Courtly Love

1. Courtly Love

2. Courtly Love • known in medieval France as "fine love" or fin amour • originated with troubadours of late 11th century • promoted new form of paganism called Gai Saber (literally, "the happy wisdom“) • challenged and sought to redefine traditional Christian ideals of love, marriage, manhood, virtue, and femininity.

3. Courtly Love • sponsored by nobles like Eleanor of Aquitaine • gradually spread throughout France and eventually into England and Germany • l'amourcourtois (courtly love) identified by extravagantly artificial and stylized relationship--forbidden affair characterized by five main attributes

4. The Attributes of Courtly Love Aristocratic: courtly love practiced by noble lords and ladies; properly in royal palace or court

5. The Attributes of Courtly Love Ritualistic: Couples exchanged gifts and tokens; lady wooed according to elaborate conventions of etiquette; songs, poems, bouquets, sweet favors, and ceremonial gestures; she need only return a hint of approval; she was the exalted domina--the commanding "mistress" of the affair

6. The Attributes of Courtly Love Secret: lovers pledged to strict secrecy; lovers composed a universe unto themselves--a special world with its own places (e.g., the secret rendezvous), rules, codes, and commandments

7. The Attributes of Courtly Love Adulterous: “fine love" was extramarital; principle attractions was escape from dull routines and boring confinements of noble marriage; typically little more than political or economic alliance to royal offspring; troubadours thought marriage religious swindle; instead exalted ideal of carnal relationship whose objective was not crude physical satisfaction but sensual intimacy

8. The Attributes of Courtly Love Literary: first gained attention as subject and theme in imaginative literature; Knights and ladies were popular figures in song and fable