European Love Literature

Dante AlighieriThen romantic love entered real life! It happened in Florence at 3 o'clock one afternoon in1283, when an eighteen year old youth met a girl a few months younger dressed in whiteaccompanied by two older friends: 'e per la sua ineffabile cortesia... mi saluto moltovirtuosamente tanto che mi parve allora vedere tutti i termini della beatitudine.' (And by herunspeakable courtesy... she greeted me with such skill that at that moment I seemed toglimpse all the farthest bounds of bliss.)The love-experience meditated on in the autobiographical narrative and poems whichmake up Dante's La Vita Nuova begins with the sight of the Lady. Unlike the romances, theman here is no soldier, and is in control of his physical desire. Sex as such is not at allinvolved; yet once again, the effect on the man of seeing the woman is a sickness; he cannotspeak, he grows pale and almost faints. The great distance that marks their relationship issuch that all his desire (and it is largely frustrated) is to hear Beatrice greet him: Salute(which means salvation!) Then on June 8, 1290 he was writing a poem in her praise:So long a time has Love kept me a slaveAnd in his lordship fully seasoned meThat even though at first I felt him harsh,Now tender is his power in my heart.But when he takes my strength away from meSo that my spirits seem to run away,My fainting soul then feels overcome1 And my face is drained of all its colour,For in me Love is working up such powerHe makes my spirits rant and wander offThat rushing out they call1 My Lady, begging her to grant me grace.This happens every time she sees meand I am humbled more than you'll believe.he had written those words, he says, when he learned that 'the God of Justice had called thismost gracious one to glory under the banner of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose name wasalways spoken with the greatest reverence by the blessed Beatrice.' This unfinished poemstands in the centre of the Vita Nuova, before it are poems about the growth of his love, andafter it are the poems in which he comes to understand that the dead Beatrice is now evenmore his love, leading his pilgrim soul into a new life of heavenly vision:Beyond the sphere that makes the longest roundPasses the sigh which issues from my heart;A quickened understanding that sad LoveImparts to it keeps drawing it on high.When it has come to the desired placeIt sees a lady held in reverenceAnd who shines so, that through her radianceThe pilgrim spirit gazes upon her.