Romance of the Rose

John de Meun and Guillaume de Lorris

Courtly Love

• Courtly love– Not “Courtney Love”– Remarkable literary innovation: lots of poetry,

romances, written in the vernacular tongues of Europe

– Poets called “troubadours”– Poems meant to be sung to music– Focus on the relationship of men and women, a

new sensibility: chivalry

Courtly Love

• Courtly love– Influences from Arabic love poetry and Muslim

mystical literature– Soul=feminine / God/lover=masculine– Troubadours secularize this mystical tradition and

love becomes something honorable and dignified– Popularizes romantic love THIS is the innovation,

a notion in the West that we take for granted!

Courtly Love

• Courtly love– Ideal male: knight-errant, warrior searching for

adventure– Free but virtuous– Virtue leads him to take a vow in his lady’s name– Chivalric virtue: self-denial, self-sacrifice (damsel in

distress, slay the dragon and save the lady or the village)– Chrétien de Troyes (Arthur romances): women are

elevated; men are the “love-vassals” of the women– Spreads from southern France (Provençal) to Germany

and throughout Europe

Romance of the Rose• The Romance of the rose• Five [-and-a-half] things:• Author• Guillaume de Lorris (1190's?-1240's?) and Jean de Meun (1250's-

1305)• Title• The Romance of the Rose; Roman de la Rose• Date• 1225-1230 and 1269-1278• Location• France• Language• French

Romance of the Rose

• [textual tradition/edition]• One of the most influential of all the

medieval texts; 200 mss have survived; popular from 13th century - mid-17th century

• Also, this is a book with two authors. You're reading the Guillame de Lorris original; you're missing out on the expansion of Jean de Meun (Reason, Academic, Philosophy, and an answer to the despair of the end of Guillame de Lorris)

Romance of the Rose

• Major literary concerns:• Allegory• Didactic• Locus amoenus• Courtly love• Fablieaux

• The text:• Setting: 13th century: a dream