On the Origin of Courtly Love

[Menydh]

Historical Problem: Opinions on the Origin of Courtly Love

Jason Carr

Scholarship on the subject of the origin of courtly love is divided into two camps: those who believe that Courtly Love had its genesis and inspiration in Southern Europe (the Romanists) and those who believe that some external influence, most likely Mozarabic Spain, was acting on Provencal and so spawned the phenomenon (the Arabists).<1> The scholar's choice of one of these broad theories results not from careful study of the available source material, but from cultural predisposition. Europeans can see no possibility for an external source, and those of Islamic lines or Middle-Eastern upbringing are infuriated that the Romanists hide their collective heads in the literary sand. This national (or continental) chauvinism mars the scholar's search for Truth, and frustrates the reader. Nevertheless, it may be possible to divide the Romanists and the Arabists into subgroups, and try to decipher why each author is loyal to his position.

The Romanists have been most creative in their suggestions as to the origins of Courtly Love. Major manifestations of the Romanist doctrine will be herein referred to as the Celtic, the Catharist, Neo-Platonic, and Sociological systems. Scholars are certainly not limited to one influence, but may instead mix and match any together to arrive at their personal conclusion: Garanimals for the educated. As might be expected, the British are fond of the Celtic origin of Courtly Love. In this system, Celtic and proto-Arthurian legend crept around Europe until blossoming (in a mutated form) in the south of France. Arthur C. L. Brown writes,

"Only the Celts knew a Happy Other World (Mag Men, 'honey plain') peopled with ladies who were on one hand stately and imperious and on the other hand beautiful and devoted to love- making."<2>

Mr. Brown seems certain. His massive work refers only passingly to any other influence on his beloved literature:

"Whoever sets out on a quest for Oriental parallels will probably have an experience like that of Professor [J. C.] Hodges, who searched through ten volumes of . . . the Arabian Nights for parallels to Chretiens marvelous episodes. He found two parallels, which he prints, and then decides they are without significance."<3>

Here the student/dilettante-analyst senses a bit too much self- assurance. Is Mr Brown, originally writing in 1943, a little disturbed by the crumbling of the British ascendancy in the midst of World War II? "So what if the Empire falters, we've still got Arthur!"

C. S. Lewis, draws upon another source for his thesis: the Sociological theory. As love was unrelated to marriage ("marriages had nothing to do with love. . . ")<4> then, once the need for love was invented or realized, it would have to be found extra-conjugally. Further complicating the situation would be the actual setting in which the Courtly Love phenomenon occurred:

" . . . a castle which is a little island of comparative leisure and luxury . . . in a barbarous country-side. There are many men in it, and very few women -- the lady, and her damsels."<5>

Lewis continues on, bringing Christianity into the picture (he became a Christian in 1931). One reason the lady must remain dispassionate and aloof is that it is the "act is innocent but the desire is morally evil."<6> Other purposes are served by Lewis' determinist and innocent sexual liaisons: A. N. Wilson posits that Lewis was obsessed with his own mother in the classic Freudian sense.<7> Wilson notes that Lewis was involved in two serious relationships, both with older women whose circumstances mirrored his mother's. If the Medieval lady could be pure, then so could Lewis' lovers, and therefore his mother.

The most mystical Romanist argument is that of the Catharist origins of the Courtly Love ideal. Denis de Rougement, the only Frenchman in this Survey, was likely to find a local, French-based cause for Courtly Love. De Rougement's main proof lies in an interesting, if unrelated, coincidence:

" . . . the Catharist heresy and courtly love developed simultaneous in the twelfth century and also coincided spatially in the south of France. How suppose that the two movements were entirely unconnected?"<8>

De Rougement notes that the Cathars and the troubadours both mocked marriage, idolized chastity, disliked the organized church hierarchy, and preferred the wandering, "pure" life.<9> One of the most interesting points of this similarity, noted by Roger Boase, is the "Ecstatic impulse of Eros. Courtly Love and the Cathar Heresy were both inspired by Eros: the soul's nostalgic and insatiable desire to dissolve itself in the Unity whence it sprang."<10> For the troubadours the ecstatic mingling were the favors, or contemplation of favors, from the idealized object of devotion. The Cathars just wanted to get out of this creation of the demiurge, to get to the transcendent Perfect.

C. Stephen Jaeger returns to the Sociological explanation, but in a different context. To a good Teuton, the important social matrix will be that of the Holy Roman Empire. For Jaeger, Courtliness and courtly love grew out of the constant political jockeying for ecclesiastical rank in the early "Ottonian 'imperial church system.'<11> He sees the church system fed by a "system of education and its curriculum as the most important element in the process of civilizing."<12> Notice how here the sociological model is based on a widespread religious and political arena, whereas Lewis traced the same development to a repeated microcosm of isolated environments. At any rate, the effect of civilization on the elite tends to have the same effect. "The life of the aristocracies, while they are still strong, though of small utility, tends to become an all- around game . . . the nobles turn to the continual illusion of a high and heroic life."<13> As Kierkegaard wrote:

"Adam was bored alone; then Adam and Eve were bored together; then Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel were bored en famille; then the population of the world increased, and the peoples were bored en masse."<14>

Neo-Platonism also rears its head. It is in this school that tendril connections start to cross over to the rogue side, to that of Arabism. De Rougement noticed the desire of the lovers to transcend themselves, to align themselves with the good. "Arab philosophy, including the works of Avicenna, was imbued with Neo-Platonic thought. . ."<15> The web even involves the esoteric specter of Catharism: "The Cathars, whose doctrines were Gnostic in origin, shared Plotinus' view that human existence represents a descent of the human soul into matter."<16>

If the participants in this argument were less combative, they might see Neo-platonism as a thread that runs through the other theories, unifying them rather than invalidating all but one.

Onward to the Arabists. The proponents set forward a basic hypothesis: courtly love is a spinoff of Islamic literary forms, run through a European filter in El-Andalusia (Muslim Spain). Here the same zeal is present as with the Romanists. With one exception, the Arabists below are either Islamic, were raised in the Middle East, or are Professors of Middle Eastern Studies.

A lengthy quote will serve well as an introduction to this school of thought:

"The bold and sensuous imagery of earthly love dominates the mystical poetry alike of Arab and Persian. . . [This style] of love- lyric was destined to play a part in the history of European history. The most noteworthy feature of this new lyrical poetry was the emergence of a definite literary scheme of platonic love, combined with a social and ethical theory of love which was the distinctive contribution of Arabia. Already by the end of the eighth century some of the poets at the court of baghdad were devoting their muse exclusively to this art of love [italics added]."<17>

Most Arabists start off their argument with the etymology of the word 'troubadour.'

"Taraba meant 'to sing' and sing poetry; tarab meant 'song,' and in the spoken Arabic of the Iberian peninsula it would have come to be pronounced trob; the formation of the Romance verb through the addition of the -ar suffix would have been standard."<18>

They point to the geographical and temporal proximity of Muslim Spain and Southern France, much as de Rougement did for his Catharist theory.

"There is little in the earlier literature of France at the end of the eleventh century which points in the direction of this development; on the other hand , the new poetry bears some strong resemblance to a certain type of contemporary poetry in Arabic Spain. What could be more natural than to suppose that the first Provencal poets were influenced by Arabic models?"<19>

Compare this statement to de Rougement on page three, above. Herein lies the rub, the underlying problem with scholarship in this matter. Each is drawing on his own a priori concepts of his culture's cultural ascendancy.

Reay Tannahill made some interesting observations on the genesis and form of early Arabic love-poetry in the late seventh century:

". . . 'pure love' . . . was very much a masculine game designed to satisfy intellectualized masculine emotions . . . the heroine of the 'pure love' lyric was not a person at all, only a focal point. Thanks to the veil and the harem, the respectable lady's face, figure, charm and wit were all unknown quantities to her poet-lover.<20> Indeed, it seems likely that many heroines of these lyrics were not even aware of the poetry they inspired."<21>

Tannahill goes on to note three "rules" that Arabic proto- courtly love followed: "chastity . . . fidelity . . . subjection."<22> At the risk of sounding like de Rougement, how much closer can we get to the courtly love of centuries later?<23> Tannahill sees the Arabic connection as being in the Crusades, rather than in Spain, as the mainstream Arabists do. She ties it in this way:

"It was this final form . . . that was to be introduced into Europe with peculiar social results. But before that happened, pilgrims and Crusaders had begun to contrast their own loveless and monogamous marriages -- business arrangements that took little account of personal chemistry -- with the tempting delights of the harem."<24>

It is interesting that Tannahill, the only woman surveyed in this historical problem, is the only one to take in account the effect of the individual's emotional life. The males are content to toss around etymologies and studies of poetry-form. In a subject as personal as Love (or that pretends to be personal and heartfelt), Tannahill's approach may have some validity. What did the early troubadours, or pilgrims, or Crusaders, or displaced Islamic peoples feel? How did their emotional and physical environments affect them?

Likely, the truth lies in syncretic amalgam. If the scholars could leave their preconceived ideas in a dark corner of the library, perhaps they would come up with a less polemic problem. The naggingly obvious answer seems to confront the layman: Courtly love was likely grown from a Greco-Arabic seed that fell on fertile sociological and religious grounds in Provence. This is a specific example of a larger problem: approaching history with a preconceived end, searching for proof to bolster one's argument.


Notes

<1>It is amusing that the Arabists are called so by themselves
and by the Romanists, but the Romanists are only called that by
the Arabists.

<2>Arthur C. L. Brown, The Origin of the Grail Legend (New York:
Russell and Russell, 1966), 7.

<3>Ibid., 6.

<4>C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love, (London: Oxford University
Press, 1936), 13.

<5>Ibid., 12.

<6>Ibid., 14.

<7>Gilbert Meilander, review of C. S. Lewis: A Biography, by A.
N. Wilson, in The Christian Century (May 16, 1990): 526.

<8>Denis de Rougement, Love in the Western World, translated by
Montgomery Belgion, (New York: Doubleday and Company, 1957), 76-
7.

<9>Ibid., 79.

<10>Roger Boase, The Origin and Meaning of Courtly Love,
(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1977), 78.

<11>C. Stephen Jaeger, The Origins of Courtliness -- Civilizing
Trends and the Formation of Courtly Ideals 939 - 1210
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985), 5.

<12>Ibid., 8.

<13>J. Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages (New York:
Doubleday, 1954), 80.

<14>Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or, Vol. 1, translated by David F.
Swenson and Lillian Marvin Swenson (Princeton: Princeton Press,
1959), quoted in Robert C. Solomon, ed., Existentialism (New
York: Random House, 1974), 10.

<15>Boase, 82.

<16>Ibid.

<17>H. A. R. Gibb, "Literature," in The Legacy of Islam, ed. Sir
Thomas Arnold and Alfred Guillaume (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1931), 186-7.

<18>Maria Rosa Menocal, The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary
History -- a Forgotten Heritage (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1987), xi.

<19>Gibb, 183.

<20>Sir Richard Burton also remarks on the disguise of the veil:
"Europeans inveigh against [the veil] . . . for its hideousness
and jealous concealment of charms made to be admired . . . It is,
on the contrary, the most coquettish article of women's attire .
. . it conceals coarse skins, fleshy noses, wide mouths and
vanishing chins, whilst it sets off to vest advantage what in
these lands is most lustrous and liquid -- the eye. Who has not
remarked this at a masquerade ball?" Quoted by Elizabeth W.
Fernea and Robert A. Fernea in "Behind the veil," in James P.
Spradley and David W. McCurdy, Conformity and Conflict --
Readings in Cultural Anthropology (Boston: Little, Brown and Co,
1987), 105.

<21>Reay Tannahill, Sex in History (New York: Stein and Day,
1982), 236.

<22>Ibid., 237.


<23>Boase also notes similarities:
"Almost all the dichotomies of late medieval
European love poetry can be found in the
mystical works of Ibn Arabi: delight and
torment; life and death; absence and
presence; sickness and medicine; hope and
despair; secrecy and self-expression; freedom
and slavery; memory and oblivion; human and
divine; or everything and nothing." Boase
66.

<24>Tannahill, 237.


[source]

[Marcus Marulus]

As far as I can remember form reading The Love in the West by Denis de Rougemont, he did say that the Catharist heresy was one of the main sorces out of which the conception of courtly love sprang, but he also mentioned a number of other influences that might have contributed in its shaping, for example, old Celtic mytholgy and spirituality, Manichaeism, Andalusian Sufism, Neoplatonism etc. He did not claim that it is exclusively due to the legacy of Catharism.