Courtly Love in Dante's Divine Comedy

The purpose of this research is to examine courtly love in the Middle Ages, particularly as expressed in Dante's Divine Comedy. The plan of the research will be to set forth a working understanding of the term courtly love, and then to show, with reference to Dante's work, how the romantic language, the roots of courtly love lyric in Provencal poetry, and such concepts as divine love intersect to create a unique aesthetic of literature and cultural sensibility.

Courtly love is the name given to a style of poetry that celebrated human love, particularly the love of the poet (always a man) for a highborn and extraordinary lady. This is the outline of the notion of courtly love, but it appears to contain not only the implication of physical love but alsoand perhaps more significantlythe attributes of a deeply felt relationship at the psychological level. This is implicit in Collins's description of the term:

One of the main subjects of the poetry at that time was

"love," the "courtly love" celebrated in song by the

medieval troubadours. Dante was very much a part of this

poetic movement which had originated in southern France (La

Provence), was developed in Sicily under the patronage of

Frederick II, and had become extremely popular in Dante's

region, Tuscany. This poetic style with its stress on the

theme of love was known in Italy as the dolce stil nuovo,

the "sweet new style." Its passionate c

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cal lyric insight to the poet who has been touched by love (and lyric talent) on the other. This development, indeed, describes stilnovism, which is variously translated as "sweet new music" and "that sweet new style of purest song" of poetry that is cited in the Purgatorio when Dante encounters a longdead poet of moderate distinction: But is this really the creator of those new canzoni, one of which begins 'Ladies who have the intellect of Love'?" And I: "When Love inspires me with delight, or pain, or longing, I take careful note, and as he dictates in my soul, I write." And he: "Ah, brother, now I see the thong that held Guittone, and the Judge, and me short of that sweet new style of purest song. (Dante, Purg., XXIV, 4957) On this view, emotion overtakes the poet, who must express what Love requires. Who cannot or does not express it is no real poet. This is the view of commentators on the Purg. incident, wherein the inferior poet Bonagiunta acknowledges Dante's lyric superiority (Ciardi 249; Harrison 33). The theory behind this is that the tradition of courtly poetry is really an emerging tradition of a specialized artistic expression.

Category: Literature - C