What can we know of rhe beginnings of vemacular love-poetry in Europe? In as ideas and smages, whar 1s unrvet- sal, what ts confined to a particular ume and place? What part do popular tradi= nons play, and what part learned? How ase the medieval Latin ranges of thought and posery related to the first owenng in the modem languages? These are among the quesnons that Mr Dronke explores in his book. In the second volume, the full range Of the Lana poche evidence 2s illustrated by an anthology (with translation and commentary} of texts most of which have nat been edited before The texts and the study throw new light on the problem of amour courtors, on the Euro— pean secular Lyne, and the hatory of medieval Laun poetry Pre (iw tx oxty) SSF terMEDIEVAL LATIN AND THE RISE OF EUROPEAN LOVE-LYRICMEDIEVAL LATIN AND THE RISE OF EUROPEAN LOVE-LYRIC BY PETER DRONKE Leetuter in Medieval Latin tn the Unwersity of Cambridge - VOLUME! PROBLEMS AND INTERPRETATIONS OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1965agp Bupa el wane ey ga A No BOuBE > Soa? © Oxford Uniersiry Press 1955 PRINTED IN GREAT ayparyTO URSULAPREFACE Tue lyrical love-poctry that arose in medieval Europe has captured the imagination of many readers and tantalized scholars with the question of its origins. My book is not an attempt at a history of this poetry, but rather a number of attempts at poetic interpretation. I wish to illuminate certain modes of thought in medieval poetry, and certain kinds of language, particularly language of amour courtois. This inevi- tably involves asking afresh some of the wider questions: What can we know of the beginnings of vernacular love~poetry in Europe? In its ideas and images, what is universal, what is confined to a particular time and place? Where does originality end and mannerism begin? What part do popular traditions play, and what part learned? How are the medieval Latin ranges of thought and poetry related to the first flowering in the modern languages? I cannot hope to give a complete answer to such questions, only to explore them, and arrive by way of them at a fuller understanding of a number of par- ticular poems. I have touched only incidentally on problems of metrical and musical form in the lyric, problems which have been dis- cussed outstandingly in the numerous essays of the Jate Hans Spanke. Spanke’s detailed correlations of the stanza-forms and melodies of Provence, France, Germany, and Spain with those of the Latin tradition that grew up alongside the liturgy all over Europe provide the indispensable basis for understanding the development of medieval (and later) lyrical forms. This has not yet been widely enough recognized: the corpus of songs in the manuscripts of Saint-Martial, central to Spanke’s dis- cussion, remains largely unedited. When there is a full collected edition of these songs, whose importance Spanke was the first to see, our knowledge of medieval poctry and music will have won a revelation.vu Preface The comparison of Lann and semacular Ines, however, provides ng simple solution to the problem ofongins If some of the first troubadours whore names we know found forms and melodies for songs at the monastery of Samt-Martel mn Limoges, generanans of monks before them must have known Yernacilar songs and at tumes adapted them If the sequence seems the most clerical genre an medzeval lyric, the secular titles of many of the earhese hrurgical sequences mdieate chat 2 melody hat been borrowed, tha profine—and in sonic Cases no doubt native--words have been replaced by tscred Latin onts Even the bilingual fynes (Latin-Prosengal and Laun- German) of the tenth and eleventh centuries prove nothing about the pronty ather of Laun or of vernacular song On the contrary, they mdreate that these had custed together i mecheval Europe from the first. Singers of the castle and the farpround the church and the school had from the earhest tunes heard and been uspired by one another's songs noclasshada monopoly of vention The Laun tradinon, espe~ cally before the ewdlfth century, often preserves records of songs of which we have as yet no wetter examples im the vernaculars dance-songs, love-duzlogues, aubades, ballads, reverdies, lovers’ greetings and medstanons At no mme can these have been confined to the clencal and lettered world alone In my first chapter, on the umty of popular and courtly lovely, I have ted to disenguish the wuversal human clements 3h the poetry of amour courte: Cruces and scholars have assumed {) chat there was something new about the feeling of love expressed m the courtly poetry of rwelfth-contucy Europe and later, (s) that ths feeling disungmshed the Provengal troubadours, and other poets took the wnfection fom them, {uz) that researches ito the nse of Euro courtly poetry must conecth themselves with the cause of this flingPreface ix After a study of texts drawn from diverse periods and cultures, I would propose instead: (i) that ‘the new feeling’ of amour courtois is at least as old as Egypt of the second millennium 3.c., and might indeed occur at any time or place: that it is, as Professor Marrou suspected, ‘un secteur du coeur, un des aspects éternels de lhomme’;? (ii) that the feeling of amour courtois is not confined to courtly or chivalric society, but is reflected even in the earliest recorded popular verse of Europe (which almost certainly had a long oral tradition behind it); that researches into European courtly poetry should therefore be concerned with the variety of sophisticated and learned development of courtois themes, not with secking specific origins for the themes themselves. For if the mirage of the sudden new feeling is done away with, the particular problems of literary history undoubtedly remaim. In my second chapter I attempt to show how certain develop- ments of courtois themes were made possible through the influence of Latin learning. I have confined myself to a brief characterization of three kinds of language, which I call mystical, noetic (deriving from Platonic and Aristotclian theories of knowledge), and Sapiential (deriving from the ‘Solomonic’ books of the Old Testament): all these, I believe, play a part in the increasing elaboration by the poets of a ‘metaphysical’ language of love. The third chapter illustrates the uses of such language from a variety of literary contexts: in the songs of Raimbaut d’ Orange, the first troubadour in Provence in whose work it has an extensive role; in the haphazard but none the less real al 1 RMAL iii (1947), 89, To be literal, one would have to replace ‘éternel’ by some more pedantic phrase, such as ‘so widespread as to elude a purcly genetic analysis’, The phrase ‘the new feeling’ is used by C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love, p. 12.x Preface occurtence of suular language in eatly Englsh loxe-poctry. especially m the Harley lymes, an the Mimnesinger Hen von Morungen, whose creative use of a range of ‘metaphyst~- cal’ images lends them a unique intensity and depth, and mm the supersubtle, analytic extreme of the metaphysics of love in Italy, above all in the songs of Guido Cavalcantt. The last two chapters are an attempt to sce the Latun tradi tions of love-poetry in perspective to the developments o tourtois themes m the medieval vernaculars In the fourth chapter [ discuss some antteipations of such developments, firstin Roman poetry, then, more extensively, in Latin learned verse from the sixth to the twelfth centunes ‘The final chapter sa study of those Latm lyrics that seem to memost Ulununanng for the vernaculirs Here again the emphasis 15 manly on the adeas and mages of a mou courts the extent to which these occur in the Tatum Iynie has never yet been fully recognized Thave deliberately left comparisons with vernacular songs for the most part mmpher—a truly comparative study would feqttre another large volume I hope, however, to have drawn together some of the most amportant Latu: material towards such a study The poetry discussed sm the last two chapters 1s necessarily ted im range, the wader hterary context m which tt arose 18 adumbrated by the collecton of texts (mostly not printed before) which forms the second pact of my book. Here the emphass as on diversity, to show all who ate snterested in the metheval vernaculars the Breatrangeof genres, styles, techmaguies, and atutudes in the Latin love-pocrry of the time, both what can be paralleled an other medheval bterarures and what can nor When] began writin, BO tore than a brief a quate any study mvolving the Laun poetry would be unless ‘one went back to the manuscripts account of all thar had never ed, and where necessaty, editing some of thePreface xi known texts afresh. For a long time cach text seemed to raise more problems than it could ever help to solve; the difficulties that still remain in many poems of my collcction are formi- dable. There may also be comparable textual difficulties, of which I have not known, in the vernacular poetry: here I have had recourse only to published versions. None the less (to borrow the words of W. P. Ker in his preface to Epic and Romance), even if in my presentation of the texts ‘many things have been taken for granted too easily ... itis hoped that some- thing may be gained by a less minute and exacting considera- tion of the whole field, and by an attempt to bring the more distant and dissociated parts of the subject into relation with one another, in one view’. * I should like to give my warmest thanks to the many hos- pitable libraries whose manuscripts I have used; to Merton College, for the Fellowship through which I was able to begin this book; and above all to the scholars who have helped me in the course of my work. A number of particular debts are acknowledged at appropriate places in the book; here I would mention especially Professor Bruno Nardi, in conversation with whom many of the ideas towards this book took shape; Dr. F. J. E. Raby, who has kindly criticized it at several stages, and whose survey Secttlar Latin Poetry was an invaluable guide; and Professor Sir Roger Mynors, to whose generosity I owe numerous suggestions and corrections in my Latin texts (emendations which I owe to him I have marked [R. M.]). Mr. J. B. Trapp read and made valuable comments on both parts of the book in typescript; Dr. R. W. Hunt and Professor Bernhard Bischoff gave me their advice about a number of manuscripts; Dr. S. M. Stern helped me considerably with the Spanish and Arabic texts in chapter I; and other scholars were kind enough to advise me on languages which enter my argu- ment at various points: Professor J. Cerny on Egyptian, Dr. D. M. Lang on Georgian, Mr. S. J. Papastavrou on medievalxt Preface Greek, Dr D H Greeaand Mrs Olive Sayce on Middle High German the Reverend Kenelm Foster and Mr C Hacdie onttalan Me R P Axton helped me generously with ory int of abbreviations and wath proofs My wife, Ursala, apart from giving me specialist advice on Icelandic and Middle English, was the constant inspiration and help in my wreng from begmning to end PD Jarmnary, 1963CONTENTS OF VOLUME I I. THE UNITY OF POPULAR AND COURTLY LOVE-LYRIC The Courtly Experience in the Poetic Records - Egypt . Byzantium . Georgia Islam - Mozarabic Spain . France and Germany ~ Iceland 8. Greek Italy Excursvs: Limitations of the Concept amour courtois STAN Pw NH Ii, THE BACKGROUND OF IDEAS Wl. THE IDEAS AND THE POETS: ILLUSTRATIONS I. Raimbaut d’Orange 2. The Harley Lyrics 3. Heinrich von Morungen 4. Guido Cavalcanti Excursus: The Concept urmilta IV. MEDIEVAL LATIN LEARNED VERSE 1. From Antiquity Excursvs: Flos florum 2. Love, Praise, and Friendship 3. Convents and courtoisie 4. Metrical Love-Poetry V. THE MEDIEVAL LATIN LOVE-LYRIC 1. Deus amet puellan 2. The Cambridge Songs 12 I$ 19 26 32 39 42, 46 57 98 II2 125 136 158 163 181 192 221 239 264. 271atv Contents of Volutte I 3 Suatissutta Bech ited 4 From Eleventh- to Twlfth-century Lysic $ The Lann Lyne and courtante 6 Songs at Samt-Marnal 7 The Qualities of Love % The Codex Buranus 9 Sigsem Prendam and Dune Diane vittea 10 Hebet spdus 11 St Ienguss angehas 277 281 285 288 294 300 404 313 318Il. Ii. Iv. . The Medieval Latin Love-Lyric CONTENTS VOLUME I PROBLEMS AND INTERPRETATIONS . The Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric The Background of Ideas The Ideas and the Poets: Hlustrations Medieval Latin Learned Verse VOLUME II MEDIEVAL LATIN LOVE-POETRY Texts and Commentary Bibliography Index $7 98 163 264 333 539 585THE UNITY OF POPULAR AND COURTLY LOVE-LYRIC “Poputar’ and ‘courtly’—the words are common currency wherever lyrics are discussed. The faces of these coins have almost been worn away, they are so much used. So it may be best to begin with a brief attempt at definition. Popular poetry, it has often been remarked, is composed not by a people but for it. It is not, as the old Romantic view would have it, wholly anonymous, a direct expression of the Volksgeist. Any lyric that is memorable has something personal about it. But in the composition of popular poetry the poet loosens his personal bonds with his work in order to surrender it to the people: that is, to the whole of a society, without distinction of class. It is not the particular status of the poet that counts, but what he intends shall become of his poem. It is popular if the people come to make it their own. Then tlie author’s signature is unimportant—others may feel entitled to make changes or adaptations, to add or to retouch. As against this, there is a poctry which is composed for a select, specific audience. Here the poct is less elusive. In com- posing he uses a range of learning and literary art familiar to his audience. The audience share with their poet certain values, conventions, or artifices not universally recognized. The poetry that springs up in such a situation may be termed courtly poetry, andin medieval Europe the rise and development of such poetry coincides with the rise of the ecclesiastical and secular courts themselves. What of the poetry of amour courtois? The very name ‘courtly love poctry’ seems to suggest beyond a doubt that this is a sub- division of courtly poetry. And such a view can be found 84330 B2 The Unity of Popubar and Courtly Love-Lync upheld by our histories of literature All, st seems, are agreed that amour courtors was anew conception of love, anew feeling. avhich arose for the firse ume ina paructlar anstocranc, chival- zc courtly society In 1936 Professor C $ Lewis wrote in The Allegory of Love (pr 2-4) Every one has heard of courtly love and every one knows that st appears quite suddenly at the end of the eleventh century in Languedoc French poets im the eleventh century discovered oc invented, or were che first to express, chat romantic species of passion which Enghsh poets were sull wntng about in the nineceenth, — Com- pared wath thas revolution the Renaissance is a mere nipple of the surface of lterature In 1949 Ernst Robert Curtyus in a Jecture on ‘The Mediexal Bases of Western Thought, claimed thar ‘the passion and sottow of love were an emnduonal discovery of the French troubadours and thei successors’! And most recently, in 1960, Professor Reto Bezzola sull thinking i preeusely these terms, asked Pourquet cette nouvelle pogsie gui evprime une nouvelle con- ception de Phomaie, qui donne une mage absolument nouvelle de Ja forme, que presente les rapports entre des étres humans d'une mamere absolument nouvelle surgy-clfe juste en ce moment, au xatctau x sitele 7 Cequ rested exphquer presque entesement, est hh noavelle conception de 1 amour # I am convinced that this recerved opmon, this belef mm a wholly new conception of love, 1s fake Tam convinced that the question, why did the new fechng ays¢ at such a place, at such atune wi sucha society, samteading one Fos {should like to suggest that the fechngs and conceptions of amour courters are universally posuble, possible in any time or place and on any Invelofsocety They occur im popular as well as am leamed or anstocratic lave-poetry Like Dante in the fourth book of the ? Cuts, p 588 ® Les onigmes ef Ls formation de bs lettérature eoattarse en necident wt. 242 249The Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 3 Convivio, I hold that here is a gentilezza which is not confined to any court or privileged class, but springs from an inherent virti; that the feelings of courtoisie are elemental, not the product of a particular chivalric nurture. In the poets’ terms, they allow even the most vilain to be gentil. Admittedly Dante also wrote in the second book of the Convivio that cortesia derives from corte, for once virtt and belli costumi were in use there (though now, he says, the opposite is true). So we can, if we wish, postulate archaic courtly traditions behind all popular poetry; on the other hand, we can equally well postulate simple, primordial popular traditions behind all courtly poetry. Neither can ever be more than an hypothesis— and in the times when high and low ate together in the same hall, perhaps popular and courtly poetry were seldom far apart. I should like to introduce the term ‘the courtly experience’ to designate something which cuts across the notions of popular and courtly poetry. The courtly experience! is the sensibility that gives birth to poetry that is courtois, to poetry of amour courtois. Such poetry may be either popular or courtly, accord- ing to the circumstances of its composition. The unity of popular and courtly love-poetry is manifest in the courtly experience, which finds expression in both. I intend the phrase ‘the courtly experience’ as a coinage, yet a coinage not unrelated to the various things that scholars have understood. by amour courtois. Of this indeed Diverse folk diversely they demed; As many heddes, as manye wittes ther been. They murmureden as dooth a swarm of been, And maden skiles after hir fantasies, Rehersynge of thise olde poetries. . . 2 ! Though I use the word ‘experience’, this is not in order to decide how much of amour courtois was ‘sincere’, how much the poets ‘experience’ it, or to what extent they played the ‘lel layk of luf’seriously or lightly. This clearly varies from poet to poct, from pocm to poem. I speak of the courtly experience rather than, say, the courtly manner or fashion because, beyond manners and fashions, it can entail a whole way of looking at life. 2 Chaucer, The Squire's Tale, 202 ft.4 The Unuy of Pop ilar and Coury Love-Lyric Lehould like to take as my basis the remarks of the incon parable medievalsst of an carhier generation, Joseph Dedier, 8 which he defines dt podse courtosse Ce gin ha ete propre cose davew congu Lamour comme vO culte qui adresse a un objet excellent et s¢ fore, comme | amour chrenen, sur Jinfime disproportion du ménte at: dene — comme une ecole nécessasse Phonncur que fate «alow Vamaat ct teansforme Yes vilams en courtons, ~~ commic un servage selontae gut rect un pouvor ennoblisant et fur consster dans ba souffrance b dignne et ly beaute de Ia passion. Starumg from thes, 1t would be posible to emphasize a num~ ber of related pockets of ideas such as the snsistence, so mark am Provence on the socul qualines of the lady, and che ways 40 whieh the lover becomes socully acceptable (acquires prev, through her or aggin the conventions of adulterous telation~ stups the tradition of the cas aleve servente ? I shall nor, however be concemed with these except merdentally I shall develop certain impheations of Béduer’s definiuon rather than others, however umportane those others may be an a pacucular sphete Central for my purposes ace those aspects that bear fruar in the greatest pottry of amour courtore Fasst, “le culec d'un objet excellent’ such an aturude of the post cowards his beloved as the toumdztion of the courtly ex nience Front this arses the infinite disproportion between lover and loved owe Yer the entice love-w orshup af the beloved asbased on the feeling that by loving such disproportion may be lessened, the mfinite gulf bridged and a way towards umon, however dificult and arduous, begun Its based on the feeling, that finste human Jove ean at us fughest have something 1 Let Feres de mun et Tes commencement de ba ¢ Tyrie as Age’ Revue des deux mondes mat 1806 p 172 As Fresh lane has a stressed, this sense of conmtyigie (which fave wi mind whenever} use the rere} must not be confised, aut so often is with Tideal dtbique et woopl de fa chevae Jene (‘Les &éments consurunis dela covtezia, Stadt muediolaten ¢ Palgart wen, (1959) €8) Chabop 55 0.3 Certam other netons which have been asic. cqated with amour courtels are diseusiedin the Excursasat theen dof dus chayerr ay mpo pp iEThe Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 5 infinitely more than human about it, that it is through a human beloved that the “divine’ concepts—Paradise, salvation, eternity —take on meaning, that divinity hedges the beloved and can be experienced through her. It is what leads to such expressions as: she whom I love is peerless throughout the world; one moment with her is worth Paradise to me; I would gladly go to Hell if she were there; her beauty is radiant as the sun; she mirrors the divine light to the world; she moves among other women like a goddess; she is worshipped by saints and angels; she herself is an angel, a goddess; she is the lover’s remedy; she is his salvation. Such feelings imply (and sometimes even prompt the explicit statement) that human and divine love are not in conflict with each other, but on the contrary can become identified. If the beloved reflects divine perfections to the world, she can be a mediatrix or figurat of them to her lover, and he can reach them in so far as he comes nearer to her through love-service. This ‘accord’ is expressed most strikingly in a conte written just after 1200, Le Iai de l’oiselet, where the bird, having the angelic power of knowledge which is traditionally attributed to birds, tells ‘chevalier et clerc et Jai’, and all men and women who are in love, Et por verité vos recort Dieus et Amors sont d'un acort. T Tuse the term ‘figura’ to suggest the equal and simultancous reality of the figure and what is figured by it. Unlike theological allegorésis, figura does not pluralize its Jevels’ but unifies them. It tries to show a sensible and an intelligible reality in one, to body forth the intelligible in and through the sensible. To quote Erich Auerbach’s essay ‘Figura’, which is a foundation for all future understanding of medieval allegorical and figurative techniques, in figura ‘there is no choice between historical and hidden meaning; both are present. The figural structure preserves the historical [what I have called the sensible] event while interpreting it as revelation; and must preserve it in order to interpret it... . Is the terrena Jerusalem without historical realty because it is a figura aeternae Jerusalem? (Scenes from the Drama of European Literature (New York, 1959), pp. 68-74.) Apart from the noun ‘figura’, I sometimes use the verb ‘to figure’, and (synonymously) ‘to embody’, or ‘body forth’. I do not use ‘symbolize’, for I get the impression that in ‘symbolism’, as it is generally understood, the symbol is important more for what it symbolizes than for itself.6 The Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyne Dieus aime anor et cartorsie Er fine Amots ne {es het nue, Dheus het orguerl ex Faussetc, Et Amors les nent en vilte, Dievs escoute bele protére, Amors ne Ia met pas afnére ? To believe in the accord of human and divine love~I should hike to maintain that thists a profound way oflooking which wo one way or another characterizes most of the poetry of our concert and one of my chief arms will be to explore the poetic umpheations of ths notion, treaung 1 as something consistent, serious and worthy of respect # The second part of Bédter’s definition—‘qui fat valow Yamant’~follows from the excellence of the beloved Lf she 1s seen an terms of the courtly expenence, then the way towards YEA A Paughilet, Podres et pomanciets du Moyen Age (Pang, 1951) p $08 ‘And I recall to you the truth that God and Lave are 1 accord. God loves honour and courtome and mndeed gracious Love does not hare chem God bates disdum and Glicy, and Lovs holds them ro be base, God listens to a gracious Brayer—Love does not tun sich away + In stressing ehe great importance and depth of this belief of poets ut the wmuty of the two foves my view of the poetry diverges from that of Professor CS Lewss whe clams that chis erone refigion ares a5 a raval or 2 parody of The rea religion and emphanges the antagonist of the ewordeals Where st we not a parody of the Church at may be sm a sense her rival—a cemparary excape 2 truancy from the acJours of 3 schgom that war believed into the dchghts of 4 region that was merely amagmed (Op nt, pp it-at} Tt follow s also that my approsch to amour courtou 1s completely wcompstible wth that ofthe bte A J Denomy who sees ot as an ‘insidious and subtle influence wnful and amunoral For kust Co.mly Love was immotst and ‘heretzral in thetic regarded man asa purely aztaral exesture (Heresy pp ty 27 $5) Sex & great pty for medieval scholartup that so often mm Father Denomy a far-reaching and ambinous wetngs on amour tourioss (such 25 those an Medterval Stedtes 1944-$3) religious preyucire precludes z genwune attempt at nnderstandmg (The amtude of medieval orthodoxy to mystical notions of Jove as duscused im Chap Tl pp 93-94 It snot wih these novony, however that Father Denomy 1s concerned.) Siniiarly alt possibiiry of understanding the poctry as los fram the start by those whe tollows2g Orta Taha or Dea de Rougemont (L, ameur e¢ Pocclient {Pares, 1939) pp 78 Hf) see amour courtels as duabenz or cathanst in spune, ay setemg a gulf between the human and ehe divine Dieus et Amors sont dium acort fet the bird of the Zar be a warmag!The Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 7 union with her is the way of acquiring the virth that she em- bodies, of realizing within oneself that ‘habit of perfection’ from which all actions of any moral value flow. Thus, in the poetry dominated by the courtly experience, God is never imagined as opposed to love—on the contrary he is continually seen as on the lovers’ side, even if they feel the world is against them: they always pray to God to help them in thcir love. The lover’s progress in virth follows from ‘le culte d’un objet excellent’; but from the infinite disproportion between the lover’s merit and his desire follows the third part of Bédier’s definition—the way towards winning such a love is infinitely arduous, and would be impossible were it not for the lady’s grace. The value of the way is intimately related to its difficulty; therefore the lady should not take pity too easily. In any case the lover must orient himself to an absolute love, if necessary a love unto death. Sometimes it must, as Chaucer’s Pandarus pointed out to Troilus, remain an amor de lonh: What! many a man hath love ful dere ybought Twenty wynter that hus lady wiste, That nevere yet his lady mouth he kiste. The love grounded in the courtly experience must always be ‘ful dere ybought’: its ennobling power lies in the cost to one- self, its beauty and value lie in the lover’s giving all he has, in his enduring pain and sacrifice for love’s sake, in looking constantly to a more-than-human love (often evoked by the image of the god Amor), without distraction, without calcula- tion of success, even if necessary without hope of gaining his desire on earth. The Courtly Experience in the Poetic Records In recent years the most notable contributions to the study of popular love-poetry and the rise of the medieval European lyric have been those of the great German philologist Theodor Frings.! He has concerned himself chiefly with whata Carolingian ™ Minnesinger und Troubadours (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Vortrige und Schriften, Heft 34, Berlin, 1949); Die Anfange der8 The Unity of Papalar and Courtly Love-Lyate capttulary of 789 called tantleodas—hterally, st seenas, ‘fnend- lays’, songs for a lover (an ordinance forbidding nuns to cont- pose such dugraceful songs}-~and what were called canngar de amigo m medieval Spain and Portugal * love-songs in which the woman speaks, or it which she is the domunant figure and tends to be the active lover cather than the passive foved one Professor Frings has pomted out mstances of such poems of women’s love in the most diverse cultures in ancient Egypt, ut China, im Greece, Scandinavia, Serbia, Russia To give one that he docs not record, a perfect mstance of the purest samleod, there are Sappho’s lines (Duchl 114) Tau parep of Toy Buvaper Ketan tev forov Trdbea Educa aibor Boablvay & Agpodtrav Sweet mother, Lean no longer work at the loom, stncken, with love-longing for a boy by the slender Aphrodite Frings shows how the moods and chams of experiences’ (Enlebmshetten) of the woman in Jove reverberate im aubad, pastourelle, and chanson de tole, and in numerous dance-songs of medteval Europe, including some by troubadours and Minne- singer—and it is th. pnmordral, unnversal love-poetry of the people that he would see as the basis of the poctry of asrour courtors While Professor Frings has donc a great serniee by bemging this world of poetry ta mund so vividly, casting his net so wide and placing his findings so effectuvely beside the cantigas de amigo of medieval Europe, st must be stressed without sn any way belittling this achtevement chat these are not the stuff of courtosse While tus search has thrown ght on many things, never really touches the courtly expenence ot the poetry that anses fromat So anew start 1 needed what Frings has di clanfy the universal womanly etpenence that 1s the wellaprnng of wutileodss and ther descendants, I should hike to attempe fe europtivchens Lucbes-Dudhtang tm 12 und 12. Jalbuandert h Ger Wissenschafien ‘Sitzy Munchen 3560) (Bayetahe Abkatcmue * For the philological parallel between the Geumame and the Romane, expresuon + Leo Sprteer Comparative Literature wv (gst € 9The Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 9 the universal courtly experience, which is essentially a man’s conception of love. It is to complement, not to eliminate, Frings’s insight that I should like to show that the love-lyric has at least two archetypes, not one. And one of these deserves the name amour courtois. 1. Egypt It is manifest in the oldest of all collections of love-songs, the ancient Egyptian.! In these songs there is the perception of the beloved’s unique and divine radiance, cosmic in its power, descending from her upon the world. ‘By her beauty the earth is illuminated’ (S 47). The one, beloved, unparalleled, more beautiful than all the world— look, she is like the Star-goddess? before a beautiful year, of radiant virtue, of lucent skin. ... To see her emerging from her dwelling is to see her who is yonder, the One. (S 39) The first and the last word of this song is ‘the one’. Sir Alan Gardiner, in his edition of the Chester Beatty Papyrus (c. 1160 B.C.) in which this lyric occurs, explains that “ “one” is used in the sense of “unique”. ... At theend the key-word “one” recurs, now referring to the sole eye of heaven, the Sun.’3 The loved woman, in other words, is worshipped as a divine incarna- tion. In another collection of songs, in Papyrus Harris $00 (c. 1300 B.C.), there is the medical imagery of love which becomes so 1 I have used the German translations of Professor Siegfried Schott of Gittingen [S]: Altagyptische Liebeslieder (Ziirich, 1950), but Professor Jaroslav Cerny of Oxford has been so kind as to go through the texts with me word for word, and to supply the linguistic comments below. 2 Literally ‘the feminine star’ (the Egyptian word for ‘star’ being of mascu- line gender}—here Sirius, who appears at the same time as the sun at the beginning of the Egyptian year. 3 The Library of A. Chester Beatty (London, 1931), p. 30.10 The Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyne frequent m later love-poetry The beloved 1s the rmraculous healer I shall he down at home and pretend to be all! Then my netghbours will come in to see [me]. and my belosed? walt be with them She will make the doctors unnecessary, for she knous my malady {S 48} It as sm preensely this way that Criseyde comes to be the healer (the ‘leche’) of Trovlus For the belovedss the source of her Lover's virtn, of his health andstrength and goodness She elevates him and 1s hys ‘salvation” Her name ts that which hfts me up Her entry from outside os my salvation. When I see ker Lam well again when she opens her eyes, my body 1s young again, when she speals, I grow strong agarn when ] embrace her, she barushes evil Gom me (Chester Beatry Papyrus, $ 43) Sir Alan Gardiner explains, ‘the word for salvation 2s Interally “health”, “soundness”, but a semt-relmious tum is piven tort by che playful wrung [of the hieroglyph] wath the Sacred Bye” # Tr ts an gust such a ‘sermtelgious” way that the Latin salus, Provencal and Old French salit, saluz, Italan salute, and Middle High German fei! are used of the beloved throughout the medieval love-lyric. In Egypt asin medieval Enrope, the beloved 15 sovereign to her lover—he wishes only the complete surrender feself, cron) of subjection and service to her Ob that LU were the negro gel who ts her companion! ‘Then I should catch sight of the whole of her body 2 Literaty chen T shal be 22 at an ancorrect fystuon. 4 Yucevally the sister’ {the commonest spnonym for the loved woman} 7 Op atp i.The Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric II Oh that I were the washerman of my beloved even for only a month. Then [...] to wash out the oil that remains in her dress. Oh that I were the ring which is the companion [of her fingers. Then she would care for me] as something which gives her joy. [Oh that I were] an old [dress] of the beloved. . . .1 Variations of this image abound in ancient, medieval, and Renaissance love-poetry (v. infra, pp. 178 ff.). Wethink atonce of Romeo: “Oh that I were a glove upon that hand, That I might touch that cheek’, ‘I would I were thy bird’. The lover’s utterance, his ‘conceit’, is at the same moment traditional, spontaneous, and universal. Even some of the names of the Egyptian women—‘Star of Mankind’, ‘Sole Liege-Lady’, ‘Loveliness of Truth’, “Queen in Eternity’ (S 103)—reflect ‘le culte d’un objet excellent’, Thesongs, according to Professor Schott, are in all probability literary, not folk-songs, written down by poets conscious of their art, not simply collected together by scribes. The opposite is the case with the popular love-songs of the Byzantine world in the Middle Ages. The kind of Greek in which they are couched, and the way in which they were collected and written down, leave no doubt that these were not literary compositions.? Yet in these brief songs too we find again and again the characteristic thoughts and feelings of amour courtois. ' From a sherd in the Cairo Museum, Ostraca (Catalogue général) 25218. S 66-67. 2 In his recent L’histoire de [a littérature séo-grecque (Uppsala, 1962), Borje Knés makes far-reaching claims for the essentially popular and archaic nature of these songs (pp. 15 ff, 168 ff.), though he also postulates Western influence on love-songs from the eleventh century onwards.12 The Unaty of Popilar and Courtly Love-Lyne 2 Byzantine Two of the carhiest, which according to therr editor, Emile Legrand,' go back at least to the twelfth century, reflect the lover's complete selfsurtender to one who has sovereignty of hfe and death over hum Prumavera, bly of che spring Tam youss [have pryen you my body, soul, and beng Aouheiiby dveikénnoy, fapivé tou Kplvt O ods elpt, ool BiScoKa oda, yuyty wed elved Give me a kas, sweet kiss, ight of my eyes, or fet me die by you my fave Ads por gly, yAuKo @IAly, 9s téiy fudiy Supcrrey, “H Gges ne dkyarm vow, vi fapuyd biempés cou In the fifteenth-century collection m the manuseript of Wienne, many of whose songs go back to a far earher date, amages of hesverlly love, or better of the earthly love that becomes heavenly, abound "If one thinks of Paradise let at be by you, you have become 2 Paradise, and J long for you" (R.4) The angels of the heavens brought your beauty down’ (R 7) Contoually Chnst 1s invoked to atd the lover in winnung the beloved (R 24, 34 37, 42-44) ‘The more than human figura of the beloved emerges i a quatram that 1s both sumple asd perfect (R 28} Oupavds clon, xapiid so, O my heart, you are heaven, wolra pdene cou geyyépr, and your eyes art the moon, xal ré ppubia cov Bokdp1, and your eyebrows rambows, x iSofbpoow thy vobv pov and they hive pierced my nund, and sm many other songs where she 15 seen as the angel, or as an angebe creation ‘The lover idenufies her duty co love with her duty towards God © Remueil de Guaisons populares greegces (Pars, 3874) FR} p viteThe Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 13 Kh) &v & AvTaoa 7d Kopi, Ifyou have no pity on my body, Kav thy wuxiy Aumioou, —_ have pity on my soul, Biocrl éxel péAAe ve Kpi8ij, for yours too, my loved one, KSpn, K’ fy Bik] cou. yours too will be judged. Avaorevege, div p’ &xotls: I sigh and you do not hear me; KAate, S8v yé AuTr&oar I weep and you do not pity me— Aéyoo Bkv eloca yprotiavy, I say you are not a Christian pryte Ged poBa&oat. and that you do not fear God.! In her eyes flows a stream of immortality (C 42), she is the key of heaven (C 55), the daughter of the sun (C 53). The lover loves her in his heart, but lets nothing appear outside (S§eo Stv gavepdve, C 58). The lover prays to the god of love, promising complete sub- mission to his will. Though in a different world, how close to Dante’s cry, ‘Amor, segnor verace, Ecco l’ancella tua, fa che ti piace’. In the Byzantine song: Amor, instruct me, tell me what I must do, and if you grant me the grace, Amor, for which I pray, I am your slave for ever, and shall do all you say.? *Epoota 8d pe Aoytopov Kal yvdor Ti ver troige, Ki) Gv pod Thy Kéuns, "Epwra, Thy xapiv Thy yupevon, SolAds cov v& Tuer Trévrote, Kal ef Tr pe “IHS Trayalive. Likewise in the famous ‘Rhodian’ songs Amor is ‘uno segnore di pauroso aspetto’: Amor, fearful lord, golden-winged, I tremble at your presence, I fear your aspect, and I fear your beautiful wings, Jest they should slay me.3 I The first is from R 35, the second in Emule Legrand, Chansons popslaires grecques (Paris, 1876) [C], Distiques populaires, 28. Cf Werner 117 (‘Conpar nulla tibi’): Numquid morte mea _celi penetrabis amena, Gaudia cum vite —- vere perdant homicide? 2 R17. Further off, both in time and in spirit, is Petronius’s acquiescence, out of bitterness and confusion, “Et sequor imperium, magne Cupido, tuum’ (Anthologia Latina, 698). Cf. also Bernart de Ventadour (ed. Appel), iv. 1. 3 Ed. D. C. Hesseling and H. Pernot, Bibliotheque grecque vulgaire, t. x (Paris, 1913), Ul. 513~15. The manuscript contains the songs in a fifteenth-14 The Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric “Epes, Buvborer goPepe, ypOVTOPTEPONy [PSOE Tptwa ‘Thy Puniroay cou, goRotnet Thy Seespidy coy, ked tay copids cou wrépuyny uh ui doromgaAfgovy {nthe enchanting Song of dhe Hundred 1 Vords that beruns we collection the beloved 3 many tures addressed im Language © amount courtots ' Her gentilezza inspires fear {10), the Jover “ ane ta be her slave (303-6) ‘There are slanderers (51-39) 27 watchers (241-7), so the lover may never speak of hus lady ‘Ewo of the short songs that follow later in the manuscnpt deserve co be quoted here In one, the lover's sscztfice of himself to Love and fus edu mpnon by the beloved are metaphoncally idennfied with the events of Holy Week Qn Good Friday J was afraid of you, lady, and Saturday 100 I beg you have mercy one a3 God has on the world. And as the Chnstians celebrate there Ezster, ‘Thus lady, shall (honour you as my nghtful queen # Tlagaceiy of oxitomixa supd, Sik capBdrou~ TropAKCAG ce, Abe ye tos 6 Beds Toy KdcuaV, & &Styaorras sak yponavel to Haoye tay Higpas, ioe vis ot apd, nupd, PostMooay Suefy pou Tn the other (667-9), the lover amagines the moment of ha death, addressing hus beloved, As soul, as heart Lhave you and] do noe fear the angel the angel I shail see will be hke you ¥ shall say your name and then breathe oat my soul. centuty vernon ‘de} remane et corrompudc — Ie texte Lest mene anténeue” (utp xxmus) Like desighdly younger Voracsnceoene, st testafies ro 2 collectyr’s folblonsne mterest in tradsnonal songs, but has been, compiled wt 2 nx0r® biphazard fashion $ "Phereare ofcourse many other elemenrsalso such 2s the lower smockery at the end of the poem. RYord 498-sor Note the hturmeatechom ‘Kyte les me "The metaphor of the Easter~nrghnt as the mght of redemption un hb love as unfolded 0 the grand scale ws the wmagery underlying Chauccy . porerayal of che wuoh of Troitas and Crunyde (ee sy amie "The Concuson of Froias and Cruepde Mic. p03 964} 503The Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 15 wuxiy, KapBicv éoév Exon, Kai Gyyerov Sty poBotyan: Tov dyyeAov Tov OéAco Sel, Eoéver EAI pode, Kal tévoyik cou GéAco Tri, Kal GéAco eewuxicoeiv. It is her immortality that the lover will win, and heaven is simply the fulfilment of his love in her and through her. The same motif recurs in the Song of the Hundred Words (229~31): the angel of death will be the beloved herself, in her immortal, life-giving aspect. The angel docs not take me as I am about to die— it is through you I send forth my spirit, without sickness or pain, and if you, beloved, wish it, then I shall not die. Kal Sv ye tralpver 6 Gyyedos cos WEAAEI vorTobdveo, CULE yyoLaXe Bic cév, Biya dppwoticy kal mévov, Kal &v 7OeArjons, Auyept, Ey Sév arrodaives. The line “The angel I shall see will be like you’ strikingly recalls Guido Guinizellr’s declaration—if God should at the moment of death accuse him of having spent on a human beloved the love that belongs to heaven by right, he would answer, Tenne d’angel sembianza che fosse del Tuo regno: non mi fu fallo, sin lei posi amanza. She had the aspect of the angel coming from your kingdom: I was not wrong to set my love in her. The superb flight of thought in the ‘illustrious vernacular’ and the simple, passionate affirmation in demotic Greck are not far from each other in the end. 3. Georgia The literary songs of ancient Egypt and the popular ones of medieval Byzantium show traces of amour courtois, My third witness, the greatest monument in a Caucasian literature, goes further. Here there is a full exposition of amour courtois in all its beauty, establishing its value and meaning in the whole of life.16 The Umty of Popular aud Courtly Love-Lyne Following fom this, autour “ourtors becomes, as it were, the Ominant COnstructiye Panciple of an entire romance, a pos Of epic stanire This 1s Shotha Rasthavch's The Aan in the ‘anthers Skyy Written Probably betw cen 1196 and 1207 31 astonishing Way Rasthavelys Poem transcends the ty r and courtly Poetry Though Written in the first Place for 4 Sophisticated Cours, which centred upon the bollant the heritage of “holenation Young men andvomenofe, ery class learnt 2 wholly by heart any Georgran sul who did not know it Was regarded as stall tao Immature to marry she was xpected tg P35 tt on tg her children In turn 2 is Rutthavel; an enamoured devotee of Ing Queen, whom he calls ‘the d hama; Ortetyan, wh 7H, Koupht in the Tiger s Skin (Moscow, 1938) [M] The poem Some 6 509, kines, and 15 MERA Quatrains of 36 tlh blesthymnme aaa *L Pa Roth Neukomm and Kita Techenkéh, yp Sramin (Zunch, r9¢y) PP 2to 3 n i called enh, refers to her E the reigning Sovereign and nor Queen couse eae) ee the tem: ) 3n the Stanza (T 1666 L1373 M, 1628)? te seems to have perplexed the tevisery OF Miss Wartrop Tanthtion, “ho sould have Shmerthi refer to Thamara 5 Sonsort, Dawid For Danig, ofthe Geornans, hom the aun "Ue T hays Put Ory into, verte But this would beg flagrant contradicnon of the Prologue the Teplendent deheanon za rt fanslan, Th 3 £00, ghmerth, {Father than Rhalghmerth, by relevant tharan Arg! Ne love-poetry poets lady axes ; m Provengal as mitdons—noe my bdy bur my Jorg > Gunitariy p, yal seuhor (though of E. tense Pog CFO pen upHEsE ta Edad Steaua (Madr 1957) p 64 ore Grely OF B8hor oF Jac de Bascux, itd Fez CAmney Such age scome to restece the nonon of the beloved Soverepney the lady’ Fordsh, ra Sao caters of oe 38 made by a modern Parallel Co; Sitnanye Portrayal of g boy of SExteen y UG fore Unommartout big B maureese &* Patton: byasonian qu “mareThe Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 17 he dedicates his work, using the language of love-service. This could not have been due to Western influence—it is scarcely conceivable that Provence should have travelled into the Cau- casus. Georgia makes her own Provence freshly and unaided, her own cour d’amonur around her beautiful, much-worshipped queen, And (hercin utterly unlike troubadour society) Georgia throws open this royal road to love to her entire people. Shotha Rusthaveli had been its ‘prime architect’: I speak of the supreme Love, species of divine essence, {it is hard for human language to tell of it): a celestial activity, lifting the soul on its pinions— whoever aspires to it must endure many griefs. That unique Love the wise cannot comprehend, the tongue will tire, human ears will be exhausted. I had better tell of mundaner ecstasies, which mortals can experi- ence, and yet they imitate that Love when, withholding, they languish at a distance. A lover is called ‘madman’ in Arabic, for he loses his senses if desire is not fulfilled. Some have nearness to God—they return from their height— to some, again, it is natural to aspire to lovely women. A lover must have beauty, beauty like the sun, wisdom, humility, generosity, youth—and lots of time; he must be eloquent, understanding, enduring and heroic— no one can be a lover who is not all these. Love is beautiful, hard to define: true love is not lust, it is utterly different, wide boundaries lic between the two. Do not confuse them, I beg of you! O toi que j’appelais “mon maitre”... Situ n’as tenu 4 moi que par l’orgueil des donateurs, tu aurais pitié de moi, pour Ja premiére fois, aujourd’hui....’ (Le blé en herbe (Paris, 1928), pp- 105, 156.) t A few comments on the relation between Georgia and Western courtoisie have been made by Sir Maurice Bowra, Inspiration and Poetry (London, 1955), pp. 50 ff, and (in a somewhat garbled form) by R. H. Stevenson, in Bedi Karthlisa (Le destin de la Géorgie) (April, 1956), pp. 21-23. 814339 ciu The Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyne The lover must be constant, tot wanton impure, farthless parted from hus beloved, he must sgh and sigh agun Fis heart set on one, he most bear her anger or grief Uhate insenstrve love clinches, dloppy-sloshy kisses Do not call Jove, you Jovers when men Jong for one today and tomorrow another unconcemed with grief at parting Such worthless playing at love 15 childshness ‘The aruc Jover bears the sorrow of a whole world. Perfect love does not show ats wounds, but hides them, the lover chershes them alone, secks always to be alone From far-off fanong dying, far-off branded aflame, he must face ins loved one’s anger, be must stand in awe of her He must never betray the secret of his love, nor vulgarly groan, shammg hs belaved. In nothing may he show tus love, sn. no way disclose 3¢ For her he sces sorrow as joy, for her would be east into flames ‘What prudent woman would trust him whe tells his love? And to what end?—Lover and loved ane suffer It he compromuses her how can he glonfy her? ‘What need for any man to huet hus loved one s heart?! ‘What 1s magnificent about Rusthaveli’s ‘definition of love” wats comprehenstveness: He distinguishes between chvine and human love, and then unites them. The one tan ‘wmtation’ of the other im so far as human bemgs can know the transcendent Idea of Love at all, tis by way of their own love-asprranions ‘These aspurations do not say to the pasirg moment ‘Stay w1 me! You ate so far! bur are an unceaung quest for a more wet Mie Larae S14 have translated froca T wath the help of bot 's translat ras ptt Wan zis tot and wth the beuctis ofadvice om many igtoProftsiorN Marr (Teka: Razpshanr, ya xn) mused some dowbtsa3te te aubernory of ManzasT 20-22 28-29 More recently however they have oes serpted and sctamea by the tditors of Mand T As ] mdicate mt my awe there $33 profommd poetic tunity m the thought of the teThe Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 19 than-human perfection, ‘that unique Love’ which is only glimpsed imperfectly. Neither the aspirations of mystical nor of ‘mundaner’ lovers are fulfilled at all times. Both are in nature without finding their absolute in nature—they are oriented towards an ek-stasis which, in natural terms, is ‘being beside oneself”. Thus Rusthaveli goes on to give a summa of the human lover’s task. From his metaphysics of love he derives a corresponding ethics. If the value and meaning of human love is not sufficient in itself, but lies in its glimpses of a more-than-human fulfil- ment, what sort of person should the lover strive to be in order to be open to these? What should be his attitude towards the beloved who brings these about for him? Rusthaveli answers in presenting his conception of amour courtois. In one sweep he passes from ‘l’amor che move il sole ¢ l’altre stelle’ to standards of excellence in the behaviour of lovers. These, he shows, are no mere game or fashion: they carry the reflection of something greater. 4. Islam Poetry of amour courtois was composed at many times and places in the Islamic world. It reaches a fiery grandeur in the fragments of theseventh-century poet Jamil al-‘ Udhri ({701-2)," fragments from poems for his beloved Bathnah, whom, as legend has it, he loved hopelessly for twenty years: My spirit was bound to hers before we were created, after our first drop of life, and in the cradle. It grew as we grew, gaining strength, and will not break its bond when we die, but live on in every state of being and visit us in the darkness of the tomb. (33.) * * py. FE. Gabrich, ‘Gamil al-"Udni, studio critico ¢ raccolta dei frammenti’, Riv. Stud. Orient. xvii (1938), 40 ff, 133 ff. My numbers follow Professor Gabriel's numbering of the/fragments.20 The Urty of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyné O north wind can you not see | am dehrious with love, visibly exhausted? Gave me one breath of the scent of Bathnah and be kind and blow towards Jamul, and say toher little Bathnah, my soul s content with a hurle of you, o even less of that brtle (203 Other ladies ay ‘Mere nothings from ber content ou why dont yo want to escape such nothingness? Bota mere nething from her with whom I love to speak 1s sweeter to me than generosity fram one I dulke (117 1-2.) Love 1s a predestining force, demanding absolute dedication from the lover The dover has no nghts and evens the smallest favour isa grace The source of this absolute of Jove 1s divurt, and Jamil prays passonately to God for love's reward ‘Lora God mike me dear to het and gtve me her tove— tts you who give and refuse, if not give me patietice even agamst my wall, Lord of heaven $ star, I burn with love forher! (73. 11-12 } oo fe God the lady herself 1s the ‘bentgn bestower of grace’ 145 3 At the end of the eighth century, at the court of Harfin at~ Rashid, ton al-Ahnof (f813)! wrote a Divan expressing many moods of toveand love-longing, 15 hopes and disappamentents, intrigues, falfilments betrayals Often he makes exphat she courtots commetion ofthe mtnnuc value of love ‘Only those m love, filled with love-longing, are human beings, and there 15 nothing good m one who does not love” (204) “There 1s no disgrace in lowing see love is a noble virtue’ 95} ‘The Jover, with a passionate gesture, submurcs Ins entire life to hat lady, who as exalted over him, to d ha he will, He relies wholly on her mercy Oo wathewanenes* *v) Hell, Al ‘Abbas ihn al-Abnaf 7 ben are page-refeseases to Hell Aiea Teena Wi (1926) 270 My numThe Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 21 Accept my love, I give it as a gift! Then reward me with rejection—that is love! This soul of mine is given to you; the best gift demands no return, (282.) I am your thrall, torment me if you will, or whatever you will of me, do it, whatever it is! (302.) . Oh what a glance that tore my heart away, its arrow left my body wounded. If only my princess would send another such, that I should have to lament those wounds once more. Either my cure lies in this, or I die and find rest. (301.) Many facets of amour courtois are reflected, from the elaborate stratagems to outwit slanderers and spies: When my soul was already in despair, a letter came to me, while the slanderers were not watching her. A letter came, while I was surrounded by spies... (286.) to the hyperboles of love-worship: If a creature were adored because of its beauty, my queen would become [heaven’s] Lord. (283.) At moments, again, the spirit of amour courtois shows itself in the poems of the Cordovan Ibn Zaidiint (1003-70). It is one of the many aspects of his stormy love for the aristocratic poetess Wallada, a love she often requited and as often be- trayed. In his masterpiece, the Qasida in Nin, Ibn Zaidiin sounds notes of lament and despair at his separation from Wallida, through his own exile, passionate invocations to light and wind to bring her messages of his enduring love; she is evoked by images endowing her with more-than-human stature—she is « p, Auguste Cour, Ibn Zaidotin, Constantine, 1920.22 The Unnty of Popular and Courtly Love-Lynie the antumate of sun and stars For a moment, # Infe prasstng her, Ibn Zaidiin thanks of his own social mfenonty, and at the same tume of love's noblesse Te did not harm me not to be her equal in nobiliry, for in affection be reasons cnough for equality J did not name you, out of respect and deference your hugh place makes this superfluovs, For you are unparalicled you have no peeranany quahty = * ‘These ines come among memories of the Paradise of love they have shared, and now lost Andina moving farewell the poet begs ‘Wallida to zemain true to lum, with great diffidence and indirectness he mvites her to share hs ale, hardly daring to ask her such a thing outnght ‘If nor, the dhusion will content me and the memory suffice’ The height of Yon Zardiin ¢ conception of love the extent of ius dedicated submussion to lus lady, can be seen from hes celebrated anes to her If you wished rt, we could share something which does nor dic, a secret that % ould remam when all secrets are divulged, ‘You who have sold your shaze i me, sf life were offered for my share in you, I would not yield it May ths suffice you af you burdened my heart with what other hearts cannot bear, mine would bear #1 Re disdanfal_-P'R endure at Linger—ll be patient, be proud—T'll abase myself, eave me—1 follow, speak—t1'l! listen, ‘The fullest articulation of amour courters at the Islamuc world of which I know is in the romance of Wis and Ramin It was composed about the middle of the eleventh century by the command—I Il obey * because her * Courna 44 Bay? efectos proclaun whe seasThe Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 23 Persian poct Gorgani, a court official of the Seleucid ruler Togrul Beg. Gorgani claims to have based himself on an older, prose version of the story, written in Pahlevi. In the twelfth century Gorgini’s poem gave rise to a Georgian prose adapta- tion, which at the court of Queen Thamara achieved a renown almost equal to Rusthaveli’s romance. It is a creative translation in the best sense—though often verbally identical with the Persian poem, it is more concise than its luxuriant original, and at times also subtler, or more profound. Thus, for instance, in the Persian pocm Ramin outlives his beloved Wis by three years, and when he dies his courtiers carry him to a tomb next to Wis’s, and ‘their souls rejoin, and contemplate each other in Paradise’. In the Georgian, Ramin simply says ‘I, who am also a corpse, mourn this day’; that same day he enters Wis’s sepulchre, and never leaves it again. ‘Wis and Ramin have come to the attention of Western scholars chiefly because of the astonishing parallels between their story and that of Tristan and Yseult.t I should like, on the other hand, to concentrate not on the incidents in the story but on the attitude to love that emerges here. Towards the begin- ning Wis, already half in love with Ramin, debates with her- self the relation between human and divine love. First she puts forward what is traditionally the pious view—* If Ramin is lovable, Paradise and God’s grace are even more so. And if Ramin should upbraid me, it doesn’t matter—God will be merciful to me. If I should be damned in hell for love of Ramin, his love cannot reach me there.3 (109.) * Most recently discussed by Franz Rolf Schréder, GRM, n.F. xi (1961), 1 ff. Cf. also p. 25, n. 2 below. 2 In the passages translated I have tried to take into account both the Georgian (Visramiani, Tiflis, 1884, with reference to Sir Oliver Wardrop’s translation, London, 1914) and the Persian, which I know only from Professor Henri Massé’s recent translation, Le roman de Wis et Ramin, Paris, 1959 [Ma]. Wherever there is a material difference between the two, I have kept the Geor~ gian, italicized, in my translation (where the numbering refers to the Georgian and English editions), and cited Massé’s translation of the Persian in a footnote. 3 Ma 140: “alors de quel profit me sera mon amour?”24 The Unity of Popstar and Courtly Love-Lyne A btile later, wholly overwhelmed by love, she accepts the exact opposite of this Ehave given hint my heart in such o way that so part of a remount mune any lougee God's dove was fulfilled sea ene lave Risin so mach that [can never be cut off from hum in all etermity If you ask me Do you prefer Paradise or Rimine By the sua! Td choose Raaua' For to sce bumas Paradise so me (124-5) In gust this way Aucassin Was to affirm his heaven in Nicolette? Thus, the lovers’ viewpoint, dommates the rest of the work, a5, for instance, when Ramin sings of a garden of love mm which T saw a beoinfal rose, amfading in summer and winter,t a rose that grves consolation to one wha is sad and greater joy co one in joy I consecrated my heart to her, to love her etetnally Day and night Ttake oy inthis The eye of the envious can case no harm 4 whatever a man deserves God gives to hun. (166) The Georgian, and more extenswely the Persian, show 4 remarkable anneipation not only of Guillaume de Lomss pattern of smages, but of precisely that notion of amaorr courtots that they embody—the complete dedication to the Rose, @ dedication that is the source of 113 own Joy, in 2 place of Jove that seems perfect, but 1s menaced by the hostile, envious forces atats doors Here itis the Rose, Wis herself, who, bemg one of the greatest amosreuses in any hterature, mcarnates the fullaess Of amour courtos, who at many moments im the work takes ond tole sumilar to and even greater than, her lover Rimin’s Thes she invokes God (that courtois God who 1s ala ayson the ade of 1 M1453-4 mon crux ext Knut d amour de tellc sorte que nul hommexe stn jomidre les fragments, le destin a pasd sur mot yen sare par mon * Aucassin et Nicolette wt CE also La i : thastelome de Verge, 773 €. wa "B flew du moudar son parfum, 14 couleur sont parade * The lat smtence of the ke the amaThe Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 25 lovers)—I cite only one of her passionate prayers, one among many: O Creator, without beginning, merciful, omnipotent, gentle! You are the strength of the abandoned, the help of the poor and the distraught! There is no one but you to whom I can confide my secret, you are my only friend. You know how my soul is stricken, you know how my tongue is chained—only from you can I seek what I need. Deliver my soul from the abyss! unburden my heart of separation! soften his cruel heart! Bring back to his mind his former love for me; mtake him have pity on met (312.) Conversely, Ramin (who, like Tristan, secks a remedy for his hopeless situation, in which he is constantly betraying his king, in a marriage of cxpedience with another woman) sees that his betrayal of human love entails his falseness to God’s love, his ‘deadly sin’: What answer can I give to God and to her, since I have given the heart that tvas her own to another? (320, Georgian only.) Finally, Wis and Ramin is a work imbued with one of the profoundest insights into the courtly experience—the notion that love is coincidentia oppositorum, that love unites within itselfall contrary qualities, the whole of existence, earthly and heavenly. That the joy of love cannot exist without its sorrow—for the theologian proof positive of love’s mutability —precisely this is for the wholly dedicated lover the proof of love’s absoluteness. Because he surrenders to the beloved as his sovereign, she is to him all things, she is for good or ill the divine destiny towards which his existence is oriented. The love- themes of two of the greatest medieval Western romances, Gottfried’s Tristan and Chaucer’s Troilus, are conceived entirely against the background of this notion, love as coincidentia oppositorum;? in Ramin’s prayers to Wis we have a statement ™ Ma 348: ‘cela fait, 4 som cceur rends donc l’amour aimable.’ 2 Between the greatest Tristan romance and Wes and Ramin there is this profounder resemblance on which no one has yet commented, a resemblance which underlies all the similarities of plot and characterization and gives these a deeper significance. Here in two major works a story of unique love, love that26 «© The Unity of Popular and Conrily Love-Lynic worthy to put bende them Mo asks God for Paradise and us bliss, fo me you are both earth and Paradise Ie will noe offset me of groef contes to nie through your love fo one finds joy wuthoutgnef * Now you are my resource—evi and good, sickness and medicine breter and sweet, cold and fire, you are my desire and my musfortune my sereruty and my anguish, my Joy and tny pain, my wealth and my poverty you ate the cause of my hfe, jou ate cye heart, soul and fate stin and moon, heaven and earth— you are foe and friend Indeed you are Destiny everything comes tome from you Do wrth me what you will you are sovereign over me? (341 367-8) 5 Mozarabic Spat ‘The earhest surviving love-poctry im a Romance vernacular 1s to be found among the now famous ‘Mozarabic? Urayas, composed in the Spamsh dialect of Moslem Spam, the first of which were found and interpreted by S M Stem m 1948 In all we now know of fifty-three Mhayas contaummng Romance words, and an immense hterature of discussion has already grown up about them? To summanze the pomts necessary for eur purpose the kharyas occur as the final verses of Arabre and Hebrew minvashshahs The must ashshah ss a strophic poem with : fixed shyme-scheme which was introduced as an Arabic Kterary genre an Andalusia towards goo, and subsequently vensta all obstacles and all other loyal yalines 1s given a philosophical dunension web aspect of the story Murunaes the fact that at tenor beesute of these cre cm sence or these that love s soy and sorrow an¢ snseparable bur because cs ae every nature afanabsolare love Amy furure companson of the two wen Rs must | am convusced, take this extraotdinary achievensene, the com Piete poene funoa of a lovestory wha metaphysic of love mto account. + Ma sye-s ‘Le eur demande 3 Di neu paradas 1 soi, cuce Lum tthe auires ‘Vi Paradaste houns tot, ma lune! pour man sae pour que nous pensions ensemble 3 ce bas- 2 he Ma 308 ae beauce! fais de mon tout ce qin te plaura car tu es 4 mcs you plans ree arene Je me plans 4 toa car tu ex feta dans mon cocur, Je me phan TepMes tur Mo cee tu hn eyenneme er amie ala fors cat mt Fee Ge St bean wenant de tos, v as Heger Die brsher tos veroffentiichten Harkas und thee Deutungea Uoingen 1960 Heger s bishography runs to pearly ten pages .The Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 27 imitated in Hebrew. (The extant texts are none of them earlier than the eleventh century.) How precisely the muwashshah evolved is controversial, but it probably owes something both to previous Romance and to previous Arabic poetry.’ The poet bases the rhymes and metre of his muiwashshah on his kharja, which is normally not, like the rest of the poem, in the classical language, but in a spoken dialect, Arabic or Romance, or both. Sometimes it seems he wrote the kharja himself, but many times the kharja existed separately before he wrote. The kharjas which seem to have existed separately are usually short cantigas de amigo, For these there is a wealth of parallel evidence from later European song that establishes their nature and the fact that they are (to adopt the illuminating expression of Menéndez Pidal and Damaso Alonso) a ‘poesia de tipo tradicional’. We now know that such poetry existed already in Spain in the ninth century, but there is no good reason to suppose that it began there and then. One of the most remarkable contribu- tions to the question of ‘beginnings’ was a note by the historian von Grunebaum, who drew attention to the Ethiopian priest Justus mentioned by Saint Valerius (c. 630-95) in his autobio- graphy (P.L. 87, 443~4), a successful (or, to Valerius, infamous) jongleur, whose performances included love-songs sung to a lute. Von Grunebaum comments: his success would be difficult to understand unless one assumes that he used the local patois or a language closely akin to it. The conclu- sion is hardly avoidable, the ‘Romance’ in or resembling what the Arabs were later to describe as the tarigat al-Nasara [the style of the Christians] antedates the arrival of the Arabs on the Peninsula by some time. For there is nothing in the narrative of the injured saint which suggests that Iustus was the first ioculator of this kind.? At the same time as Valerius was writing in Spain, and continually from the sixth to the ninth century, churchmen and church councils all over Europe cried out against a host of (ap- parently incradicable) ‘cantica turpia et luxuriosa’, ‘puellarum t yp. S.M. Stern, Al-Andalus, xiii (1948), 30F. 2 Al-Andalus, xxi (1956), 405.23 The Umty of Popular and Courtly Love-Lync cantiea’, ‘iflecebra cantica et Iusus secularss’ * "These provesta- tons art. precious evidenice for the ewstence of founshing tradmons of vernacular love-song not preserved mm wring, and st 1s only sensible to assume with scholars such as Alonso, Frmgs, Menendez Pidal, Roncagha, and Sprtzer that some of the khayas give us at least a notion of what rhis ‘pnmitiva letea europea’ was ike # The finest of the Lhazas have a passionate concentration, a0 sncandescent splendour that recalls the great expressions of ove sm archaic Greek poetry, above al] in Sappho Gand vos, ay yermanellas com conten a men male! Sin al-habib non vivireyu— advolarey demandare * 2 "The most maportant (ees are conveniently assembled m A Viscardi Le onggint (Stona Ietterafaa dItalis Milano 1939) pp 460 4, from whuels I have taken my quotations sy Dimas Alomo Rev Fil Ep xxx (1949) 297-349 Theodor Enogs, PRB lean {rygs} 176-96 Ramdn Menendes Pidal, expecully Rev Fal Esp xls (1960) 279-354 Aaretio Roncagha, Cult Neolat m (1951), 213+ 49 Loo Spirecr Comparative Luerature yw (19§2) 1-22 + The sexts cuted are based om the ewrdence sct ont ur Stern s Les chansons mozarabes (Palerine 1953) [St} and in Heger op ct {H] Consonants for which there sno nianusenpr authonty are pristed im stskes Dr Stern bas shown great kundsess in crinazng my attempts at interprenmg the khayas He has suggested many unpcovements, I mast, however, take the responsibilty Ger all depactures Grom hit printed text ‘ 7 net St Spuzer far H ad loc ) adoblarey demandare (TI redouble iineerp St guay Dews~Lapa (at Hadloe) MS pydi (Se ewdas (?]) TMS “oeds (om Cantera, cit Had Joc ) eres ‘ 25 MS gd meftwr foger ledor—Coromunas fat H ad Joc je I would wesuet Seor>fulgor Py like Coronas, focurs battando (MS ~ While the form quedad Crrcla G6mer’s reading of 33 " rrghe be expected, of qs 2 4 unerp Garch Gémer Quéredlo—MSS kdb}, kdl, fp tw kyeyd doy de mai veers 15 nor fully cern nee ieies Bene e is ly MSS mytery taes dmyb 3 Que no quero” 1s far from certain! fieso— the rhymes require -t30, basta Te ntss Oe td vir Enkr dab te & Viale MSS, Stp 9 bi ht “_ D (from the wo YehudaThe Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 29 Ah tell me, little sisters, how to hold my pain! I'll not live without my beloved— I shall fly to find him again. (4.) Tan t’'amaray, tan t’amaray, habib, tan t’amaray, enfermcron welyos, [guay DeusT, ya dolen tan male! I shall love you so, love you so, beloved, love you so, my eyes languish, ah God, ah they hurt me so! (x8.) They are women’s love songs, put in the mouth of the ‘servantes-chanteuses’ who sang the muwashshahs.! So at first view it might seem hopeless ta listen in these earliest vernacular love-songs for notes of amour courtois. Yet there are at least certain reflections of it. Of love as a source of good, when the girl inviting her lover cries out Ven, sidi, veni, el querer es tanto beni.... Come, my lord, come! Love-longing is so great a good... . (r.) Of terms of endearment that are almost words of adoration, and a love that is endangered by gardadors: Alba quedad, met: fogor, alma de meu ledor, bastando li ’I-ragib este nohte, amor! 37 interp. P. D, (boquella hamri—Garcia Gémez). I construe ‘calar’ (MS. k’wir) in its original sense ‘soltar’. 21 interp. St; third lne—P. D., from the final collated text in St (p. 61): bnfs ’mntks’d mw 1g’r (St ven . . . [o1# vengas] a m1b que sanad [?] meu legar). 9 interp. St; doled li *I-habib—the MS. of Todros Abulafia has d’lyr *Igryb (doler al-garib), St ‘ma douleur étrange est si grande’. 35 MS. ke’'l (em. St); Garcia Gomez—k: tuelle; Que queray (MS. kkry)}— P. D. 1S, p. xvi.30 The Unity of Popular ond Courtly LoreeLyif The duanrenarrs, ey brig} nett anal of ay py long croveh for be 1 pitas r phy omy beve {-3) ' Hmght-welll Iw ould anterpret the sense as "Let tke rap) watch all mp te sull have a time for lave Two arher Miaiyt (2%. 3°) a Oe that dawn was a better opportumty for the meetin’ lovers than the night wvclf Another khays (a) aho wiidly evokes 3 mu ual love o which the lovers are threatened wath separation by the Fey Qt adanay filtole al ae, eddar tit Quered'o de el secaee su aleraqibt How I loved my absent lover, and he lowed mz! The oun whe satchs him vans to keep hrm away from me Twice the woman seems to ward off the Tover’s advances with a shaft of wit Non me tangas, y3 habibi? $Que no quero dataso $ Abgilala rahsatu—~ basta te fermasot Do not touch me, my beloved! I don’t wanr any trouble ‘The bodice of my gown ws frul—- ‘be content wah beauyyt (8 } feel these Innes ace different from the gigelmg type of “N'atouchics pas a mon chamse, | sre chevaker “Whoop, de ste no hann good man Here by contrast the womtan seems whelly motress of the sttuation, she speaks with such com” Posure in het humorous Arabic ine Don's crush my gownThe Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 31 she determines how far the lover may go. But the most remarkable line is the fourth: that she should be able to say it presupposes that this courtois standard is one that other lovers in her world had been prepared to avow, She seems to say, ‘Don’t be greedy—find your reward in your lady’s beauty, and don’t think you have a right to more.’ Similarly in the following: Si sabes, ya sidi, que no bebes asi— boquella hamra debria calarsi! You should know, my lord, not to drink [kisses] luke this— my little red mouth would have to free itself! (37.) The rebuke is witty, but delivered with self-assurance, recalling the lover to more gentlemanly behaviour by the threat of with- drawal, In a kharja where wit and ardour seem inseparable, the woman sees herself as able to restore her languishing lover to health by her presence: Meu ‘-habib enfermo de meu amar. Quen ad sanar? Bi nafsi amante, que sed a meu legar! My beloved languishes with love of me. Who is there to cure him? By my lover’s soul, what thirst for my coming! 21.) In two other kharjas there is, it seems to me, a deliberate ambiguity which reveals a truly courtois subtlety: Vayse meu coragon de mib— ya rabb, si se me tornerad? Tan mal me doled li *l-habib, enfermo yed—cuand sanarad?32 The Umty of Popular and Courtly LoveeLyat My hearts going away from me— ah God, will he [1] retum to me? It gnieves me so tor my beloved, be Jr} is l—when will he fit} be well?) Ithas been debated! whether the last line refers to the woman's heart or to her lover—bur is not the same twofold possibility present in the other lines also? ‘Meu coragon’ 1s not merely she term of endearment for the lover so frequent m Later Spanish tradition, the hnes mabe clear that st expresses lose’s total dedscation her heart has become hus even as he has become ‘her heart’ The anguished prayer to God “Will he retuen® 1s at the same time asking Will my own heart retum to me? Can I go on Ising vathout him who ts my hears Her lover's absence and illness, and her own love-nckness and doubeful hope of cure form one insepara ble destiny and are pocucally identrfied. Sunularly im one of the shortest, but none the less most moving kharyas Quad me ma alma— que queray, ma alma? He ws taking my youl Gorm mo— try soul what shall [long for? (55) there 1s the realzauon that truly to call another person ‘my soul means to have totally guen one’s own soul in love The second, vocative ma alma’ 1s addvessed both to herself and to her lover, or rather to herself in her fover—-for her he has become quyth tis yuyiis? 6 France and Germany in France the refrans of the twelfth, churteenth and early fourteenth centuries collected by Gennnch3 constitute an m+ portant body of ‘pocna de upo traditional tn type and tone they are ‘popular rather than anstocrane or Iearned—bnicf, 2 Spstver art. at pp By ; Ponder pees ere m discussed below p 282 pat . te utd Batlsden BAL wy (Coremgen, 1927), (Get £ rom. Lit,The Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 33 rhyming verses such as the kharjas, singable or danceable, emotionally direct, swift in thought, and simple—cven if they are at times hard to grasp analytically, it is never difficult to ‘get the fecl of them’. In these refrains the basic notions of amour courtois find expression as completely as in the most sophisticated songs. I should like to illustrate this, confining myself to the refrains assembled in a single work, the so-called “Traduction d’ Ovide’,! which is partly translation, partly commentary, partly a free compilation of ideas about love. These ideas are given auctori- tates in the form of dance-songs—we are told what is sung at caroles by jourvenceaulx and jouvencelles, by mariées and amoureux, by les bons lechéurs, and even by les honunes mariéz. The songs carry a wide range of attitudes to love, from bawdy mirth to courtoisie. In some, love is seen as the sovereign law of life—in all its joy and sorrow it is the principle of life that enters the lover and determines his existence from within. He cannot refuse this determining power—on the contrary, he welcomes it at all times: Le doulx mal dont je me dueil . mest en corps entré par mi sucil pour demourer; je ne puis ne ja ne vueil sanz lui durer. He recognizes that the bitter and swect of love are inseparable, but that it is worth suffering the one in order to know the full- ness of the other: Bien doit souffrir les maulx d’Amours qui en attent la joie. Without love one can have no sense of value, no conception of the meaning of the good life. This applies to young and old 1 Unpublished, but described by Gaston Paris, Hist. litt. de France, xxix. 472- 85, who cites the majority of the refrains. They are given in full by Gennrich, Op. cit., pp. 212 ff, from whom I quote. 814989 DThe Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lynit altke—the ones should be loving now, the others should have Joved in thesr tune Nus ne set que bien est se st n’iame ou seit n'a ame? For love is nor only the key to the know ledge of what ts ‘brer” theoretical knowledge 13 not enough—at 1s the only way to attain human excellence The love which makes 2 man have worth must be wholly dedicated, must have no sousce oF goal other than love one must love ‘by Love’—lovingly, not calcu Janngly Nas ne peur valor, se par Amours n'zime, done fat 1 bon amer Love has the power to ennoble~let the lover be as basely bomas you please, if he truly loves, this will gene hus condition Quit sera villain qui n aime mars se un villain aime i) devenrra courtors The finest love, the complenton of the lover's courtois values and ideals, x3 a mutual love which preserves all the beauty and delicacy of a love-longing grounded m virtu_ When each lover cannotsubsst withoutthe other thisneed not mean a consumung, endlavernent stcan bea delectable, pracrous balance of emotions, a ‘play’ full of beauty and goodness Thus the gurls ‘sing at the dances, to ease their hearts’ (‘pour leur couraige reconforter”) Jene puis plus durer sanz vous, eats cuzrs savoureus ct doutx, ct sanz moy durerés vous? Moult est beaux et bons bs pew quant amour vient d’ambedewx. * Ths reftamn 1s Reequen ty found elsewhere (v Genonch,p 216)The Unity of Popular and Courtly Love-Lyric 35 The oldest manuscript containing a group of German love~ songs is the renowned Codex Buranus. I have tried to show elsewhere that there is no evidence for dating this manuscript around 1300 (the received opinion of the last thirty-five ycars), and that everything points to its having been written in the first third of the thirteenth century.! Have we any firm evidence in this manuscript of a traditional type of German poetry, a poetry not confined to a cultivated milieu? There is one truly astonishing piece of evidence, to be found in the Ludus de Passione, which begins on fol. 107" of the manu-~ script.2 The Passion play is remarkable for the abundance of its German verses, which, as Karl Young noted, ‘seem to have been freely invented for the purpose of making the play more intel~ ligible and vivacious for a general audience’.3 With a play of this kind there is no doubt that it addressed itself to the whole congregation, that is to all people without distinction, to the populus which in the final rubrics of so many of the plays is asked to participate, to conclude the action with a “Te Deum’, Here the populus heard the enchanting song that the Magdalen sings as she buys her cosmetics from the Mercator: Chramer, gip die varwe miecr, div min wengel roete, da mit ich di iungen man an ir danch der minnenlicbe noete. Merchant, give me the rouge for my cheeks, that I may compel young men, even despite themselves, to love. t ‘A Critical Note on Schumann’s Dating of the Codex Buranus’, PBB ixxxiv (1962), 173 ff. 2 This gathering, as Schumann (CB, Konmentar, p. 62*) showed, must be approximately contemporary with the main part of the codex, because the two parts have no fewer than four hands in common, including hand 1, one of the two principal hands that wrote the greater part of the entire manuscript. 3 The Drama of the Medieval Church (Oxford, 1933), i. 535. My citations are from Young's edition of the play (ibid., pp. 518 ff), which keeps closer to the manuscript than Eduard Hartl’s (Altdeutsche Textbibliothek, 41, Halle/Saale, 19§2).36 The Unity of Popular and Courlly Love-Lyne They heard her refran Sebe mich an, inge man, lar mich ev gevallen! Look at an, jamg men, let ne delight you! And then, suddenly, she sings of the value of love Muonet, cugenthehe man, munn¢hiiche vrinent Minne twct ev hoech gemut wade lat eveh in hochen eren schitty en You men who have vittu, love women who are capable of love! Love makes you serenely Joyful and allows you to be held mm great honour The nobon ‘hoech gemut’, which I have paraphrased by ‘serenely joyful’ ssatthe very heartof Munnesang Inthe earkest love-poetry, Huber Mut 1s “the psychological cons: quence of love and ére Its meamng hes m the sphere of an mborn joy and a sense of haghtened fe carned by great self-awareness”? Ehnsmann saw Hohen Mut as the equivalent of the Provencal por—Ithink nghely, fv erecall such explicattonsas Cercamon's ofthe joy Patror —Wher winter comes, and the dehghts of the world around us vanish, says Cereamon, we must repotce 11 the yoy of love Per yoy d'amor nos devem eshaudic Aguest amor no por hom tan servir Que mul atans no n doble 1 gazardos 1 A Amold, Stadien uber de to Tape mute EO br grag te Sag lp Thc Manet, tugenthche man are bricity discussed by Davad Brett-Evens in bs Piefderwerhe Elemente in deutschen Geustichen Spicl des Mutelotters (Labr} yee 3952) @ 35 Who clasfies them (for no apparene reason) ax ‘naedere * The Grundlagets des rnterbchen L7H A number of aspects of this famous atticle lep s19 tf.) and defeuded once spun by Eduard Newnan MEA tere gangenhen Fesigabe fur Karl Hebe (Cedingea, 950) pp 139k ‘Tugendsynems, Zit Iva (1919)