Wilhelm, James J., ed. The Romance of Arthur: An Anthology
of Medieval Texts in Translation. New York and London:
Garland, 1994.
Bonnie S. Millar
ART OF COURTLY LOVE, THE ANDREAS
CAPELLANUS (ca. 1184–86) ANDREAS CAPELLANUS
achieved fame by composing a Latin treatise on love
(ca. 1184–86) entitled Liber de arte honeste amandi et
reprobatione inhonesti amantis (Book of the Art of Loving
Nobly and the Reprobation of Dishonourable Love). It is
commonly referred to as The Art of Courtly Love. Inspired
by OVID and the poetry of the Provençal troubadours,
Andreas explores the practices associated with what the
French philologist Gaston Paris referred to as “COURTLY
LOVE” (amour courtois): a refi ned love, occurring exclu-
sively outside of marriage and, in general, among
courtly societies. (The phrase courtly love was coined by
Paris; in Old French and MIDDLE EN GLISH, fi n’ amors and
trwe love were much more common terms.)
The work of Andreas Capellanus was translated into
Old French, Catalan, Italian, and German. It became
one of the most infl uential works of the Middle Ages—
almost every ROMANCE, for instance, relies on its prin-
ciples of courtly love. It also greatly infl uenced medieval
vernacular literature aside from romances, including
Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun’s Romance of the
Rose and CHAUCER’s TROILUS AND CRISEYDE, among many
other works.
Andreas dedicates his treatise to a noble, although
probably fi ctitious, friend, Walter. He divides the study
into three parts. In Book One, he provides a series of
defi nitions with etymologies: “ ‘Love’ [amor] is derived
from the word ‘hook’ [amar], which signifi es ‘capture’
or ‘be captured.’ For he who loves is caught in the
chains of desire and wishes to catch another with his
hook.” The love described by Andreas is explicitly
Ovidian and sexual in nature: It is an “inborn suffering
derived from the sight of and excessive meditation
upon the beauty of the opposite sex, which causes each
one to wish above all things the embraces of the other.”
Nonetheless, love elevates the lover’s character and is
capable of making “an ugly and rude person shine with
all beauty, knows how to endow with nobility even
one of humble birth, can even lend humility to the
proud.” According to Andreas, the male partner must
initiate the love affair by revealing his feelings and ask-
ing for the lady’s affection. She, in turn, may choose to
accept or deny her suitor. The woman maintains con-
siderable power over her admirer, who must do her
bidding whether or not she agrees to return his love.
In Book Two, Andreas outlines how love may be
retained by providing his reader with 31 rules. These
include statements about the conditions in which love
will fl ourish and about how a lover should behave; for
example: “marriage is no real excuse for not loving”
(Rule 1); “boys do not love until they arrive at the age
of maturity” (Rule 6); “love is always a stranger in the
home of avarice” (Rule 10); “good character alone
makes a man worthy of love” (Rule 18); “he whom the
thought of love vexes eats and sleeps very little” (Rule
23); and “love can deny nothing to love” (Rule 26). In
accepting and applying these rules, the lover will prove
worthy of his lady.
Book Three, entitled “A Rejection of Love,” stands in
stark opposition to the preceding sections, although it,
too, draws upon Ovid, in particular, his Remedia Amoris
(Remedies of Love). Here, Andreas explains why courtly
love ought not to be practiced, especially by Christians.
This conclusion has caused much debate: Did Andreas
add his rejection because he was a Chaplain and faced
repercussions from the church? Or is his entire treatise a
parody of courtly love and its negative infl uences?
See also CHIVALRY, LOVESICKNESS.
FURTHER READING
Allen, Peter L. “Ars Amandi, Ars Legendi: Love Poetry and
Literary Theory in Ovid, Andreas Capellanus, and Jean de
Meun.” Exemplaria 1, no. 1 (1989): 181–205.
Andreas Capellanus. The Art of Courtly Love. Translated by
John Jay Parry. New York: Columbia University Press,
1990.
Williams, Andrew. “Clerics and Courtly Love in Andreas
Capellanus’ The Art of Courtly Love and Chaucer’s Canter-
bury Tales.” Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 3 (1990):
127–136.
K. Sarah-Jane MurrayART OF ENGLISH POESIE (ARTE OF
ENGLISH POESY) GEORGE PUTTENHAM (1569)
According to George Puttenham, presumptive author32 ART OF COURTLY LOVE, THE