St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-10-19
MEDIEVAL LOVE LIZ ITALY.

The husband has not married for love.
His lady is a mere feudal necessity; she is
required TO give him dover and give him
heir, that is all. If the husband does not
love, how much less can the wife. Married
as she is, scarce knowing what marriage is,
to a man much older than herself, whom
most probably she has never seen, to whom
she is mere investment. Nay, there is not
even the after marriage love of the ancients;
his wife is not the housekeeper, the woman
who works that the mans house may be
rich and decorous; not even the nurse of his
children, for the children are speedily given
over to the squires and duennas; she is the
woman of another family who has come into
his, the stranger who must be respected Gas
that most typical medieval wife. Eleanor of
Guienne, was respected by her husband) on
accout of her frifs, her vassals, her kins-
folk but who cannot be loved. Can there
be love between man and wifel There can
not be love between man and wife. This is
no answer of mine, Enthusiastically deduced
from medieval poetry. tits the answer sol
EMMY made to the soemnly asked question
by the Court of love held by the Countess of
Champagne In 1174, and registered BY Master
Andrew, the King of frances chaplain:
Dicimus enim ct stabilize tenore frmamus
amorem non posse inter duos jugales suas ex-
tendere wires" And the reason alleged for
this judgement brings us back to the whole
conception of medieval love as a respectful
service humbly waiting for reward.
''For,n pursues the decision, published by
Andre lie Chapelain. "whereas lovers grant
to each other favors freely and from no legal
necessity, married people have the duty of
obeying each others wishes and of refusing
nothing to one another" ''No love is pos
sibe between man and wife," repeats the
courts of love, which, consisting of all the
high-born ladies of the province and presided
over by some mighty queen or princess, re-
present the social opinions of the day. "But
this lady, says knight (Miles) before the
loyal tribunal of Queen Eleanor, promised
to me that if ever she should lose the love of
her lover, she would take me in his place.
She has welded the man who was her lover,
and have come to claim fulilment of her
promise.'' The court discusses for while.
1--WE cannot" answers Queen Eleanor. Ego
against the Countess of Champagne's de-
cision, that love cannot exist between man
and wife, We therefore desire this lady to
fulfil her promise and give you her love. -
Again, there came to the court of love of the
DIV, who desire to know whether, having been
once married but since divorced, love en-
gagement between them would be honorable.
The ViscOuntess decides that Glove between
those who have been married together, but
who have since been divorced from one an
other, is not to be deemed reprehensible
nav, that it is to be considered as honor
abe'' And these courts of love, be it re-
marked, were frequently held on occasion of
the marriage of great personages; as for
instance, of that between Louis VII. and
Eleanor of Poitiers in 1137.
The poetry of the early Middle Ages
follow implicitly the decisions of these
tribunals, which reveal a state OF society to
which the nearest modern approach is that
of, Italy in the eighteenth century, when, as
| GOldoni and Parni show US, as Stendhal
| (whose 'De rAmour' may be taken
as the modern ''Breviari d'Amor') expounds,
there was no improperly possible as long as
a lady was beloved by any one except her
own husband. No love, therefore, between
unmarried people (the cylical romances, as
before stated. and Amadises, belong to an
! other time of social condition, and the only
real exception to my rule ofwhich can think
is the lovely French tale of "Ancassin ct Mic
olette'); and no love between man and
wife. But love there must be, and
love there consequently is-love for the mar
ried woman from the man who is not hel
husband. The feudal lady, married without
being consulted and without having had q
chance of knowing what love is, vet lives tc
| he taught it by one of those many bachelors
bound to flutter about her in military service
or social duty; lives TO teach it herself. And
she is too powerful in her frifs aud kinsmen
| too powerful in the public opinion which
approves and supports her, to be hampered
by her husband. The husband, indeed, ha:
grown up in the same habits, has known be
fore marrying the customs sanctioned by
the Courts of Love; he has been the knigh
of some other mans wife in his day-wha
right has he to objeetl-Vernon Lee, il
"Euphorion."