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Medieval Romances

Medieval Romances. Steve Wood TCCC. Etymology of “Romantic”.

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Medieval Romances

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  1. Medieval Romances Steve Wood TCCC

  2. Etymology of “Romantic” • The word “romantic” comes from the Latin “romanicus.” This word referred to the lingua romanica, also known as Vulgar Latin. The lingua romanica was the Latin spoken in the street, as opposed to the more formal Latin of scholars and politicians.

  3. Etymology of “Romantic” • Thus, “romance” referred to anything written in the common public tongue. • In the Middle Ages, the term “romance” was used to refer to popular stories of knights, love, and magic.

  4. Characteristics of Medieval Romances • Characters were usually aristocratic – knights and ladies. • Often, the stories involved strong female characters. • The ideals of chivalry were very important. • The plots often involved love, especially love in the courtly love tradition.

  5. Courtly Love • Courtly love was a idealized type of romance that developed in the Middle Ages. • It is the genesis of both the connection between “romance” and love as well as the origin of the idealized notion of love at first sight. • C. S. Lewis once defined courtly love as "Humility, Courtesy, Adultery, and the Religion of Love."

  6. Andreas Cappellanus • In The Art of Love (1185), Cappellanus defined courtly love and set forth its rules. • He was a chaplain at the court of Henry of Troy, the same court that sponsored Chretien de Troyes, one of the most famous writers of romances.

  7. Love Is Suffering • “Love is a certain suffering derived from the slight of and excessive meditation upon the beauty of the opposite sex.”

  8. Jealousy-”he who is not jealous cannnot love.” Obsession-”every act of a lover ends in the thought of his beloved.” Secrecy-”public love rarely endures.” Danger/Risk-”an erring wife was often disgraced and repudiated, her lover mutilated or illed.” Four Components of Suffering

  9. Characteristics of Medieval Romances • The plots were usually episodic in nature. • There is often a quest involved. • Magic often plays a role in the story. • There is a great deal of coincidence (or, the Christian version of coincidence – providence). Often the stories depend on hugely improbable circumstances.

  10. Romance as a Spring Genre • Romances often reveal a wildly optimistic view of life (as compared with tragedies, for example). • As such, they are sometimes referred to as spring genres (tragedy being a fall genre) in their celebration of rebirth, providence, and good fortune.

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