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. |
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User Review - luskwater - LibraryThingI enjoy Lewis' style and wit, which surprisingly (to me) appear even in his scholarly work. My first reaction was, "Why didn't anyone teach me things like this in school?" Then, "Maybe they tried, and I wasn't listening…." Read full review
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User Review - baswood - LibraryThingC S Lewis traces the development of love poetry from the celebration of adulterous love by the 12th century Troubadours through to Edmond Spenser's utter refutation and then vindication of married ... Read full review
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Adonis Alanus allegory Andreas Ariosto beauty becomes Bialacoil Boccaccio Bower Britomart century character Chaucer Chretien Christian classical comes conception Confessio Confessio Amantis court courtesy courtly love critic Cryseide Cupid Danger Dante Deguileville dream dreamer English epic erotic evil fact Faerie Queene garden Genius gods Gower Guillaume de Lorris Hawes heaven heroine herte homiletic Ibid imagination Italian Jean de Meun kind knight lady Lancelot lines literary literature love poetry lover Lydgate marriage means medieval medieval allegory ment Middle Ages mind modern reader moral nature never once Ovid Oxford Pandarus passage passion perhaps personifications picture poem poet poet's poetic prose Prudentius Psychomachia reason religion Romance Rose Sapience satire scene sense sentiment Skeat Spenser stanza Statius story style symbol tells theme thing Thomas Usk tion tradition Troilus true turn Venus virtues whole woman words writing