Speranza
Andreas Capellanus (late 12th cent.)
De Amore (1184)
A
Treatise on Courtly Love
The work is divided into three
books.
The first begins in the manner of an academic lecture, with attention to
definitions and etymology.
What is Love?
Love is
an inborn suffering
proceeding
from the sight (and immoderate thought)
upon the beauty of the other
sex
for which
cause, above all other things, one wishes to embrace
the other and,
by common assent, in this embrace to fulfill the commandments
of love.
---- "Love" defined in terms of 'love'.
----
From Whence Love is Named
The word "amore" is derived from the word "hook
("amar")", which signifies "capture" or "be captured."
-----
He who loves is caught
in the
chains of desire and wishes to
catch another with his hook.
---
Just as a
shrewd fisherman tries to attract fish with his bait and
to catch them on with
his curved hook, so
he who is truly captured by love tries to attract
another
with his blandishments and
with all his power tries to hold two
hearts together
with one spiritual chain or,
if they be already united, to hold
them always
together.
----
What is the Effect of Love?
The effect of love is that the true lover can not be
corrupted by avarice.
Love makes an ugly and rude
person shine
with all beauty.
Love knows how to endow with nobility even one of
humble birth,
Love can even lend humility to the proud.
He who loves is accustomed
humbly to serve others.
Oh, what a marvelous thing is love,
which makes a man
shine with so many
virtues and which teaches everyone to abound in good customs.
.
What Persons are Suited for Love
Cappellano goes on to specify
the requirements of a lover.
Girls must be at least 12, boys 14.
Though, for
true love, men must be at least 18 years old and under 60.
After 60, though
copulation is possible true passion is lacking.
Women must be under 50.
Age,
blindness and excessive passion are all
bars to true love.
Blindness
impedes love, for a blind man cannot see
that on which his mind can reflect
immoderately.
Therefore, love cannot arise in him, as is adequately proven above.
This is true only of the moment in which love is acquired.
I do not deny that love can endure in a man who acquired love before he went
blind.
Too great an abundance of passion impedes love.
Tere are those
who are so enslaved by desire that they cannot be restrained by the bonds of
love.
Those who, after deep thoughts of their lady, or even having enjoyed the
fruits of love, when they see ANOTHER immediately desire HER embraces,
forgetting the services received from their former lover and revealing their
ingratitude.
Since love is often acquired by fluency in speech, Andreas
next provides his readers with a series of sample dialogues, suitable to the
various classes:
(a) plebian (gentry)
(b) noble, and
(c) most noble.
First
Dialogue.
A plebian gentleman speaks with a woman of the same
class.
He greets his lady and praises her beauty.
She replies that he is
trying to flatter her, since she is not beautiful.
The woman says:
"Your
words seem to be false, since I do not have a beautiful figure."
"Yet you extol me
as more beautiful than other women."
---
The man says:
"The custom of the wise is
never to praise their own beauty.
And if you think yourself not beautiful,
then you should consider me a true lover, since your beauty seems to me to be
greater than that of all other women.
Love makes even an ugly woman seem
beautiful to her lover.
The woman says:
Although, your virtue is greatly
to be praised, I am young and I shudder at the thought of the embraces of an old
man
The man says:
Old age is not to be blamed.
He explains
that his many years enable him to do more noble deeds than would be
possible for a young man.
----
Third Dialogue
A plebian gentleman speaks
with a woman of the higher nobility
The man says:
If a man of the middle
class seeks to join himself in love with a women of the higher nobility, he
ought to have a multitude of good qualities, for in order for a lower-born man
to be worthy to seek the love of a higher born woman, he should be filled with
inumerable good qualities, and an infinite number of good deeds should extol
him.
Thus if, after a long period of proof, he is found worthy
of love, a woman of the higher nobility may choose a plebian gentlemen as her
lover.
A sample dialogue is given.
The man begs the lady to accept his
service as a lover.
The lady says that she is not pleased that he ranks so far
beneath her.
The man says:
I admit that I ask to be loved, for to live in
love is sweeter than anything else in life.
But your words show clearly that you
refuse to love me and that this is because of the lowness of my inferior rank,
even though I have great virtue.
The aforementioned distinction of classes
does not prohibit me from being numbered among the superior classes or to ask
the rewards of a higher class, provided that can justly object to me on the
grounds of my character.
The woman says:
Although virtue can ennoble a
plebian, yet you cannot change your rank to the extent that a plebian is made a
great lord or vavasor, unless he is granted that by the power of the prince, who
as he pleases may add nobility to good morals.
By right then you are denied
advancement to the love of a countess.
Moreover, you claim to be numbered
among the knights, yet I discern in you much that is contrary and harmful to
that state.
For knights by their nature should have thin and graceful calves and
a foot of moderate size, longer than it is wide, as if it had been formed with a
certain touch of art.
I see that your thighs
on the contrary are fat
and round
and your
feet are huge and as wide as they are long.
The man says:
If for
his manners and integrity a commoner
is worthy of being ennobled by a prince, I
do
not see why he should not be worthy of a noble woman's love.
For if moral
integrity alone makes a man worthy of being noble and only nobility is
considered worthy of the love of a noblewoman, then it follows that only moral
integrity is worthy to be crowned with the love of a noble lady.
But that
objection which you put to me about my flabby legs and big feet is not very
reasonable.
It is said that in the frontier regions of Italy, there lives a
certain Count who has finely shaped legs, descended from a line of counts,
illustrious ancestors, who in the sacred palace of the Holy See rejoices in
elevated offices and shines with every sort of beauty and abounds in riches.
Yet,
it is said that the Count is devoid of virtue.
All good customs fear him and every
depravity finds its dwelling place in him.
On the contrary, there is a king in
Hungary who has very fat legs and big feet, and is almost entirely destitute of
beauty.
And yet he has such shining virtue he is worthy to recieve the glory of
the royal crown and almost the whole world resounds with his praises.
And so you
should not ask about my legs and my feet, but what virtues I have acquired by my
own deeds.
You should learn to object not to one's legs but to one's
morals, since in objecting to legs you seem to be objecting to divine nature.
-----
Book II ends with a discussion of various sorts of lovers.
Clergymen may
engage in love, but it is forbidden to nuns.
Avoid greedy women.
Prostitutes
should be shunned.
Peasants rarely love.
They copulate like beasts.
Moreover,
they should NOT be instructed in love, since that would distract them from their
labours.
If one should by chance fall in love with a peasant women, praise her
elaborately
and then if you come upon a conveninent place, do not hesitate to
take what you want by force.
Andreas next gives instructions on how love
may be retained.
Then he provides various judgements delivered by Courts of
Love, presided over by Countess Marie of Champagne, Queen Eleanor of Acquitaine,
and other noble ladies of the time.
In Book II, the Countess of Champagne had
been asked to
settle the "problema" of whether love is possible between a man and
wife.
She replied in a formal letter, that love between husband and wife is
IMPOSSIBLE and that jealousy is absolutely required by love.
---
Thus, our
judgement,
which has been pronounced
with great moderation and is
supported by
the opinion of many great ladies,
should be to you an indubitable and eternal
truth.
The year 1174, the Kalends of May [i.e., May 1], the Seventh of the
Indiction.
Her ruling is cited in the following decision.
XVII.
A
Knight is in love with a lady who was already in love with another.
He received
some hope to be loved in the following manner.
She was ever deprived
of the love of her present lover, then certainly this knight would have her
love.
After a brief time, the Lady married her lover.
The aforesaid knight then
demanded that she grant him the fruit of the hope granted to him, but she
refused, saying that she had NOT lost the love of her lover.
Love can exercise no power over
husband and wife.
Therefore we recommend that the aforesaid women grant the love
that she has promised.
Book II concludes with a set of rules for lovers
(an expansion of a set of rules given earlier.
These, Andreas says, were brought
from King Arthur's court by a Breton Knight.
The story of how he obtained the
rules is a brief romance.
The Rules of Love
-----------------------
1. Marriage is no excuse for
not loving.
------
2. He who is NOT jealous can not love.
----
3. No one can be bound
by TWO loves.
----
4. Love is always growing or diminishing.
----
5. It is not GOOD
for one lover to take anything against the will of the other.
---
6. A male
cannot love until he has fully reached puberty.
----
7. Two years of mourning for
a dead lover are
prescribed for surviving lovers.
----
8. No one should be
deprived of love without a valid reason.
9.
"No one can love who is not
driven
to do so by the power of love."
10.
Love always departs from the dwelling
place of avarice.
11.
-------
It is not PROPER to love one whom one
would be ASHAMED
to marry.
----
12.
MONOGAMY:
The true lover never desires the embraces of any save his
lover.
----
13. Love rarely lasts when it is revealed.
-----
14.
An easy attainment
makes love contemptible.
A difficult one
makes it more dear.
---
15. Every
lover turns pale in the presence of his beloved.
----
16. When a lover suddenly
has sight of his beloved, his heart beats wildly.
----
17. A new love expells an
old one.
---
18. Moral integrity alone makes one worthy of love.
---
19. If love
diminishes, it quickly leaves and rarely revives.
---
20. "A lover is always
fearful". (This is the passage that Galeotto recites upon Lancelot's not having done much, "For he is fearful, my lady. For a lover is always fearful.").
---
21.
True jealousy always increases the effects of love.
22.
If a
lover suspects another, jealousy and the efects of love increase.
23.
He who
is vexed by the thoughts of love eats little and seldom sleeps.
----
24. Every
action of a lover ends in the thought of his beloved.
25.
The true lover
believes only that which he thinks will please his beloved.
---
26. Love can deny
nothing to love. (Francesca da Rimini).
----
27.
"Too much love will kill you?"
A lover can never have enough of the embraces of his
beloved.
28.
The slightest suspicion incites the lover to suspect the WORSE
of his beloved.
29.
He who suffers from an excess of passion is not suited to
love.
30. The true lover is continuously obsessed with the image of his
beloved.
31. Nothing prevents a woman from being loved by two men, or a
man
from being loved by two women.
---
Book III is a palinode.
It advising
the reader to reject love on the grounds of religion, good health (copulation
weakens the body and lovers' sleeplessness and tendency to ignore eating have a
deleterious effect), and the fact that women, Andreas says, are so awful.
The
book ends with an extended misogynistic tirade.
Trans. (often freely)
from Andreae Capellani regii Francorum, De amore libri tres, ed. E. Trojel,
Copenhagen, 1892.
For a full translation see Andreas Capellanus. On love,
ed. with an English trans. by P.G. Walsh, London, 1982
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
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