The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-08-10

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IA fHO shall decide when lovers
v N{ disagree?
NM For disagree they are sure |
MI Nv to, as they have done since
w NJ time began, whence the oft |
quoted aphorism about the
much accidented course of true love.
Considering how universal concern
love is, what tremendous part it plays |
in our lives from the first moment we |
have anything to do with it, and to |
what infinite vicissitudes it is exposed, |
often from the most trivial causes, it |
seems deplorable that counsel and aid |
in such portentous matter should be |
administered in such desultory and |
fashion as at present. There
are no regular tribunals of sentiment, |
no qualified counselors of love, no Gu |
pid's advocates in regular practice. The |
spirit of anarchy is rife in the domain |
of the heart no less than in the world |
of society In the absence of proper au-
thority and restraint romantic love and |
marriage itself are menaced by the in
cendiary utterances of the Sarah Grand |
school of women in the disguise of nov
els
But, you exclaim, there are certain
set canons, certain well recognized con-
ventions, forming an unwritten code
that governs all ordinary cases and com
plications arising under the sway Of the
tender passion.
Yes, such code undoubtedly exists,
and to it and its origin shall be devoted
our present cursory examination. As to
its all sufiiciency-well, you remember
the story of the farmers wife who was
worked to death. The neighbors asked
the old man if she had died resigned,
and he answered grimly, "She had to-"
The old code, battered and vague rs it
is, has to suffice, faute demieux, eked
out with the occasional and always
more or less biased interpretations of
the society dramatists, the romancers of
the day and the omniscient newspaper
press.
Yet there was u time, without going
back to pagan antiquity, when the SEN
timental code was as precise and firm
as the criminal one-a great deal more
so, in fact-and when their provisions
bore all the weight of spiritual and chiv-
airic laws.
1t was in the time and in the land Of
chivalry, in old Provence, when the
popes were at Avignon and the trouba-
dours in the chateaux, ere love had been
superseded by formal "gallantry, and
long before so called platonic affection
was openly practiced, that the courts Of
love flourished. Boccaccio's writings
indeed are nothing more or less than
the minutes Of Florentine court Of
love, which held its idyllic sessions ON
the fiowery banks of Arno about this
same period. But those of France will
better serve our present purpose Of study
ing the actual procedure and code-a
study greatly facilitated by my recent
visit to Paris and its libraries.
Although it was not a question of
woman rights in those ingenious days,
the Provencal courts were invariably
composed Of women, all, of course, beau
tiful and young, though "expertes en-
galanterie" and rose crowned graduates
in the school of the heart. They held
their deliberations, rendered judgments
and melted out penalties or praise, some
times in myrtle trellised payilions be-
meath the shade of olives and pines, or
again lin winter) in stately halls, en-
riched with the armorial bearings Of the
fair and noble advocates enthroned in
state. Here are some of their dicta,
which hold as true today as when they
were first formulated
Love never lodged in the house of
avarice &"
''It is unbecoming to make love to
one whom it would be unseemly to
marry"
"You must learn to keep discreet
tongue before you can learn to love.
Facility depreciates possession diff
ticulties exalt it,. p"
mo one can have two sincere loves at
the same time. :"
''The gifts and pleasures of love must
be voluntary and mutual"
| Love cannot rest stationary. 1t must
continuously either augment or dimin-
ish. -
"When love begins to diminish, the
end necessarily is not far off. -
1.-THE fact of being married is not a
legitimate excuse against falling in
love-"
The last quoted dictum seems to have
been a disauieting one, even in those
days, but posterity has ratified it by the
institution of divorce
OF course the literal acceptance of
this. code was far from being complacent
or unanimous, and the Portias of Pro
vence always had their calendar full of
cases, some of which it is interesting to
review. The troubadour Cigala, for ex-
ample, brought before a court of love
the following question: (Which is the
more worthy and deserving sutton, he
who is liberal out of pure open hearted
ness, or he who, without being natural
y generous, yet gives lavishly in order