The Art of Courtly Love

Although scholars have made attempts to link him to real people of the period, Walter’s identity has never been conclusively proven. Andreas represents him as a member of the nobility who has newly fallen in love and seeks Andreas’s advice. However, he may be a fictional invention to provide interest in the text, as is typical of didactic literature. 

The middle-class man features in the first three dialogues. Because his social rank puts him at a disadvantage with all three of the women, he promotes the notion of earned versus inherited nobility. Whether to flatter the middle-class woman or elevate his own status with the simple and higher noblewomen, the middle-class man repeatedly points out that nobility is a product of good deeds and stellar character, thus he is a suitable lover for a woman of any class. The class of the women he addresses influences his manner of speaking. With the middle-class woman, he is more domineering while with the higher noblewoman he is deferential.

The middle-class woman features in the First, Fourth, and Sixth Dialogues. Andreas notes that men, regardless of class, do not have to seek permission to speak with a middle-class woman, as they do with the nobility. Social rules dictate that the middle-class woman must speak with any of the men who initiate a conversation with her. In the First Dialogue with the middle-class man, the woman gives short retorts designed to weaken his arguments. With the simple nobleman of the Fourth Dialogue, the woman attempts to discourage him by suggesting that he should pursue someone who is more noble than she is, essentially using social rules to protect her from his advances. In the Sixth Dialogue, the woman emphasizes the potential risks to her reputation if she accepts his proposition. She could become a subject of gossip due to others’ jealousy or resentment; she could be abandoned by a man who sees himself above her and be ruined as a result. The middle-class woman seems to believe she has nothing to gain by engaging in a love affair, regardless of her lover’s class.

The simple nobleman features in the Fourth and Fifth Dialogue. His class status dictates his manner of address. With the middle-class woman, his focus is to convince her that despite their unequal social status, she is equal to him by virtue of her good deeds and excellent character. Since he shares equal status with the noblewoman in the Fifth Dialogue, the obstacle is her objection to love affairs. To convince her, he tells the story of encountering the army of the dead, where women who appreciated love while alive continue to enjoy knights’ attention in the afterlife. Women who rejected love are left alone and unattended. While his story convinces her, she does not promise him her love, but he trusts that her nobility will guide her toward making the proper choice of lover.

The simple noblewoman features in the Second, Fifth, and Seventh Dialogues. Andreas characterizes simple noblewomen as “wise and shrewd” (44), so prospective lovers should be measured with their praise as the woman will recognize it as lack of sophistication or an insult to her intelligence. In the Second Dialogue with the middle-class man, the noblewoman scolds him for being presumptuous in seeking her love. Since social ranking has always existed, he cannot convince her that he deserves her love. With the simple noblemen of the Fifth Dialogue, class is not a factor, so her objection is broader, against love as a whole. Her objections to love take more specific form in the Seventh Dialogue: distance, jealousy, and marriage bonds. The woman points out that marriage provides a way to satisfy sexual desire without becoming wanton, a point Andreas also makes in Book 3 when he discusses why men should avoid love affairs.

The higher nobleman features in the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Dialogues. As in previous dialogues between individuals of different social classes, the higher nobleman appeals to good deeds and character as a means of elevating the middle-class woman’s status. As status loses significance in the Seventh and Eighth Dialogues, the discussion becomes more specific and, in the Eighth Dialogue, more philosophical. Topics of debate in the Seventh Dialogue include jealousy and the sanctity of marriage, which Andreas returns to in the third book when discussing why men should avoid love. By far the longest, the Eighth Dialogue eventually wanders into philosophical territory as the higher nobleman and higher noblewoman discuss if and when it is acceptable for a woman to take a new lover, the impact of male and female physiology, sexuality, and more. Both appeal to the Bible and other literary and historical texts, demonstrating that they are learned and educated in both scripture and secular works. The issues they debate prefigure several of Andreas’s objections to love in Book 3.