_Courtesy ... Education ... Music ... Graver Sciences ... Dress ...
Knowledge of Medicine ... Every-day Life of the Maiden ... Chivalric
Love ... The Idolatry of the Knight's Passion ... Bravery inspired by
Love ... Character of Woman in the Eyes of a Knight ... Peculiar
Nature of his Love ... Qualities of Knights admired by Women ... A
Tale of chivalric Love ... Constancy ... Absence of Jealousy ...
Knights asserted by Arms their Mistress's Beauty ... Penitents of Love
... Other Peculiarities of chivalric Love ... The Passion universal
... Story of Aristotle ... Chivalric Love the Foe to feudal
Distinctions ... But preserved Religion ... When Attachments were
formed ... Societies of Knights for the Defence of Ladies ... Knights
of the Lady in the Green Field ... Customs in England ... Unchivalric
to take Women Prisoners ... Morals of chivalric Times ... Heroines of
Chivalry ... Queen Philippa ... The Countess of March ... Tales of
Jane of Mountfort and of Marzia degl' Ubaldini ... Nobleness of the
chivalric Female Character._
[Sidenote: Courtesy.]
If we fancy the knight of chivalry as valiant, noble-minded, and gentle,
our imagination pictures to our minds the lady of his love in colours
equally fair and pleasing. But we must not lose her individuality in
general expressions of admiration, for she had a distinct and peculiar
character, which from the circumstances of her life can be accurately
traced. The maiden of gentle birth was, like her brother, educated in the
castle of some knight or baron, her father's friend, and many of her
duties were those of personal attendance. As the young candidate for
chivalric honours carved at table, handed the wines, and made the beds of
his lord, so his sister's care was to dress her lady, to contribute by
music and conversation to her amusement, and to form a part of her state
retinue[201]: and while there was no loss of dignity in this description
of service, the practice being universal and of immemorial antiquity,
feelings of humility insensibly entered the mind, and a kind consideration
for those of harder fortunes softened the severity of feudal pride. Thus a
condescending deportment to inferiors was a duty which their moral
instructors enforced. It was represented to them by the pleasing image of
the sparrow-hawk, which, when called in gentle accents, would come and
settle on her hand, but if, instead of being courteous, she were rude and
cruel, he would remain on the rock's pinnacle heedless of her calls.
Courtesy from persons of superior consideration was the fair right of
people of gentle birth though of small estate, for gentility was always to
be respected, and to the poor man or woman it ought to be shown, because
it gives pleasure to them, and reflects honour on those who bestowed it. A
lady once in company of knights and ladies took off her hood and humbled
herself courteously unto a mechanic. One of her friends exclaimed in
astonishment, "Why, noble dame, you have taken off your hood to a
tailor."--"Yes," she replied, "and I would rather have doffed it to him
than to a gentleman:" and her courteous friends reputed that she had done
right well.[202]
[Sidenote: Education.]
[Sidenote: Music.]
The mental education of women of those days was not of a very high polish.
To repeat the prayers of the church, to sing the brief piece of poetry
called the lai, or the longer romaunt were the only tasks on the
intellect.
"The king had a daughter dear,
That maiden Ysonde hight;
That glee was lef to hear
And romance to read aright."[203]
The ladies also played upon the harp.
"They were wont to harp and syng,
And be the merriest in chamber comyng."[204]
The same particular of ancient manners is recorded by another poet:
"The lady that was so fair and bright,
Upon the bed she sat down right,
The harpers notes sweet and fine,
Her maids filled a price of wine.
And Sir Degore sat him down,
For to hear the harper's sown."[205]
[Sidenote: Graver sciences.]
But sometimes the graver sciences were introduced into female education,
and Felice, the daughter of Rohand, Earl of Warwick, was not without
parallels.
"Gentle she was, and as demure
As ger-fauk, or falcon to lure,
That out of mew were y-drawe.
So fair was none, in sooth sawe.
She was thereto courteous, and free and wise,
And in the seven arts learned withouten miss.
Her masters were thither come
Out of Thoulouse all and some,
White and hoar all they were;
Busy they were that maiden to lere;
And they her lered of astronomy,
Of armsmetrick, and of geometry;
Of sophistry she was also witty,
Of rhetorick, and of other clergy:
Learned she was in musick;
Of clergy was her none like."[206]
Maidens were taught that a mild dignity of demeanour beseemed them, and
moralising their duty into a thousand similies, their teachers declared
that they ought not to resemble the tortoise or the crane, which turn the
visage and the head above their shoulders, and winde their head like a
vane; but their regard and manner ought to be steadfast, in imitation of
the beautiful hare, which always looks right on. If an occasion required a
damsel to look aside, she ought to turn the visage and body together, and
so her estate would be more firm and sure; for it was unmaidenly lightly
to cast about her sight and head, and turn her face here and there.[207]
[Sidenote: Dress.]
Simplicity of dress was another part of instruction: but there was to be
no lack of jewels of price and other splendid ornaments on festive
occasions, and, consistently with the general magnificence of religious
worship of the age, maidens were commanded to wear their gorgeous robes at
church, and not merely at courtly festivals. There was a gravity about
chivalry which accorded well with the recommendation for women not quickly
to adopt new dresses introduced from strange countries. Modesty of attire
was the theme of many a wise discourse, and every castle had its story of
the daughter of a knight who lost her marriage by displaying too
conspicuously the graces of her figure, and that the cavalier who was her
intended suitor preferred her sister who had modesty, though not beauty,
for her dower.[208]
[Sidenote: Knowledge of medicine.]
All the domestic oeconomy of the baronial mansion was arranged by these
young maidens: and the consideration which this power gave them was not a
little heightened by their sharing with the monks in the knowledge which
the age possessed of vulnerary medicaments. This attribute of skill over
the powers of nature was a clear deduction from that sublime, prophetic,
and mysterious character of women in the ages which preceded the times
both of feudalism and chivalry. The healing art was not reduced to an
elaborate system of principles and rules, for memory to store and talent
to apply, but it was thought that the professors of medicine enjoyed a
holy intercourse with worlds unknown to common minds. The possession of
more than mortal knowledge was readily ascribed to a pure, unearthly being
like woman, and the knight who felt to his heart of hearts the charm of
her beauty was not slow in believing that she could fascinate the very
elements of nature to aid him. There are innumerable passages in the
various works which reflect the manners of chivalric times on the
medicinal practice of dames and damsels. A pleasing passage of Spenser
illustrates their affectionate tendance of the sick.
"Where many grooms and squires ready were
To take him from his steed full tenderly;
And eke the fairest Alma met him there
With balm and wine and costly spicery,
To comfort him in his infirmity.
Eftesoones she caus'd him up to be conveyed,
And of his arms despoiled easily:
In sumptuous bed she made him to be laid,
And, all the while his wounds were dressing, by him stay'd."[209]
Chirurgical knowledge was also a necessary feminine accomplishment, and we
will accept the reason of the cavalier with "high thoughts, seated in a
heart of courtesy," for such a remarkable feature in their character. "The
art of surgery," says Sir Philip Sidney, "was much esteemed, because it
served to virtuous courage, which even ladies would, even with the
contempt of cowards, seem to cherish."[210] A fair maiden could perform as
many wonderful cures as the most renowned and skilful leech. The gentle
Nicolette successfully treated an accident which her knight Aucassin met
with.
"So prosper'd the sweet lass, her strength alone
Thrust deftly back the dislocated bone;
Then, culling curious herbs of virtue tried,
While her white smock the needful bands supplied:
With many a coil the limb she swath'd around,
And nature's strength return'd, nor knew its former wound."
Spenser favours us with the ladies' method of treating a wound.
"Mekely she bowed down, to weete if life
Yet in his frozen members did remain;
And, feeling by his pulses beating rife
That the weak soul her seat did yet retain,
She cast to comfort him with busy pain:
His double-folded neck she reared upright,
And rubb'd his temples and each trembling vein;
His mailed haberieon she did undight,
And from his head his heavy burganet did light.
Into the woods thenceforth in haste she went,
To seek for herbs that mote him remedy;
For she of herbes had great intendiment,
Taught of the nymph from whom her infancy
Her nourced had in true nobility.
* * * * *
The soveraine weede betwixt two marbles plain,
She powder'd small, and in pieces bruize;
And then atweene her lily handes twain
Into his wound ye juice thereof did scruze;
And round about, as she could well it use,
The flesh therewith she suppled and did steepe
T'abate all spasm and soke the swelling bruise;
And, after having search't the intuse deep,
She with her scarf did bind the wound, from cold to keep."[211]
[Sidenote: Every-day life of the maiden.]
The every-day life of a young maiden in chivalric times is described with
a great deal of spirit in the fine old English tale, of the Squire of Low
Degree. I am not acquainted with any other passage of the metrical
romances which contains so vivid a picture of the usages of our ancestors.
To dissipate his daughter's melancholy for the loss of her lover, the King
of Hungary says,
"To-morrow ye shall on hunting fare,
And ride, my daughter, in a chair,[212]
It shall be covered with velvet red,
And cloths of fine gold all about your head;
With damask white and azure blue
Well diapered with lilies new.
Your pomelles shall be ended with gold,
Your chains enameled many a fold;
Your mantle of rich degree,
Purple pall and ermine fre.
Jennets of Spain that be so white
Trapped to the ground with velvet bright.
Ye shall have harp, sawtry, and song,
And other myrthes you among;
Ye shall have Rumney and Malmesyne,
Both ypocrass and vernage wine,
Mount rose and wine of Greek,
Both algrade and despice eke;
Antioch and bastard,
Piment also and gamarde;
Wine of Greek and muscadell,
Both clare piment and rochell,[213]
The red your stomach to defy,
And pots of osey set you by.
You shall have venison ybake,[214]
The best wild fowl that may be take.
A lese of greyhounds with you to strike,
And hart and hind and other lyke,
Ye shall be set at such a tryst[215]
That hart and hind shall come to your fist.
Your disease to drive you fro,
To hear the bugles there yblowe.
Homeward thus shall ye ride,
On hawking by the river's side,
With goss hawk and with gentle falcon,
With egle-horn, and merlyon.[216]
When you come home your men among,
Ye shall have revel dance and song,
Little children great and small
Shall sing as doth the nightingale.
Then shall ye go to your even song,
With tenors and trebles among,
Threescore of ropes of damask bright
Full of pearls they shall be pight,[217]
Your censers shall be of gold
Indent with azure many a fold:
Your choir nor organ song shall want
With counter note and discant.
The other half on organs playing,
With young children full fair singing.
Then shall ye go to your supper,
And sit in tents in green arbour,
With cloth of arras pight to the ground,
With saphires set and diamond.
The nightingale sitting on a thorn
Shall sing you notes both even and morn.
An hundred knights truly told,
Shall play with bowls in alleys cold,
Your disease to drive away,
To see the fishes in pools play.
And then walk in arbour up and down,
To see the flowers of great renown.
To a draw-bridge then shall ye,
The one half of stone, the other of tree;
A barge shall meet you, full right,
With twenty-four oars full bright,
With trumpets and with clarion,
The fresh water to row up and down.
* * * * *
Into your chamber they shall you bring
With much mirth and more liking.
Your blankets shall be of fustain,
Your sheets shall be of cloths of Rayne;[218]
Your head sheet shall be of pery pyght,[219]
With diamonds set and ruby bright.
When you are laid in bed so soft,
A cage of gold shall hang aloft,
With long pepper fair burning,
And cloves that be sweet smelling,
Frankinsence and olibanum,[220]
That when you sleep the taste may come,
And if ye no rest can make,
All night minstrels for you shall wake."
[Sidenote: Chivalric love.]
In that singular system of manners which we call chivalric, religion was a
chief influential principle of action; but scarcely less consequence ought
in truth to be given to another feeling apparently incompatible with it;
and if Venus, in the Greek mythology, was called the universal cause, her
empire seems not to have been less extensive in days of knighthood. A
Latin poet, of no mean authority in such subjects, has described love as
the sole employment of woman's life, and of man's only a part[221]; and
Boccacio says, that he composed his tales for the solace of fair and noble
ladies in love, who, confined within their melancholy chambers, had no
other occupation, but perpetually to revolve in their minds the same
consuming thoughts, rendered intolerable by shame and concealment: while
man might hunt, hawk, fish, and had a thousand channels for his thoughts.
But the state of society at Rome was not similar to that in days of
knighthood, and though Boccacio lived in those days, he describes the
manners of commercial cities rather than of chivalric courts, of fair
Florence and not of a frowning baronial castle. The ideas of God and of
love were always blended in the heart of the true knight, and to be loving
was as necessary as to be devout. Cervantes expresses the feelings of
chivalry in the declaration of Don Quixote, that "a knight without a
mistress was like a tree without either fruit or leaves, or a body
without a soul." A ship without a rudder, a horse without a bridle, were
other illustrations of the prevailing sentiment, and more expressive of
the characteristic of chivalric love, which assigned superiority to woman,
which made her the directress of the thoughts, and inspirer of the courage
of her chosen cavalier. "A knight may never be of prowess, but if he be a
lover," was the sentiment of Sir Tristram, a valiant peer of Arthur, and
it was echoed by every gentle son of chivalry.[222] Not, indeed, that
every knight felt this strength and purity of passion. Spenser has
described four cavaliers, and each represents a large class.
"Druon's delight was all for single life,
And unto ladie's love would lend no leasure;
The more was Claribell engaged rife
With fervent flames, and loved out of measure:
So eke lov'd Blandamour, but yet at pleasure
Would change his liking, and new lemans prove:
But Paridell of love did make no threasure,
But lusted after all that did him move:
So diversely these four disposed were to love."[223]
[Sidenote: The idolatry of the knight's passion.]
The true knight, he whose mind was formed in the best mould of chivalric
principles, was a more perfect personification of love than poets and
romancers have ever dreamed. The fair object of his passion was truly and
emphatically the mistress of his heart. She reigned there with absolute
dominion. His love was,
"All adoration, duty, and observance."
Our old English poet, Gower, whose soul was filled with romantic
tenderness and gallantry, says,
"In every place, in every stead,
What so my lady hath me bid,
With all my heart obedient,
I have thereto been diligent."
And every gallant spirit of Gower's days, the reign of Edward III., said
of his mistress,
"What thing she bid me do, I do,
And where she bid me go, I go.
And when she likes to call, I come,
I serve, I bow, I look, I lowte,
My eye followeth her about.
What so she will, so will I,
When she would set, I kneel by.
And when she stands then will I stand,
And when she taketh her work in hand,
Of wevying or of embroidrie,
Then can I not but muse and prie,
Upon her fingers long and small."
Gower, in describing the knight's mode of tendance on his mistress, has
drawn a pleasing picture of the domestic life of chivalry.
"And if she list to riden out,
On pilgrimage, or other stead,
I come, though I be not bid,
And take her in my arms aloft,
And set her in her saddle soft,
And so forth lead her by the bridle,
For that I would not be idle.
And if she list to ride in chare,
And that I may thereof beware,
Anon, I shape me to ride,
Right even by the chares side,
And as I may, I speak among,
And other while, I sing a song."[224]
These quotations show that the expression in ancient times of knights
being servants of the ladies was not a mere figure of the imagination. The
instances from Gower, however, which prove the propriety of the title, may
not be thought exclusively chivalric. A story in Froissart will fully
supply the want. A Bourbon knight, named Sir John Bonnelance, a valiant
soldier, gracious and amorous, was once at Montferrand, in Auvergne,
sporting among the ladies and damsels of the town. While commending his
chivalry, they urged him to undertake an enterprise against the English,
and she who, as his lady-love, was ruler of his actions, told him that she
would fain see an Englishman, for she had heard much of the valiancy of
the knights of England. Bonnelance replied, "that if it should ever be his
good fortune to take one, he would bring him into her presence." Soon
afterwards he was able to perform his word. He took to Montferrand some
English prisoners, and addressing her who fancied the wish of seeing an
Englishman, he said "that for her love he had brought them to the town."
The ladies and damsels laughed, and turned the matter to a great sport.
They thanked him for his courtesy, and entertained him right sweetly
during his three days abode at Montferrand.[225]
[Sidenote: Love inspired bravery.]
The knight, whose heart was warmed with the true light of chivalry, never
wished that the dominion of his mistress should be less than absolute, and
the confession of her perfect virtue, which this feeling implied, made him
preserve his own faith pure and without a stain. Love was as marked a
feature in the chivalric character as valour; and, in the phrase of the
time, he who understood how to break a lance, and did not understand how
to win a lady, was but half a man. He fought to gain her smiles, for love
in brave and gentle knights kindled aspirations for high desert and
honour. "Oh! that my lady saw me," was the exclamation of a knight in the
pride of successful valour as he mounted the city's wall, and with his
good sword was proving the worth of his chivalry.[226] He wore her
colours, and the favour of his lady bright was the chief ornament of his
harness. She judged the prize at the tournament, assisted him to arm, and
was the first and the most joyous to hail his return from the perils of
war.
"A damisel came unto me,
The seemliest that ever I se,
Luffumer[227] lifed never in land,
Hendly she take me by the hand;
And soon that gentle creature
Al unlaced mine armure
Into a chamber she me led,
And with a mantle she me cled;
It was of purpur fair and fine,
And the pane of rich ermine;
Al the folk war went us fra,
And there was none than both we twa;
She served me hendely to hend,
Her manners might no man amend;
Of tong she was true and renable,
And of her semblant soft and stabile.
Fullfain I would, if that I might,
Have woned[228] with that sweet wight:
And when we sold go to sopere
That lady with a lufforn chere,
Led me down into the hall,
That war we served wele at all."[229]
[Sidenote: Character of woman in the eyes of a knight.]
A soldier of chivalry would go to battle, proud of the title, a pursuivant
of love[230], and in the contests of chivalric skill, which, like the
battles of Homer's heroes, gave brilliancy and splendour to war, a knight
challenged another to joust with a lance for love of the ladies; and he
commended himself to the mistress of his heart for protection and
assistance. In his mind woman was a being of mystic power; in the forests
of Germany her voice had been listened to like that of the spirit of the
woods, melodious, solemn, and oracular; and when chivalry was formed into
a system, the same idea of something supernaturally powerful in her
character threw a shadowy and serious interest over softer feelings, and
she was revered as well as loved. While this devotedness of soul to
woman's charms appeared in his general intercourse with the sex, in a
demeanor of homage, in a grave and stately politeness, his lady-love he
regarded with religious constancy. Fickleness would have been a species of
impiety, for she was not a toy that he played with, but a divinity whom he
worshipped. This adoration of her sustained him through all the perils
that lay before his reaching his heart's desire; and loyalty (a word that
has lost its pristine and noble meaning) was the choicest quality in the
character of the preux chevalier.
[Sidenote: Peculiar nature of his love.]
It was supported, too, by the state of the world he lived in. He fought
the battles of his country and his church, and he travelled to foreign
lands as a pilgrim, or a crusader, for such were the calls of his
chivalry. To be the first in the charge and the last in the retreat was
the counsel which one knight gave to another, on being asked the surest
means of winning a lady fair. Love was the crowning grace, the guerdon of
his toils, and its gentle influence aided him in discharging the duties of
his gallant and solemn profession. The lady Isabella, daughter of the Earl
of Jullyers, loved the lord Eustace Damberticourt for the great nobleness
of arms that she had heard reported of him; and her messengers often
carried to him letters of love, whereby her noble paramour was the more
hardy in his deeds of arms.[231] "I should have loved him better dead than
alive," another damsel exclaimed, on hearing that her knight had survived
his honour.
[Sidenote: Qualities in knights admired by women.]
[Sidenote: A tale of chivalric love.]
No wonder that in those ages of violence bravery was the manly quality,
dear, above all others, in woman's eyes. Its possession atoned for want of
every personal grace; and the damsel who, on being reproached for loving
an ugly man, replied, "he is so valiant I have never looked in his face,"
apologised for her passion in a manner that every woman of her time could
sympathise with. As proficiency in chivalric exercises was the only
distinction of the age, it would have been contrary to its spirit and laws
for a gentle maiden to have loved any other than a knight who had achieved
high deeds of arms. The advancement of his fame was, therefore, among the
dearest wishes of her heart, and she fanned his love of noble enterprise
in order to speed the hour of their union. The poets and romance-writers
of the days of chivalry bear ample testimony to the existence of this
state of feeling, and to the perils which brave men underwent to gain fair
ladies' smiles; but all their tales must yield in pathos to the following
simple historical fact:--When the Scots were endeavouring to throw off the
yoke which Edward I. had imposed on them, the recovery of the castle of
Douglas was the unceasing effort of the good Lord James. It was often lost
and won; for if the vigilance of the English garrison relaxed for a
moment, the Scots, who lived in the neighbourhood, and were ever on the
watch, aided their feudal lord in regaining the fortress, which, however,
he could not maintain long against the numerous chivalry of England. The
possession of this castle seemed to be held by so perilous a tenure, that
it excited the noblest aspirations for fame in the breasts of the English;
and a fair maiden, perplexed by the number of knights who were in suit of
her, vowed she would bestow her hand upon him who preserved the
adventurous or hazardous castle of Douglas for a year and a day. Sir John
Walton boldly and gladly undertook the emprise, and right gallantly he
held possession of the fortress for some months. At length he was slain in
a sally which Douglas provoked him to make. On his person was found a
letter which he had lately received from his lady-love, commending his
noble chevisance, declaring that her heart was now his, and praying him to
return to her forthwith, without exposing himself to further peril. The
good Lord James of Douglas grieved when he read this letter, and it was
generous and gallant of him to lament that a brother knight should be
slain when his fairest hopes of happiness seemed on the point of being
realised.[232]
[Sidenote: Constancy.]
The loves of chivalric times must often have been shaded with gloom, and
so convulsed was the state of Europe, so distant were its parts often
thrown from each other, that the course of true love seldom ran smoothly,
and affianced knights and damsels more frequently breathed the wish of
annihilating time and space than is necessary in the happier monotony of
modern times. In almost every case of attachment absence was unavoidable,
and constancy, therefore, became a necessary virtue of love in chivalry.
"Young knight whatever, that dost arms profess,
And through long labours huntest after fame,
Beware of fraud, beware of fickleness,
In choice, and change, of thy dear loved dame;
Least thou of her believe too lightly blame,
And rash misweening do thy heart remove;
For unto knight there is no greater shame
Than lightness and inconstancy in love."[233]
* * * * *
His mistress was ever present to his imagination, and he felt there would
be a witness to his disloyalty. Even if he could dismiss her picture from
his mind, his own sense of honour preserved his virtue, and the reply of a
knight to a beautiful temptress, that though his sovereign-lady might
never know of his conduct, yet his heart, which was constantly near her,
could not be ignorant, was conceived in the purest spirit of chivalry.
[Sidenote: Absence of jealousy.]
The troubadours, who were the teachers of the art of love, refined upon
this respectful passion of the knight in a very amusing manner. They were
wont to affirm, that though a knight saw cause for jealousy, yet if his
lady-love were to deny the circumstances, he was to reply that he was
convinced of the verity of her assertions; but he really did believe he
had witnessed such and such matters.[234]
[Sidenote: Knights asserted by arms their mistress' beauty.]
Chivalric love had, indeed, its absurdities as well as its impieties. It
was a pleasing caricature of chivalry, when the knight of La Mancha
stationed himself in the middle of a high road, and calling to the
merchants of Toledo, who were bound to the silk fairs at Murcia, forbad
them to pass, unless they acknowledged that there was not in the universe
a more beautiful damsel than the empress of La Mancha, the peerless
Dulcinea del Toboso. For the knights of chivalry were not satisfied to
fight in defence of the ladies, and to joust in their honour, but from the
extravagancy of their love, each knight maintained at the point of his
lance, that his mistress surpassed all other ladies in beauty.[235] The
knight Jehan de Saintré (whose education in chivalry has been already
described by me) vowed to wear a helmet of a particular shape, and to
visit, during three years, the courts of Europe, maintaining against all
their chivalry the beauty of his mistress. Four knights and five squires,
who had made a similar vow, were his companions. At a tournament held by
the Emperor of Germany, the noble undertaking was held to be accomplished,
and the emblems of the emprise were unchained from the left shoulder of
the gallant knights and squires.[236] Indeed, wherever a knight went, to
court or to camp, he asserted the superiority of his lady and his love,
but he hurled his defiances not against simple merchants, as our right
worshipful knight Don Quixote did, but against persons of his own rank,
who were in amours as well as himself. Instances of this chivalric
disposition occur frequently in chivalric history: but Cervantes
caricatured the romances, and not the sober chronicles of chivalry, when,
in reply to the natural enquiry of one of the merchants regarding the
beauty of the lady, he made his hero exclaim, "Had I once shown you that
beauty, what wonder would it be to acknowledge so notorious a truth? the
importance of the thing lies in obliging you to believe it, confess it,
affirm it, swear it, and maintain it, without seeing her." But the display
of chivalric bravery in avowal of woman's beauty proceeded from so noble a
feeling, that it must not be censured or satirised too severely, for
"Who is the owner of a treasure
Above all value, but, without offence,
May glory in the glad possession of it?"
[Sidenote: Penitents of love.]
As history, however, should be a record, and not a panegyric, I proceed to
observe, that the most marked display of the extravagancies of our knights
took place in the courts of love; but as I have dilated on that topic in
another work, I am precluded of treating the subject here, and it is the
tritest of all the subjects of chivalry. Equally ridiculous among the
amatory phrenzies of the middle ages was the society of the penitents of
love, formed by some ladies and gentlemen in Poictou, at the beginning of
the fourteenth century. They opposed themselves to nature in every thing,
on the principle that love can effect the strangest metamorphoses. During
the hottest months of summer, they covered themselves with mantles lined
with fur, and in their houses they sat before large fires. When winter
came they affected to be burning with the fires of love, and a dress of
the slightest texture wrapt their limbs. This society did not endure long,
nor was its example pernicious. A few enthusiasts perished, and reason
then resumed her empire.[237]
[Sidenote: Other peculiarities of chivalric love.]
The knight was as zealous in the gentle as in the more solemn affections
of the soul. He believed that both God and love hated hard and
hypocritical hearts. In a bolder strain of irreverence he thought that
both God and love could be softened by prayer, and that he who served both
with fidelity would secure to himself happiness in this life and the joys
of Paradise hereafter. On other occasions the gallant spirit of chivalry
spoke more rationally. Love, according to one renowned knight, is the
chaste union of two hearts, which, attached by virtue, live for the
promotion of happiness, having only one soul and one will in common.
"Liege lady mine! (Gruélan thus return'd,)
With love's bright fires this bosom ne'er hath burn'd.
Love's sovereign lore, mysterious and refined,
Is the pure confluence of immortal mind;
Chaste union of two hearts by virtue wrought,
Where each seems either in word, deed, and thought,
Each singly to itself no more remains,
But one will guides, one common soul sustains."[238]
[Sidenote: The passion universal.]
[Sidenote: Story of Aristotle.]
So prevailing was amatory enthusiasm, that not only did poets fancy
themselves inspired by love, but learned clerks were its subjects, and in
spite of its supposed divinity some natural satire fell upon the scholar
who yielded to its fascination. In Gower's Confessio Amantis, the
omnipotence of love is strikingly displayed; for besides those whom we
might expect to see at the feet of the goddess, we are presented with
Plato and Socrates, and even him who was the object of veneration
bordering on idolatry in the ages which we in courtesy to ourselves call
dark. Gower, the moral Gower, says with some humour,
"I saw there Aristotle also,
Whom that the queen of Greece also
Hath bridled, that in thilke time
She made him such a syllogisme
That he forgot all his logike."
The story whereon this sentence was founded was among the most popular of
the times. The delights of love had made Alexander pause in the career of
ambition. His host of knights and barons were discontented at the change,
and Aristotle, as the tutor and guardian of his youthful course,
endeavoured to rouse anew the spirit of the hero. The prince attempted no
lengthened reply to this appeal to his chivalry;
"Sighing, alone he cried, as inly mov'd,
Alas! these men, meseems, have never lov'd."
The grave saws of the sage took root, however, in Alexander's heart, and
he absented himself from his mistress. She wailed her fate for some time
in solitude, but at length assured that it was not the mere capriciousness
of passion which kept him from her, she forced herself into the presence
of her lord. Her beauty smiled away all dreams of glory from his mind, and
in the fondness of his love he accused Aristotle of breaking in upon his
joy. But the dominion of his passion was only momentary, and recovering
the martial tone of his soul, he declared the sad necessity of their
parting. She then requested a brief delay, promising to convince the king
that his tutor's counsel derived no additional recommendation from his
practice, for that he stood in need of as much instruction as Alexander
himself. Accordingly, with the first appearance of the next morning, the
damsel repaired to the lawn before the chamber where Aristotle lay. As she
approached the casement, she broke the stillness of the air by chanting a
love ditty, and the sweetness of her wild notes charmed the philosopher
from his studious page. He softly stole to the window, and beheld a form
far fairer than any image of truth which his fancy had just previously
been conceiving. Her face was not shrouded by vail or wimple, her long
flaxen tresses strayed negligently down her neck, and her dress, like
drapery on an antient statue, displayed the beauty of a well-turned limb.
She loitered about the place on pretence of gathering a branch of a
myrtle-tree, and winding it round her forehead. When her confidence in her
beauty assured her that Aristotle was mad for her love, she stole
underneath the casement, and, in a voice checked by sighs, she sang that
love detained her there. Aristotle drank the delicious sounds, and gazing
again, her charms appeared more resplendent than before. Reason faintly
whispered that he was not born to be loved, and that his hair was now
white with age, his forehead wrinkled with study; but passion and vanity
drove away these faint remonstrances, and Aristotle was a sage no more.
The damsel carelessly passed his window, and in the delirium of his love
he caught the floating folds of her robe. She affected anger, and he
avowed his passion. She listened to his confession with a surprize of
manner that fanned his flame, and she answered him by complaining of the
late coldness of Alexander. The greybeard, not caring for a return of
love, so that she accepted his suit, promised to bring his pupil to her
feet, if she would but confer some sign of favour upon himself. She
feigned an intention of compliance, but declared that, before she yielded,
she must be indulged in a foolish whim which long had distracted her
fancy. Aristotle then renewed his professions of devoted love, and she in
sentences, broken by exclamations of apparent shame at her folly, vowed
that she was dying to mount and ride upon the back of a wise man. He was
now so passionately in love, that the fancies of his mistress appeared
divinest wisdom to his mind, and he immediately threw himself along the
ground in a crawling attitude. She seated herself in a gorgeous saddle
which she placed on his back, and, throwing a rein round his neck, she
urged him to proceed. In a few moments they reached the terrace under the
royal apartments, and the king beheld the singular spectacle. A peal of
laughter from the windows awoke the philosopher to a sense of his state,
and when he saw his pupil he owned that youth might well yield to love, as
it had power to break even the frost of age.
Such was the lay of Aristotle which the wandering minstrel chanted in the
baronial hall, and the damsel in her lady's bower, and the pleasing moral
of the fable was not more sincerely echoed by the shouts of the gallant
knights and squires than by the broken sighs of beauty.
"Mark ye, who hear me, that no blameful shade
Be thrown henceforth on gallant or on maid.
For here, by grave example taught, we find
That mighty love is master of mankind.
Love conquers all, and love shall conquer still,
Last the round world how long soe'er it will."[239]
It is singular to observe that in the north and in the south, in Germany
and in Languedoc, the love of the cavalier bore the same character, the
same blending of tender and devotional feelings. The troubadour burned
tapers, and caused masses to be said for the success of his love, and
when the fervour of passion for his mistress was crossed by religious awe,
he declared that the part of his heart which God held was still under the
superior dominion of his lady-love. The German knight wrote poems to the
honour of the Virgin Mary and the damsel of his heart, and it is not
always easy to distinguish to which of these persons his vows are
addressed.[240] He adored the shadow, nay, the very neighbourhood of his
mistress, and declared that nothing could induce him to violate his vow of
fidelity. Here, however, the resemblance ceases, for the knights of
France, England, and Spain were not more highly distinguished for
chivalric courtesy, than the Germans were remarkable for ferocity and
savageness.[241] Once, and once only, were there courts of love in
Germany. They were established by Frederic Barbarossa, and they did not
long survive their founder.
[Sidenote: Chivalric love the foe to feudal distinctions.]
Chivalric love took delight in reconciling and joining the opposites of
the world.[242] It was no cold and calculating principle; it abrogated the
distinctions of wealth and rank, and many a knight, whose whole fortune
lay in his prowess, gained the hand of high-born beauty. "How can I
hope," observed a young candidate for chivalry to a lady of high estate,
"how can I hope to find a damsel of noble birth, who will return the
affection of a knight that, ungraced by rank, has only his good sword to
trust to?"--"And why should you not find her?" replied the lady; "are you
not gently born? are you not a handsome youth? have you not eyes to gaze
on her, ears to hear her, feet to move at her will, body and heart to
accomplish loyally her commands? and, possessed of these qualities, can
you doubt to adventure yourself in the service of a lady, however exalted
her rank?"[243]
A squire of low degree often aspired to the hand of a king's daughter:
"And I have seen that many a page
Have become men by marriage."
The intenseness of passion, and the generousness of soul implied in this
state of manners, were sternly opposed by feudal pride and tyranny; but
chivalry could not always beat down the absurd distinctions of society.
When the Countess of Vergy returned the passion of Sir Agolane, she was
obliged to love in secret, lest the dignity of the court of Burgundy
should be offended.[244] The maidens themselves sometimes sanctioned the
prejudices of feudalism, in opposition to the generous feelings of
chivalry and nature. Felice, daughter of Rahand, Earl of Warwick,
disdained to return the passion of Guy, her father's steward, till an
angel in a dream commanded her to love him.[245]
[Sidenote: But preserved religion.]
Agreement in religious opinions was as necessary as sympathy of souls in
the loves of chivalry; and many a story is related of a knight reposing in
a lady's chamber, where, instead of adoring the divinity of the place, he
assailed her with a fierce invective against her religious creed.[246] On
such occasions he forgot even his courtesy, and shamed his knighthood by
calling her a heathen hound:
"I will not go one foot on ground
For to speak with an heathen hound;
Unchristen hounds I rede ye flee,
Or I your heart's blood will see."