SHAKSPER 2002: Re: Courtly Love in Shakespeare

From: Hardy M. Cook (editor@shaksper.net)
Date: 02/14/02 

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.0432  Thursday, 14 February 2002

From:           Tue Sørensen <tuesoe@s1.stud.ku.dk>
Date:           Wednesday, 13 Feb 2002 17:07:43 +0100 (CET)
Subject: 13.0396 Re: Courtly Love in Shakespeare
Comment:        Re: SHK 13.0396 Re: Courtly Love in Shakespeare

> From:           Jim Lake <JLAKE@pilot.lsus.edu>

> For starters you might take a look at William Meader's COURTSHIP IN
> SHAKESPEARE: ITS RELATION TO COURTLY LOVE, originally published in
> 1952.

Thank you very much for this reference; I will do anything in my power
to acquire it!

> From:           Brian Willis bwillis90660@yahoo.com

> Yes, I do believe that the tenets of courtly love permeate the plays in
> all of their genres. It is particularly interesting to see that it
> manifests itself in so many different ways throughout the plays.

Yes, this is just the point I am interested in making. I think WS
understands the concept of courtly love better than we do, and by
examining the apparent instances of it, I think we can achieve a more
detailed understanding of WS' use of the concept, and his relating it to
other concepts.

In particular, I find that the relationship of Antony and Cleopatra is
WS' ultimate statement on courtly love, being so detailed a study of it
that critics have had problems explaining just what is going on
(Cleopatra's "histrionics", etc.).

> Although many
> productions have successfully staged Bertram's unrepentant rejection of
> Helena in this final scene, I can't help but see the opposite
> occurring. Bertram does ask for pardon, and although he prefaces his
> commitment with an "if", we know that Helena will be able to explain
> all.

I agree completely. And I think that it is deliberate that Bertram is
shown as a cold, unlikable character, which in actual fact he isn't (at
least not by the end). It's just that Shakespeare is omitting to portray
all of Bertram's personality, instead requiring the audience to fill in
the blanks. Not unlike the endings of Two Gentlemen and Shrew, both of
which I will also argue are entirely deliberate on WS' part.

> The courtly love roles have returned to their proper places with the
> male subjugated to the female.  The male has indeed even satiated his
> lust with the "married" female. The rules of the courtier are put to
> the test in this play and Helena inevitably redeems her man, despite
> himself. She also provides a pointed mockery of the rules of courtly
> life and love.  Parolles ("words") and the Clown provide the satire of
> courtly behavior and conduct and Helena exposes the fact that in this
> play, the woman is the best courtier of all.

That is a very valid and meritable reading! By my reading, however,
Helena represents something very specifically above and beyond courtly
love, and her successful project is to turn Bertram from his infatuation
with courtly love (exemplified by Diana) and to Helena's perspective,
which I perceive to be a set of sentiments that may be described as
"beauty". In fact, I see Shakespeare using three different modes of
love, where characters and events develop from one to the other:

1. "fatal love" - the antique mode of love before courtly love,
characterized by dangerous passion and misogyny. Many Shakespearean
characters, incl. Hamlet, go through such a stage, often just
temporarily. This set of sentiments eventually develops into:

2. "courtly love" - the well-known conventions underlying romantic love
as we know it and characterized by references to chivalry and
ridiculously devotional love poetry. In one form or another, courtly
love runs rampant throughout Shakespeare's work, and tends to develop
(unless it ends tragically, as in Ant&Cleo) into:

3. "beauty" - a progressive form of comprehensive/infinite love
characterized by the unification of truth and beauty; reason and
emotion.

It is very complex, and I still have great trouble defining it, but I am
sure it is specifically extant in Shakespeare and can be extracted by
way of close analysis. Beatrice and Benedick are "beauty" characters,
Rosalind teaches Orlando beauty as Helena does Bertram and Proteus does
Valentine and Petruchio does Katherine.

This reading seems to me to find highly similar patterns throughout all
Shakespeare's works - which in itself is unusual, as far as I know.

> From:           Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2@btinternet.com>

> Can I play devil's advocate with this?

Certainly!

> The +only+ play of Shakespeare's which draws on the "courtly love"
> convention and idiom is (towards the beginning) _Two Gentlemen_.
>
> _R&J_ might be a paradigmatic case -- Romeo's feelings towards Rosline
> as the play begins are couched in the (post-courtly-love) Petrarchist
> tradition, and when he orients <g> on Juliet are (re)couched in a
> [blurred] Platonic idiom.
>
> Throughout his work, if there is an interplay, it's between the
> Petrarchist and Platonic conventions of love
>
> [HEALTH WARNING:  The above remarks are both exaggerated and
> oversimplified.]

I think you need to elaborate on this position. You consider the
Petrachist tradition post-courtly love? I don't make a distinction
between them. I would say that the Petrachist tradition is encompassed
by the courtly love tradition. Although it may have arisen later than
the first appearance of courtly love doesn't mean that the courtly love
conventions, even today, have come to an end. What people consider
romantic today is still part of the courtly love tradition, as you can
read in C.S. Lewis' The Allegory of Love, first chapter (though the book
is admittedly from 1936).

But it depends on how you define the limits of the concept.

I am interested in your mention of the Platonic conventions of love,
because I think Platonic love (in its original sense more than the
modern sense) probably corresponds to what I call "beauty" in the model
briefly outlined above. Could you divulge some more about this
perspective of yours?

Thanks to all for your responses.

Tue Sorensen

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