The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval TraditionThe Allegory of Love is a landmark study of a powerful and influential medieval conception. C. S. Lewis explores the sentiment called 'courtly love' and the allegorical method within which it developed in literature and thought, from its first flowering in eleventh-century Languedoc through to its transformation and gradual demise at the end of the sixteenth century. Lewis devotes particular attention to the major poems The Romance of the Rose and The Faerie Queene, and to poets including Chaucer, Gower and Thomas Usk. |
Common terms and phrases
allegory already appears beauty becomes begins better called century character Chaucer Christian comes conception continued course court courtly love critic Danger described doubt English equally et seq experience explain fact Faerie Queene feeling garden Genius give given Gower Guillaume hand human Ibid imagination important influence interest Jean kind lady later learned less lines literary literature living look lover marriage matter means medieval meet mere Middle mind moral nature never once original Oxford pass passage passion perhaps picture poem poet poetry possible present purely question reader reason religion represents Romance Rose seems sense side speak Spenser story style tells theme thing tion tradition Troilus true turn Venus virtues whole woman writing