Unrequited and courtly love
Introduction
The term courtly conjures up an image of between noble knights and ladies who resided in courts. Courtly love was dominant in Europe in the middle ages when knights were involved with high ranking ladies, who were either married or spinsters awaiting marriage. Unrequited love is one-sided love where one person’s love for the other is greater than the lover that has been reciprocated. knights were characterized by honor, duty, and devotion to their lords. They performed heroic deeds in order to win the love and affection of these ladies. Typically, the love of the knights can be defined as unrequited since the real reward of their devotion and services us an educational one. Many went ahead and wrote poems either proclaiming their love or expressing the feeling of being rejected. Shakespeare of the greatest playwrights brings out courtly love in his play. There are many poems and songs based on unrequited and courtly love from the middle age. Courtly and unrequited love stories of the middle age are responsible for shaping the future of literature today due to their popularity.
Courtly love was dreamland, contemporary it was love of its own sake. It was either romantic love, physical love or even true love that was not closely associated with property or even family to any extent. Courtly, knights often focused their attention on married ladies who mostly belonged to their lords. Since such as illicit liaison could not have any other motive apart from love. Chivalry paints romance as an extramarital exercise since in the middle ages love was considered irrelevant when uniting two parties in marriage. Love was always discouraged in order for it not to get in the way of dynamic arrangement. Therefore, courtly love was believed to ennoble a man thus improving him in every possible way. Courtly love never lasted long it was literally a fantasy and could never be made an everyday affair due to its illicitness (Kleinbach, n.p).
Characteristics of courtly love poems; the poets mostly are men the poet sings with joy which exalts his love feeling, the poet praises the woman he loves who is superior to him in the ranking, and the love of the poet is seen to affect the mind body and soul and always tends to unbalance him. In courtly love, the lover becomes the servant of the lady and is always ready to bend to the will of the lady his heart cries out to. The relationship of the lovers can always be envisioned in poetic imagery. As proposed earlier this love ennobles the man in his whole being and all his acts reflect on this love, his fighting prowess increases so as to please the lady (Kleinbach, n.p).
One of the poems that show that courtly love was unrequited is “With how sad steps, O, Moon, thou climb’ st the skies” from this poem it can be understood that the moon is a symbolism of someone who is lovesick. The poem brings out someone who is in love but the love causes a lot of pain. The poet is a man judging from the way he questions the ungratefulness of the women. Quotes from the poem include; “what it may it be that even heavenly place. that busy archers up his arrow ties?”. The title itself is a quote that reflects o love that has not been reciprocated or well received. The rejection the poet receives brings about a sad mood (Shmoop Editorial Team).
The quest for love always makes a love story great, and unrequited love story always has a great storyline Philips (n.p) has collected stories that tell of an unrequited story. The list includes stories such as; The Throne of Saturn written by Allen Drury, it tells of the story of an astronaut gay unrequited love who has a crush on a straight guy. And immediately dies after confessing his love (Philips, n.p). Unrequited love is an example of one-sided love and most of them do not end well.
Courtly love was not just a literal convection. Such behavior occurred in some instances when powerful lords went to war and their wives were let in charge of the castles, young servants who were supposed to be at their service became infatuated with them. Courtly and unrequited love is responsible for shaping literature also. The most popular stories on courtly love stories were first told by troubadours in Europe, mostly in France, when these stories began the male characteristics were not knights such as Beowulf but as a knight but knights who wanted to prove something to the ladies they love. By the 14th century, courtly romance stories were beginning to dominate the literature scene (Phillips, np).
History has recorded many love poems that seem to follow the code of courtly love from the time of troubadours till to date. The lover claims to be filled with passion; they often speak of dying for love. A connection between Shakespeare one of the greatest playwrights and courtly love can be seen. In his play Romeo and Juliet, we see Romeo as someone who is consumed with an obsession for Rosaline but soon enough it is replaced real love when he meets Juliet. Shakespeares shows true love as a mutual feeling (Phillips, n.p). Western society has not thrown away courtly love ethic entirely
Drastic changes happened in poetry in the medieval period, which is the period that proceeded the renaissance. These changes were mostly seen in western Europe and England. The courtly love movement is responsible for influencing these changes. Literature unfolded and evolved even further to take a romantic turn as poems became a way for people to reveal their feeling for each other. Sir Walter Raleigh was a courts man, a poet and a warrior at the time of Queen Elizabeth I, he was made famous by his chivalry act of putting his cloak down for the queen, therefore it is not a wonder he wrote a love poem by the name a silent lover “ passion are liken’d best to floods and streams: The shallow murmur, but deep down are dumb …” ( Snell, n.p).
Unrequited love and the discovery of courtly love came with so many quotes; these quotes include; “love is a certain inborn suffering derived from the sight of and excess meditation upon the beauty of the opposite sex, which causes each one to wish above all things the embraces of the other and by common desire to carry out all of loves precepts in the other embrace .”(Capellanus, 28), “ I know clearly than day that after you have learned the art of love, your progress in it will be more cautious, in so far I shall comply with your desire (Capellanus, 28), “ the worst feeling is falling for someone and knowing they won't be there to catch you”( Wise old saying, n.p). lastly, there is a saying from the book The Truth About Forever, “I have to admit, unrequited love is so much better than a real one. I mean, it’s perfect … as long as something is never started, you never have to worry about it ending. It has endless potential (Handscombe, n.p).
Conclusion
The mention of courtly love brings about a mental picture of knights and high-ranking ladies of the middle age.in the middle age, courting started at courts, that is where countess met dukes and princes met princesses, thus the name courtly. Courtly love most involved the knights falling for women who were either married and above their level. Courtly love has been said to ennoble a man since all his efforts are towards winning the love of the woman, he has his eye on. Unrequited love is love that is one-sided, courtly love was always considered unrequited. Courtly love and unrequited love are responsible for shaping literature. Shakespeare in his play Romeo on Juliet portrays courtly romance. Many poets used poems to express how they felt towards their loved ones, most of them were noblemen such as Sir. Walter. With the coming of courtly romance and unrequited love so many quotes were developed by various authors in their quest to explain these two. It is true that courtly love and requited love have shaped literature a lot with the poems, books on courtly romance and quotes on unrequited love and courtly love.
Works cited
Capellanus, A. The Art of Courtly Love Quotes. n.d. retrieved from; http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-the-art-of-courtly-love/quotes.html#gsc.tab=0
Handscombe, C. 30 of the most powerful unrequited love quotes from literature. 2016. Retrieved from; https://bookriot.com/2016/02/08/unrequited-love-exploration-30-quotes/
Kleinbach, A. The Main Characteristics of Country Love. n.d. retrieved from; http://mahan.wonkwang.ac.kr/link/med/society/marriage/marriage/courtly-love/fact3a.html
Phillips, A. L. The greatest Unrequited Love Stories. 2015. Retrieved from; https://goodmenproject.com/arts/the-50-greatest-unrequited-love-stories-ever-shesaid/
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Sadness Quotes: With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies! Page 1." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 4 May 2019.
Snell, M. Love Poems of the English Renaissance. 2019. Retrieved from; https://www.thoughtco.com/renaissance-love-poems-1788871
Wise old sayings. Unrequited love saying and quotes. Retrieved from; http://www.wiseoldsayings.com/unrequited-love-quotes/
