Courtly Love in Dante’s The Divine Comedy
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Based on the definition of courtly love from The Lais de Marie de France, both Dante the Pilgrim and Dante the Author judge courtly love in a different way; however, in the end, both view it in the same negative light. The Pilgrim starts his journey with a favorable view of courtly love, but by the time he reaches Paradise, he understands that there is a higher love and courtly love is not the answer. Dante the Author, however, judges courtly love as wrong the entire time, as can be seen by his placement of Francesca de Rimini in hell. This differentiation of the Author from the Pilgrim leads to a higher understanding of love, especially the differences between courtly love and a higher love.
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Courtly love is defined best in The Lais of Marie de France. In her Lais, she defines courtly love as desire and longing for someone, and personal suffering by loving this person. Her description of desire and longing can be seen in her Lai, Lanval, “Fair lady, if it were to please you to grant me the joy of wanting to love me, you could ask nothing that I would not do as best I could, be it foolish or wise. I shall do as you bid and abandon all others for you. I never want to leave you and this is what I most desire” (Lais, p. 74). In this example of courtly love, Lanval is proclaiming his desire and longing for his princess. This desire is a recurring theme, also seen in Yonec: “I have loved you for a long time and desired you greatly in my heart. I never loved any woman but you, nor shall I ever love another” (Lais, p. 87). This idea of desire and longing, especially when there is separation, such as in Yonec, is a key idea in to courtly love as it is a recurring theme in The Lais, and it is also a key theme in the description of courtly love in The Divine Comedy. Another key factor of courtly love is suffering. In Lanval, his suffering comes with the separation from his love: “Alone in his chamber, distraught and anguished, he called his beloved repeatedly, but to no avail. He lamented and sighed, fainting from time to time; a hundred times he cried to her to have mercy, to come and speak with her beloved” (Lais, p. 77). Here the suffering of courtly love is best illustrated. Lanval is “anguished” from being apart from his loved one. This theme also recurs in Yonec: “He who loved her deeply took her in his arms and lamented his misfortunes repeatedly” (Lais, p. 91). All the lament and sorrow is a central idea of courtly love. So suffering, along with desire and longing, forms the idea of courtly love. And it is this idea of courtly love is judged throughout The Divine Comedy.
One of the most famous examples of courtly love in The Divine Comedy occurs when The Pilgrim is journeying through hell. It is here where he encounters the love story of Francesca de Rimini. This scene is the most clear cut example of courtly love because it clearly shows all three aspects of courtly love: desire, longing, suffering. The desire between the lovers can be seen with the lines: “Time and again our eyes were brought together by the book we read; our faces flushed and paled” (p. 31). The fact that their eyes would meet and their faces would flush and pale shows how there is a secret desire for the other, and a longing to be with each other romantically. This scene further depicts courtly love by showing how they suffered: “And all the while the one of the two spirits spoke these words, the other wept, in such a way that pity blurred my senses” (p. 31). This sad sorrow they feel for each other continues to express that fact that the love they shared was courtly love. But simply calling it courtly love does not imply whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. By analyzing Dante the Pilgrim’s reaction, it appears that courtly love is a good thing: “I swooned as though to die, and fell to Hell’s floor as a body, dead, falls” (p.
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