COURTLY LOVE

The Ideal of Pure Love

LOVE DEFINED:

“a certain inborn suffering derived from the signt of

and excessive meditation upon the beauty of the

opposite sex.”

--Andreas Capellanus

ORIGINS OF COURTLY LOVE

Some people think it came from the matriarchal

society of the Celtic people

The Celts worshipped goddesses;

Women were the superior gender

That’s why the woman is so exalted in courtly love!

The woman was put on

a pedestal—she was the

“beloved.”

The man or “lover”

spent his time serving

his beloved and wasting

away thinking about her.

COURTLY LOVE WAS VERY IDEALISTIC.

COURTLY LOVE INVOLVED

Arranged marriages

Paramours

Unrequited love

(unreturned)

Very high emotions

sometimes.

COURTLY LOVE WAS VIEWED AS AN ART WITH RULES

When a lover dies, a widowhood of two years is required for

the survivor.

Every act of the lover ends in the thought of his beloved.

A true lover considers nothing good unless he thinks it will

please his lover.

Nothing forbids one woman being loved by two men or one

man by two women.

**See “31 Rules for Lovers” by Andreaus Cappelanus