By Olivia Glunz
Romantic love features prominently in just about every recent novel, movie, and song. Our zest for love stories, however, is by no means a timeless phenomenon. In fact, as C.S. Lewis explains in his 1936 work The Allegory of Love, idealistic depictions of romantic passion first appear in literature and the arts in 11th-century France; romance, as we know it today, has its roots in the Middle Ages.
Romantic love was by no means absent from literature before the 11th century. However, erotic passion was rarely a work’s central topic. For instance, the Iliad and the Odyssey, two of the most important cultural productions of Archaic Greece, both feature love and marriage; nonetheless, the primary focus of these epics is war, travel, and adventure, not eros. Moreover, the romantic episodes in the Iliad and the Odyssey hardly resemble the dramatic, passionate love scenes to which modern readers are accustomed. Instead, in Odysseus’ relationship with Penelope or Hector’s with Andromache, wives are depicted more as trusted companions and symbols of domestic stability than objects of intense affection and desire. (Lewis 4) Several ancient works do focus primarily on romantic love, but in almost none of these instances is desire positively portrayed. For Dido and Medea, erotic passion is a deadly form of madness; for the Socrates of Plato’s Symposium, love of a beautiful body is merely a passing step on the way to love of Beauty itself; for Ovid, the slavishly devoted lover deserves not respect but irreverent mockery (Lewis 3-5). Before the Middle Ages, passionate romantic love was either largely absent from stories or cause for distrust and mockery.
In the 1000s in Provencal, however, a dramatic shift occurred. In the works of Chretien de Troyes, Languedoc, and other troubadours (medieval lyric poet-musicians), romantic passion not only was a central focus but was idealistically portrayed as a heavenly pursuit. This new romantic tradition of so-called “Courtly Love” was marked by four important characteristics: “Humility, Courtesy, Adultery, and the Religion of Love” (Lewis 2). In courtly romance, the lover is always humble; he considers himself weak and worthless in comparison to his lady, whose every wish is his command. Second, the lover is both literally and figuratively “courteous”; his deferential, service-based relationship with his lady resembles the vassal’s courtly obligation to his lord. Third, the lover and his lady are typically involved in a secret, adulterous affair. Finally, the lover worships “Love” itself—which alone can help him win over his beloved—with desperate, dramatic religiosity.
The “Courtly Love” genre certainly marks a significant break from earlier approaches to romance; scholars, however, are unsure exactly why this change occurred when and how it did. Nonetheless, considering the genre’s four characteristics provides some insights. The values of humility and courtesy, for instance, suggest that feudalism played a contributing role: the vassal’s deep affection for his lord provided a natural model for intense romantic relationships (Lewis 12); moreover, in feudal courts, women were often exalted as exemplars of etiquette who demanded courteous behavior in return (Lewis 13). Adultery and the religion of Love, meanwhile, point to dissatisfaction with typical secular and religious attitudes toward marriage. In feudal society, marriages were often transactional and loveless; adultery, then, naturally suggested itself as an occasion for passion and genuine love (Lewis 13). The Medieval Church, meanwhile, took a relatively pessimistic view toward sex. Medieval thinkers such as Gregory and Hugo of St. Victor argued that sexual desire was either inherently sinful, an unfortunate result of the Fall, or at very least easily corrupted (Lewis 14-16). The Church’s reluctant attitude toward sex did not lend itself particularly well to passionate romance; Medieval troubadours and writers responded by embracing adultery—explicitly prohibited by the Church—and the Religion of Love—an “alternative” to Christianity.
The four characteristics of Courtly Love are well illustrated by Marie de France’s 13th-century tale “Lanval.” The courageous knight Lanval, listless after King Arthur neglects to reward him, is rescued from his misery by a beautiful woman who lavishes him with gifts and begins an affair with him; she only stipulates that Lanval keep their relationship secret. Lanval unintentionally reveals the affair, however, when Queen Guenevere propositions him; he not only loses his beloved but, through Guenevere’s conniving, is tried for insulting the queen. Lanval’s merciful beloved intervenes, however; the knight is exonerated and spends the rest of his days with his lady. Lanval embodies humility and courtesy—servile and subordinate, he honors and depends on his beloved like a feudal lord. His affair, though not explicitly adulterous, is clandestine and takes place outside of marriage. Finally, Lanval approaches his beloved and Love itself with the reverence of a religious devotee.
The Courtly Love genre, illustrated by Lanval’s tale, ultimately laid the foundation for our own cultural attitudes toward romance. The typical plot and setting of a modern love story may look very different from Lanval’s rather sappy feudal affair. Nonetheless, our swooning sentimentality and deep fascination toward romantic love—evident in works as diverse as Titanic, Casablanca, Oppenheimer, and Star Wars—are a direct inheritance of Courtly Love’s idealization and worship of romance.
Further Reading:
Lewis, C.S. The Allegory of Love: a Study in Medieval Tradition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1936. Print.
Marie de France. “Lanval.” In The Lays of Marie de France, translated Edward J. Gallagher.
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