Code of Love of the Twelfth Century
The allegation of marriage is not a valid plea against love.
Who can dissemble cannot love.
No one can bind himself to two loves at once.
Love grows continually or wanes.
That which a lover takes from another by force has no savour.
Generally the male does not love except in full puberty.
A widowhood of two years is prescribed to one lover for the death of the other.
Without over-abundant reason no one ought to be deprived of his rights in love.
No one can love, unless urged thereto by the persuasion of love (by the hope of being loved).
Love will be driven out by avarice.
It is not right to love her whom you would be ashamed to ask in marriage.
True love has no desire for caresses except from the beloved.
Love once divulged is rarely lasting.
Success too easy takes away the charm of love; obstacles give it worth.
Everyone who loves turns pale at the sight of the beloved.
At the unexpected sight of the beloved the lover trembles.
New love banishes old.
Merit alone makes man worthy of love.
Love that wanes is quickly out and rarely rekindled.
The lover is always timid.
Real jealousy always increases love’s warmth.
Suspicion, and the jealousy it kindles, increases love’s warmth.
He sleeps less and he eats less who is beset with thoughts of love.
Every act of the lover ends in thought of the beloved.
The true lover thinks nothing good but what he knows will please the beloved.
Love can deny love nothing.
The lover cannot have satiety of delight in the beloved.
The slightest presumption causes the lover to suspect the beloved of sinister things.
The habit of too excessive pleasure hinders the birth of love.
The true lover is occupied with the image of the beloved assiduously and without interruption.
Nothing prevents a woman from being loved by two men, nor a man by two women.1
Here is the preamble of a judgment given by a Court of Love.
Question: Can true love exist between married people?
Judgment of the Countess of Champagne: We pronounce and determine by the tenour of these presents, that love cannot extend its powers over two married persons; for lovers must grant everything, mutually and gratuitously, the one to the other without being constrained thereto by any motive of necessity, while husband and wife are bound by duty to agree the one with the other and deny each other in nothing.... Let this judgment, which we have passed with extreme caution and with the advice of a great number of other ladies, be held by you as the truth, unquestionable and unalterable.
In the year 1174, the third day from the Calends of May, the VIIth: indiction.2
Notes
1
Causa conjugii ab amore non est excusatio recta.
Qui non celat amare non potest.
Nemo duplici potest amore ligari.
Semper amorem minui vel crescere constat.
Non est sapidum quod amans ab invito sumit amante.
Masculus non solet nisi in plena pubertate amare.
Biennalis viduitas pro amante defuncto superstiti praescribitur amanti.
Nemo, sine rationis excessu, suo debet amore privari.
Amare nemo potest, nisi qui amoris suasione compellitur.
Amor semper ab avaritia consuevit domiciliis exulare.
Non decet amare quarum pudor est nuptias affectare.
Verus amans alterius nisi suae coamantis ex affectu non cupit amplexus.
Amor raro consuevit durare vulgatus.
Facilis perceptio contemptibilem reddit amorem, difficilis eum parum facit haberi.
Omnis consuevit amans in coamantis aspectu pallescere.
In repertina coamantis visione, cor tremescit amantis.
Novus amor veterem compellit abire.
Probitas sola quemcumque dignum facit amore.
Si amor minuatur, cito deficit et raro convalescit.
Amorosus semper est timorosus.
Ex vera zelotypia affectus semper crescit amandi.
De coamante suspicione percepta zelus interea et affectus crescit amandi.
Minus dormit et edit quem amoris cogitatio vexat.
Quilibet amantis actus in coamantis cogitatione finitur.
Verus amans nihil beatum credit, nisi quod cogitat amanti placere.
Amor nihil posset amori denegare.
Amans coamantis solatiis satiari non potest.
Modica praesumptio cogit amantem de coamante suspicari sinistra.
Non solet amare quem nimia voluptatis abundantia vexat.
Verus amans assidua, sine intermissione, coamantis imagine detinetur.
Unam feminam nihil prohibet a duobus amari, et a duabus mulieribus unum. (Fol. 103.)
2 Utrum inter conjugatos amor possit habere locum?
Dicimus enim et stabilito tenore firmamus amorem non posse inter duos jugales suas extendere vires, nam amantes sibi invicem gratis omnia largiuntur, nullius necessitatis ratione cogente; jugales vero mutuis tenentur ex debito voluntatibus obedire et in nullo seipsos sibi ad invicem denegare....
Hoc igitur nostrum judicium, cum nimia moderatione prolatum, et aliarum quamplurium dominarum consilio roboratum, pro indubitabili vobis sit ac veritate constanti.
Ab anno M.C.LXXIV, tertio calend. maii, indictione VII. (Fol. 56.)
This judgment conforms to the first provision of the Code of Love; “Causa conjugii non est ab amore excusatio recta.”