Canterbury Tales essay
The phrase "courtly love" refers to a set of ideas about love that was enormously influential on the literature and culture of the middle Ages. The definition of courtly love is; (medieval) a highly conventionalized code of conduct for lovers. In the beginning with the poets throughout Europe promoted the ideas that true love only exists outside of marriage; that true love may be idealized and spiritual, and may exist without ever being physically consummated; and that a man becomes the servant of the lady he loves. When in April the sweet showers fallAnd pierce the drought of March to the root, and allThe veins are bathed in liquor of such powerAs brings about the engendering of the flower;When also Zephyrus with his sweet breathExhales an air in every grove and heathUpon the tender shoots, and the young sunHis half-course in the sign of the ram has run,And the small fowl are making melodyThat sleep away the night with open eye(So nature pricks them and their heart engages),Then people long to go on pilgrimage
General Prologue, page 5)The Squire's role in society is exactly that of his father the Knight, except for his lower status, but the Squire is very different from his father in that he incorporates the ideals of courtly love into his interpretation of his own role. Once someone is "love," he/she become all devoted to that person, and the lover will do anything to see her/him. Another such character is the Prioress, a nun who sports a "Love Conquers All" brooch. Although very few people's lives resembled the courtly love ideal in any way, these themes and motifs were extremely popular and widespread in Medieval and Renaissance literature and culture. She wore a coral trinket on her arm,A set of beads, the gaudies tricked in green,Whence hung a golden brooch of brightest sheenOn which there first was graven a crowned A, And lower, Amor vincit omnia (General Prologue, page 7)Amor vincit omnia means love conquers all. The imagery in this opening passage is of spring's renewal and rebirth. One of these is the idea that love is a torment or a disease, and that when a man is in love he cannot sleep or eat, and therefore he undergoes physical changes, sometimes to the point of becoming unrecognizable. (General Prologue, page 3)These are the opening lines with which the narrator begins the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales. Just imagine someone who loves you doing the following chores for you:1) help dress you2) do most if not all of your chores3) help carry items for you4) always around by your side5) always wanting to listen to your stories. A Lover and cadet, a lad of fireWith locks as curly as if they had been pressed. Together with these basic premises, courtly love included a number of minor motifs. Courtly love motifs first appear in The Canterbury Tales with the description of the Squire in the General Prologue. He was some twenty years of age, I guessed.
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