before our English poem.
In the work of Jean de Condé, Venus, who has been received by
the birds with great joy, commands the nightingale to sing mass
before they dine. So the nightingale begins with the Confession,
and, immediately after it, the larks up above begin the Introit, the
other birds joining; then, in a beautiful clear voice, all together
sing the Litany. When that is finished the nightingale leads in
the Gloria in excelsis, after which service is interrupted in order to
have the cuckoo driven out. Resuming, the nightingale turns to the
congregation and says "Dominus vobiscum," and they all respond
heartily. The priest repeats the Collect; the thrush in his highest
voice reads the Epistle; after which the larks, who never tire of
singing, begin the Alleluia in which a chorus of about five hundred
birds join. When that is finished four birds, the goldfinch, the lin-
net, the chaffinch, and the "chinchevens," sing another in four parts,
all the birds, led by the larks, joining in again at the close. The
blackbird reads the Gospels; the nightingale repeats the Creed; and,
after the singing of the Offertory, the parrot preaches the sermon
1 Euvres de Clément Marot, ed. by G. Guiffrey, Paris, 1876, II, 519 ff.
2 See pp. 67 ff., above.
226
William Allan Neilson.
which has already been described,' and absolution is bestowed. Just
as all the lovers fall on their knees, the cuckoo comes flying over, cry-
ing "Tout cuku" and causing great indignation. When they have
returned from pursuing the scoffer, the nightingale begins the Preface,
and the Sanctus is sung. The priest devoutly elevates a beautiful
red rose, surpassing all flowers in beauty, perfume, and size, and
then lowers it again. The Paternoster is chanted and the Agnus
Dei follows. The priest wishes the dove to bring the "peace,"
and he brings in his bill a green rush, from which comes a great
sweetness. From the rose the priest takes three leaves, which he
uses to perform cures, yet the rose remains entire. Then with wine
and water in a chalice the remaining ceremonies are duly performed;
all sing the Postcommunion; the nightingale says the closing Col-
lect, and the blackbird "Ite missa est." The other birds reply
with Deo gratias, the priest pronounces the Benediction, "et a dit
l'ewangile en bas," and the service ends.
Very similar to this, though much shorter, is the poem by Lydgate,
the Devotions of the Fowles.2 The poet walks out in the sunshine
and hears the popinjay sing the Nativity (“A solis ortus cardine "),
the pelican the Redemption (“Vexilla regis prodeunt "), the night-
ingale the Resurrection ("Consurgat Christus tumulo "), the lark
the Ascension ("Eterne rex altissime"), the dove "Veni Creator
Spiritus," and all the birds together "O lux beata Trinitas."
8
A Proper New Boke of The Armonye of Byrdes, sometimes ascribed,
without proof, to Skelton, may be later than the English Court of
Love. Here the author goes out on an April morning and sees on
a tree
Byrdes as thycke As sterres in the skye,
Praisyng our Lorde Without discorde,
With goodly armony.
The popyngay Than fyrst dyd say,
Hoc didicit per me,
Emperour and kyng Without lettyng
Discite semper a me.
1 See p. 192, above.
2 Lydgate's Minor Poems, ed. by J. O. Halliwell for Percy Society, Lond.,
1840, pp. 78 ff.
8 Ed. [by J. P. Collier] for Percy Society, VII, Lond., 1843-
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
227
A long list of birds take up, one by one, a chant or psalm or
hymn, from the wren to the phoenix. Then they all fly away
and
I sayd, In te, Domine,
Speravi cotidie,
That I fall not in infernum;
And than with thy grace,
After this place,
Non confundar in eternum.
Note that the service in these last two examples is not addressed
to the God of Love, but may be genuinely devout.
Besides these extensive descriptions of birds' services, we have
hints of the same idea in short passages. Thus in the Cuckoo and
the Nightingale¹ which Professor Skeat has plausibly attributed to
Sir Thomas Clanvowe (beginning of fifteenth century), the author
says of the birds:
They were so joyful of the dayes light
That they begonne of May to don hir houres!
They coude that servyce al by rote (vv. 69–71).
Again in The Golden Targe, Dunbar says, "Full angellike thir
birdis sang thair houris" (v. 10), and he (v. 21) calls the birds
"Venus chapell clarkis," as Lyndesay did after him.³
3
Thus it appears that, though the different elements which are
present in the Birds' Matins at the end of the English Court of Love
(the association of Birds with Venus, and the custom of parodying
church services) were common enough in both French and English
poetry, the combination of the two is found elaborately worked out
only, so far as I can discover, in the Messe des Oisiaus.
The poet
of the Court of Love may, of course, have worked it up from such
hints as have been quoted from Clanvowe and Dunbar, or he may
have combined the two elements for himself; but in view of the
fact that he, like other mediaval poets, seldom invented when he
could imitate, it is more than probable that the source of the last
section of our poem is to be found in Jean de Condé.
1 Chaucerian Pieces, p. 350.
2 See pp. 163 ff., above.
8 See p. 225, above.
228
William Allan Neilson.
CHAPTER VII.
THE IMMEDIATE SOURCES OF THE COURT OF LOVE.
THE foregoing chapters have furnished in considerable detail the
means of realizing the extent to which the main features of the
Court of Love were prevalent in the love-allegory of Western Europe
for at least three centuries before the English poem was written.
Certain of these features have proved to be so common that it is
useless to regard them as in themselves means of proving any im-
mediate relation to any particular source or sources. Thus, such
conceptions as that of Venus or Cupid holding a court in which
courtiers, either allegorical personages or the ghosts of famous
lovers, form the retinue of the divinity; a temple of Venus in which
lovers offer sacrifices and prayers; the gorgeous palace of the
goddess; the decoration of walls with love-stories; the description
of the medieval type of female beauty (with golden hair, laughing
eyes, red lips, fair skin, even teeth, slender figure, and so on);
the May-morning landscape, with streams and flowers and birds;
the presenting of "complaints" and "bills "; the nymph who acts
as guide and interpreter; with a score of minor details
such con-
ceptions occurring in any two poems tell nothing whatever about
the immediate relations of these poems.
It is necessary, therefore, if we are to prove anything with regard
to those sources which actually suggested certain features of the
Court of Love, to find either striking parallelisms in detail which can-
not be set aside as commonplaces, or the presence of some distinct
feature which in itself is not a regular part of poems of the type.
What has been said of commonplaces in general may be said
almost as strongly of the main features of the Roman de la Rose.
A direct knowledge of that poem by any later mediæval author is to be
presumed almost as certainly as a knowledge of the Bible; and even
though a writer had not himself read the book, its influence would
still appear in his work if he followed the allegorical tradition at all.
And this tradition, it has sufficiently appeared, every allegorist did
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
229
follow. The relations of the Court of Love, therefore, to the Roman
de la Rose will not be discussed in detail.
The evidence in the case of Chaucer's influence is more tangible;
and this influence was both mediate and immediate. Lydgate was
a professed disciple, and he, for one, can be proved as an intermediary
for the indirect influence. But there abound in the Court of Love
phrases which recall Chaucerian phrases, and it is not possible to
determine whether these came directly from the master himself, or
whether the Court of Love poet got them from one of his numerous
imitators.¹
1
The most important single element in the Court of Love traceable
to Chaucer, is the prominence given to Alcestis, a prominence which
seems clearly the result of an acquaintance with the Legend of Good
Women. The Castle of Love in our poem is :
Within and out depeynted wonderly,
With many a thousand daisy, rede as rose,
And white also, this saw I verily :
But what tho daises might do signify,
Can I not tell, sauf that the quenes flour
Alceste it was that kept there her sojour;
Which under Venus lady was and quene,
And Admete king and soverain of that place,
To whom obeyed the ladies gode ninetene (vv. 100-8).
The last phrase is decisive. Alcestis is by no means a rare figure
in medieval poetry,2 though of much more frequent occurrence after
Chaucer than before, and she is mentioned by Lydgate in the Tem-
ple of Glas without any reference to the nineteen ladies. This num-
ber indicates a clear reference to the Prologue of the Legend of Good
Women, as also does the important rôle assigned Alcestis as Queen
of Love.
1 See Professor Skeat's notes to the Court of Love in Chaucerian Pieces, pp. 540-
53, where such phrases are usually unhesitatingly treated as direct borrowings
from Chaucer.
2 See Schick's edition of the Temple of Glas, p. 74, note on vv. 70-4, for a
very full list of references.
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William Allan Neilson.
(6
The part played by Pity in the Court of Love is pretty certainly also
due to Chaucer's influence. It will be remembered that Philogenet
notices (vv. 693 ff.) in the Temple of Love a jewelled shrine where,
Philobone tells him, a tender creature is shryned . . . and Pite is
her name." She had seen an eagle "wreke him on a fly" and had
died of tender' heart. Since then lovers had been ill-off, and only
"hot corage spedeth the maters all of court" now. Here a reflec-
tion seems to be cast on the ways of women as degenerate, and it is
natural that, when it is necessary to have Rosial relent, the author
should want to make her do so from the more womanly motive. So
he brings Pity to life again.
Out of her shryne she roos from deth to lyve (v. 1324),
and persuaded Rosial to be gracious.
Now Pity is a frequent enough figure among the personifications.
that throng the Court of Venus, but Pity dead and buried is Chaucer's
idea.¹ We have indeed, in the English version of the Poème de la
Prison of Charles d'Orléans some references to Pity's being asleep.
and again
But when a lady longe hath seyne
Hir man in such perplexite
Though pity full aslepe haue leyne
She must awake him of bounte.2
Again, speaking of Danger and Distress,
Allas they shulde so have ther dwelling, fy,
In louys court, but pity slepeth fast,3
For loue wolde that bewte shulde it kepe,
And she was loth, for pite was aslepe.*
But none of these lines occurs in the French version, and it is pos-
sible that the English translator was influenced by Chaucer.
1 Or an idea borrowed by him from the (lost) source of his Compleynte. It is
more likely that our author knew Chaucer than that he was acquainted with
this hypothetical original.
2 Poems written in English by Charles, Duke of Orleans, ed. by G. W. Taylor
for the Roxburghe Club, Lond., 1827, p. 110.
8 Ibid., p. 27.
4 Ibid., p. 8, v. 6.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
231
The situation in Chaucer's Compleynte unto Pite, moreover, though
by no means identical with that in the Court of Love, is yet much
closer to it than the situation in any other poem that I have found.
In the Compleynte the poet, distressed by his love's tyranny, says:
Around her hearse stood Bounty, Fresh Beauty, Lust, Jollity, and
others "withouten any wo" and "confedred alle by bonde of Cruel-
tee” (v. 52). The bill he had written to present to Pity follows,
and, though purporting to have been written before she died, it
contains a reference to her death (v. 117). There is no resuscita-
tion here; but it seems fair to suppose that the Court of Love author
borrowed the idea of the shrine, and had the further development
suggested by the circumstances in his own poem.
We may note also the reference to Chaucer's Anelida and Arcite in
vv. 233-5:
with
To Pite ran I, al bespreynt with teres,
To preyen hir on Crueltee me awreke.
But, er I might with any worde out-breke,
Or tellen any of my peynes smerte,
I fond hir deed, and buried in an herte (vv. 10–14).
and sufficiently clear verbal agreements in
and
with
And the weymenting
Of hir, Anelida, true as turtill-dove,
To Arcite fals,
For love wil not be countrepleted, indede (v. 429),
For Love ne wol not countrepleted be
(Legend of Good Women, version B, v. 476);
Eke ye must bait on many an hevy mele (v. 194),
On many a sory meel now may she bayte
(Canterbury Tales, B, 466).
After the elevation of Alcestis to the position of Queen of Love,
the next most distinguishing feature of the Court of Love is the
classification of the lovers who come to present complaints to Venus.
Complaints, of course, we have in abundance, and most courts of
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William Allan Neilson.
Venus have had some one who came before the goddess with a
grievance. But this elaborate description of the various classes of
suitors and their causes of complaint seems to be the invention of
Lydgate, from whom both James I. of Scots and the author of the
Court of Love borrowed it. In the following table I have selected
from the Temple of Glas, in which the list is by far the longest, those
classes that are paralleled in either of the other poems. In all three
cases the description of the complainants is introduced by mention
of famous lovers. In Lydgate and the Court of Love these are
painted on walls or windows, and in both Dido's is the first name;
in the Kingis Quair no names are given, because of them
maid is mencioun
In diuerse bukis, quho thame list to se;
And therefore here thaire namys lat I be (vv. 544–6)
the Temple of Glas, as Schick suggests, being probably one of the
"diuerse bukis."
The cause of complaint in each case is some hindrance to love,
such as
Jealousy
Unrequited love (Daunger, etc.)
Poverty, Wealth of rivals, etc.
Loveless marriages
Absence
Falseness
Death of one of the lovers
Monastic vows, etc., imposed in youth
by guardians, etc.
T. or G.
K. Q.
v. 148 v. 609
v. 156 vv. 607-8
v. 606
v. 631
vv. 159, 175
v. 207
v. 151
v. 168
v. 196
v. 645
vv. 610,
624
C. of L.
v. 1138
v. 252
v. 583
v. 252
vv. 253,
1097, 1149
Each of the poems has, in addition to the causes here enumerated,
others peculiar to itself, natural developments according to the
poet's individual fancy, easy enough after the general idea was once
seized. It is to be noticed, however, that the only point common to
the two later poems and absent from Lydgate is that of the loss of
the lover by death; and this is too familiar an idea to serve as any
argument for the imitation of the Kingis Quair by the author of the
Court of Love.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
233
The most striking of these parallels is that afforded by the pas-
sages in which the religious victims complain, and these are given
here to strengthen the argument.
The Temple of Glas, vv. 196–206:
And rigt anon I herd opir crie
With sobbing teris, & with ful pitous soune,
Tofore be goddes, bi lamentacioun,
That were constrayned in hir tender youpe,
And in childhode, as it is oft[e] coube,
Y-entred were into religioun,
Or bei hade yeris of discresioun,
That al her life cannot but complein,
In wide copis perfeccion to feine,
Ful couertli to curen al hir smert,
And shew be contrarie outward of her hert.
Cf. Kingis Quair, vv. 610-15, 626-30:
And efter this, vpon 30ne stage [a]doun,
Tho that thou seis stond in capis wyde;
3one were quhilum folk of religioun,
That from the warld thaire gouernance did hide,
And frely seruit lufe on euery syde
In secrete, with thaire bodyis and thaire gudis.
Sum bene of thame that haldin were full lawe,
And take by frendis, nothing thay to wyte,
In zouth from lufe into the cloistere quite ;
And for that cause are cummyn recounsilit,
On thame to pleyne that so thame had begilit.
This idea seems to have struck the author of the Court of Love
with especial force. Cf. the following passages:
“Ye, than,” quod I, “what doon thise prestes here,
Nonnes and hermits, freres, and all thoo
That sit in white, in russet, and in grene?"
"Forsoth," quod she, "they wailen of their wo" (vv. 253-6).
“See how they cry and wring their handes whyte,
For they so sone went to religion !
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William Allan Neilson.
And eke the nonnes, with vaile and wimple plight,
There thought that they ben in confusion :
Alas,' they sayn, 'we fayn perfeccion,
In clothes wide, and lak our liberte;
But all the sin mote on our frendes be.
،
·
Our frendes wikke, in tender youth and grene,
Ayenst our will made us religious ;
That is the cause we morne and wailen thus.'
Than seid the monks and freres in the tyde,
'Wel may we curse our abbeys and our place,
Our statuts sharp, to sing in copes wyde,
Chastly to kepe us out of loves grace,
And never to fele comfort ne solace'" (vv. 1100–18).
1
And yet againward shryked every nonne,
The prang of love so straineth thaim to cry ;
"Now wo the tyme," quod thay, "that we be boun!
This hateful ordre nyse will don us dy!
We sigh and sobbe, and bleden inwardly,
Freting our-self with thought and hard complaint,
That ney for loue we waxen wode and faint" (vv. 1149–55).
Here again it will be noted, that though the influence of Lydgate
on the two others is clearly manifest, there is no trace of the depend-
ence of the Court of Love on the Kingis Quair.
Once the point is granted that the author of the Court of Love
knew the Temple of Glas, many parallels in detail become significant,
and it would not be hard to draw up lists of these to show that there
is a strong presumption that it was from Lydgate that the author got
his main outline, as well as the minor points specified. But material
for such a comparison has already been supplied in the analyses.
given of the two poems, and it seems hardly worth while to insist
further on a matter already sufficiently proved.
One point more, however, may be mentioned, on account of a pos-
sible explanation it suggests for a difficulty in the construction of
1 Quotation marks are inserted here in accordance with the arrangement advo-
cated in chap. i, pp. 6-7, above.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
235
the Court of Love. We have noticed that in that poem Philogenet
makes two distinct rounds of sightseeing in the Court, and there
does not seem to be any good reason in the nature of the plot for
this duplication. Now in the Temple of Glas Lydgate also intro-
duces a second description, beginning at v. 531. This, however, is
easily accounted for. The first description is introductory to the
account of the heroine; the second to that of the hero; and the
duplication does not strike the reader as at all out of place. But
in the Court of Love the author himself is the hero and is not
described from the outside at all. Does it not seem possible that
the Court of Love poet was here somewhat unintelligent in his imita-
tion, as mediæval imitators often enough were, and copied this bit of
machinery without supplying the proper motive for its existence?
Did the author of the Court of Love know the Kingis Quair?
Mr. J. T. T. Brown says no, because, as he holds, the author of the
Kingis Quair copied the Court of Love. But his denial of James
I.'s authorship of the Scottish poem has been sufficiently disproved
by M. Jusserand.' The Court of Love was written more than half
a century at least after James's death. Yet Mr. Brown's parallels,'
in spite of his protests, work equally well either way; and we have
to consider whether they prove anything with regard to an immedi-
ate relation between the two poems at all. The majority of these
parallels, it is clear to any one acquainted with the mass of mediaval
poetry of this sort it would be clear merely from the material
collected in our third chapter-are simply medieval commonplaces;
a criticism which Mr. Brown anticipated but did not forestall.³
Others are due to a common knowledge of Chaucer. The most
important arise from the fact just proved, that both used the Temple
of Glas as a model. Of the existence of this poem of Lydgate's
Mr. Brown does not seem to have been aware, — unfortunately, it
¹ See J. J. Jusserand, Jacques Ier d'Ecosse, fut-il poète? in Revue Historique,
LXIV, Paris, 1897 (also reprinted separately).
2 See Note D to The Authorship of The Kingis Quair, by J. T. T. Brown,
Glasgow, 1896; and cf. Henry Wood, Chaucer's Influence upon James I., Halle,
1879, and W. Wischmann, Untersuchungen über das Kingis Quair, Wismar,
1887.
8 See Brown, p. 44, n. I.
236
William Allan Neilson.
must be added, for had he known it he would not have been im-
pelled to write his book.
Yet it is not easy to deny absolutely a connection between the
poems. The very fact that both authors were diligent students of
Chaucer and Lydgate, while on the one hand it would tend to lead
us to draw false inferences as to the influence of the one on the
other, would on the other hand tend to cover up traces of such an
influence, had it really existed. The examination of the passages
on the classes of complainants failed to produce any clear evidence.
A comparison of the statutes is almost as barren. The first statute
of the Court of Love indeed, demanding truth to the King and Queen
of Love, which we did not find in the regular tradition of the stat-
utes, and which is not formerly stated by Lydgate, is represented in
the Kingis Quair by Venus's tearful protest against the desertion of
her worship by men, and by the commands:
Contynew in my seruise,
Worschip my law, and my name magnifye (vv. 855-6).
Again the seventeenth statute of the Court of Love, which was not
found elsewhere, has a parallel in a stanza of the Kingis Quair
describing the shades of aged lovers. Cf. the following: -
The seventeenth statut, Whan age approchith on,
And lust is leid, and all the fire is queint,
As freshly than thou shalt begin to fon,
And dote in love, and all her image paint
In remembraunce
Yet speke and talk of plesaunt daliaunce, etc., (C. of L., vv. 456–66).
+
•
Quhen thay of youth ressauit had the fill,
Yet in thaire age thame lakkit no gude will (K. Q., vv. 587–8).
Another argument is suggested by Professor Skeat who "admits.
the certainty" that he [the author of the Court of Love] consulted
the Kingis Quair. He thinks the metre suggests Scottish influence,
and draws attention to the use of "celsitude" and "pulcritude,'
rhyming together, as possibly due to the same source. Yet these
peculiarities might be owing to the influence of other Scottish poets
than James I.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
237
Thus it seems possible that we should reckon the Kingis Quair
If the evidence
among the immediate sources of the Court of Love.
in favor of it is not conclusive, there is no important obstacle to it,
so far as I have examined the case.
With regard to the relation of Court of Love to the Poème de la
Prison of Charles d'Orléans the case is somewhat similar though
hardly so strong. The presence of Charles in England, and the
existence of an English translation of at least part of the Poème de
la Prison increase the chances of his work's being known to an Eng-
lish poet. Charles is one of the comparatively few Court of Love
poets who actually numbered his statutes, and it is remarkable that
the somewhat rare Statute I which was found in the English Court
of Love and also in the Kingis Quair is the first of the command-
ments in the Poème de la Prison. This, however, is the most definite
point apart from features that are too widely spread to be available
as evidence. There are coincidences in the classical examples
quoted (Dido, for example, and Alcestis), but these alone prove
nothing.
The Temple of Glas is not the only poem of Lydgate's known to
our author. There is clear evidence, as Professor Skeat has pointed
out, of his acquaintance with the Balade Warning Men to Beware of
Deceitful Women.
Cf.
I me report to Salamon the wyse,
And mighty Sampson, which begyled thryes
With Dalida was
•
For it paraventure may right so befall,
2
That they be bound by nature to disceive,
And spinne, and wepe, and sugre strewe on gall (C. of L., vv. 536–42).
Men, take hede;
Hir galle is hid under a sugred wede.
1 Chaucerian Pieces, pp. 295-6.
2 I.c. women.
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William Allan Neilson.
Women, of kinde, have condicions three ;
The first is, that they be fulle of deceit;
To spinne also hit is hir propertee ;
And women have a wonderful conceit,
They wepen ofte, and al is but a sleight (Balade, vv. 25–33).
Sampson the fort, and Salamon the sage
Deceived were, for al hir gret corage (Ibid., vv. 4-5).
Of Latin books the author seems to have known Ovid and Max-
imian. There are several passages where Ovid's influence is seen,
though there is nothing in them to prove direct knowledge; but, as
Professor Skeat has pointed out, Jupiter's intrigues with Europa,
Antiope, Alcmene and Danaë, which are alluded to in the Court of
Love (vv. 820-4), are also mentioned all together in Met., vi, 103-
13.
This affords strong presumption that he actually knew Ovid
at first hand.
The reference to Maximian is still clearer. In vv. 795–8 of the
Court of Love we read:
For lippes thin, not fat, but ever lene,
They serve of naught, they be not worth a bene;
For if the basse ben full, there is delyt,
Maximian truly thus doth he wryte.
Cf. Maximian, i, 97-8:
Flammea dilexi, modicumque tumentia labra,
Quae mihi gustanti basia plena darent.¹
The epithet "flaming" applied to the mouth in v. 793 increases the
probability that the author had the actual passage in mind. I have
been unable to detect further traces of Maximian in the poem.
In the Court of Love the following lines occur:
Her nose directed streight, and even as lyne,
With fourm and shap therto convenient,
In which the goddess milk-whyt path doth shine (vv. 785-7).
The appropriateness to a young lady's nose of the figure from the
galaxy is hardly clear to us, and one wonders if it were so to the
1 Poetae Latini Minores, ed. by Bährens, Leipzig, 1882, V, 321.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
239
author. The only other instance I have found of this figure used of
a woman's beauty is in the following lines from the Architrenius.¹
The application is quite different, but it is just possible that the
line in the Court of Love is the result of some such passage imper-
fectly remembered. The lines occur in the description of the most
beautiful of the nymphs of Venus.
A frontis medio tractu directa superne
Verticis ad centrum, uia lactea surgit, aranti
Pectine, cuius acu geminas discessit in alas,
Et tandem trifidum coma cancellatur in orbem,
Diuisoque prius iterum coit agmine crinis.
The evidence regarding the sources of the Birds' Matins has
been given in chap. vi.
To sum up.
The author of the Court of Love was most influenced
by Chaucer and Lydgate. The poems by the former which are
most used by him are the Legend of Good Women, Parlement of
Foules, Hous of Fame, and Compleynt to Pity. Troilus and Criseyde
is frequently recalled by single lines, and by such episodes as the
swooning of Philogenet. The Bok of the Duchesse may have sug-
gested the painted windows near the beginning of the Court of Love,
but the device is common. Occasional verses show a knowledge of
at least some of the Canterbury Tales. The total result gives the
impression of a very devoted disciple.
Of Lydgate's works The Temple of Glas has had, of course, by
far the greatest influence on our author; and the lines proving
a knowledge of one of his ballades have been quoted. Professor
Skeat quotes occasional parallels that make it probable that he was
not unacquainted with other works of Lydgate. With fair assurance
we may say that he had read Ovid and Maximian, and that he knew
La Messe des Oisiaus of Jean de Condé. The evidence with regard
to Charles d'Orléans and James I. of Scots is inconclusive. In addi-
tion to all this we may feel sure that he knew other poems of the
Court of Love type, and doubtless received from them hints for his
1 Architrenius, by John de Hauteville, in Wright's Satirical Poets of the Twelfth
Century, Lond., 1872, I, 253.
240
William Allan Neilson.
main allegory and the development of his list of statutes, as well as
for minute details.
Professor Skeat thinks that the coining of the names Philogenet
and Philobone points to the author's being a disciple of the New
Learning. But these names seem to be rather mediæval than
modern in the kind of scholarship they suggest. "Philogenet," I
presume, means "a lover born," and "Philobone," probably, "good
to lovers"; and such a hybrid as the latter would lead one to be-
lieve that the "clerk of Cambridge" (v. 913) was more interested
in making his "art of love" and songs "in honour of the King and
Quene of Love" (vv. 897-9) than in reviving the study of Greek.
Nothing that I have found in any part of the present investiga-
tion seems to throw light upon the identity of the author.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE RELATION OF THE ALLEGORY TO THE INSTITUTION
AND THE PAGEANT OF THE COURT OF LOVE.
THE debate (débat) as a literary form appears very early in
mediæval literature. According to Ebert,' the chief influence which
moulded its development was that of the classical eclogue. Yet the
dialogue is a very natural form for any one to adopt who wishes to
make a show of presenting both sides of an argument, and it might
quite conceivably be used by writers who knew nothing of the clas-
sical tradition.
From the time of Alcuin there has come down to us a Latin Con-
flictus Veris et Hiemis; and in the middle of the ninth century
Sedulius Scotus wrote a Certamen Rosae Liliique." The influence
1 On the relation of the débat to the eclogue, see Ebert, Allg. Gesch., vol. II,
chap. iv; and Jeanroy, Les Origines de la Poésie lyrique en France, Paris, 1889;
cf. G. Paris, Journal des Savants, Nov. and Dec., 1891.
2 Ebert, II, 64-5.
8 Ibid., II, 220-1.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
241
of the Psychomachia appears in a Latin life of St. Christopher,¹ in
which the author represents Pudicitia and Libido as taking the forms
of two women, and disputing with each other in Christopher's prison.
Such discussions became favorite clerkly exercises, and commonly
took a didactic turn. They are represented in English by such poems
as the Debate of the Body and the Soul, and, in a different field, The
Owl and the Nightingale."
The introduction of love into these debates was only a matter of
time; and we are not surprised to find "débats d'amour" among the
very earliest specimens of medieval amorous poetry. The Romari-
cimontis Concilium³ is, of course, a debate, and the subject there dis-
cussed, the comparative merits of knights and clerks as lovers, we
have traced through the whole series of poems of the Altercatio type
down to the sixteenth-century farce played between the young monk
and the old soldier. In the first of these the Court of Love element
is quite subordinate, appearing, indeed, only in the lady cardinal's
announcement that she is sent by the God of Love; in Florance et
Blancheflor, the god and his barons are introduced as a court of
appeal, but the debate is still the main point of interest.
4
The growth of this kind of discussion is shown in the Fablel dou
Dieu d'Amours," in which the nightingale calls the other birds round
him and complains that love has degenerated. The hawk lays the
blame on the "villaine gent," but the thrush objects to the hawk's
confining love to clerks and knights; while the jay thinks that to
love and be well loved is to be as worthy and wise as a clerk, and
to be indeed a "chevalier d'amour."
6
By the fourteenth century we find the love-debate a familiar type.
Guillaume de Machaut wrote a Jugement du Roi de Behaigne, in
which he represents himself as overhearing a dispute between a
dejected lady and an equally dejected knight, as to which is the
more unfortunate. The lady has lost her lover by death; the knight's
¹ Waltheri Spirensis Vita et Passio S. Christophori Martyris, ed. by von Har-
sten, Munich, 1878.
2 Cf. on the whole class, Raab, Vier Allegorische Motive, Leoben, 1885.
8 See pp. 31 ff., above.
See pp. 34 ff. and 108, above.
5 See pp. 41 ff., above.
• Romania, XVI, 409.
242
William Allan Neilson.
mistress has given her heart to another. Machaut intervenes and
proposes the king of Bohemia as arbiter. The suggestion is adopted,
pleadings are made, and the judge decides in favor of the knight.
Machaut's patroness was displeased at this conclusion; so he
wrote a Jugement du Roi de Navarre (Nov. 1349).¹ Here the dis-
cussion is between a beautiful lady and the poet on the justice of
the king of Bohemia's decision, and the arbiter chosen this time is
Charles the Bad of Navarre. The poet loses, and is condemned
to write some chansons.
Christine de Pisan shows great fondness for this literary form. In
Le Livre des Trois Jugemens' she submits three love cases to the
Seneschal de Hainault. These are as follows:
1. A beautiful and virtuous lady, deserted by her first love, bestows
her affections on a second, more sincere. Is she therefore perjured?
2. A knight has lost all hope of seeing his mistress again, since a
jealous husband has shut her up in prison. May he, after an interval,
seek a new love? 3. A damsel is deserted by a knight, who transfers
his addresses to a powerful dame, who repulses him. The knight
then returns and again seeks the favor of the damsel. Ought shẹ to
pardon him or be pitiless? To the same arbiter the following dilemma
in the Livre du Dit de Poissy is submitted: Which is the more worthy
of pity a lady grieving for a lover taken prisoner in battle, or a
squire who cannot forget nor cease to love a lady who only despises
him?
8
Apple,
In Christine's Debat de deux Amants,ª a discussion arises in the
house of Louis, Duke of Orléans, between a knight embittered by
disappointment, and a fortunate young squire. The knight acts as
the accuser, and the squire as the apologist of love, and the duke acts
as judge.
Distinctions are more finely drawn in Alain Chartier's Livre des
Quatre Dames," in which four ladies discuss whose plight is most
pitiable, that of (1) her whose lover was slain at Agincourt; (2) her
1 Euvres de Guillaume de Machault, ed. Tarbé, Reims et Paris, 1849, pp. 68 ff.
2 Euvres Poétiques de Christine de Pisan (Soc. des anc. Textes franç.), II, 111 ff.
8 Ibid., II, 159 ff.
4 Ibid., II, 49 ff.
Euvres, ed. Duchesne, pp. 594 ff.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
243
whose lover was taken prisoner by the English; (3) her whose lover
has not been heard of since the battle; (4) her whose lover ran away
in the battle.
The well-known Arrêts d'Amours of Martial d'Auvergne,¹ with the
commentaries by Benoît de Court, which have played so important
a part in discussions on the alleged institution of the Court of Love,
are really only a variety of the debates of which we are giving instances,
though they are worked up with a greater parade of legal machinery
and in a more conscious spirit of humorous burlesque. It is strange
that in the face of the fanciful Court of Love setting already quoted,2
any one should have seriously supposed that this book contained evi-
The
dence for taking the Court of Love as an established institution.
Arrêts themselves, indeed, are usually trivial enough to make it clear
to any one that they are merely jeux d'esprit. The commentary by
Benoît de Court is interesting on account of the mock seriousness
with which he keeps the form of legal discussion and the number
of classical parallels he quotes.
The influence of Martial d'Auvergne in giving a more strictly legal
turn to the debates is seen in Guillaume Coquillart's (A.D. 1421?-1491?)
Playdoyer d'entre la Simple et la Rusée. Two beauties dispute the heart
of a young gallant. "La Simple" claims to have been his first love
and charges "la Rusée" with fraudulent interference. But "la Rusée"
has him and means to keep him; so the cause is tried before a tribunal,
lawyers arguing on either side. The evidence as to facts is contra-
dictory; an inquest is ordered and the Enqueste d'entre la Simple et la
Rusée, continuing the same plot as a framework, becomes a vehicle for
satire on contemporary life. The Jugement Definitif sur un Plaidoyer
d'Amour¹ is of a similar kind, the plaintiff being a lover who charges
an unrelenting mistress with cruelty and gets a verdict in his favor.
Le Debat de Deux Demoyselles (ca. 1490) is a dialogue between
5
1 Ed. by Lenglet-Dufresney, Amsterdam, 1731.
2 See p. 106, above.
8 (Euvres, ed. by P. Tarbé, Paris and Reims, 1847, I, 5 ff.
4 The authorship is uncertain. The poem is quoted in Lenglet-Dufresnoy's
edition of Martial d'Auvergne's Arrêts d'Amours, pp. 599-600, from Poësies de la
Comtesse de la Suse, II, 107.
5 Anonymous; pub. by Didot, Paris, 1825.
244
William Allan Neilson.
"la Tannée" and "la Noyre," the question being which is the more
miserable. The first loves a knight whose whereabouts is unknown
to her; the second is so closely watched by her husband that she
gets no opportunity to show favor to her lover. They finally agree
to refer their case, under false names, to two renowned princesses,
the Duchess of Orléans and the Countess of Angoulême.¹
Later instances, coming down into the sixteenth century, are the
Débat de la Demoiselle et de la Bourgoise,2 settled in favor of the
former by the president of the "Echiquier d'Amours," and the Débat
du Jeune et du Vieulx Amoureux.
3
In the debates of which typical specimens have just been cited,
the whole piece was in each case the work of one author, the form
being dramatic rather than purely argumentative. But there arose,
also very early in the Middle Ages, another kind of poetical debate,
one in which there was a real contest between different poets, each
of whom supported only one side. The earliest form of this is the
Provençal tensos in its double form of the simple tensos (in which one
poet produced a stanza and was answered by another poet using the
same verse-form) and the jocx partitz (in which the first poet pro-
pounded a question, undertaking to defend the side which the other
did not choose). More than two poets might take part, and the
tensos ended with an appeal to ladies. The very earliest troubadours
seem to have used this form, for Diez quotes from William IX.,
Count of Poitiers (ca. 1100), a clear reference to it:
4
E si-m partetz un juec d'amor,
No suy tan fatz,
Non sapcha triar lo melhor
Entr' els malvatz.5
The tensos is too familiar a form to call for examples.
1 Ibid., p. 41, note by M. de la Monnoye. In the text as published by Didot
the names of the judges are not mentioned.
2 Recueil de Poésies franç. des XV et XVI Siècles, ed. by A. de Montaiglon,
V, 5 ff.
8 Ibid., VII, 211 ff.
4 For an elaborate definition of the tensos, see Las Flors del Gay Saber in
Monumens de la Littérature Romane, Toulouse, 1841, I, 360.
↳ Diez, Ueber die Minnehöfe, p. 16.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
245
After the genuine troubadour period was over, when an attempt
was being made in Provence to revive its former poetic glories, in
1323 seven citizens of Toulouse formed themselves into "La gaya
Companhia dels .vii. Trobadors de Tholoza," and invited all Provençal
poets to assemble at that city on May 1, to compete for a golden
violet which was to be given as a prize for the best poem presented.
This association or Academy became firmly established, granted
degrees, and drew up an ars poetica· the well-known Las Flors del
Gay Saber or Las Leys d'Amors. In the reign of Louis XIV., in
1694, new rules were drawn up and a fresh start was made. Royal
interest was again shown in 1725 by Louis XV., who increased the
number of academicians to forty.2
3
Caseneuve says that these practices were imitated in Germany under
the Emperor Conrad I. Speaking of the time of Frederick Barbarossa
he quotes Melchior Goldast thus: "Viri Principes et Equestres
nonnunquam etiam Imperatores, Reges, certamina instituere poetica ;
in quibus nobili familia Virgines offerebant victoriam cantus," and
there is mention of crowns of victory. If, however, Germany got its
example in Provence it must have been from the society of the
troubadours themselves rather than from this later revival. The
Wartburg song-contest,* added by Wagner to the Tannhäuser story,
goes back to a thirteenth-century poem, and so quite antedates the
"Jeux Floraux."
The Provençal jocx partitz appears in Northern France as the jeu
parti, and the composing of these formed the leading amusement of
1 By Guilhem Molinier. On the composition and history of this work see
especially the article by Chabaneau cited in n. 2, below.
2 For further discussion and references on these games, see Cl. Devic and
J. Vaissete, Hist. Gén. de Languedoc, Toulouse, 1885, IX, 429 ff., X, 78, n. 19;
M. Noulet, De dame Clémence Isaure substituée à la Vierge Marie comme patronne
des Jeux litt., etc., in Mem. de l'Acad. des Sciences... de Toulouse, 1852; Cambou-
liu, Renaissance de la Poésie Provençale, in Jahrbuch f. rom. u. eng. Litt., 1861,
III, 125; P. Meyer, Bibl. de l'École des Chartes, 5th series, V, 52; C. Chabaneau,
Origine et Établissement de l'Académie des Jeux Floraux, Toulouse, 1885.
8 P. de Caseneuve, L'Origine des Jeux Fleureaux de Toulouse, Toulouse,
1659, p. 50.
4 Cf. G. Paris, La Légende du Tannhäuser, in Revue de Paris, March 15,
1898.
246
William Allan Neilson.
the trouvères in the assemblies known as "Puys d'amour." 1 These
meetings took their name from a village in Velai, Pui Notre Dame,
where there was an annual festival in honor of the Virgin; but "dès
l'origine," says Passy, "l'esprit littéraire dispute à l'esprit religieux
la direction des Puys; souvent même avec succès.” After mass and
the singing of sacred music, the crowd entered a hall. On an eleva-
tion sat the president, the judges, and other important persons.
Hymns to the Virgin, love songs, and finally jeux partis were pre-
sented to the audience; the subjects of these last being the passion
of love and the duties of marriage. One poet gave the challenge,
another took it up, and sometimes three, rarely four, engaged in the
contest, the challenger naming a judge. Sometimes each side named
a judge, and rarely there were three. These gave the decisions, the
crowd merely looking on; and crowns of flowers or of silver were
awarded to the winners, who gained thus the privileges of (1) being
called "Sire"; (2) wearing the crown at these sessions; (3) being
a judge in future-though this last point is doubtful.
The fondness for discussion on the subtler questions of love which
is implied in the forms of poetry and social amusement just described,
manifested itself in Italy, perhaps less formally but no less frequently."
Here for three centuries the proposing of dubbi, questioni, or giochi,
formed one of the chief amusements of courtly society. A picture of
the way in which such discussions took place occurs in the Filocolo³
of Boccaccio.
Filocolo, driven by stress of tempest into Naples, finds in a garden
a courtly company bent on amusement, with Fiammetta at their head.
It is proposed that love-questions be discussed; Fiammetta is chosen
queen and arbitress, and crowned with a garland; the company take
seats, and Filocolo propounds the first of thirteen questions, the dis-
1 See Louis Passy in Bibl. de l'Ecole des Chartes, 1859, 4th series, V, 491-502,
and cf. G. Paris, Journal des Savants, Nov., 1888, pp. 667 and 727 ff.
2 Malecarni's Trionfo dell' Amore (see p. 114, n. 3, above) was written for a
"certame coronario " got up by Leon Battista Alberti, Oct., 1441. See Veselofsky,
Novella della Figlia del Re di Dacia, Pisa, 1866, Appendix I.
³ Boccaccio, Opere, VIII, Florence, 1829, Filocolo, Bk. iv.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
247
cussion of which occupies most of the fourth book. These same
questions were worked over in verse, with additions from other works
of Boccaccio and from Dante, by Jacomo di Giovanni di Ser Minoccio
in the fifteenth century.¹
Another instance is found in Castiglione's Il Cortegiano.2 Here
the gentlemen of the ducal court of Urbino propose, on the occasion
of festivities in honor of Pope Julius II., a series of giochi, the ques-
tions suggested being such as these: Which virtue would a man
prefer his lady to have? If she must have some spot, which vice
would he prefer? Why do women hate rats and love serpents? The
subject ultimately chosen, the discussion of which forms the sub-
stance of the book, is the character and conduct of the ideal gentle-
man. Thus Il Cortegiano, in spite of its seriousness and extent, is
yet only an elaborate dubbio discussion.
Gli Asolani of Cardinal Bembo (b. 1470) contains an account of
a discussion between three young men and several ladies in the
garden of the Castello del Trivigiano. The subject is love. Perottino
brings many reasons to prove it a bad thing; Gismondo dwells on
the sweetness of its fruits, and declares it is always good; and
Lavinello takes up a middle position.
In the Quattro Libri di Dubbii of Ortensio Lando¹ (1552) we have
a large collection of instances. The four books are: (1) Amorous,
(2) Natural, (3) Moral, (4) Religious; and the questions raised and
solved in the first are such as these: Can there be love without
jealousy? Are men or women more constant in love? Which
deserves love the more, the simple beauty or the clever woman who
is plain?
8
¹ P. Papa, Un Capitolo delle Definizioni di Jacomo Serminocci, Florence, 1887
(Per nozze Renier-Campostrini). Cf. Gaspary in Literaturblatt f. ger. u. rom.
Phil., March, 1889, col. 110.
2 Baldesar Castiglione, Il Cortegiano, ed. by V. Cian, Florence, 1894, p. 18, and
note V, 4, 5.
³ Opere, Milan, 1808-10, vol. I.
4 I. Sanesi, Il Cinquecentista Ortensio Lando, Pistoia, 1893, pp. 235 ff., in which
the 1556 Venice edition of the Quattro Libri is quoted, the first (that of 1552) not
containing the Quesiti amorosi. I am indebted for this reference to Mr. J. B.
Fletcher.
248
William Allan Neilson.
Quite similar, and pointing again to the same society customs is
the following:
Del regno di Ginevra Pallavicino riferisce un corrispondente dei Gon-
zaga : "Heri la fece [Ginevra] recitare una egloga molto bella et ben dita,
qual se fece una disputa qual dolor fuse magiore a dui inamorati o la gielosia
overo l'absentia. Non se risolse el dubio." I
The foregoing instances sufficiently indicate the different types of
love debates prevalent in mediæval literature and mediæval society.
Taken thus together they seem clearly enough to be the expressions
(various yet constantly running into one another when we attempt to
draw lines of division) of the prevalent tendency to take delight in
subtle discussions on the subject of love. On such grounds, how-
ever, as these instances afford, the belief has been built that there
existed in the Middle Ages an institution called the Court of Love, in
which actual cases of disagreement between lovers were submitted to
formal tribunals, tried by formal laws, and settled by decisions which
derived their force from the sanction of public opinion. Besides the
material already given in this chapter, three other documents have
been adduced in support of this belief: the Lives of the Provençal Poets
by Johannes Nostradamus, the book of Andreas Capellanus, and a frag-
mentary record of a "Cour Amoureuse," held about 1400. Seventy
years ago Diez 2 showed that the evidence of Nostradamus was worth-
less; first, because that writer's idea of the Courts of Love was formed
upon a misunderstanding of passages in the writings of the trouba-
dours which referred to the poetical amusements we have described;
and, secondly, because his supposed historical examples proved on
examination to be inconsistent with the known dates of the alleged
participants.
Diez's attempt to refute the evidence from Andreas has not
stood the test of time so well as his attack on Nostradamus, because
he tried to show that the Chaplain's book was not earlier than the
1 Renier in Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, 1889, XIII, 382, citing
A. Luzio, Fabrizio Maramaldo, Ancona, 1883, p. 49. For further references about
dubbii, see notes to V. Cian's edition of II Cortegiano and Sanesi's Ortensio Lando.
2 Ueber die Minnehöfe, Berlin, 1825. Cf. also Abbe de Sade, Mémoires pour la
Vie de François Pétrarque, Amsterdam, 1764-7, vol. II, note 19.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
249
fourteenth century. Since it has been established that this work is
certainly not later than the early years of the thirteenth, its contents.
have become the main ground on which the supporters of the older
theory of the Courts of Love have founded their case.
It is not part
of the present undertaking to examine in detail the often-repeated
and often-answered arguments on this question. Trojel and Rajna
still find in Andreas certain decisions, stated by him to have been
made by the Countess of Champagne, which they think point to the
existence of a serious institution. Gaston Paris, however, continues
to meet them with the objection which has been urged over and over
again but never satisfactorily met, that the conception is inconsistent
with the very conditions in which it is presented. The one essential
requirement in the conduct of all affairs of chivalrous love in the
Middle Ages was, as has appeared from our statutes, the necessity
for secrecy.
On the other hand, the only means for the enforcing
of the decisions of the supposed tribunals that has been suggested by
the upholders of the belief in the institution is public opinion. Now
the method of bringing public opinion to bear upon a person whose
very name is unknown to that public has not yet been evolved.
Until it has been, it is unnecessary to seek further reasons for scepti-
cism with regard to the institution.¹
If then, we reject this belief in a serious tribunal, what have we
left? First, we may feel sure that then, as now and always, lovers'
quarrels were sometimes settled by the intervention of a third person ;
and, doubtless this situation occasionally found its way into litera-
ture.2 But this is no evidence of a formal institution. Second, and
much more important for our present purpose, there existed, as a
very widespread fashionable amusement, the custom of disputing on
subtle points of love. This might be in connection with poetical
contests, or might be merely conversation; there might be formal
judges with decisions and prizes, or there might be no attempt to
designate the winners at all. But there is no proof that the name
1 For references on this discussion, see p. 256, n. 4, below.
2 For example, in Raoul de Houdan's Meraugis de Portlesguez (ed. H. Miche-
lant, Paris, 1869, pp. 33, 37), in which the queen arbitrates between two rival
claimants for the love of Lidoine.
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William Allan Neilson.
"Court of Love" was used of this amusement in the time of the
troubadours. The phrase belongs originally to the type of allegory
whose history we have attempted to trace, and was applied to the
supposed institution only after 1400.
I do not mean to say, however, that these love discussions,
whether conducted in tensos by troubadours, in jeux partis by trou-
vères, as dubbii, questioni, or giochi by Italian courtiers, or as mock-
pleadings in the courts of those ladies of whose decisions Andreas
has handed down so misleading a tradition, were without their
influence upon the conduct and ideals of courtly life in the Middle
Ages. As must already have appeared, the question of the existence
of Courts of Love comes down to a question of jest or earnest, and the
line between these is no easy one to draw. In our modern life we
see men take to sport with all the seriousness of which they are
capable, while others, quite literally, "play the game" of politics.
An international yacht race moves men as deeply as a national elec-
tion, and affects as permanently ideals of conduct and the sense of
honor. There is no reason to believe that business and play were
any more clearly divided in the Middle Ages¹; and we may grant the
love discussions of Eleanor of Aquitaine and her daughter an immense
influence upon knightly conduct without in any way invalidating the
contention that these ladies and their courtiers were only playing a
game.
It was stated above that there were three documents used to sup-
port the idea of a serious Court of Love, in addition to the evidence
drawn from the debates. The third of these affords an excellent
example of the way in which this phenomenon of the serious influence
of a pastime did occur, in connection, too, with the cultivation of
both love and poetry.
There has been accessible since 1733 a partial list of the officers
1 Professor Josiah Royce has drawn my attention to an interesting extension
of the field over which these observations apply, in the phenomena of the play
of birds and other animals, which at certain times (other than mating seasons)
meet to perform dances and the like, with all the regularity and apparent serious-
ness which they exhibit in such necessary activities as getting food. See The
Play of Animals, trans. from Karl Groos's Die Spiele der Thiere by E. L. Baldwin,
New York, 1899.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
251
and members of a "Cour Amoureuse," supposed to be of the time of
Charles VI. of France.' But the manuscript from which this was
taken was incomplete, and the earlier pages with the statement of the
nature of the Court and its most important officers were lacking.
Recently, however, M. A. Piaget 2 has found in a collection of armo-
rial bearings in a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale a com-
plete list; and has besides drawn attention to the description of the
Charter of this Court, published in E. -J. de Turck's Inventaire des
Archives de l'Ordre de la Toison d'Or in 1760.
From these authorities it appears that the Cour Amoureuse was
founded in 1400 "sur l'humilité et la fidelité ou probité, et instituée
à l'honneur des dames." It consisted of (1) Le Prince de la Cour
d'amour; (2) three "grands conservateurs" (these were, at the time
of its first organization, Charles VI., Philip, Duke of Burgundy, and
Louis, Duke of Bourbon); (3) several other "conservateurs"; (4)
twenty-four "chevaliers, écuiers et autres, possédant la rhétorique et
la poésie, appellés ministres de la Cour, lesquels avoient la principale
autorité après les grands conservateurs, et étoient chargés de présenter
aux assemblées que cette cour étoit obligée de tenir dans certains
temps de l'année, des balades et autre pièces de poésies, suivant
qu'il étoit réglé par les statuts "; (5) other officers, such as treasurers,
secretaries, ushers, etc. Manuscript 5233 in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
gives the names of over 600 members, including many of the most
notable people in France. From the statement of the duties of the
"ministres" it appears that the Cour Amoureuse was meant not only
to glorify and defend ladies, but also to cultivate poetry; for, as
M. Piaget says, “en 1400, c'était tout un."
We have a poem written between 1408 and 1413 by Amé Malingre,3
maître d'hôtel to Louis, Prince of Savoy, which makes clearer the
fantastic nature of this association.
The poet, walking in a wood, chances to enter a chapel, where he
¹ Hist. de l'Acad. Royale des Inscr. et Belles Lettres, Paris, 1733, VII, 287 ff.
2 Romania, XX, 417 ff. The Vienna MS. had also been described by the
Baron de Reiffenberg in Bulletins de l'Acad. Royale de Bruxelles, 1840, VII, i, 339.
³ In MS. 179 bis, Bibl. de Genève, fol. 88-96, described by Eug. Ritter in Bulletin
de la Soc. des anc. Textes franç., 1877, pp. 85-113, and summarized by Piaget,
Romania, XX, 450 ff.
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William Allan Neilson.
finds a lady in great distress caused by jealousy and the calumnies
of certain envious persons. In her misery she has composed a com-
plaint against Malebouche, after reading which the poet tries to console
her by recalling the calumnies endured by the chaste Susanna and by
Our Lord, and advises her to ignore the slanderers, promising that
if she does so they will die of chagrin. The lady takes comfort and
requests the poet to send to Pierre de Hauteville, prince d'Amour, a
letter asking him to expose the case to all the members of the Cour
Amoureuse. The epistle follows, and is a formal statement of the
lady's grievance, with a request to the Court,
Qu'il vuillient metre leur entente,
Pour amour de la dame gente,
A fayre ce qu'elle dessire.
More than twenty members of the Court are mentioned by name in
the epistle, so that we can be sure that the same institution is meant
as that described in the charter of the Cour Amoureuse, since all but
two of the names occur there also. Malingre was himself a member
of the Court; and it seems fair to suppose that we have here an
example of the kind of poem presented at its meetings. The influ-
ence of the allegorical Courts of Love upon Malingre's poem is clear;
and on the other hand we have the show of an appeal to a tribunal
for the redress of a grievance. Yet there is a significant vagueness
about the redress asked for; and no one can suppose that anything
was done with reference to actual slanders or similar crimes, though
doubtless the institution made for the preservation of certain chival-
rous ideals.
ky
A corroboration of the statements as to the literary side of the
Cour Amoureuse is found in the following passage from Guillebert
de Metz,¹ describing notable personages in Paris about 1407 :
Item le Prince d'Amours, qui tenoit avec lui musiciens et galans, qui
toutes manieres de chançons, balades, rondeaux, virelais, et autres dictiés
amoureux savoient faire et chanter, et jouer en instrumens melodieusement.
1 Le Roux de Lincy, Description de Paris au XVe Siècle, Paris, 1855, p. 85; or
Le Roux de Lincy and Tisserand, Paris et ses Historiens aux XIVe et XVe Siècles,
Paris, 1867, p. 234.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
253
If this Cour Amoureuse shows us how close the institution of the
Court of Love could come to some forms of the allegory, it suggests
also how easily it becomes mere pageantry. Even the allegories are
often constructed and described in such a way as to be easily enough
transformed into spectacles; and in an age that delighted in that
kind of exhibition it was unlikely that the opportunity would be
missed.
Thus the names, at least, of personages from the Court of Love
appear in the municipal celebrations which occurred on Mardi Gras
and other festivals in the great industrial towns in the north of
France. At Valenciennes there was a "Feste du Prince de Plai-
sance," and we have a record of the attendance at this festival on
May 13, 1348, of two Princes d'Amour, one from Tournay and one
from Lille:¹
The influence of the allegory is even more clearly seen in the Jeux
de la Fête-Dieu, instituted at Aix in Provence in 1474 by King René
of Anjou, to replace certain licentious celebrations which he had
suppressed."
On the Monday of the feast of Pentecost the people met after
mass to elect a Prince d'Amour, an Abbé de la Jeunesse, and a Roi
de la Bazoche. The prince who led the fêtes chose a court, and a
special vote of money was made for their uniforms and other expenses.
The games themselves were more or less farcical representations of
scriptural incidents, e.g., Le grand Jeu des Diables, in which black and
red devils baited Herod, the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon,
and so on, much after the fashion of the early religious drama, but
without dialogue and with more pantomime. On the third day there
was a great procession, led by La Renommée on horseback, blowing
a trumpet. She was followed by burlesque effigies of the Duke and
Duchess of Urbino, Momus, Mercury, and other mythological char-
acters, and by the actors in the previous plays. Among others came
¹ Ilist. de l'Acad. Roy. des Inser. et Belles-Lettres, Paris, 1733, VII, 290 ff.
2 The account here given is based on that of le Comte de Quatrebarbes in
Euvres complètes du Roi René, Angers, 1844–6, IV, 178 ff., who drew his facts from
Bouche et Papon, Histoire de Provence; Pitton, Histoire de la Ville d'Aix; and
Explication des Cérémonies de la Fête-Dieu, by "les frères Grégoire," Aix, 1777.
254
William Allan Neilson.
“dame Vénus avec un gros bouquet, et son fils Cupidon, décochant
ses sagettes aux jeunes beautés qu'il aperçoit; les ris, les jeux, et les
plaisirs." The music for the games was written by René himself.
Quatrebarbes mentions similar celebrations at the Jeux de la Ta-
rasque, where also the knights elected an Abbé de la Jeunesse.
Earlier discussions on the institution of the Court of Love make
much of certain triumphal arches erected at Aix in the end of the
seventeenth century, one of which represented a Court of Love.
"Monsieur le Comte vostre père," says Pierre de Chasteuil-Gallaup,
the ingenious antiquary who contrived the decorations, "m'ayant
engagé de faire quelques desseins d'arcs de triomphe, pour la
reception de messieurs les ducs de Bourgogne et de Berry, je fis
dresser une représentation, au troisieme de mes arcs, de la cour
d'amour, si renommée par nos anciens troubadours, l'explication
desquels je fis imprimer quelque temps apres, ce qui fut assez
favorablement reçû.”¹
The "explication" here referred to is contained in a Discours sur
les arcs triomphaux, dressés en la ville d'Aix à l'heureuse arrivée de
Monseigneur le duc de Bourgogne et de Monseigneur le duc de Berry,
published at Aix in 1701. This volume has not been accessible to
me, but from two letters of the author's, published in the Revue des
Langue Romanes, and from the criticisms of the Abbé de Sade,² it
appears that Chasteuil-Gallaup's ideas about Courts of Love were
gathered from the writings of Cæsar and Johannes Nostradamus, and
sources equally worthless for our purpose. We may, therefore, set
aside the claims made for "les arcs triomphaux dressés en la ville
d'Aix," as being without significance in the present discussion, except
as an episode in the history of an exploded theory.
Traces of the pageant of the Court of Love in Italy appear in the
chronicle of Giovanni Villani." He tells us that in June, 1283, at
the feast of St. John, there was seen in Florence
¹ Deux Lettres inédites de P. de Chasteuil-Gallaup, in Revue des Langues Romanes,
XXVIII, 259 ff. (1885). See especially p. 275.
2 Mémoires pour la Vie de François Pétrarque, Amsterdam, vol. II, 1764, note
19, especially pp. 53 ff.
8 Istorie Fiorentine, Milan, 1802-3, III, 159-60, chap. lxxxviii.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
255
una nobile e ricca compagnia vestiti tutti di robe bianche con uno signore
detto dello Amore. Per la qual brigata non s'intendea se non in giuochi, e
in sollazzi, e balli di donne e di cavalieri popolani, e altra gente assai ono-
revoli andando per la città con trombe e molti stromenti, stando in gioja e
allegrezza a gran conviti di cene e desinari. La quale corte durò presso a due
mesi, e fu la più nobile e nominata, che mai si facesse in Firenze e in Toscana.
A hundred and forty years later, during a carnival held in Milan
to celebrate the entry of Sforza, a spectacle was got up, over which
a chosen lady, with the title of queen, presided. Dramatic eclogues
about love were recited in competition, and the court lasted for a week.¹
In the Mémoires of the French Society of Antiquaries² an account is
given of some village games in Switzerland that seem to point defi-
nitely enough to an original connection with the Court of Love. A
wooden Château d'Amour was built on the first Sunday of May, and
the young people of the village divided themselves into two bands,
one of which defended, while the other assaulted, the Château by
means imitated from actual warfare. After it was taken, the day was
finished with dancing and carousing. On account of accidents, the
government of Berne in 1543 passed an edict forbidding the con-
tinuance of the custom; but in spite of this, says the anonymous
historian, writing in the second decade of the present century, it
continued in the environs of Echallens "tout récemment."
8
Very similar is the account by the same author of le siège du
Château d'Amour in the town of Fribourg. Here the defendants
of the castle were pretty girls, and the attacking party young men.
The assault was made to music, and the only weapons were bouquets
and festoons of roses. After the surrender, each member of the
captured garrison chose one of the conquerors, and ransomed herself
with a kiss and a rose. Then all rode in procession through the
streets, and the day ended in illuminations and festivities, in which,
however, the attentive fathers and mothers were present, "à maintenir
la décence au milieu du bruit, et la courtoisie au milieu de la joie.”
1 R. Renier, Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, XIII, 382.
2 Mémoires et Dissertations sur les Antiquités Nationales et Étrangères, pub. by
the Soc. Roy. des Antiquaires de France, Paris, 1817, I, 184–7.
3 Ibid., pp. 186–7.
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William Allan Neilson.
Rolandinus Patavinus tells in his chronicle¹ of similar festivities in
Italy in the thirteenth century. Here also the castle was defended
by ladies, and the account of the decorations suggests the gor-
geousness of the allegories. Fruits, flowers, and perfumes were the
ammunition used in the siege.
The carved ivory casket described in a previous chapter2 seems
from the description given by Meyrick to conform quite closely in
its design to this sort of festival. Pictures of similar carvings may be
seen in an article, Ikonographisches zu Chrestien de Troyes, by Johann
von Antoniewicz³ and in Schulz's Das Höfische Leben.*
CHAPTER IX.
THE COURT OF LOVE AFTER 1520.
THE present chapter makes even less profession of being exhaust-
ive than those preceding. I have here merely collected such indi-
cations of the survival or later development of important features
of the allegory of the Court of Love as I have happened to meet
with in my researches on the origins and sources.
1 Chron., i, 13, cited by A. Schulz, Das Höfische Leben zur Zeit der Minne-
singer, 2d ed., Leipzig, 1889, I, 578. Professor Kittredge refers me to the passage
itself in Graevius, Thesaur. Antiq., VI, i, 10.
2 See p. 137, above.
↑
8 Romanische Forschungen, V, 248 ff. I owe this reference to Professor Kittredge.
1889, I, 577. For further discussion of the matters touched on in this chap-
ter, see the following: H. Knobloch, Die Streitgedichte im Provenzalischen und
Altfranzösischen, Breslau, 1886; L. Selbach, Das Streitgedicht in der Altproven-
zalischen Lyrik, Marburg, 1886; R. Zenker, Die provenzalische Tenzone, Leipzig,
1888; E. Trojel, Middelalderens Elskovshoffer, Copenhagen, 1888, and cf. G. Paris,
Journal des Savants, 1888, pp. 664 ff. and 727 ff., and R. Renier, Giornale Storico
della Letteratura Italiana, XIII, 371-84; Antony Méray, La Vie au Temps des
Cours d'Amour, Paris, 1876; P. Rajna, Tre Studi per la Storia del Libro di
Andrea Cappellano, in Studj di Filologia Romanza, 1891, V, 193–272, Le Corti
d'Amore, Milan, 1890, and cf. G. Paris, in Romania, XIX, 372; A. R. Marsh,
article Love, Courts of, in Johnson's Cyclopædia, V, 375–6.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
257
G
Almost contemporary with our English poem is the Temple de
Cupido of Clément Marot,' in which the ecclesiastical form of the
allegory is worked out in great detail. Cupid, with the usual
equipment of arrows and so forth, shoots the hero, who goes seeking
Ferme Amour, and comes to a temple standing in a garden of flowers.
Bel Acueil and Faulx Danger are the porters; Beau Parler, Bien Celer,
Bon Rapport, Grace, Mercy, Bien Servir, and Bien Aymer are saints;
the fountain and cemetery 2 reappear; Ovid, Alain Chartier, Petrarch,
and the Roman de la Rose form the missal, breviary, and psalter.
The lessons are rondeaux, ballades, and virelais; Genius (as in the
Roman de la Rose and the Confessio Amantis) is the arch-priest; the
requiem masses are aulbades; the candles, branches of trees; the seats,
grass.
Les sainctz motz que l'on dit pour les ames,
Comme Pater ou Aue Maria,
C'est le babil et le caquet des dames (vv. 390–2).
Instead of processions they have morris-dances; the Art of Love for
a Gospel; and, instead of kissing a relic, each worshipper kisses his
lady.
The debate survives in La Fontaine's Parlement d'Amours,³ in
which the influence of Martial d'Auvergne is evident. The Parlia-
ment is held for the reform of abuses in the "Isle de Cythère"; and
there comes before it a lover complaining of the ingratitude of his
lady. The defence is that the lady cannot love in return without
losing some of her fresh beauty, and so lessening her power of produ-
cing sighs and tears, which are "les tributs de l'empire amoureux.'
Verdict is given for the defendant in the interest of the treasury.
Le Différend de Beaux Yeux et de Belle Bouche¹ is a similar dispute,
the point being as to which is of the greater value in the service of
Love. The judge decides for the Mouth, since the Eyes are useless
at night. He gets a kiss for a reward.
¹ Œuvres, ed. by G. Guiffrey, Paris, 1876, II, 67-101.
2 See pp. 88 and 91, above.
3 Euvres, ed. by H. Regnier, Paris, 1892, VIII, 421-5.
4 Ibid., VIII, 426–30.
""
258
William Allan Neilson.
L'Histoire Universelle des Théâtres¹ gives several examples of the
Court of Love motives on the stage. In a piece by Voltaire,2 Ce qui
plaît aux Dames, the point of the old story of the Wyf of Bath's Tale
appears. A council discuss the question, a queen presiding, and, of
course, conclude "Il faut toujours que la femme commande.”
3
In the Union de l'Amour et des Arts by Le Monnier, Aglaé, Presi-
dent of the Court of Love, has not acknowledged her love for Floridan,
who, disguised as a shepherd, comes before her to complain of his
mistress's want of responsiveness. He gets a verdict in his favor,
discloses his identity, and claims her love.
In an old comic opera¹ some of the Arrêts d'Amours can be recog-
nized worked up into episodic scenes.
At the end of the Veuve à la Mode" by de Sainte-Foix, a vaudeville
was presented by G. Panard at the Comédie Italienne in 1726 in
which "Un Robin" announces a Court thus:
7
Venez, accourez tous, on vous rendra justice.
L'Amour tient ici ses grands jours;
Amans qui d'une Belle essuyez les caprices,
Vous que pour prix d'un tendre sacrifice,
On immole à d'autres amours,
Venez, accourez tous, on vous rendra justice.
The pleading is done by advocates. A lover complaining of a
broken tryst, a woman of whom her husband is tired, an actress
in the Opera, a "petit-maître," an old man who wants to marry, a
coquette, and others, present appropriate petitions and have them
granted.
6
La Bibliothèque du Théâtre François has record of a Tribunal de
l'Amour, a comedy presented at Paris in 1750, written by Jean
Landon.
Dinaux gives accounts of several bacchanalian and licentious
1 Paris, 1779-80, vol. IX, pt. i, pp. 122 ff.
2 Ibid., p. 173.
4 Ibid., p. 175.
5 Ibid., pp. 175 ff.
8 Ibid., p. 174.
• Bibl. du Théâtre François, Dresden, 1768, III, 203.
7 Dinaux, Sociétés Badines, Bachiques, etc., Paris, 1867, I, 421; also Fournier,
Variétés Hist. et Litt., Paris, 1863, VII, 237.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
259
societies founded in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some
of which bear traces of Court of Love influence in the nomenclature
adopted. Thus the "Ordre des Chevaliers de la Joye," founded
under the protection of Bacchus and Cupid at Mézières in 1696, had
as secretary the Chevalier de Belle-Humeur, and as members the
Chevaliers du Printemps, Fidèle, Sans-Soucy, de l'Espérance, Con-
stant, Complaisant, and others."
The more modern developments of allegorical terminology are well
exemplified in an Assignation d'un Amant à sa Maîtresse au Tribunal
de l'Amour, mai, 1727.2 The Bail du Cœur de Cloris is a more
extended instance of the same class.
8
4
More comprehensive than these is a curious collection of features
borrowed from several different types of Court of Love poems.
Les
Décisions de Cythère, or Le Code de l'Amour, 1776, was written by
une femme de Belles Lettres." It begins with an "Edit d'Establis-
sement de la Chambre de Justice d'Amour," which tells how Amour,
noticing certain abuses growing up in his empire such as mer-
cenariness and inconstancy takes counsel with his good mother
Venus, his dear brothers the little Loves, his dear sisters the Graces,
and his cousins "les Ris et les Jeux," and on their advice establishes
a court to regulate gallantry. Next come several cases submitted to
this court, such as a dispute among a Blonde, a Brunette, and a Spiri-
tuelle in a matter of precedence. Then a group of Jurisconsults of
both sexes discuss a number of questions, e.g. :
Si celui qui aime une laide, la croyant laide, montre plus d'amour que
celui qui la croit belle, quoiqu'elle soit laide ?
Si l'on peut haïr ce que l'on a une fois bien aimé ?
Si l'amour diminue plutôt par les rigueurs d'une Belle, que par ses
faveurs?
A kind of Catechism of Love follows with questions and answers
such as these :
¹ Cf. also L'Ordre des Aphrodites, time of Louis XV., Dinaux, I, 39, and cf.
I, 424 ff.
2 Bibliothèque Universelle des Romans, Paris, Nov., 1785, pp. 189–91.
8 Ibid., Nov., 1785, pp. 180-9.
4 Hist. Univ. des Théâtres, Paris, 1779-80, IX, 179 ff.
260
William Allan Neilson.
D. Je vous demande si amours avoient perdu leurs noms, comment les
appelleriez-vous?
R. Plaisans, sagesse.
D. Qui fait aux amans jouir de ce qu'ils ont grant désir?
R. Humblement requérir et prier (p. 196).
The different kinds of love are now classified into twenty-seven
types, such as l'amour entreprenant, sans esprit, paresseux, impérieux,
jaloux, constant, and so on.
The god also issues certain laws to be observed in his empire, and
these are the same as those versified by the Abbé Regnier-Desmarais
in his Edit de l'Amour¹ about a century earlier. There are eighteen
of these, and they are chiefly pieces of advice about winning and
retaining a lady's affections, commands against languor, timidity, and
jealousy, and hints about interpreting signs. Thus the seventh is:
If a lover wishes to make a complete conquest and guard against.
coldness, he ought to have a plan in his head as well as a passion in
his heart. The ninth is: For the reasonable time when one may best
take advantage of the favorable mood, watch the lady's eyes.
Genius as "archiprestre d'amour, vicaire et lieutenant general
pour sa Majesté," appears again in a piece by Estienne Pasquier,
published at Paris in 1618, and described as Ordonnances Generalles
d'Amour, "envoyées au seigneur baron de Mirlingues, chevalier des
isles Hyères." There are fifty ordinances of a figurative sort, forming
a kind of amorous jurisprudence rather than a code of instructions
for individuals.
8
Il Congresso di Citera of the Count Algarotti (1712-64) shows
that in Italy the Court of Love material developed in much the same
way as in France. Love has shut himself up in the Isle of Cythera
for the purpose of settling the proper way of loving. He takes to
counsel Hope and Pleasure, and they decide to have representatives
1 See Martial d'Auvergne, Arrêts d'Amours, Paris, 1731, p. 601, in which are
cited Poësies de Mme. la Comtesse de la Suze et de M. Pellisson, p. 115, and Les
Poësies Françoises de l'Abbé F. S. Regnier-Desmarais, ed. 1707, p. 121.
2 Fournier, Variétés Hist. et Litt., Paris, 1855, II, 169.
8 See Opere del Conte Algarotti, Venice, 1791–4, VI, 223–316, trans. into French
in Bibl. Univ. des Romans, July, 1786, pp. 6–83, and Aug., 1786, pp. 107–36.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
261
of the chief modes; so an English, a French, and an Italian lady of
fashion are summoned to the Congress. The allegorical framework,
most of which is borrowed from the familiar mediæval tradition, and
some of which more definitely recalls parts of the Hypnerotomachia, is
thus used as a setting for a discussion of national customs and habits
of mind "la sensibile delicatezza del cuore delle italiane, la non
incomoda leggierezza delle francesi, e la filosofica serietà delle
inglesi."
2
From Italy, too, is said to have come the first hint for the motive
of a story of Cupid that developed in France, and is found to some
extent in England also. Les trois Contes de Cupido et d'Atropos,
found in the work of Jean Lemaire des Belges, is alleged by Becker
to go back to two sonnets of Serafino Aquilano.¹ Lemaire's first tale
begins with an account of a drinking bout between Love and Death,
which results in the two gods getting their shooting gear exchanged.
Each begins to shoot, with the disastrous consequences of killing
the young men, and inflaming the old with love.
The second tale brings Cupid home to his mother's palace, where
she and her nymphs are having a siesta. Many of the mediaval
features are recognizable in the description of the Castle. Love's
daughter Volupté is accidentally pricked by one of the deadly
arrows, great excitement follows the discovery, and finally the bow
and arrows of Death are thrown into the moat and Cupid is put
out of the hall. Death comes up to the gate, driving his crowd of
lovesick dotards who drag the dead bodies of Cupid's victims, and
Venus urges her son, who has now awakened, to get back his bow.
Cupid tries in vain to slay Death with his own arrows; but Death
merely mocks him and says that in future they will take each other's
names as well as weapons. Meanwhile the water in the moat has
been poisoned by Death's arrows, and Venus and her nymphs try to
sweeten it with flowers and honey. They make it more attractive
3
1 Le Rime di Serafino de' Ciminelli dall' Aquila, ed. by M. Menghini, Bologna,
1894, I, 49–50, sonnets xi and xii. But there is really no similarity between the
sonnets and the conte.
2 See P. A. Becker, Jean Lemaire, Strassburg, 1893, p. 255. Becker gives a sum-
mary from Lemaire's Euvres, III, 39 ff. Cf. also Goujet, Bibl. Franç., X, 86–9.
3 Becker, Lemaire, pp. 258 ff.
*
262
William Allan Neilson.
እ
but no less deadly, and all those who drink of the water or eat of
what grows on its banks are smitten with a fearful disease. Such
terror does this create that many are driven to virtue by fear.
The third tale is not by Lemaire, but is anonymous. It contains
an account of Venus's appeal to Jupiter, the calling of a council on
the disorders described in the first two tales, and the presenting to
Cupid and Atropos of new bows fitted for their respective functions.
The water in the moat, however, Mercury says cannot be cured.
1
These stories were still further continued in the Triumphe de Dame
Verolle, published at Lyons in 1539. This is an allegorical proces-
sion, of the type already exemplified," in which Dame Verolle, the
personification of the disease contracted from the poisoned moat,
takes the part of "Royne du Puy d'Amours."
The main point of the first of these tales — the exchange of the
weapons of Love and Death — is used by Richard Barnfield (1594)
to account for an old man's falling in love with a queen whose young
lover had died."
1
The subtleties of love continued to furnish subjects for conversa-
tion in fashionable society long after the Middle Ages. In England it
is reflected, for example, in certain scenes in Shakspere's earlier
comedies. In France we have an historical instance considerably
later. In the Mémoires d'Anne de Gonzague," written about 1664,
that Princess describes the assemblies at the Hôtel de Rambouillet,
where even Cardinal Richelieu took part in discussions on love and
poetry. One day Mademoiselle de Scudéry told of a man who was
in great grief at parting with his mistress, and she said that he spoke
in a ravishing manner of the happiness of being loved. The Duc
d'Enghien, however, protested that this man did not love "blen
vivement, qu'il n'étoit que personnel. Un véritable amant, dit-il, doit
1 A. de Montaiglon, Recueil de Poésies françoises des XV et XVI© Siècles, IV,
214 ff. See also Becker, Lemaire, p. 268, n. 2. 2 See p. 114, above.
³ The Affectionate Shepherd, Percy Society, XX, 6, Lond., 1847.
4 See, e.g., Two Gentlemen of Verona, i, 1, 2, ii, 4; Love's Labour's Lost, iv, 3;
Twelfth Night, ii, 4; Romeo and Juliet, i, 1.
5 G. Sénac de Meilhan, Mém. d'Anne de Gonzague, Princesse Palatine, 2d ed.,
Lond., 1789, pp. 39 ff.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
263
A
être plus occupé de son amour, que des sentimens qu'il inspire."
dispute followed, and Richelieu, hearing of it, gave a great dinner at
Ruel to all those who had taken part. The Princess Palatine's sister
was made president, and the rest took their places with great gravity.
The discussion was reopened, the Cardinal collected the votes, and
the decision was in favor of the opinion of the Duc d'Enghien. "Vous
vous étonnerez," concludes the narrator, " peut-être des formes et de
l'appareil imposant que donnoit le Cardinal à cette assemblée; mais
c'étoit l'esprit du tems, et le sien particulièrement en amour."
The work in English which shows the most extensive traces of the
Court of Love influence after 1520 is the Faerie Queene. It would
require a quite disproportionate amount of space here to show in
detail even the more elaborate instances of Spenser's borrowings
from medieval love-allegory; and we shall have to be content with a
single instance of his method of treating the tradition.
In Canto xi of Book III occurs a description of the altar of Cupid,
which Britomart finds in the Castle of Busyrane. The room has been
described as hung with arras picturing the amours of the Greek gods:
And at the upper end of that faire rowme
There was an Altar built of pretious stone
Of passing valew and of great renowme,
On which there stood an Image all alone
Of massy gold, which with his owne light shone;
And winges it had with sondry colours dight,
More sondry colours than the proud Pavone
Bears in his boasted fan, or Iris bright,
When her discolourd bow she spreds through hevens hight.
1
Blyndfold he was; and in his cruell fist
A mortall bow and arrowes keene did hold,
With which he shot at randon, when him list,
Some headed with sad lead, some with pure gold (sts. 47, 48).
And all about the glistring walles were hong
With warlike spoiles and with victorious prayes
Of mightie Conquerours and Captaines strong,
Which were whilome captived in their dayes
To cruell love (st. 52).
264
William Allan Neilson.
The next canto (xii) contains the masque of Cupid, in which many
of the old abstractions reappear.
After the action has been indicated in dumb-show by Ease, the
masquers enter to music.
The first was Fansy, like a lovely Boy (st. 7),
And him beside marcht amorous Desyre (st. 9).
Next after him went Doubt, who was yclad
In a discolour'd cote of straunge disguyse (st. 10).
With him went Daunger, cloth'd in ragged weed (st. 11).
Next him was Feare, all arm'd from top to toe (st. 12).
With him went Hope in rancke, a handsome Mayd (st. 13).
Then Dissemblaunce and Suspect (st. 14), Griefe and Fury (st. 16),
Displeasure and Pleasaunce (st. 18), next a lady led by Despight and
Cruelty, with a wound in her breast (st. 19).
Next after her, the winged God him selfe
Came riding on a Lion ravenous (st. 22).
Behinde him was Reproch, Repentaunce, Shame (st. 24).
So many moe, as there be phantasies
In wavering wemens witt, that none can tell,
Or paines in love, or punishments in hell (st. 26).
These passages are sufficient to prove how thoroughly Spenser was
acquainted with the works of his predecessors in allegory.'
In Scotland we find occasional traces of Court of Love matter in
Sir David Lindesay. Thus in the Satyre of the Thrie Estaits,"
Sensuality prays:
O Queene Venus! unto thy Celsitude
I gif gloir, honour, laud, and reuerence.
1 Traces of Court of Love features are evident also in Skelton's Bowge of Court
and Garlande of Laurell. See Poetical Works of John Skelton, ed. by Dyce,
Lond., 1843, I, 30 ff. and 361 ff.
2 Works of Sir D. Lyndesay, ed. for E. E. T. S. by F. Hall and J. A. H. Murray,
pt. iv, p. 394.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
265
I mak ane vow, with humbill obseruance,
Richt reuerentlie thy Tempill to visie,
With sacrifice unto thy Dyosie (vv. 499 ff.).
Again in another poem, the Deploratioun of Quene Magdalene¹:
O Venus, with thy blynd sone Cupido,
Fy on 30w baith, that maid no resistance!
In to our Court ze never had sic two,
So leill Luffaris without dissimulance,
As Iames the Fift, and Magdalene of France (vv. 36–40).
In John Rolland's Court of Venus" (1575) Desperance is tried in
elaborate legal form for saying rude things about Love.
The golden and the leaden arrows of Cupid, which appeared again
in the passage quoted from Spenser, are found also in Richard
Barnfield.3
Yet, O enthraller of infranchizd harts,
At my poore hart if thou wilt needs be ayming,
Doo me this favour, show me both thy darts,
That I may chuse the best for my harts mayming,
A free consent is privilegd from blaming.
Then pierce his hard hart with thy golden arrow,
That thou my wrong, that he may rue my sorrow.
But let me feel the force of thy lead pyle,
What should I doo with love when I am old?
But it is in pageants and the drama that the Court of Love left
most traces in England.
In a spectacle in honor of Queen Elizabeth in London (1558-9)
personified abstractions appear. The Seate of Worthie Governance
is supported by Pure Religion, Love of Subjects, Wisdom, and
Justice, treading upon the corresponding vices.*
1 Works of Sir D. Lyndesay, ed. for E. E. T. S. by F. Hall and J. A. II. Murray,
pt. v, p. 553.
2 Ed. by W. Gregor for Scottish Text Society, Edin. and Lond., 1884. Cf.
W. A. Craigie in Modern Quarterly of Language and Literature, vol. I, no. 1,
March, 1898.
8 The Affectionate Shepherd, Percy Society, XX, 42.
4 J. Nichols, Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, Lond., 1823,
I, 44. Cf. also I, 393 ff.
266
William Allan Neilson.
At Norwich, on a similar occasion in 1578, Venus and Cupid were
represented as cast out of heaven and receiving ignominious treat-
ment from a Philosopher, from Chastity, Modesty, Temperance, and
others.¹ Elizabeth's rôle of the Virgin Queen naturally encouraged
the irreverent treatment of the Love deities, and brought about an
exalting of Diana at the expense of Venus.
In the tilt yard at Whitehall, in 1581, there was represented an
assault on the Fortress of Perfect Beauty by Virtuous Desire.2
The love-quibbling custom is exemplified in a sort of pastoral
performed before the queen at Sudeley in 1592.3
In the Legacy of Loricus,* read on another such occasion in 1592,
a trace of a very old kind of allegorical fancy appears:
I bequethe to your Highnes the whole mannor of loue and the appur-
tenaunces thereunto belonging, viz.:
Woodes of hie attemptes,
Groues of humble seruice,
Meddowes of greene thoughtes . . .
Fishing for dayntie kisses with smyling countenances, etc.
In the Progresses of James I. of England the same kind of thing
continues with more and more of a tendency towards the definite
masque form. Thus in Ben Jonson's Masque at Lord Hadington's
Marriage (1607-8) Love has the usual accompaniments of roses,
transfixed hearts, etc., and Venus is drawn in a chariot by doves and
swans, and attended by Graces.
5
In 1619 Middleton wrote a pageant called The Triumphs of Love
and Antiquity," in which were a Sanctuary of Fame, a Parliament of
Honour, and a triumphant chariot of Love drawn by two "luzerns or
lynxes." Other Triumphs, such as the Triumph of London, of Honour,
of Peace, and so on, are frequent; likewise Temples of Honour, Palaces
of Pleasure, etc.
1 J. Nichols, Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, Lond., 1823,
II, 189..
8 Ibid., III, 142.
2 Ibid., II, 312 ff.
4 Ibid., III, 212.
↳ Nichols, Progresses of James I., Lond., 1828, II, 176–7. Cf. also Jonson, Love
Freed, Love Restored, etc.
"Lord Mayors' Pageants, Percy Society, X, 45, Lond., 1843.
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
267
The literary interest is greater in a Court of Love occurring
in the fifth act of John Marston's Parasitaster, or The Fawn
(1606).1
The dénouement of this play is brought about by the disguised
Duke of Ferrara, who as a fawning courtier has got up a court enter-
tainment in the form of a Parliament of Love. Cupid is led in by
Drunkenness, Sloth, Pride, and Plenty, and is followed by Folly, War,
Beggary, and Laughter. After a health is drunk to Venus, Cupid
says that he means to enforce his old laws, and calls for the reading
of the Statutes. These are constructed with a view to the various
situations in which the dramatis personae have been represented in
the preceding acts; and after each is read, the particular culprit
aimed at is called forth and has judgment passed on him. The first
begins thus:
A Statute made in the 5463d year of the easeful reign of the mighty
potent Don Cupid, emperor of sighs and protestations . . . for the main-
taining and relieving of his old soldiers, maimed or dismembered in love,
etc.
An act against the plurality of mistresses;
An act against counterfeiting of Cupid's royal coin.
An act against forgers of love-letters, false braggarts of ladies' favours,
and vain boasters of counterfeit tokens, etc.
•
2
In Massinger's Parliament of Love (1624) Charles VIII. of France,
confronted by the complaints of his courtiers about the cruelty of the
court ladies, decides to
Erect a place of justice near the Court,
Which we 'll have styled, The Parliament of Love:
Here such whose humble service is not considered
By their proud mistresses, freely may complain;
And shall have hearing and redress
►
1 Works of John Marston, ed. by A. H. Bullen, Lond., 1887, vol. II. For this
reference I am indebted to the late Dr. R. A. Small.
2 Plays of Philip Massinger, ed. by W. Gifford, Lond., 1805, II, 232–322. For
this reference, and for drawing my attention to Gifford's valuable introduction, I
am indebted to Professor A. R. Marsh.
268
William Allan Neilson.
And ladies that are wronged
By such as do profess themselves their servants,
May cite them hither, and their cause delivered
Or by their own tongues, or fee'd advocates,
Find sudden satisfaction.
A month is allowed in which to arrange matters out of court.
The interval is filled in with a plot of a type familiar enough at
that period, and when the Court of Love comes to be held, it
varies little from the usual scene for the administering of poetical
justice, such, e.g., as that in Measure for Measure, except that the
speeches on either side are slightly more formal, and a priest with
an image of Cupid is introduced.
D'Avenant's Temple of Love and The Triumphs of the Prince
d'Amour¹ are very fantastic things, only vaguely connected with the
Court of Love.
Systematic search in literature of the modern period would doubt-
less bring to light many more developments and survivals of the
motives which formed such an important element in the books which
delighted, to an extent that amazes us, our medieval ancestors. The
present chapter is meant only to suggest how considerable has been
the influence, down to even comparatively late times, of that tradition
whose history we have tried to follow in this essay. The latest
example I have found brings us down to our own times, and makes
an appropriate enough ending to the discussion.
WHICH?
So, the three Court-ladies began
Their trial of who judged best
In esteeming the love of a man :
Who preferred with most reason was thereby confessed
Boy-Cupid's exemplary catcher and cager;
An Abbé crossed legs to decide on the wager.
¹ D'Avenant, Dramatic Works, ed. by Maidment and Logan, Edinburgh, 1872-4,
I, 281 ff. See also Appendix, pp. 347-8, for other instances of the name "Prince
d'Amour."
The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love.
269
1
First the Duchesse: "Mine for me
Who were it but God's for Him,
And the King's for
who but he?
Both faithful and loyal, one grace more shall brim
His cup with perfection: a lady's true lover,
He holds
S
save his God and his King — none above her."
"I require"
outspoke the Marquise-
"Pure thoughts, ay, but also fine deeds:
Play the paladin must he, to please
My whim, and to prove my knight's service exceeds
Your saint's and your loyalist's praying and kneeling
Show wounds, each wide mouth to my mercy appealing."
Mangalam
Then the Comtesse: "My choice be a wretch,
Mere losel in body and soul,
Thrice accurst! What care I, so he stretch
Arms to me his sole saviour, love's ultimate goal,
Out of earth and men's noise names of 'infidel,' 'traitor,'
Cast up at him? Crown me, crown's adjudicator !
")
And the Abbé uncrossed his legs,
Took snuff a reflective pinch,
Broke silence: "The question begs
Much pondering ere I pronounce. Shall I flinch?
The love which to one and one only has reference
Seems terribly like what perhaps gains God's preference." 1
Complete Works of Robert Browning, Cambridge edition, Boston, 1896, p. 199.
ADDENDA.
Page 25. Guiraut de Calanso. À propos of the arrows of different metals
mentioned here, cf. pp. 54 and 140, above.
Page 30.
Cheltenham Court of Love MS. The date, according to A.
Thomas, is not later than the first half of the thirteenth century, but
Bartsch (Grundriss, p. 28, MS. N.) gives it as fourteenth. On this
poem cf., in addition to the references given in note 2, Revue des
Langues Romanes, series 3, VII, 90-8, 238-9.
Page 79. Chaucer and Froissart. Professor Kittredge's article, referred
to in note 1, will be found in Englische Studien, XXVI, 321–36.
Page 82. Les Échecs Amoureux. For an elaborate analysis of the con-
tents of this poem, with an account of the MSS., a discussion of its
sources and literary importance, and a comparison of vv. 1–4873 with
the translation and expansion of them by Lydgate in his Reason and
Sensuality, see Les Échecs Amoureux, eine altfranzösische Nach-
ahmung des Rosenromans und ihre englische Uebertragung, by Ernst
Sieper, Weimar, 1898.
Page 120. Königsberger Jagdallegorie. This poem has been published
by F. Schulz in the Schade-Festschrift, Königsberg, 1896, pp. 233-7.
Page 133, note 1. The Tannhäuser Legend. Cf. also G. Paris, Romania,
XXVII, 304 ff.
Page 165. The Pastime of Pleasure. The statement made here with
reference to the allegorical hounds should be modified by references
to La Chasse aux Médisants on p. 74, and La Chasse d'Amours on
p. 100.
Page 190.
Robert de Blois. See the two passages in Ulrich's edition:
Chanson d'Amors, 208-10 (II, 126), 290–8 (II, 134–6).
Page 261. Jean Lemaire. Becker's statement of Lemaire's indebtedness
to Serafino has reference to only the first of the Trois Contes.
A leis cui am, etc., 24, 181.
Abbate di Tiboli, 203.
Abbé de Sade, 248 n. 2, 254.
Actæon, 161.
Adam de la Halle, 71.
Admetus, 3.
Adonis, 220.
Advice to Lovers, 212.
Æneas, 3, 88, 141, 217.
Eneid, 12, 217.
Affectionate Shepherd, 265.
Aiglantine, Hueline et, 37.
Ain Mynn Red, 129, 205.
Aix (Provence), 253-4.
Alanus de Insulis, 50-1, 143.
Albricus Philosophus, 22 n. 2.
Alcestis, 3, 34, 145, 147, 161, 229, 231,
237.
Alcmene, 238.
Alcuin, 240.
Algarotti, 260.
Allegorical armor, 161, 167.
INDEX.
banquet, 68, 69, 73.
building, 28, 36, 41, 64, 66, 99,
124, 137, 191.
drinking-cups, 73.
figures, see Personification.
hounds, 74, 100, 120-3, 165,
Addenda.
steps, 24, 72, 80, 181, 194, 203.
Allegory and Mythology, 8 ff.
beginnings of, 8 ff.
founded on Scripture, 17-21.
in England, 135-6.
in Italy, 109.
271
Allgemeine Geschichte, etc., see Ebert.
Alphonso of Castile, 27.
Alte Swert, Daz, 130.
Altercatio de Phyllide et Flora, 34-8,
41, 43, 69, 104, 145, 241.
Altswert, Meister, 130–1, 133 n. 2.
Amant rendu Cordelier, 105, 202.
Amé Malingre, 251-2.
Amiens, Jacques d', 174.
Amorosa Visione, 115–16.
Amour dans Marie de France, 185 n. 1.
André le Chapelain, see Andreas Capel-
lanus.
Andrea da Barberino, 134.
Andreas Capellanus, 26, 45 n. 4 and 5,
72, 150, 163, 174, 176-81, 188,
195, 201−2, 205, 214, 221, 248–50.
Anelida, 3, 151.
Anelida and Arcite, 231.
Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets, 45 n. I.
Anne de Gonzague, Mémoirs d', 262.
Anticlaudianus, 50−2, 71, 142.
Antiope, 238.
Antoine de la Sale, 132, 133 and n. 1,
134.
Antoniewicz, J. von, 256.
Antony, 151.
Aphrodite (Pandemos), 40, 55-
(Urania), 55.
Apollinaris Sidonius, 16.
Apollo, palace of, 36.
April, 31–3, 62, 158, 226.
Apuleius, 14, 119 n. 4.
Architrenius, 45, 239.
Archpriest of Hita, 174 n. 1.
272
Index.
Arcite, 3.
Arezzo, G. d', 202.
Aristotle, 76, 139.
Armonye of Byrdes, 226.
Arnaut Daniel, 221.
Arnaut de Marueil, 183 n. 3.
Arrêts d'Amours, 105, 106 n. 2, 202, 243,
258.
Arrows (of Love), 11, 15, 22, 24-5, 27,
35, 39, 40, 42-3, 48, 54, 58–9, 61,
76, 78, 85, 88, 92, 94, 111, 115-17,
119-20, 138–40, 145-6, 148, 154,
157, 161, 188, 198, 254, 257, 261–2,
265, Addenda.
Ars Amatoria, 170-2, 175, 177.
Art d'aimer, 175.
Art d'amors, 174.
Arthur, 131.
Arthurian romances, 125, 138, 158, 178,
201.
Asceticism vs. chivalrous love, 176.
Asolani, Gli, 247.
Assembly of Ladies, 150-2.
Assembly of the Gods, 146.
Assignation d'un Amant, 259.
Atalanta, 116.
Atropos, 261-2.
Augustine, St., 19.
Auriol, Blaise d', 100 n. 2.
Aurora, 163.
Autos sacramentales, 20 and n. 2.
Bacchus, 116, 142, 147, 259.
Bail du Cœur de Cloris, 259.
Balade Warning Men, 237.
Bamberg, see Egen von B.
Barberino, see Andrea and Francesco
da B.
Barnfield, Richard, 262, 265.
Baudouin, A. (on Pamphilus), 174.
Baudouin de Condé, 66, 191.
Becker, P. A., 261.
Belle Dame sans Mercy, La, 85, 88,
103 n. 1, 149, 199.
Bell's Chaucer, 6 n. 2.
Bembo, Cardinal, 247.
Benoît de Court, 243.
Berchta, 134.
Bernard of Clairvaux, 18, 21.
Bernart de Ventadorn, 182, 221.
Bersabee, 139.
Bertolome Zorzi, 29.
Bestiaries, 71.
Bewty and the Presoncir, 164.
Birds, 8, 11, 35-8, 41-2, 48, 52, 57-8,
61, 67-9, 78, 80, 86, 146, 152–6,
158–9, 185, 210, 217 ff.
Birds' Matins, 217 ff., 239.
Blaise d'Auriol, 100 n. 2.
Blancheflor et Florance, Geste de, 36, 38,
136, 218, 241.
Blois, Robert de, 189.
Boccaccio, 91, 115-17, 142, 145, 147, 168,
246-7.
Boethius, 142–3.
Bok of the Duchesse, 62, 79, 141–2, 239.
Book of Cupid, 210.
Bouciquaut, see Maréchal B.
Bourgoing, Simon, 100 n. 2, 105.
Bowge of Court, 264 n. 1.
Brakelmann (on Andreas), 45 n. 5.
Brant, Sebastian, 132.
Breviari d'Amor, 184, 207.
Briseyda, 88.
Brown, J. T. T., 235.
Browning, Robert, 268-9.
Brunetto Latini, 83, 111.
Brykholle, 38 n. 1.
Bunyan, 48, 63.
Calanso, see Guiraut de C.
Calista and Melibaa, 174 n. I.
Calliope, 161-2, 214.
Canace, 162.
Canterbury Tales, 141, 148, 231, 239.
Capella, see Martianus C.
Carmen de Rosa, 176.
Carmina Burana, 34 n. 2, 39, 175.
Index.
273
Carvings of Castle of Love, 137, 256.
Caseneuve, 245.
Castel off Loue, 136 n. 3.
Castets, F., 110.
Castiglione, B., 247.
Castle, see Palace.
Catullus, 113.
Cavalcanti, Guido, 111.
Ce qui plaît aux Dames, 258.
Celestina, 174, 215.
Cemetery of Love, 88, 91, 259.
Cent Balades (C. de Pisan), 196.
Cent Ballades, Livre des, 196–8.
Ceres, 116, 142, 147.
Cerlne or Cersne, see Everhardus C.
Certamen Rosae Liliique, 240.
Ceyx and Alcyone, 62, 161.
Champion des Dames, 102.
Chapel, see Temple.
Chapman, J., 36.
Charles d'Orléans, 90, 93-8, 103, 142,
200-1, 230, 237, 239.
Chartier, Alain, 75, 85-9, 91 and n. 1,
102, 107, 149, 199, 242, 257.
Chartre d'Amours, 74.
Chase, Allegory of the, 74, 78, 100,
I 20-3.
Chasse aux Médisants, 74-
Chasse d'Amours, 100.
Chasteau d'Amour, 136-7.
Chastel d'Amors, 28.
Chastel de Leal Amour, 192.
Chasteuil-Gallaup, Pierre de, 254 and
n. I.
Chastiement des Dames, 189.
Chastity, 114.
Château d'Amour, 137, 255.
Chatelaine de Vergy, 86 and n. 2.
Chaucer, 52, 62, 77, 79 and n. 1, 102,
116-7, 141–6, 147-51, 155, 160,
163-4, 168, 206, 213, 219, 229-
31, 235-6, 239.
Chaucer and Froissart, 79 n. 1, Addenda.
Chaucer and Machaut, 62 and n. 3.
Chaucer's Dreme, 62, 1 56–7.
Cheltenham C. of L. MS., 30, Addenda.
Chess, 118.
Chevalier aux Dames, 103 n. 2.
Chevaliers de la Joye, Ordre des, 259.
Chief de Joyeuse Destinée, 107.
Chivalrous ideal, realization of, 198.
Chivalrous love, see Rules of c. 1.
Chivalrous love vs. Asceticism, 176.
Chrétien de Troyes, 44, 128 n. 1, 176,
185.
Christ, 48, 71, 252.
Christine de Pisan, 83-5, 149, 195-6, 242.
Christopher, St., 241.
Church, see Temple.
Cicero, 52, 105, 142, 213.
Clanvowe, Sir T., 210, 227.
Classification of lovers, 231.
Claudian, 14, 15, 37 n. 2, 54, 115, 117,
142-3.
Clef d'Amors, 174 and n. 3.
Cleopatra, 151.
Clerk vs. Knight debate, 31, 34, 36, 108,
241.
Cligès, 44, 56, 185.
Code d'Amour, 201.
Code de l'Amour (1776), 259.
Codes of love before Andreas, 180-1.
Colonna, Francesco, 114, 117.
Commonplaces of love-allegory, 228.
Complainants, 3, 5, 231-4, 236.
Complaint of the Black Knight, 146.
Complainte de Saint Valentin, 75.
Complaints, 68, 128, 142, 147-8, 153,
166, 228, 231.
Compleynt of Mars, 142, 219.
Compleynt of Venus, 142, 206.
Compleynt to his Lady, 142.
Compleynt unto Pite, 230-1, 239.
Concile de Remiremont, see Romarici-
montis Concilium.
Condé, Baudouin de, 66, 191.
Jean de, 67-9, 73, 191-2, 225, 227,
239.
274
Index.
Confessio Amantis, 72, 138-41, 257.
Conflictus Veris et Hiemis, 240.
Congresso di Citera, 260.
Consaus d'Amours, 195.
Conseils d'Amour, 188, 207.
Conversations between lovers, 177, 184.
Coquillart, Guillaume, 243.
Corinth, 40.
Cortegiano, Il, 247.
Cosselh a las donas, 184 n. 3, 207.
Cosselh als amadors, 184 n. 4.
Cour Amoureuse, 248, 251–2.
Cour d'Amour, 184.
Cour de May, 80, 194.
Court, Benoît de, 243.
Court d'Amours, 64-5.
Court of Love allegory, development
of, 167-8.
after 1520, 256 ff.
Court of Love (M. E.), authorship, I;
construction, 235; date, I, 2;
features investigated, 7-8;
manuscript, I; not a dream, 52;
not by Chaucer, 1; state of text,
5 ff.; summary of plot, 2-5.
Court of Love not a serious tribunal,
249-50. See also Institution,
and Pageant.
Court of the Muses, 161-2.
Court of Venus, 265.
Coutumes du Beauvaisis, 59.
Couvin, see Watriquet de C.
Credo à l'Userier, 222.
Credo au Ribaut, 222.
Cressida, 159, 161.
Creüsa, 139.
Cuckoo, 217, 225-6.
Cuckoo and the Nightingale, The, 210,
227.
Cuer d'Amours Espris, Livre du, 90-3,
102.
Cupid, 3, 8, 11, 14-16, 22, 34-6, 39, 45,
48-9, 74, 78, 84, 88–9, 95, 100-1,
105, 108, 116, 118–19, 123, 138–-9,
142-7, 154, 157, 159-62, 166,
204, 216, 219-20, 223, 228, 254,
257, 259, 261-8.
Cupido (fem.), 124–5.
Cupido, Trois Contes de, 261.
Cursor Mundi, 136 and n. 4.
Cynthia, 159.
Cypassis, 215.
Cyprian, 19.
Cyprus, 12, 15, 115.
D'Avenant, 268.
Daisy, 78, 144, 145, 150, 229.
Dalida, 237.
Dallyngton, Robert, 118 n. 1.
Dammann, O., 24 n. 1, 25 n. 2, 72.
Danaë, 238.
Daniel, Arnaut, 221.
Danse des Aveugles, 104.
Dante, 109, 112, 213, 247.
Daphne, 140, 148.
David, 139.
De Amore, see Andreas Capeilanu anu
Pamphilus.
De Arte Honeste Amandi, see Andreas
Capellanus.
De Consolatione, 142, 143 n. 1.
De Nuptiis Honorii et Mariae, 15, 115.
De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, 16,
148.
De Patientia, 18.
De Phyllide et Flora, see Altercatio.
De Profundis des Amoureux, 222.
De Republica, 213.
De Roisin, 199 n. I.
De Spectaculis, 19.
De Venus, see Venus la Deesse.
Débat d'un Moine et d'un Gendarme, 108.
Débat de deux Amants, 242.
Débat de deux Demoyselles, 242.
Débat de la Demoiselle et de la Bour-
goise, 244.
Débat du Jeune et du Vieulx Amou
reux, 244.
Index.
275
Debate (débat), 31–8, 68, 79, 136, 248 ff.,
257-8.
Debate of the Body and the Soul, 241.
Décisions de Cythère, 259.
Delilah, 141.
Demophon, 88, 113, 141, 151.
Departie d'Amours, 101.
Deploratioun of Quene Magdalene, 265.
Der Mynn Gericht, 129.
Der Mynn Regel, 205.
Deschamps, Eustache, 75.
Description de Paris, 252 n. I.
Desert d'Amours, 75.
Despartie d'Amours, 96.
Detto d'Amore, 110.
Devotions of the Fowles, 226.
Diana, 82-3, 116, 146, 150, 161, 266.
Dido, 3, 76, 87-8, 141, 223, 233, 237.
Diez, 24 n. 1, 29 n. 1, 244, 248.
Différend de Beaux Yeux et de Belle
Bouche, 257.
Digulleville, G. de, 93.
Dinaux, 258.
Dipsas, 215.
Dis de l'Escole d'Amours, 194.
Dis de la Fontaine d'Amours, 72, 73.
Dis du Preu Chevalier, 193.
Discours sur les Arcs Triomphaux, 254.
Dit de la Fleur de Lis, 144.
Dit de la Fontaine Amoureuse, 62, 73, 142.
Dit de Poissy, Livre du, 242.
Dit des Huit Couleurs, 193.
Dit dou Lion, 62.
Dit du Vergier, 61, 190, 221.
Dittié de la Flour de la Margherite, 144.
Divine Comedy, 48, 89, 109, 112, 213.
Documenti d'Amore, 203.
Dotrine d'Amor, 188-9.
Douglas, Gavin, 77, 102, 160-3, 214.
Doves, 217-8.
Dream-setting, 41, 46, 48, 52, 63, 71, 73,
76, 78, 81, 86, 87, 95, 100, 102,
104-5, 130, 141-2, 144, 147, 151,
156, 158, 163, 174.
Dream-setting, Origin of, 213.
Dregy of Dunbar, 224.
Dryden, 149.
Dubbii, 246-8, 250.
Dunbar, William, 2, 163-5, 212, 220,
224, 227.
Durante, Ser, 110.
Eagle as guide, 214.
Earthly Paradise, 112.
Ebert, 18 n. 8, 19 n. 1, 240.
Ecclesiastes, 154.
Ecclestiasticus, 17.
Echecs Amoureux, 82, 195, Addenda.
Echo, 89, 141
Eclogue, 240.
Eclympasteyre, 79.
Ediffice de l'Ostel Dolloureux, 99.
Edit de l'Amour, 260.
Egen von Bamberg, 123 n. 4.
Eleanor of Aquitaine, 176, 185, 250.
Elie, see Maistre E.
•
Enghien, Duc d', 262-3.
Enqueste d'entre la Simple et la Rusée,
243.
Enseignement du Dieu d'Amours,
98.
Enzo Re, 202.
Ephrussi, Charles, 114 n. 4.
Epistre au Dieu d'Amours, 84-5, 149,
195.
Epithalamium dictum Ruricio et Hibe-
riae, 16.
Ermengaud, Matfre, 184.
Eros, 55.
Escole d'Amours, Dis de l', 194.
Espinette Amoureuse, S2 n. 3.
Espinette du Jeune Prince, 105.
Etude sur le Songe de Poliphile, 114
n. 4.
Europa, 115, 238.
Eustache Deschamps, 75.
Everhardus Cersne or Cerlne, 205.
Excusation de Maistre Alain, 85.
276
Index.
Fablel dou Dieu d'Amours, 41, 52, 54-5,
167, 214, 218, 241.
Fabrizio Maramaldo, 248 n. I.
Facetus, 175.
Faerie Queene, 263-4.
Faidit, Gaucelm, 30 n. 4, 182.
Fairy-lore, 125, 156.
Faits du Maréchal Bouciquaut, Livre
des, 198.
Fall of Princes, 100.
Fawn (Marston's), 267.
Fête-Dieu, 90, 253 and n. 2.
Fiammetta, 246.
Filocolo, 246-7.
Fiori, 110.
Flamenca, Roman de, 27, 183.
Fleur de Lis, Dit de la, 144.
Flora, 150, 163.
Flora, De Phyllide et, see Altercatio.
Florance et Blancheflor, 36, 38, 136,
218, 241.
Flors del Gay Saber, 244 n. 4, 245.
Flour of Curtesye, The, 146, 219.
Flower and the Leaf, The, 149, 150, 152,
214.
Fontaine Amoureuse, Dit de la, 62, 73,
Fontaine d'Amours, Dis de la, 72-3.
Fontaine Périlleuse, Livre de la, 74.
Forest in C. of L. poems, 126, 128–30.
Fortune, 51, 71, 105, 141, 152, 154-5,
160.
142.
Fountain of Love, 53-4, 62-3, 73, 76,
80, 83, 86-7, 115, 137, 257.
Fournival, see Richard de F.
Franc, Martin le, 102-4.
Francesco da Barberino, 30 n. 2, 203–4.
Francesco di Buonanni Malecarni, 114
and n. 3.
Frau Venus und die Minnenden, 128.
Freya, 134.
Friars, nuns, etc., at the C. of L., 3,
232-4.
Froissart and Chaucer, 79 n. 1, Addenda.
Froissart, Jean, 78–82, 142, 144, 194.
Fulgentius, 22, 39, 217.
Galahot, 139.
Garencières, Jean de, 98-9.
Garlande of Laurell, 264 n. I.
Garment of Good Ladies, 93.
Gaucelm Faidit, 30 n. 4, 182.
Gäuchmatt, Die, 132.
Gawain, 79.
Gaya Companhia, La, 245.
Genius (personified), 139, 257, 260.
Ges en bon vers, 183 n. 1.
Geste de Blancheflor et Florance, 36, 38,
136, 218, 241.
Gifford on C. of L., 267 n. 2.
Giochi, 246-8, 250.
Go-between, 213, 215-6.
Goldast, Melchior, 245.
Golden Targe, 163–4, 220 and n. 2, 227.
Golden Violet of Toulouse, 245.
Goldschmidt, 202.
Goliardic poetry, 175.
Goujet, 73, 88 n. 1, 100-6 and n., 261 n. 2.
Gower, John, 138–41, 155, 164.
Graces, 12, 16, 36, 266.
Granson, Oton de, 75, 206.
Grimoald, 2.
Gringore, Pierre, 107.
Griselda, 161.
Groos, K., 250 n. I.
Grosseteste, Robert, 136 and n. 3.
Gualterium, Liber ad, 180.
Guerino il Meschino, 134-5.
Guiart, 175.
Guide in allegories, 115, 127, 142, 213-4,
228.
Guido Cavalcanti, III.
Guilhem (?), Peire, 26-7.
Guillaume de Digulleville, 93.
Guillaume de Lorris, 51, 53-5, 60, 185–6,
213.
Guillaume de Machaut, 60-3, 73, 91,
142, 144, 190, 221, 241-2.
Index.
277
Į
I
Guillebert de Metz, 252.
Guiraut de Calanso, 24-6, 54, 72, 181,
194, 203, Addenda.
Guiraut Riquier, 181.
Guittone d'Arezzo, 202.
Hadamar von Laber, 121-2, 124.
Hamartigenia, 19.
Hätzlerin, Clara, 129.
Hauteville, see Jean de H.
Hawes, Stephen, 2, 165–7, 212.
Heart given as pledge, 57, 59, 95.
Heinrich von Ofterdingen, 133.
Helen, 74. See Paris.
Henryson, Robert, 2, 93, 159.
Hercules, 113, 118.
Hermann von Sachsenheim, 133.
Hermaphrodite, Love as, 76-7.
Hero and Leander, 87.
Hita, Archpriest of, 174 n. 1.
Hoccleve, 85 n. 1, 149.
Höfische Leben, Das, 256.
Holda, 134.
Homer, 9, 10, 12, 153.
Homeric Hymns, 12, 25.
Horselberg, 134.
Hospital d'Amours, 76, 87, 90, 93, 104,
200.
Hôtel de Rambouillet, 262.
Houdan, see Raoul de H.
Hous of Fame, 10 and n. 1, 13, 143-4,
146, 148, 160, 163, 214, 239.
House, see Palace.
House of Avarice, 64.
Fortune, 51.
Nature, 50, 52.
Hueline et Aiglantine, 37.
Huet, Gédéon, 34.
Huon de Mery, 48-50, 114, 187.
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, 117, 140,
220, 261.
Idoine, Melior et, 38, 136.
Ikonographisches ZU Chrestien
Troyes, 256.
de
Iliad, 10.
Institution of the Court of Love, 240
ff., 248, 256 n. 4.
Inventaire des Archives de l'Ordre de la
Toison d'Or, 251.
Isle of Ladies, 62, 156–7, 209–10, 219.
Istorie Fiorentine, 254 n. 3.
Jacopo da Lentini, 203.
Jacques d'Amiens, 174.
Jagd (Hadamar's), 121-2, 124.
Jagd der Minne, 122.
James I. of Scots, 152, 210-2, 232,
235, 239.
Jardin de Plaisance, 106.
Jason, 79, 88, 113, 139, 141.
Jaufre Rudel, 26.
Jean de Condé, see Condé.
Jean de Garencières, 98–9.
Jean de Hauteville, 44-5, 239 and n. 1.
Jean de Meun, 51, 55,83-4,91, 102-3, 187.
Jeanroy, A., 38, 240 n. 1.
Jerome, St., 22, 39.
Jeux de la Fête-Dieu, 253-4.
Jeux des Fous, 90.
Jeux Floraux, 245 and n. 2.
Jeux partis, 245-6, 250.
Jocx partitz, 244.
Joli Buisson de Jonece, 79.
Jonson, Ben, 260.
Jove, 40, 115.
Ju de le Capete, 65.
Jugement d'Amour, 36.
Jugement Definitif, 243.
Jugement du Roi de Behaigne, 241.
Jugement du Roi de Navarre, 242.
Julius Cæsar, 113.
Juno, 82.
Jupiter, 159-60, 238, 262.
Jusserand, J. J., 135 and n. 1.
Kinds of love, 188.
King Hart, 102, 163.
Kingis Quair, 152–5, 220, 232, 233-7,
235 n. 2.
278
Index.
Kittel, Der, 130–1.
Kloster der Minne, 126-8, 214.
Knight vs. Clerk debate, 31, 34, 36, 108,
241.
Knightes Tale, 117, 145.
Königsberger Jagdallegorie, 120-1, 123,
Addenda.
Körting, G., 82.
La Fontaine, 257.
Laber, see Hadamar von L.
Lai d'Amours, 188.
Lai de Guigemar, 175 and n. 3.
Lai du Trot, 72, 150, 188.
Lancelot and Guinevere, 76, 79, 88, 91,
113, 139.
Lancelot of the Laik, 158, 220.
Lando, Ortensio, 247.
Landon, Jean, 258.
Landscape (garden, meadow, forest,
etc.) of C. of L., 26-7, 30, 35,
41, 47, 52, 61-2, 67, 72, 76, 80,
82, 86, 107, 112-3, 115, 123-4,
126, 128-30, 138, 142, 145, 149,
154, 157–8, 162–3, 219.
Lange, P., 102.
Langlois, E., 23 n. 1, 381 n. 1 and 2, 41,
51, 52 n. 1, 176.
Latini, see Brunetto L.
Laws of the Kingdom of Love, 169 ff.,
194, 200, 211.
Laws of the Round Table, 201.
Lay du Desert d'Amours, 75-
Lay Folks Mass Book, 223 n. 3.
Le Caron, see Michault L.
Le Roux de Lincy, 252 n. 1.
Leaf, Walter, 10 and n. 2.
Legacy of Loricus, 266.
Legal element in C. of L., 43, 65, 68,
79, 86-7,94-5, 103-4, 125-6, 128,
131-2, 243, 267.
Legend of Good Women, 77, 79 n. I,
144, 219, 229, 231, 239.
Lemaire des Belges, Jean, 261.
LeMonnier, 258.
Lentini, Jacopo da, 203.
Letter of Cupid, 85 n. 1, 149.
Leys d'Amors, Las, 246.
Liber ad Gualterium, 180.
Liederbuch der Clara Hätzlerin, 129,
205.
Lincoln, 38.
Lindesay, Sir D., 224-5, 227, 264.
Lists of trees, beasts, etc., 142, 154.
Lives of the Provençal Poets, 248.
Livre de la Fontaine Périlleuse, 74.
Livre des Cent Ballades, 196–9, 221.
Livre des Faits du Maréchal Bouciquaut,
198.
Livre des Quatre Dames, 242.
Livre des Trois Jugemens, 242.
Livre du Cuer d'Amours Espris, 90-3,
102.
Livre du Dit de Poissy, 242.
Livre Morpheus, 62.
Lorris, see Guillaume de L.
Louis d'Orléans, 246.
Love, Kinds of, 188.
Love-chase, 74, 78, 100, 120-3.
Love-testament, IoI.
Lovers, classification of, 231.
Lucretius, 34 n. 1.
Lydgate, John, 146, 151, 155, 164, 208,
219, 223, 226, 229, 232, 234,
236-7, 239, Addenda.
Machaut, see Guillaume de M.
Macrobius, 142, 213.
Magic pavilion, 27.
Mahiu le Poriier, 64-5.
Maistre Elie, 174 and n. 2.
Malecarni, 246 and n. 2.
Malingre, Amé, 251–2.
Mansion, see Palace.
Maréchal Bouciquaut, 196, 198.
Margivale, see Nicole de M.
Marie de France, 52, 175-6, 185.
Marot, Clément, 87, 225, 257.
Index.
279
Marriage vs. Courtly love, 179.
Mars, 113, 146, 159, 161, 166.
Marston, J., 267.
Martial d'Auvergne, 105-6, 202, 243,
257.
Martianus Capella, 16, 142, 148, 167.
Martin le Franc, 102-4.
Marueil, see Arnaut de M.
Masque at Lord Hadington's Marriage,
266.
Masque of Cupid (in Faerie Queene),
264.
Massinger, P., 267.
Matfre Ermengaud, 184.
Maximian, 238-9.
May and May-day, 5, 32–3, 41, 52, 67,
72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 85, 98, 106,
III, 126, 132, 138, 141, 144, 146,
149, 153, 156, 160, 163-4, 194,
216-7, 220, 227-8, 255.
Measure for Measure, 268.
Medea, 76, 141, 147.
Meister Altswert, 130-1, 133 n. 2.
Melchior Goldast, 245.
Melior et Idoine, 38, 136.
Mémoirs d'Anne de Gonzague, 262.
Meraugis de Portlesguez, 249 n. 2.
Mercury, 2, 3, 159, 253, 262.
Mery, see Huon de M.
Messe des Oisiaus, 67-9, 73, 191-2,
225-7, 239.
Metz, G. de, 252.
Meun, see Jean de M.
Meyrick, Sir S. R., 137, 256.
Michault, Pierre, 104.
Michault Le Caron, 99 n. I.
Michault Taillevent, 99, 104 n. 1.
Middelalderens Elskovshoffer, 30 n. 4.
Middleton, T., 266.
Minerva, 154–5, 160, 166, 211–2.
Minne-Falkner, Der, 123 and n. 1.
Minne Jagd, Der, 122 n. 2. .
Minne und die Ehre, Die, 131-2.
Minne vor Gerichte, Die, 132.
Minneburg, Die, 123-6, 214.
Minnesangs Frühling, Des, 123 n. I.
Minoccio, see Ser M.
Mireoirs as Dames, 72.
Molinier, Guilhem, 245.
Momus, 253.
Monte della Sibilla, 134.
Monumenta Germ. Hist., 22 n. 3.
Morality Plays, 20.
Mörin, Die, 133 n. 2.
Morley, H., 150.
Morpheus, House of, 141.
Morpheus, Livre, 62.
Mott, L. F., 183 n. 3.
Muncker, 22 n. 2.
Murner, T., 132.
Mussafia, 58 n. 1.
Mynn Gericht, Der, 129.
Mynn Red, Ain, 129, 205.
Mynn Regel, Der, 205.
Mythographi Latini, 22 n. 2.
Mythologicum, 22 n. 1.
Nape, 215.
Narcissus, 54, 62-3, 76, 83, 87-8, 145.
Narrenschiff, 132.
Neo-Platonists, 9 and n. 1.
Nicole de Margivale, 69 ff., 103.
Nonne Prestes Tale, 206 n. 4.
Nostradamus, Cæsar, 254.
Johannes, 248, 254.
Nuns, friars, etc., at the C. of L., 3,
232-4.
Octavien de Saint-Gelais, 100-2.
Ofterdingen, Heinrich von, 133.
Ordonnances Generalles d'Amour, 260.
Ordre des Chevaliers de la Joye, 259.
Origines de la Poésie Lyrique en France,
34 n. 1, 240 n. I.
Origines et Sources du Roman de la
Rose, 23 n. I.
Orléans, see Charles and Louis d'O.
Orléans contre Garencières, 98.
280
Index.
Orpheus, 113.
Oton de Granson, 75, 206.
Ovid, 11-13, 31, 36, 54, 76, 82-3,
91, 113, 140, 143, 148, 153, 159,
162, 167, 170-81, 187 n. 1, 198,
202, 215, 217, 221, 238–9, 257.
Ovidian tradition in Middle Ages,
170 ff.
Owl and the Nightingale, The, 241.
Pageant of Court of Love, 253-8; in
Aix, 253; Echallens, 255; Eng-
land, 265-8; Florence, 254-5;
Fribourg, 255; Lille, 253; Milan,
255; Tournay, 253; Valenci-
ennes, 253.
Palace of Apollo, 12, 36.
Beauty, 81.
Fortune, 71.
Palace (house, mansion, castle, tent, etc.)
of Love, 11, 12, 14-16, 23-4, 25
n. 2, 30, 37, 45-6, 63, 70, 80, 92,
94, 103, 106-7, 115, 124-6, 128-33,
137, 143, 151, 153, 160, 162–3,
177–8, 228, 266.
Palace on a hill, Origin of, 143.
Palamon and Arcite, 161.
Palice of Honour, 73, 102, 160-3, 165,
214.
Pallas, 82-3.
Pamphilus de Amore, 173-4, 215–6.
Panard, G., 258.
Pandarus, 215.
Panthère d'Amours, 69-73, 79, 216,
219.
Paphos, 12.
Parables of St. Bernard, 21.
Paradis de la Reine Sibylle, 133 n. 1.
Paradys d'Amour, 78–9.
Parasitaster, 267.
Paris and Helen, 57, 63, 76, 79, 82, 86,
116.
Paris, Gaston (on Andreas), 45 n. 5.
(on débats), 240 n. I.
Paris, Gaston (on Institution of C. of
L.), 249.
(on Ovid in Middle Ages), 173,
n. I, 175.
Parlement d'Amours (Chartier), 86,
107, 219.
(La Fontaine), 257.
Parlement of Foules, 116-7, 142, 146–7,
164, 213-4, 219, 239.
Parliament of Love (xv. Cent.), 158, 224.
(Massinger), 267.
Parnassus, 30.
Parodies of religious services, etc., 5,
32-4, 67-9, 158, 192, 216, 220 ff.,
257.
Pasquier, Estienne, 260.
Passy, Louis, 246.
Pastime of Pleasure, 165.
Pastourelle, 65.
Patenostre a l'Userier, 222.
Patenostre d'Amours, 221-2.
Patenostre des Verolles, 223.
Patenostre du Vin, 222.
Pater Noster des Anglois, 223.
Patristic allegory, 21, 23.
Paul, St., 21, 93, 167.
Peire Guilhem (?), 26-7.
Peire Rogier, 183.
Pèlerinage de la Vie Humaine, 93.
Penelope, 89, 147, 223.
Personification of abstract qualities,
5-9, 10 and n. 3, 11, 13-21, 23-4,
27, 30, 48–51, 53-4, 57-62, 64–5,
68, 70-83, 86-116, 121-2, 125,
129-32, 139, 142, 144-6, 148,
151, 153-4, 162-7, 190-1, 228,
241, 252, 257-67.
Pervigilium Veneris, 33.
Petrarch, 91, 109, 112–5, 163, 168, 214,
257.
Philippe de Remi, 59-60, 190.
Philobone, 3-8, 213 ff., 240.
Philogenet, 4-7, 240.
Phœbus, 140, 148, 159.
Index.
281
Phyllide et Flora, see Altercatio de P.
et F.
Phyllis, 87, 141, 151.
Piaget, A., 100 n. 2, 251.
Pierre Michault, 104.
Pilgrim's Progress, 8, 48, 63.
Pindar, 113.
Pisan, see Christine de P.
Pity resuscitated, 230.
Plato, 213 n. I.
Play of Animals, 250 n. 1.
Playdoyer d'entre la Simple et la
Rusée, 243.
Poème de la Prison, 94-8, 100, 103, 142,
200-1, 230, 237.
Poësies de la Comtesse de la Suze, 243.
Poissy, Livre du Dit de, 242.
Polyxena, 223.
Precepts of Seduction, 169 ff., 172–3,
175, 186, 193, 197, 202.
Preu Chevalier, Dis du, 193.
Priapus, 142.
Prince d'Amour, 268 and n. 1.
Prison d'Amours, 66, 191.
Procession of ladies, 46, 72 and n. 1,
149, 150, 160, 162–3, 177, 214.
Procuress, 173-4, 215.
Progresses of James I., 266 and n. 5.
Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, 265–6.
Propertius, 113.
Provençal Poets, Lives of the, 248.
Proverbs, 17.
Prudentius, 14 n. 4, 19–21, 48, 55, 63,
167, 241.
Psalms, 18.
Psyche, 14, 119 and n. 4.
Psychomachia, see Prudentius.
Puech, A., 14, 19.
Pui Notre Dame, 246.
Puissance d'Amour, 188, 195.
Purgatorio, 112.
Purgatory of Cruel Beauties, 46–7, 72
n. I, 178, 214, 221.
Puys d'Amour, 246.
Pygmalion, 89.
Pyramus and Thisbe, 56, 87-8, 116,
151.
Quatre Dames, Livre des, 242.
Quatrebarbes, Comte de, 253 n. 2, 254.
Quattro Libre di Dubbii, 247.
Questioni, 246–8, 250.
Raab, 18 n. 6, 21 and n. 1, 241 n. 2.
Raimon Vidal, 74, 184 n. 2.
Rajna, P. (on Andreas), 45 n. 5, 112.
(on Institution of C. of L.), 249.
Rambouillet, Hôtel de, 262.
Raoul de Houdan, 63, 190-1, 249 n. 2.
Re Enzo, 202.
Realization of chivalrous ideal, 198.
Regnier-Desmarais, Abbé, 260 and n. 1.
Religious element in C. of L. allegory,
31-4, 38-9, 47-50, 67-9, 81, Sif,
88, 91, 103-4, 126–8, 136–7, 139,
142, 145, 158, 168, 192, 211, 220,
257, 259-60, 263.
Remedia Amoris, 177.
Remi, see Philippe de R.
Remiremont, see Romaricimontis.
René of Anjou, 89-93, 102, 144, 214,
254.
Renier, R., 248 n. 1, 255.
Resourse et Reliefvement, etc., 99.
Richard de Fournival, 188, 195, 207.
Richelieu, 262-3.
Richter, A., 9 n. I.
Riquier, Guiraut, 181.
Robert de Blois, 189.
Rogier, Peire, 183.
Roisin, De, 199 n. 1.
Rolandinus l'atavinus, 256.
Rolland, John, 265.
Roman de la Rose, 2, 41, 42, 51–6, 60,
62, 70-2, 82-3, 90, 93, 104-5,
109, 110 and n. 1, 141, 145, 167,
185-7, 205-6, 213-4, 218, 228-9,
257.
282
Index.
Roman de la Rose, Landscape of, 12.
Roman du Roi Artus, 201 n. 2.
Romans des Eles, Li, 190-1.
Romanz de la Poire, 56, 98, 187, 218.
Romaricimontis Concilium, 31-4, 128
n. 1, 221, 241.
Ros, Sir R., 149, 199 n. 3.
Rudel, Jaufre, 26.
Rules of chivalrous love, 169 ff., 178–9.
See Statutes.
Rustebeuf, 63 n. 4, 64.
Sachsenheim, Hermann von, 133.
Sackville, 2.
Sade, Abbé de, 248 n. 2, 254.
Saint-Gelais, O. de, 100-2.
Sainte-Foix, 258.
Salade, 134-5•
Sale, see Antoine de la S.
Salu d'Amours, 59, 190.
Samson, 94, 139, 141, 237–8.
Saturn, 159.
Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, 264.
Schatz, Der, 133 n. 2.
Scheler, 81.
Schick, 146, 232.
Schulz, A., 256.
Scripture allegory, 17-8.
Scudéry, Mlle. de, 262.
Sedulius Scotus, 240.
Sejour d'Honneur, 102.
Semiramis, 76.
Seneschal de Hainault, 242.
Ser Durante, 110.
Ser Minoccio, 247 and n. I.
Serafino Aquilano, 261.
Shakspere, 262.
Sibilia, 31, 33.
Sibylle, see Paradis de la Reine S.
Sibyls, 135, 160.
Sicilian School, 202.
Skeat, W. W., I and n. 1, 5, 54, 150-1,
210, 227, 236, 238–40.
Skelton, 226, 264 n. 1.
So fo el temps, 184 n. 2.
Sociétés Badines, etc., 258 n. 1.
Solomon, 76, 94, 139, 145, 237-8.
Somnium Scipionis, 52, 105, 142, 213
Songe et Complainte, 95.
Spenser, 263-5.
Spiegels Abenteuer, Des, 131.
Spruchgedicht, 131 n. 2.
Statius, 14.
Statutes of Cheerfulness, 174, 182, 184
and n. 4, 186, 189, 194, 196–7,
199, 201-2, 209-11.
Complaisance (obedience, etc.),
171–2, 178, 181–2, 186, 192, 196,
199, 207, 210-11.
Constancy, 178, 182, 186–7, 192–5,
199, 200, 204, 206, 209, 211-12.
Courage, 182, 184 and n. 4, 187,
189, 192-6, 200-1, 204, 206 and
n. 4.
Courtesy, 178, 182, 184, 187, 189,
193-6, 199, 200, 203, 209-10.
Endurance, 181–2, 192, 196, 203–4,
My
Katya ( te v
2II.
Faith, 183, 207, 210.
Fear, 184, 187, 209.
Generosity, 170, 178-9, 182, 184
and n. 4, 186-7, 189, 193-4, 196,
199, 201, 203, 206 n. 4, 210,
212.
Honor, 181-2, 186-7, 189, 193,
195, 199, 201, 203, 209-10.
Hope, 184, 192, 204.
Love, 3, 4, 8, 168 ff., 236-7.
Moderation, 178, 184 n. 4, 194,
204-5, 208.
Modesty, 178, 184 n. 4, 186-7,
195-6, 199, 203, 206, 209–12.
Neatness, 171, 186–7, 189, 193-7,
200, 205, 209-11.
Secrecy, 172, 175, 178, 181-2,
184-5, 189, 192, 195-7, 199-205,
206 n. 4, 208-9, 211-12, 249.
Slander, 178, 195–6, 199, 212.
Index.
283
Statutes of Truthfulness, 178, 194–5,
204-6, 211-12.
Statutes, Classification of, 169–70.
for ladies, 3, 184, 188–9, 194, 207.
Stehlich, 56 n. 1, 58.
Stejskal, 120 n. 2, 121.
Steps to Palace of Love, 24, 72, 80,
181, 194, 203.
Stimming, 26 n. 2, 184 n. 2.
Stow's Chaucer, 1, 207.
Strife of Love in a Dream, 118 n. 1.
Surrey, Earl of, 2.
Susanna, 252.
Symptoms of love, 169, 172, 179, 180,
183, 185-8, 190, 202, 206.
Taillevent, Michault, 99, 104 n. I.
Tannhäuser, 132-5, 245.
Temple d'Onnour, 79, 194.
Temple de Cupido, 257.
Temple of Glas, 146–9, 208, 229, 233-5,
237, 239.
Temple (church, chapel, etc.) of Love,
17, 39, 88, 91, 103, 116, 119,
141-2, 144-5, 147-8, 159, 166–7,
228, 230, 266.
Temple of Love (D'Avenant), 268.
Ten Brink, 62-3.
Ten Commandments of Love, 207.
Tenebres des Pauvres Prisonniers, 225.
Tenson or tensos, 37, 244, 250.
Tent, see Palace.
Tertullian, 18-19.
Teseide, 116, 142, 147.
Tesoretto, III.
Tesoro, 83, 11I.
Testament of Cresseid, 1 1 59.
Testament of Squyer Meldrum, 224.
Theodulphus, 22, 39.
Theseus, 76.
Thibaut, 56, 87.
Thrissil and the Rois, The, 164.
Thynne's Chaucer, 1.
Tiboli, Abbate di, 203.
Tibullus, 12, 113, 217.
Tisch Zucht, Von, 205.
Tobler, 58 n. I.
Toison d'Or, see Inventaire, etc.
Tornoiement d'Antéchrist, 48-50, 55,
114, 187, 218.
Trésor, 83, 11I.
Tresor Amoureux, 81.
Tribunal de l'Amour, 258.
Trionfo d'Amore, 112–14, 214.
Trionfo dell'Amore, 114, 246 n. 2.
Trionfo della Castità, 114.
Tristan and Yseut, 56, 76, 79, 88, 91,
113, 115, 139.
Triumph of Love (Ovid), 11.
Triumphe de Dame Verolle, 262.
Triumphs, 114 and n. 4, 119, 266.
Triumphs of Love and Antiquity, 266.
Troilus, 79, 161, 223.
Troilus and Criseyde, 143, 206 and n.
4, 239.
Trois Contes de Cupido et d'Atropos,
261.
Trois Jugemens, Livre des, 242.
Trojel, E., 30 n. 4, 45 n. 5.
(on Institution of C. of L.), 249.
Troyes, see Chrétien de T.
Turck, E.-J. de, 251.
Ueber Charles d'Orléans, etc., 91 n. 1.
Ueber einige altfranz. Doctrinen, etc.,
(Wolf), 188 n. 4, 195 n. 2.
Ueber Vier Alleg. Motive, etc., 18 n. 6,
241 n. 2.
Union de l'Amour et des Arts, 258.
Valentine, St., 75, 94, 146, 218-19.
Van Bemmel, 27 n. 1.
Ventadorn, see Bernart de V.
Venus, 3, 8, 11, 12, 14-16, 22-3, 25,
31-4, 39, 40, 42-3, 48-9, 53, 55,
63, 67-9, 71, 73-4, 82-3, 88-9, 92,
95, 105, 113-16, 119, 123, 128-34,
138-9, 142-3, 146-8, 153-64,
284
Index.
166-7, 173, 175, 193, 195, 205,
208, 211-12, 216–21, 224–8, 232,
239, 254, 259, 261-2, 265–7.
Venus la Deesse d'Amor, De, 42–3, 98,
167, 185, 218, 221.
Venus Mass, 223.
Venusberg, 132–5.
Verfolgte Hindin, 123.
Verolle, Dame, 262.
Veselofsky, 246 n. 2.
Veuve à la Mode, 258.
Vidal, Raimon, 74, 184 n. 2.
Villani, Giovanni, 254.
Virgil, 109, 113, 139, 142, 213, 217.
Virgin Mary, 137, 221, 246.
Vision of Er, 213 n. I.
Vita Nuova, 109, 112.
Voie de Paradis, 63, 93.
Voltaire, 258.
Von Tisch Zucht, 205.
Von Zwain Swestern, 129.
Vulcan, 15-16.
Wagner, 133, 245.
Waitz, G., 31.
Waltheri Spirensis Vita, 241 n. 1.
Wanastre, 38 n. 1.
Wartburg song-contest, 133, 245,
Watriquet de Couvin, 72-4, 193-4.
Which? (Browning's), 268-9.
William of Poitiers, 244.
Wischmann, W., (on Kingis Quair), 235
11. 2.
Wisdom of Solomon, 17.
Wolf, F., 188 n. 4, 190, 195 n. 2.
Wolfenbüttel MS., 199.
Wyf of Bath's Tale, 258.
Yvain, 44, 128 n. 1.
Zehen Gebote der Minne, 204.
Zorzi, Bertolome, 29.
Zwain Swestern, Von, 129.

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