Romeo and Juliet

[Tido0531]

I am reading Romeo and Juliet and there is one question referring to "courtly love", what exactly is courtly love and how would I describe three instances of it in Act 2?
HELP!! :confused:

[RobinHood3000]

I'm not quite entirely sure of the context to which you're referring, but to my mind, courtly romance is the form of courtship now labeled "old-fashioned," and almost medieval in nature. Not quite sure, although I'm sure that someone on these forums could help you out.

[Xamonas Chegwe]

Wasn't she Kurt Cobain's girlfriend?

[Xamonas Chegwe]

Seriously though, Google "courtly love romeo" and you'll be deluged with as many answers as you could wish - including entire essays!

Technically, it means the "pure, platonic love" (as if such a thing ever existed!) exemplified by the love of a gallant knight for his lady as parodied so well in Don Quixote. The examples you are looking for relate to Romeo's idealised love for Rosaline, prior to meeting Juliet and getting the full force of the real thing.

Now - go Google!

[RobinHood3000]

What do you mean, "as if such a thing ever existed"? It's possible. It would require a substantial amount of restraint, but it certainly is possible.

[Koa]

I think that might refer to 'amor cortese', some kind of love cliché of Middle Ages poetry... It actually makes me think of Dante or of the Sicilian poetry of the 1200s, with blonde angel-like women which the poet celebrated as some kind of saviours...but I don't know if it's a 100%correct association...

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amor_cortese (in Italian though)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtly_love (in English and the first lines seem to explain it quite well):


Especially prevalent in medieval literature, Courtly love is a system of attitudes, myths, beliefs and rules which governed the real and imagined behavior of knights and their ladies as they pursued one another in a flirting and adulterous relationship which was supposed to flatter the lady and elevate, ennoble, and energize the knight.

[Xamonas Chegwe]

What do you mean, "as if such a thing ever existed"? It's possible. It would require a substantial amount of restraint, but it certainly is possible.

Hmmmm... Love utilising "restraints" - I think that has another name! ;)

Seriously though, isn't the whole idea of courtly love, that it is a pure, chaste love without sexual desire? - not with that desire restrained. That's how I always understood it, hence my assertion that it's an idealised fiction.

Love between mature men and women always has a sexual element - whether or not it is acted upon is were the restraint comes in.

[RobinHood3000]

The part about desire being inherent I agree with, but I view courtly love as being a relationship existing predominantly, perhaps almost entirely, in the emotional realm. Idealistic, yes, but not wholly impossible.

[Virgil]

Wasn't she Kurt Cobain's girlfriend?


LOL. You had be doubled over in laughter!!!!


Koa's websites seemed to xplain it well enough. Wasn't it defined by the renaissance writer Baldesar Castiglione, in The Book of the Courtier? Or is this something of a later development?