Question 6A

Courtly love, or the "fine love," emerged as a romantic concept of a stylized relationship between a nobleman, a knight, and his beloved, a lady of the court, in the Middle Ages that involved a number of rules and principles which pertained to the ideal of a love more genuine than the common arranged marriage. It also touched on the concepts of nobility and chivalry, both central to aristocratic life in Medieval Europe. Capellanus, with his book "The Art of Courtly Love," was one of the first authors to address and elaborate on the concept. He included over 30 rules of love (31), which defined the nature and boundaries of courtly love as well as its scope, the effects and the course that it took, or was supposed to take, in the lives of those who experienced it.

Is courtly love a behavioral ideal that one can or should try to follow when loving someone? In my opinion, we are all creatures of our own time and space and our thinking, values, standards and norms of behavior to a large extent bear the markings of the socio-economic relations and cultural lives of our period. Today, at least in principle, we associate the concepts of love and marriage with one another. We do not say, or believe, that we should marry one person and love another. That throws the first rule of courtly love, that "Marriage should not be a deterrent to love," right out the window. Nor many people today would agree with the assertion that "it is necessary for a male to reach the age of maturity in order to love," as maintained by Capellanus.

That is not to say that all of Capellanus' observations, or "rules," are irrelevant or outdated. Still love "waxes and wanes" and I suppose "the sight of one's beloved causes palpitations of the heart" even today. I also think the rule that "a lover should not love anyone who would be an embarrassing marriage choice" continues to be a sound one, even though nowadays it cannot be said that "public revelation of love is deadly to love in most instances," not unless you are a married politician!

I guess what I want to say, in short, is that every period has its own rules and ideals and although some transcend time others do not and "courtly love" is no exception.