The monks (as we have seen with the Cistercians, on p. 189) thought about the love
between God and mankind; the troubadours thought about erotic love. Yet the two
were deliciously entangled. The verse in which Bernart envies the lark continues:
Oh, I thought I knew so much
About love, but how little I know!
I cannot stop loving her
Though I know she’ll never love me.
...
I get no help with my lady
From God or mercy or right.^11
Putting his lady in the same stanza as God elevated her to the status of a religious
icon, but at the same time it degraded God: should the Lord really help Bernart with
his seduction? Finally, it played with the association of “my lady” with the Virgin
Mary, the quintessential “our Lady.”
Female troubadours, the trobairitz, flirted with the same themes. La Comtessa de
Dia (fl. late 12th-early 13th cent.) sang,
I’ve been in heavy grief
For a knight that once was mine,
And I want it to be forever known
That I loved him too much.
I see now that I’m betrayed
For not giving him my love.
Bemused, I lie in bed awake;
Bemused, I dress and pass the day.^12
As with the adab literature of the Islamic world (see p. 91), the ideals of such courtly
poetry emphasized refinement, feeling, and wit, all summed up in the word cortezia,
“courtliness” or “courtesy.”
Historians and literary critics used to use the term “courtly love” to emphasize
