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Romantic Love in Classical Times?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2014

Niall Rudd
Niall Rudd*
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
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Extract

I start with four quotations: (1) ‘That all European poetry has come out of the Provençal poetry written in the twelfth century by the troubadours of Languedoc is now accepted on every side.’ [The writer is talking of love poetry.] (2) The passion and sorrow of love were an emotional discovery of the French troubadours and their successors.’ (3) ‘French poets in the eleventh century discovered or invented, or were the first to express, that romantic species of passion which English poets were still writing about in the nineteenth.’ (4) ‘The conception of romantic love which has dominated the literature, art, music, and to some extent the morality of modern Europe and America for many centuries is a medieval creation.’ Those words come from a Frenchman, a German, and Englishman and a Scot — namely Denis de Rougemont, E. R. Curtius, C. S. Lewis, and Gilbert Highet — a distinguished quartet, not lacking in knowledge or influence. The view they represent has met with little opposition and is, in fact, so widely held that it may be regarded as orthodox. The layman finds it all the easier to accept in that ‘romantic love’ is readily connected with the first definition of ‘romance’ given by the Oxford English Dictionary, namely The vernacular language of France as opposed to Latin’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ramus , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , 1981 , pp. 140 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Aureal Publications 1981

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References

NOTES

1. de Rougemont, Denis, Love in the Western World, trans. Belgion, M., revised ed. (New York, 1965) 75Google Scholar; Curtius, E. R., European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages (London, 1953) 588Google Scholar; Lewis, C. S., The Allegory of Love (Oxford, 1936 repr. 1959), 4Google Scholar; Highet, Gilbert, The Classical Tradition (Oxford, repr. 1959) 57Google Scholar.

2. Boase, Roger, The Origin and Meaning of Courtly Love (Manchester 1977Google Scholar).

3. E.g. Press, Alan R., Anthology of Troubadour Lyric Poetry (Edinburgh, 1971Google Scholar); Hill, R. T. and Bergin, T. G., Anthology of the Provençal Troubadours, revised ed. (Yale, 1973Google Scholar); Goldin, Frederick, Lyrics of the Troubadours and Trouvères (New York, 1973Google Scholar). Sometimes one can assess the range of individual writers; see, e.g., The Songs of Jaufré Rudel, ed. Pickens, R. T. (Toronto, 1978Google Scholar); The Poems of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, ed. Linskill, J. (The Hague, 1964Google Scholar); The Poems of Aimeric de Péguilhan, ed. Shepard, W. P. and Chambers, F. M. (Illinois, 1950Google Scholar). it will be evident that, having no facility in Provencal, I rely heavily on translations.

4. Farai un vers, pos mi sonelh; and Pus vezem de novel florir.

5. Pus mos coratges s' esclarzis.

6. Era.m platz, Giraut de Borneilh.

7. Cantarai d'aquestz trobadors.

8. Clergue si fan pastor.

9. Be.m degra de chantar tener. The variety of the troubadours' poetry is brought out by Topsfield, L. T., Troubadours and Love (Cambridge, 1975Google Scholar).

10. Gillet, Louis, Dante p.22Google Scholar, and Weinhold, K., Die deutschen Frauen in dem Mittelalter, p. 181Google Scholar, as quoted by Briffault, R. in The Troubadours (Bloomington, 1965) 103Google Scholar.

11. Robertson, D. W. Jr. and Benton, John F. in The Meaning of Courtly Love, ed. Newman, F. X. (New York, 1968Google Scholar).

12. These arguments are taken from Roger Boase (n.2 above). See also In Pursuit of Perfection, ed. Ferrante, J. M. and Economou, G. D. (New York, 1975), introduction p.3Google Scholar.

13. Bogin, Meg, The Women Troubadours (Scarborough, 1976) 13–14Google Scholar, points out that all these ladies were aristocrats. They wrote in a plainer, less formal style than the men.

14. These points were made by Lee, Vernon (Paget, Violet), Euphorion (London, 1885) vol. II, 145Google Scholar. Occasionally a husband is actually referred to; see, e.g. Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (n.3 above) no.III. 26 and no. VI. 15. Caution, however, is advisable; see the remarks by P. Dronke (n.25 below) 46ff.

15. Capellanus, Andreas, De Amore, ed. Battaglia, S. (Rome, 1947) 180Google Scholar; the passage comes at the end of the seventh dialogue.

16. ‘I deem myself richly rewarded by the inspiration I owe to the love I bear my lady, and I ask no love in return … Had she granted me her supreme favours, both she and I would have been defiled by the act’, Guiraut Riquier (1230-92), quoted by R. Briffault (n. 10 above) 151-2. ‘He knows little or nothing of the service of women who wishes to possess his lady entirely. That is not the service of women when such becomes a reality, nor does one yield one's heart for the sake of reward’, Daude de Pradas (1214-82), quoted by Denomy, A. J. in The Heresy of Courtly Love (Gloucester, Mass. 1965) 24Google Scholar. That poem presents a piquant contrast between courtly love and sexual gratification. For text and French translation see Poésies de Daude de Pradas, ed. Schutz, A. H. (Paris, 1933) no.XIVGoogle Scholar.

17. E.g. de Ventadorn, Bernart, Lancan vei la folha, 49–50Google Scholar; d'Alvernha, Peire, Ab fina joia comenssa, 17–24Google Scholar.

18. Non es meravelha s'e uchan, 23-30 (Goldin's translation); cf. Reinmar (end of 12th cent.) Der lange süeze kumber mîn, quoted by Goldin, F., In Pursuit of Perfection (n.12 above) 78Google Scholar.

19. Cercamon, , Quant l'aura doussa s'amarzis, 57–8 (Goldin's translationGoogle Scholar).

20. Andreas Capellanus, II.2, trans. J. J. Parry (New York, 1959) 153.

21. Id. Parry 158.

22. Id. Parry 167.

23. The crucial question is not whether the lyrics contained conventional thoughts and expressions (they clearly did), nor how far the noble ladies of Provence were given to adulterous affairs, but in how many cases the troubadour expected an amatory response (within the limits of the courtly convention) from the lady he addressed. Closely connected with this is the question how far Andreas Capellanus' code was a formulation of actual practice and how far it was just an elaborate game. On this see Jackson, W. T. H., The Romantic Review 49 (1958) 243–51Google Scholar.

24. In TAPA 92 (1961) 528–35Google Scholar Sullivan sees the troubadours' service as anticipated by the Roman servitium amoris; their attitude to adultery by such passages as Propertius II.23.19-20; their courtesy by the elegists' use of the term domina; and their religion of love by the two planes on which Roman elegy moves, ‘one the actual relationship with a mistress and the other the invocation and description of the deities that guard or torment the lover’, e.g. Propertius II.29a, Ovid, Amores I.2Google Scholar. Although the article has a number of valid points which are relevant to this discussion, I am inclined to doubt if these parallels are conclusive. I have similar reservations about the attempt of Lieberg, G. in Puella Divina (Amsterdam, 1962Google Scholar) to attach a serious spiritual significance to passages where a girl is compared to a goddess. Perret's, J. remarks in REL 41 (1963) 435–6Google Scholar would seem justified: Les mots et les formules religieuses… ne sont, en realité, que des superlatifs du langage amoureux.’

25. Dronke, P., Medieval Latin and the Rise of the European Love Lyric, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1968) vol. I. chap. 1Google Scholar.

26. ‘The theme of the eventual marriage of lovers is common in medieval literature, more so, it seems to me, than that of adultery’, John F. Benton (n.11 above) 23.

27. Petri et Abaelardi … et Heloissae … Epistulae, ed. Rawlinson, R. (London, 1718) 49Google Scholar. The translation is based on the version by Betty Radice (Harmondsworth, 1974) 113.

28. As You Like It III.5.82; Marlowe, , Hero and Leander 176Google Scholar.

29. Tom Jones IV.6Google Scholar.

30. Stendhal, , Love, trans. G., and Sale, S. (London, 1957) 27Google Scholar.

31. Lee, J. A., The Colours of Love (Toronto, 1973Google Scholar).

32. C. S. Lewis (n.1 above) 4.

33. Archilochus, , Elegy and Iambus, ed. Edmonds, J. M. (Cambridge, Mass., 1931) II, fr.84Google Scholar; West, M. L., Iambi et Elegi Graeci (Oxford, 1971) I, fr.193Google Scholar.

34. See. e.g., Trenkner, S., The Greek Novella (Cambridge, 1958) 57Google Scholar. Miss Trenkner presents a lot of interesting material, a good deal of which (inevitably) had been cited by Rohde, E., Der Griechische Roman und Seine Vorläufer, (repr. Hildesheim, 1960Google Scholar). But as both she and Rohde use ‘romantic’ in a rather wide sense, only a few of their examples can be used in our discussion.

35. Meleager, , Greek Anthology V.139 (LoebGoogle Scholar).

36. Casanova, , History of my Life, trans. Trask, W. R. (London, 1967–1972) vol.II, chap.5, 157Google Scholar. One recalls that Casanova was a friend of Daponte and Mozart and influenced the figure of Don Giovanni; he was present at the first night of the opera in Prague.

37. Anacreon, , Lyra Graeca, ed. Edmonds, J. M. (Cambridge, Mass., 1924) II, 15Google Scholar; Page, D. L., Poetae Melici Graeci (Oxford, 1962) no. 358Google Scholar.

38. Anacreon, Edmonds (above n.37) 48-9; Page no. 413.

39. Mimnermus, , Elegy and Iambus, ed. Edmonds, J. M. (Cambridge, Mass., 1931) 1, fr.1Google Scholar; West, M. L., Iambi et Elegi Graeci (Oxford, 1972) II, fr.1Google Scholar.

40. Demosthenes, , Erōtikos, trans. N. W., and De Witt, N. J. (Cambridge, Mass., 1949) 40Google Scholar.

41. MacDowell, D., The Law in Classical Athens (London, 1978Google Scholar); Lacey, W. K., The Family in Classical Greece (London, 1968Google Scholar).

42. Xenophon, , Oeconomicus VI.17 and VII.9-13Google Scholar.

43. Menander, ed. A. W. Gomme and F. A. Sandbach (Oxford, 1973) 31-2.

44. See, e.g., Mathers, Powys, Arabian Love Tales (London, 1949Google Scholar), especially ‘The Tale of Rose-in-the-Bud and World's Delight’, ‘The Lovers' Tomb’, and ‘The Tender Tale of Prince Jasmine and Princess Almond’.

45. C. S. Lewis (n.1 above) 5.

46. See Boyancé, P., ‘Properce’, in Hardt, Fondation, Entretiens II (Geneva, 1953) 169–209Google Scholar.

47. Propertius I.11.23ff., 12.19-20, 19.11-12.

48. For this poem, and for other remarks about Propertius, see Grumach, E., Goethe und die Antike (Berlin, 1949) vol. I, 371ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49. For other passages bearing on Hero and Leander see Palmer's, Arthur edition of the Heroides (Oxford, 1898) 454–7Google Scholar.

50. DRN IV.1070ffGoogle Scholar. See Kenney, E. J., Mnem. s.IV., vol. XXIII 4 (1970) 380–90Google Scholar.

51. E.g., Epod. 14 and 15.

52. E.g., Odes I.8, I.27, III.12Google Scholar.

53. E.g., Epod. 11; Odes I.5Google Scholar.

54. de Beauvoir, S., The Second Sex (New York, 1964) 93Google Scholar.

55. Morris, E. P., Trans. Connecticut Acad. 15 (1909) 139–51Google Scholar.

56. See Flury, P., Liebe und Liebesprache bei Menander, Plautus und Terenz (Heidelberg, 1968Google Scholar).

57. Copley, F. O., AJP 70 (1949) 23Google Scholar.

58. For Pamphilus' feelings see 270ff. and 694ff. The alternative ending makes it clear that the other two lovers, Charinus and Philumena, also marry.

59. Callimachus, , Hymn to Apollo, 47ff.Google Scholar; Tibullus II.3.11-32; Ovid, , Her. 5.151Google Scholar; Met. II.680ffGoogle Scholar.

60. Athenaeus XIII, 575A-F. Athenaeus then quotes a rather similar story from Aristotle's Constitution of Massilia; cf. Justin, 43.3. For love leading to marriage, see also the story of Periander and Melissa in Athenaeus XIII, 589F.

61. Ovid, , Met. X.243ffGoogle Scholar.

62. See ‘Pyramus and Thisbe in Ovid and Shakespeare’ in Creative Imitation and Latin Literature, ed. West, D. and Woodman, A. (Cambridge, 1979) 173–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Cf. the feelings of Iphis and Ianthe, in Met. IX.718ffGoogle Scholar. As regards marriage, it would be hard to show that the feelings of the wife Alcyone, (Met. XI.416–73Google Scholar) were different from those of, say, the abandoned Ariadne.

63. Wolff, S. L., The Greek Romances in Elizabethan Prose Fiction (New York, 1912, repr. 1961), 130Google Scholar; but see the qualifications on 131-2.

64. For the details, see Wolff (n.63 above) 8-10.

65. See, e.g., the early fragment of the Ninus romance, printed and discussed in Perry, B. E., The Ancient Romances (California, 1967) 153–66Google Scholar.

66. By this I do not mean to imply that the novelists are uniformly feeble. But if we ask why antiquity produced no masterpiece of fiction, it seems better to say that no important writer happened to work in that genre, rather than to seek an answer in the nature of the Zeitgeist.

67. For a less famous tale of love, marriage, and separation see Parthenius 36 (Loeb), Rhesus and Arganthone.

68. Xenophon, Cyropedia (Loeb); see index under Panthea.

69. Plutarch, , Moralia IX (LoebGoogle Scholar); Dialogue sur l'Amour, ed. Flacelière, R. (Paris, 1953Google Scholar).

70. Plutarch, , Erōtikos, 769FGoogle Scholar.

71. See Gilmore, J., The Fragments of the Persika of Ktesias (London, 1888) 109ffGoogle Scholar.

72. Horace, , Sat. II.3.276ffGoogle Scholar.

73. Ovid, , Met. IX.453ffGoogle Scholar. (Byblis), X.312ff. (Myrrha); Parthenius 13 (Clymenus), 17 (Periander's mother).

74. The Merchant of Venice V.1.1ffGoogle Scholar.