초록 열기/닫기 버튼
Courtly love refers to a set of ideas about love that was commonly influential on the literature and cultures of the middle ages. Nearly all of Chaucer’s tales deal in some way with courtly love and courtly codes of conduct. Chaucer’s tales are awash with courtly lovers, courtly love language, courtly love situations and actions, and allusions to the love that can be recognized as courtly. In spite of the pervasiveness and outward trappings of courtly love, however, it is not easy to figure out what Chaucer’s attitude toward courtly love is, because Chaucer sways his thought on or avoids his direct statement on courtly love. It is only through the indirect and subtle ways that Chaucer reveals the fictitiousness and the falsehood of courtly love in his tales like The Franklin’s Tale and The Merchant’s Tale. Chaucer didn’t look upon courtly love in his tales as a viable way of expressing what occurs in the human heart. He seems to have regarded the courtly behaviors and the codes of courtly conduct as anything other than dangerous, even sham or pretense. In no tales did Chaucer ask us to consider courtly love seriously, but he simply employs the conventions of courtly love as some sort of ‘play’ or ‘game’ for his creation of the poetic works.
