Christine de Pisan's description of courtly love:
She: I'll send you a hollyhock,
He: Lovely one, I don't dare tell you
How much love draws me to you.
You can see it all without my saying it!
I'll sell you a trembling leaf.
She: Many false lovers put up a front
To make their huge lies seem true.
One shouldn't believe everything they say.
He: You know very well I'm yours:
I never belonged to anyone else,
So don't refuse me,
Beautiful girl that I love, but without delay
Grant me your love!
I'll sell you a parrot.
She: You're fine and good and gallant,
Sir, and well-bred in every way.
But I've never learned to lvoe,
And I still wouldn't want to learn
How to wall in love or be made to love to!
He: I'll sell you a turtle dove.
She: Left all alone and by herself -
Led astray by a man who's fled -
That's how I'd live.
I'd never feel any joy in that,
No matter what I had.
He: I'll sell you a pair of wool gloves.
She: It would be too vile of me
To refuse your love;
Since my love would willingly - if I dared -
Be given to you;
For you're worthy of having
Helen, and even her lovely person.
I'll sell you a dream of love
That brings either joy or sorrow
To those who've dreamed it.
He: My lady, the dream I've dreamed
All night would come true
If I could win your love.
I'll sell you the soaring lark.
She: Your charming speech
And your fine and gentle manner,
Gentle friend, make my heart joyful,
And so I can't refues you -
I'll be yours without a quarrel!
excerpt from Le Chastel d'Amours - Anonymous
I ask you, castle of Love,
What is your main foundation?
To love loyally.
Now tell me of your great wall,
What makes it so handsome, strong and sure?
To conceal discreetly.
Tell me, what are the battlements,
The windows and the stones?
Adoring looks.
Friends, name me the guardian.
Evil speaking danger.
What key can unlock it?
To beg politely.
excerpts from Charles d'Orleans
I have said farewell to my lady
Within the chapel of love,
And the mass for her soul
Was sung by doleful thoughts.
Full many candles of piteous sighs
Gave light.
Also, I had the tomb made
Of sorrows.
ANDREW'S RULES OF LOVE APPLIED TO A POEM BY BERNART DE VENTADORN
Bernart de Ventadorn at court of Eleanor of Aquitaine,
was an outstanding courtly love troubadour.
Here is the second stanza of "When I See the Lark That Moves."
Alas! how much I knew of love,
I thought, but so little know of it!
For now I cannot check my love
For her, who'll give me little profit.
She has my heart and all of me,
Herself and all the world; and nothing
Leaves to me, when thus she takes me,
Except desire and heartfelt longing.
(In Medieval Age. Ed. and Intro. by Angel Flores.
Laurel Masterpieces of World Literature.
N.Y.: Dell, 1963. Trans. by Muriel Kittel, p. 178.)
excerpts of poetry by John Donne:
I taught my silks their rustlings to forbear,
Even my oppress’d shoes dumb and silent were;
and there are not wanting passages of pure and beautiful poetry:
I will not look upon the quickening sun
But straight her beauty to my sense shall run;
The air shall note her soft, the fire most pure,
Waters suggest her clear, and the earth sure.
Less artificial than this last strain, purer than the first,
and simpler, though not less intense, than either, is the feeling of those lyrics
which, in all probability, were addressed to his wife. To this class belongs
the exquisite song:
Sweetest Love, I do not go
For weariness of thee,
Nor in hope the world can show
A fitter love for me.