ciated with the disease are all illuminated in Arcite’s
love for Emilye. He has the sunken eyes (“eyen holwe”),
the jaundiced coloration (“hewe falow”), the insomnia
(“His slep... is hym biraft”), anorexia (“his mete, his
drynke, is hym biraft”), the depression (“wolde he
wepe”; “So feble eek were his spiritz, and so lowe”),
among other ailments, such as paleness and weight
loss. Chaucer even uses the medical terms, showing
the close relationship between the medical and literary
discussions of lovesickness. He names the medical
condition: “Nat oonly lik the loveris maladye / Of
Hereos, but rather lyk manye, / Engendred of humour
malencolik / Biforen, in his celle fantastic” (ll. 1372–
76). This is but one of many examples.
Throughout Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, for
instance, one can fi nd in Troilus’s behavior further
example of lovesickness in medieval poetry. It is very
prevalent in the romance tradition. In SIR ORFEO, the
hero weeps, moans, and feels woe. Floris of FLORIS AND
BLAUNCHEFLUR sighs and bemoans the absence of his
beloved. Unlike the medical tradition, the literature
did not present lovesickness as an exclusively male dis-
order. Blaunchefl ur indeed goes pale at the sight of
Floris. In The LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN, Chaucer follows
the ancient tradition of Dido’s lovesick reaction to
Aeneas’s departure: “[S]he hath lost hire hewe and ek
her hele” (l. 1159). Her symptoms then increase: “She
siketh sore, and gan hyreself turmente; / She walketh,
walweth, maketh many a breyd / As don these lovers,
as I have herd sayd” (ll. 1165–67).
The disease, or at least the expression of its symp-
toms, becomes the sign of true love, of devotion to the
beloved. For this reason there are instances of feigned
symptoms in an attempt to prove one’s love. The Mid-
dle Ages, as well as the early Renaissance period, show
a marked interest in the way in which this medical con-
dition translates into literature. Lovesickness becomes
part of the poetry and the popular culture of the time.
For this reason it has also sparked academic interest in
the past two decades. Two trends dominate modern
literary criticism’s attentions to lovesickness. One is to
use literary examples of the disease to defi ne it medically
and to argue the prevalence of the medical tradition.
The second trend discusses the disease’s implications for
gender identity. Lovesickness in the Middle Ages is
often connected to emasculation. This current critical
debate mirrors the manner in which medieval physi-
cians depicted the disease.
FURTHER READING
Lowes, John Livingston. “The Loveres Malady of Hereos.”
Modern Philology 11 (1914): 491–546.
Wack, Mary Frances. Lovesickness in the Middle Ages: The
Viaticum and Its Commentaries. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1990.
Molly A. Martin“LOVE THAT DOTH REIGN AND LIVE
WITHIN MY THOUGHT” HENRY HOWARD,
EARL OF SURREY (ca. 1543) Surrey’s “Love that doth
reign and live within my thought” is a translation of
PETRARCH’s sonnet 140 of Canzoniere. In translating
Petrarch’s SONNET, Surrey has changed the rhyme to
take the ENGLISH SONNET form.
In the fi rst QUATRAIN, the speaker declares how the
personifi ed Love has conquered and consumed his body.
Now Love, quite physically, lives in the speaker’s thought
and breast. Love has erected a banner on the speaker’s
face. In the second quatrain, the female beloved objects
to such open display of love on the speaker’s face, and
she looks angrily at the speaker and Love. In the SESTET,
Love retreats from the speaker’s face and hides in his
heart. The speaker notes that he is suffering because of
Love’s boldness, yet he will not leave his fallen lord, Love
but, instead, is happy to die at his master’s side.
Surrey’s translation uses several Petrarchan images
that became fashionable in poetic representations of
love. The simile of “love as a battlefi eld,” is central to
Petrarchanism. Words like captive, arms, banner, and
coward create a military confrontation between Love and
the beloved woman in which the speaker suffers. The
beloved as “cruel fair” is a related Petrarchan idea. The
object of affection inspires both desire and terror with
her gaze. The lover may feel desire but must refrain from
any outward show of it; here, the speaker unfairly suf-
fers the withering gaze of his beloved when in fact it is
the personifi ed Love who is boldly showing himself,
although the beloved is not likely to accept that excuse.
Surrey uses fairly regular IAMBIC PENTAMETER in this
poem, although some lines begin with a trochee before“LOVE THAT DOTH REIGN AND LIVE WITHIN MY THOUGHT” 255