12-06-2017, 12:05 AM
As much as I love The Divine Comedy, a discussion of courtly love would definitely be incomplete without introducing Don Quixote.
Courtly love literature and in particular something called "knight errantry tales" were already extremely popular at the time so Cervante's Don Quixote is actually something of a parody.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight-errant
Don Quixote, the character, is portrayed as just an ordinary guy who has read too many knight errantry tales and started to actually believe in them. He really thinks he's going to go out and do brave deeds and slay dragons and fight evil wizards and save kingdoms and win the hand of his fair maiden.
But this is 16th century Spain and there just aren't a lot of dragons and evil wizards around, and EVERYONE EXCEPT Don Quixote knows that this is all just something you read about in books. But Don Quixote believes in it, and he believes the values of knight errantry - bravery, chivalry, courtly love - these are real, meaningful values to really be acted on in the real world.
And he really did have a "fair maiden", and her name was Dulcinea. She wasn't in Heaven, but she was Heavenly to him, etc., etc., etc., and he wrote the most glowing poetry of her and swore his loyalty to her and dedicated all his bravery to her virtue, or something like that. But in Cervantes' version she was also quite literally a peasant girl down the street from where Don Quixote lived, and she didn't spend her days receiving courtly suitors so much as winnowing buckwheat and making bread and so on, but somehow she inspired Don Quixote anyway.
The most famous scene in Don Quixote is Don Quixote in his sad armor on a sad horse, charging at windmills believing they are giants. It doesn't go so well for him. This is how Gustave Doré drew it (weird how he illustrated both, isn't it?):
Courtly love literature and in particular something called "knight errantry tales" were already extremely popular at the time so Cervante's Don Quixote is actually something of a parody.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight-errant
Don Quixote, the character, is portrayed as just an ordinary guy who has read too many knight errantry tales and started to actually believe in them. He really thinks he's going to go out and do brave deeds and slay dragons and fight evil wizards and save kingdoms and win the hand of his fair maiden.
But this is 16th century Spain and there just aren't a lot of dragons and evil wizards around, and EVERYONE EXCEPT Don Quixote knows that this is all just something you read about in books. But Don Quixote believes in it, and he believes the values of knight errantry - bravery, chivalry, courtly love - these are real, meaningful values to really be acted on in the real world.
And he really did have a "fair maiden", and her name was Dulcinea. She wasn't in Heaven, but she was Heavenly to him, etc., etc., etc., and he wrote the most glowing poetry of her and swore his loyalty to her and dedicated all his bravery to her virtue, or something like that. But in Cervantes' version she was also quite literally a peasant girl down the street from where Don Quixote lived, and she didn't spend her days receiving courtly suitors so much as winnowing buckwheat and making bread and so on, but somehow she inspired Don Quixote anyway.
The most famous scene in Don Quixote is Don Quixote in his sad armor on a sad horse, charging at windmills believing they are giants. It doesn't go so well for him. This is how Gustave Doré drew it (weird how he illustrated both, isn't it?):