. Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration.

Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility.

It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife.

Courtly Love

Courtly love began in the ducal and princely courts of Aquitaine, Provence, Champagne and ducal Burgundy, at the end of the eleventh century.

In essence, courtly love was an experience between erotic desire and spiritual attainment that now seems contradictory, "a love at once illicit and morally elevating, passionate and disciplined, humiliating and exalting, human and transcendent".

Courtly Love

Love is now a cult -- a sort of religion but outside of normal religion -- and a code -- outside of feudalism but similarly hierarchical.

The language and the relationships are similar (and the language, sometimes borrowed from religion, ends up borrowed back by religion in certain lyrics).

In feudalism the vassal is the "man" of his sovereign lord; in courtly love, the vassal is the "man" of his sovereign mistress.

Courtly Love

The troubadours were not really wandering minstrels but mostly rich young men, using the Provençal langue d'Oc. Circa 1071 is the birth year for the first known troubadour, William IX of Poitiers.

In the north, feudal knights preferred epic poems of chivalry like the Arthurian tales crossing the channel.

Courtly Love

The formes fixes of the poetry included:

Ballade: a a b (or, if a = ab, then ab ab c)

Virelai: A b b a A b b a A

Rondeau: A B a A a b A B

In other words, there were learned combinations of rhymes, stanzas, and concepts. Some of the music survives but we've lost the form of the rhythms.

Stages of courtly love

Attraction to the lady, usually via eyes/glance

Worship of the lady from afar

Declaration of passionate devotion

Virtuous rejection by the lady

Renewed wooing with oaths of virtue and eternal fealty

Moans of approaching death from unsatisfied desire (and other physical manifestations of lovesickness)

Heroic deeds of valor which win the lady's heart

Consummation of the secret love

Endless adventures and subterfuges avoiding detection

Courtly Love

Courtly Love

Can vei la lauzeta mover is one of the most famous pieces in trobadour repetoire.

It is a canso written by Bernat de Ventadorm (1135-1195).

Can vei la lauzeta mover de joi sas alas contra.l rai,que s'oblid' e.s laissa chazer per la doussor c'al cor li vai,ai! tan grans enveya m'en vede cui qu'eu veya jauzion,meravilhas ai, car desselo cor de desirer no.m fon.

Ai las! tan cuidava saberd'amor, e tan petit en sai,car eu d'amar no.m posc tenerceleis don ja pro non aurai.Tout m'a mo cor, e tout m'a me,e se mezeis e tot lo mon;e can se.m tolc, no.m laisset remas dezirer e cor volon.

Anc non agui de me poderni no fui meus de l'or' en saique.m laisset en sos olhs vezeren un miralh que mout me plai.Miralhs, pus me mirei en te,m'an mort li sospir de preon,c'aissi.m perdei com perdet selo bels Narcisus en la fon.

Complete the sentences

Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration.

Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility.

It was also generally not practiced between

husband and wife.

Courtly love began in the ducal and princely courts of Aquitaine, Provence, Champagne and ducal Burgundy, at the end of theeleventh century.

The troubadours were not really wandering minstrels but mostly rich young men, using the Provençal,

Circa 1071 is the birth year for the first known troubadour,

langue d'Oc.

William IX of Poitiers

In the north, feudal knights preferred epic poems of chivalry like the crossing the channel.

Arthurian tales

Put in order the stages of courtly love

Virtuous rejection by the lady Heroic deeds of valor which win the lady's

heart Endless adventures avoiding detection Attraction to the lady, usually via

eyes/glance Consummation of the secret love Worship of the lady from afar Declaration of passionate devotion Moans of approaching death from

unsatisfied desire Renewed wooing with oaths of fidelity

1. Attraction to the lady, usually via eyes/glance

2. Worship of the lady from afar

3. Declaration of passionate devotion

4. Virtuous rejection by the lady

5. Renewed wooing with oaths of fidelity

6. Moans of approaching death from unsatisfied desire

7. Heroic deeds of valor which win the lady's heart

8. Consummation of the secret love

9. Endless adventures avoiding detection