APPENDIX

[1]Maupertius.

With regard to physical love and, in fact, physical pleasure, the disposition of the two sexes is not the same. Unlike men, practically all women are at least susceptible in secret to one kind of love. Ever after opening her first novel at fifteen, a woman is silently waiting for the coming of passion-love, and towards twenty, when she is just over the irresponsibility of life's first flush, the suspenseredoubles. As for men, they think love impossible or ridiculous, almost before they are thirty.

From the age of six we grow used to run after pleasure in our parents' footsteps.

The pride of Contessina Nella's mother was the starting-point of that charming woman's troubles, and by the same insane pride she now makes them hopeless. (Venice, 1819.)

Romanticism

I hear from Paris that there are heaps and heaps of pictures to be seen there (Exhibition of 1822), representing subjects taken from the Bible, painted by artists who hardly believe in it, admired and criticised by people who don't believe, and finally paid for by people who don't believe.

After that—you ask why art is decadent.

The artist who does not believe what he is saying is always afraid of appearing exaggerated or ridiculous. How is he to touch the sublime? Nothing uplifts him. (Lettera di Roma, Giugno, 1822.)

One of the greatest poets the world has seen in modern times is, to my mind, Robert Burns, a Scotch peasant, who died of want. He had a salary of seventy pounds as exciseman—for himself, his wife and four children. One cannot help saying, by the way, that Napoleon was more liberal towards his enemy Chénier. Burns had none of the English prudery about him. His was a Roman genius, without chivalry and without honour. I have no space here to tell of his love-affairs with Mary Campbell and theirmournful ending. I shall merely point out that Edinburgh is on the same latitude as Moscow—a fact which perhaps upsets my system of climates a little.

"One of Burns' remarks, when he first came to Edinburgh, was that between the men of rustic life and those of the polite world he observed little difference; that in the former, though unpolished by fashion and unenlightened by science, he had found much observation and much intelligence; but that a refined and accomplished woman was a being almost new to him, and of which he had formed but a very inadequate idea." (London,November 1st, 1821, Vol. V, p. 69.)

Love is the only passion that mints the coin to pay its own expenses.

The compliments paid to little girls of three furnish exactly the right sort of education to imbue them with the most pernicious vanity. To look pretty is the highest virtue, the greatest advantage on earth. To have a pretty dress is to look pretty.

These idiotic compliments are not current except in the middle class. Happily they are bad form outside the suburbs—being too easy to pay.

Loretto,September 11th, 1811.

I have just seen a very fine battalion composed of natives of this country—the remains, in fact, of four thousand who left for Vienna in 1809. I passed along the ranks with the Colonel, and asked several of the soldiers to tell me their story. Theirs is the virtue of the republics of the Middle Age, though more or less debased by theSpaniards,[1]the Roman Church,[2]and two centuries of the cruel, treacherous governments, which, one after another, have spoiled the country.

Flashing, chivalrous honour, sublime but senseless, is an exotic plant introduced here only a very few years back.

In 1740 there was no trace of it.Videde Brosses. The officers of Montenotte(67)and of Rivoli(67)had too many chances of showing their comrades true virtue to go andimitatea kind of honour unknown to the cottage homes from which the soldiery of 1796 was drawn—indeed, it would have seemed to them highly fantastic.

In 1796 there was no Legion of Honour, no enthusiasm for one man, but plenty of simple truth and virtueà laDesaix. We may conclude that honour was imported into Italy by people too reasonable and too virtuous to cut much of a figure. One is sensible of a large gap between the soldiers of '96, often shoeless and coatless, the victors of twenty battles in one year, and the brilliant regiments of Fontenoy, taking off their hats and saying to the English politely:Messieurs, tirez les premiers—gentlemen, pray begin.

[1]The Spaniards abroad, about 1580, were nothing but energetic agents of despotism or serenaders beneath the windows of Italian beauties. In those days Spaniards dropped into Italy just in the way people come nowadays to Paris. For the rest, they prided themselves on nothing but upholding the honour of the king,their master. They ruined Italy—ruined and degraded it.In 1626 the great poet Calderon was an officer at Milan.[2]SeeLife of S. Carlo Borromeo, who transformed Milan and debased it, emptied its drill halls and filled its chapels, Merveilles kills Castiglione, 1533.

In 1626 the great poet Calderon was an officer at Milan.

[2]SeeLife of S. Carlo Borromeo, who transformed Milan and debased it, emptied its drill halls and filled its chapels, Merveilles kills Castiglione, 1533.

I am ready to agree that one must judge the soundness of a system of life by the perfect representative of its supporters. For example, Richard Cœur-de-Lion is the perfect pattern on the throne of heroism and chivalrous valour, and as a king was a ludicrous failure.

Public opinion in 1822: A man of thirty seduces a girl of fifteen—the girl loses her reputation.

Ten years later I met Countess Ottavia again; on seeing me once more she wept bitterly. I reminded her of Oginski. "I can no longer love," she told me. I answered in the poet's words: "How changed, how saddened, yet how elevated was her character!"

French morals will be formed between 1815 and 1880, just as English morals were formed between 1668 and 1730. There will be nothing finer, juster or happier than moral France about the year 1900. At the present day it does not exist. What is considered infamous in Rue de Belle-Chasse is an act of heroism in Rue du Mont-Blanc, and, allowing for all exaggeration, people really worthy of contempt escape by a change of residence. One remedy we did have—the freedom of the Press. In the long run the Press gives each man his due, and when this due happens to fall in with public opinion, so it remains. This remedy is now torn from us—and it will somewhat retard the regeneration of morals.

The Abbé Rousseau was a poor young man (1784), reduced to running all over the town, from morn till night, giving lessons in history and geography. He fell in love with one of his pupils, like Abelard with Héloïse or Saint-Preux with Julie. Less happy than they, no doubt—yet, probably, pretty nearly so—as full of passion as Saint-Preux, but with a heart more virtuous, more refined and also more courageous, he seems to have sacrificed himself to the object of his passion. After dining in arestaurant at the Palais-Royal with no outward sign of distress or frenzy, this is what he wrote before blowing out his brains. The text of his note is taken from the enquiry held on the spot by the commissary and the police, and is remarkable enough to be preserved.

"The immeasurable contrast that exists between the nobility of my feelings and the meanness of my birth, my love, as violent as it is invincible, for this adorable girl[1]and my fear of causing her dishonour, the necessity of choosing between crime and death—everything has made me decide to say good-bye to life. Born for virtue, I was about to become a criminal; I preferred death." (Grimm, Part III, Vol. II, p. 395.)

This is an admirable case of suicide, but would be merely silly according to the morals of 1880.

[1]The girl in question appears to have been Mademoiselle Gromaire, daughter of M. Gromaire, expeditionary at the Court of Rome.

Try as they may, the French, in Art, will never get beyond the pretty.

The comic presupposes "go" in the public, andbrioin the actor. The delicious foolery of Palomba, played at Naples by Casaccia, is an impossibility at Paris. There we have the pretty—always and only the pretty—cried up sometimes, it is true, as the sublime.

I don't waste much thought, you see, on general considerations of national honour.

We are very fond of a beautiful picture, say the French—and quite truly—but we exact, as the essential condition of beauty, that it be produced by a painter standing on one leg the whole time he is working.—Verse in dramatic art.

Much less envy in America than in France, and much less intellect.

Since 1530 tyrannyà laPhilip II has so degraded men's intellect, has so overshadowed the garden of the world, that the poor Italian writers have not yet plucked up enough courage toinventa national novel. Yet, thanks to the naturalness which reigns there, nothing could be simpler. They need only copy faithfully what stares the world in the face. Think of Cardinal Gonzalvi, for three hours gravely looking for flaws in the libretto of an opera-bouffe, and saying uneasily to the composer: "But you're continually repeating this wordCozzar, cozzar."

Héloïse speaks of love, a coxcomb ofhislove—don't you see that these things have really nothing but their name in common? Just so, there is the love of concerts and the love of music: the love of successes that tickle your vanity—successes your harp may bring you in the midst of a brilliant society—or the love of a tender day-dream, solitary and timid.

When you have just seen the woman you love, the sight of any other woman spoils your vision, gives your eyes physical pain. I know why.

Reply to an objection:—

Perfect naturalness in intimate intercourse can find no place but in passion-love, for in all the other kinds of love a man feels the possibility of a favoured rival.

In a man who, to be released from life, has taken poison, the moral part of his being is dead. Dazed by what he has done and by what he is about to experience, he no longer attends to anything. There are some rare exceptions.

An old sea captain, to whom I respectfully offered my manuscript, thought it the silliest thing in the world to honour with six hundred pages so trivial a thing as love. But, however trivial, love is still the only weapon which can strike strong souls, and strike home.

What was it prevented M. de M——, in 1814, from despatching Napoleon in the forest of Fontainebleau? The contemptuous glance of a pretty woman coming into the Bains-Chinois.[1]What a difference in the destiny of the world if Napoleon and his son had been killed in 1814!

[1]Memoirs, p. 88. (London edition.)

I quote the following lines from a French letter received from Znaim, remarking at the same time that there is not a man in the provinces capable of understanding my brilliant lady correspondent:—

"... Chance means a lot in love. When for a whole year I have read no English, I find the first novel I pick up delicious. One who is used to the love of a prosaic being—slow, shy of all that is refined, and passionately responsive to none but material interests, the love of shekels, the glory of a fine stable and bodily desires, etc.—can easily feel disgust at the behaviour of impetuous genius, ardent and uncurbed in fancy, mindful of love, forgetful of all the rest, always active and always headlong, just where the other let himself be led and never acted for himself. The shock, which genius causes, may offend what, lastyear at Zithau, we used to call feminine pride,l'orgueil féminin—(is that French?) With the man of genius comes the startling feeling which with his predecessor was unknown—and, remember, this predecessor came to an untimely end in the wars and remains a synonym for perfection. This feeling may easily be mistaken for repulsion by a soul, lofty but without that assurance which is the fruit of a goodly number of intrigues."

"Geoffry Rudel, of Blaye, was a very great lord, prince of Blaye, and he fell in love, without knowing her, with the Princess of Tripoli, for the great goodness and great graciousness, which he heard tell of her from the pilgrims, who came from Antioch. And he made for her many fair songs, with good melodies and suppliant words, and, for the desire he had to see her, he took the cross and set out upon the sea to go to her. And it happened that in the ship a grievous malady took him, in such wise that those that were with him believed him to be dead, but they contrived to bring him to Tripoli into a hostelry, like one dead. They sent word to the countess and she came to his bed and took him in her arms. Then he knew that she was the countess and he recovered his sight and his hearing and he praised God, giving Him thanks that He had sustained his life until he had seen her. And thus he died in the arms of the countess, and she gave him noble burial in the house of the Temple at Tripoli. And then the same day she took the veil for the sorrow she had for him and for his death."[1]

[1]Translated from a Provençal MS. of the thirteenth century.

Here is a singular proof of the madness called crystallisation, to be found in Mistress Hutchinson's Memoirs:

"He told to M. Hutchinson a very true story of a gentleman who not long before had come for some timeto lodge in Richmond, and found all the people he came in company with bewailing the death of a gentlewoman that had lived there. Hearing her so much deplored, he made enquiry after her, and grew so in love with the description, that no other discourse could at first please him nor could he at last endure any other; he grew desperately melancholy and would go to a mount where the print of her foot was cut and lie there pining and kissing it all the day long, till at length death in some months' space concluded his languishment. This story was very true." (Vol. I, p. 83.)

Lisio Visconti was anything but a great reader. Not to mention what he may have seen while knocking about the world, his essay is based on the Memoirs of some fifteen or twenty persons of note. In case it happens that the reader thinks such trifling points worthy of a moment's attention, I give the books from which Lisio drew his reflexions and conclusions:—

One of the most important persons of our age, one of the most prominent men in the Church and in the State, related to us this evening (January, 1822), at Madame de M——'s, the very real dangers he had gone through under the Terror.

"I had the misfortune to be one of the most prominent members of the Constituent Assembly. I stayed in Paris, trying to hide myself as best I could, so long as there was any hope of success there for the good cause. At last, as the danger grew greater and greater, while the foreigner made no energetic move in our favour, I decided to leave—only I had to leave without a passport. Everyone was going off to Coblentz, so I determined to make for Calais. But my portrait had been so widely circulated eighteen months before, that I was recognised at the last post. However, I was allowed to pass and arrived at an inn at Calais, where, you can imagine, I did not sleep a wink—and very lucky it was, since at four o'clock in the morning I heard someone pronounce my name quite distinctly. While I got up and was dressing in all haste I could clearly distinguish, in spite of the darkness, the National Guards with their rifles; the people had opened the main door for them and they were entering the courtyard of the inn. Fortunately it was raining in torrents—a winter morning, very dark and with a high wind. The darkness and the noise of the wind enabled me to escape by the back courtyard and stables. There I stood in the street at seven o'clock in the morning, utterly resourceless! i I imagined they were following me from my inn. Hardly knowing what I was doing, I went down to the port, on to the jetty. I own I had rather lost my head—everywhere the vision of the guillotine floated before my eyes.

A packet-boat was leaving the port in a very rough sea—it was already a hundred yards from the jetty. SuddenlyI heard a shout from out at sea, as if I were being called. I saw a small boat approaching. "Hi! sir, come on! We're waiting for you!" Mechanically I got into the boat. A man was in it. "I saw you walking on the jetty with a scared look," he whispered, "I thought you might be some poor fugitive. I've told them you are a friend I was expecting; pretend to be sea-sick and go and hide below in a dark corner of the cabin."

"Oh, what a fine touch!" cried our hostess. She was almost speechless and had been moved to tears by the Abbé's long and excellently told story of his perils. "How you must have thanked your unknown benefactor! What was his name?"

"I do not know his name," the Abbé answered, a little confused.

And there was a moment of profound silence in the room.

The Father and the Son

(A dialogue of 1787)

The Father(Minister of ——): "I congratulate you, my son; it's a splendid thing for you to be invited to the Duke of ——; it's a distinction for a man of your age. Don't fail to be at the Palace punctually at six o'clock."

The Son:"I believe, sir, you are dining there also."

The Father:"The Duke of —— is always more than kind to our family, and, as he's asking you for the first time, he has been pleased to invite me as well."

The son, a young man of high birth and most distinguished intellect, does not fail to be at the Palace punctually at six o'clock. Dinner was at seven. The son found himself placed opposite his father. Each guest had a naked woman next to him. The dinner was served by a score of lackeys in full livery.[1]

[1]From December 27, 1819, till 3 June, 1820, Mil. [This note is written thus in English by Stendhal.—Tr.]

London,August, 1817.

Never in my life have I been so struck or intimidated by the presence of beauty as to-night, at a concert given by Madame Pasta.

She was surrounded, as she sang, by three rows of young women, so beautiful—of a beauty so pure and heavenly—that I felt myself lower my eyes, out of respect, instead of raising them to admire and enjoy. This has never happened to me in any other land, not even in my beloved Italy.

In France one-thing is absolutely impossible in the arts, and that is "go." A man really carried away would be too much laughed at—he would look too happy. See a Venetian recite Buratti's satires.

There were Courts of Love in France from the year 1150 to the year 1200. So much has been proved. The existence of these Courts probably goes back to a more remote period.

The ladies, sitting together in the Courts of Love, gave out their decrees either on questions of law—for example: Can love exist between married people?—

Or on the particular cases which lovers submitted to them.[1]

So far as I can picture to myself the moral side of this jurisprudence, it must have resembled the Courts of the Marshals of France established for questions of honour by Louis XIV—that is, as they would have been, if only public opinion had upheld that institution.

André, chaplain to the King of France, who wrote about the year 1170, mentions the Courts of Love

André mentions nine judgments pronounced by the Countess of Champagne.

He quotes two judgments pronounced by the Countess of Flanders.

Jean de Nostradamus,Life of the Provençal Poets, says (p. 15):—

"The 'tensons' were disputes of Love, which took place between poets, both knights and ladies, arguing together on some fair and sublime question of love. Where they could not agree,they sent them, that they might get a decision thereon, to the illustrious ladies president who held full and open Court of Love at Signe and Pierrefeu, or at Romanin, or elsewhere, and they gave out decrees thereon which were called 'Lous Arrests d'Amours.'"

These are the names of some of the ladies who presided over the Courts of Love of Pierrefeu and Signe:—

It is probable that the same Court of Love met sometimes at the Castle of Pierrefeu, sometimes at that of Signe. These two villages are just next to each other, and situated at an almost equal distance from Toulon and Brignoles.

In hisLife of Bertrand d'Alamanon, Nostradamus says:

"This troubadour was in love with Phanette or Estephanette of Romanin, Lady of the said place, of the house of Gantelmes, who held in her time full and open Court of Love in her castle of Romanin, near the town of Saint-Remy, in Provence, aunt of Laurette of Avignon, of the house of Sado, so often celebrated by the poet Petrarch."

Under the heading Laurette, we read that Laurette de Sade, celebrated by Petrarch, lived at Avignon about the year 1341; that she was instructed by Phanette of Gantelmes, her aunt, Lady of Romanin; that "both of them improvised in either kind of Provençal rhythm, and according to the account of the monk of the Isles d'Or(69), their works give ample witness to their learning.... It is true (says the monk) that Phanette or Estephanette, as being most excellent in poetry, had a divine fury or inspiration, which fury was esteemed a true gift from God. They were accompanied by many illustrious and high-born[2]ladies of Provence, who flourished at that time at Avignon, when the Roman court resided there, and who gave themselves up to the study of letters, holding open Court of Love, and therein deciding the questions of love which had been proposed and sent to them....

"Guillen and Pierre Balbz and Loys des Lascaris, Counts of Ventimiglia, of Tende and of Brigue, persons of great renown, being come at this time to visit Pope Innocent VI of that name, went to hear the definitions and sentences of love pronounced by these ladies; and astonished and ravished with their beauty and learning, they were taken with love of them."

At the end of their "tensons" the troubadours often named the ladies who were to pronounce on the questions in dispute between them.

A decree of the Ladies of Gascony runs:—

"The Court of ladies, assembled in Gascony, have laid down, with the consent of the whole Court, this perpetual constitution, etc., etc."

The Countess of Champagne in a decree of 1174, says:—

"This judgment, that we have carried with extreme caution, is supported by the advice of a very great number of ladies..."

In another judgment is found:—

"The knight, for the fraud that has been done him, denounced this whole affair to the Countess of Champagne, and humbly begged that this crime might be submitted to the judgment of the Countess of Champagne and the other ladies.""The Countess, having summoned around her sixty ladies, gave this judgment, etc."

"The Countess, having summoned around her sixty ladies, gave this judgment, etc."

André le Chapelain, from whom we derive this information, relates that the Code of Love had been published by a Court composed of a large number of ladies and knights.

André has preserved for us the petition, which was addressed to the Countess of Champagne, when she decided the following question in the negative: "Can real love exist between husband and wife?"

But what was the penalty that was incurred by disobedience to the decrees of the Courts of Love?

We find the Court of Gascony ordering that such or such of its judgments should be observed as a perpetual institution, and that those ladies who did not obey should incur the enmity of every honourable lady.

Up to what point did public opinion sanction the decrees of the Courts of Love?

Was there as much disgrace in drawing back from them, as there would be to-day in an affair dictated by honour?

I can find nothing in André or Nostradamus that puts me in a position to solve this question.

Two troubadours, Simon Boria and Lanfranc Cigalla, disputed the question: "Who is worthier of being loved, he who gives liberally, or he who gives in spite of himself in order to pass for liberal?"

This question was submitted to the ladies of the Court of Pierrefeu and Signe; but the two troubadours, being discontented with the verdict, had recourse to the supreme Court of Love of the ladies of Romanin.[3]

The form of the verdicts is conformable to that of the judicial tribunals of this period.

Whatever may be the reader's opinion as to the degree of importance which the Courts of Love occupied in the attention of their contemporaries, I beg him to consider what to-day, in 1822, are the subjects of conversation among the most considerable and richest ladies of Toulon and Marseilles.

Were they not more gay, more witty, more happy in 1174 than in 1882?

Nearly all the decrees of the Courts of Love are based on the provisions of the Code of Love.

This Code of Love is found complete in the work of André le Chapelain.

[1]André le Chapelain, Nostradamus, Raynouard, Crescimbeni, d'Arétin.[2]Jehanne, Lady of Baulx,Hugnette of Forcarquier, Lady of Trects,Briande d'Agoult, Countess de la Lune,Mabille de Villeneufve, Lady of Vence,Beatrix d'Agoult, Lady of Sault,Ysoarde de Roquefueilh, Lady of Ansoys,Anne, Viscountess of Tallard,Blanche of Flassans, surnamed Blankaflour,Doulce of Monestiers, Lady of Clumane,Antonette of Cadenet, Lady of Lambesc,Magdalene of Sallon, Lady of the said place,Rixende of Puyvard, Lady of Trans."(Nostradamus, p. 217.)[3]Nostradamus, p. 131.

[1]André le Chapelain, Nostradamus, Raynouard, Crescimbeni, d'Arétin.

[2]Jehanne, Lady of Baulx,Hugnette of Forcarquier, Lady of Trects,Briande d'Agoult, Countess de la Lune,Mabille de Villeneufve, Lady of Vence,Beatrix d'Agoult, Lady of Sault,Ysoarde de Roquefueilh, Lady of Ansoys,Anne, Viscountess of Tallard,Blanche of Flassans, surnamed Blankaflour,Doulce of Monestiers, Lady of Clumane,Antonette of Cadenet, Lady of Lambesc,Magdalene of Sallon, Lady of the said place,Rixende of Puyvard, Lady of Trans."(Nostradamus, p. 217.)

[3]Nostradamus, p. 131.

There are thirty-one articles and here they are:—

Here is the preamble of a judgment given by a Court of Love.

Question:Can true love exist between married people?

Judgmentof 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]

[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."

[1]

[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."

[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."

André Le Chapelainappears to have written about the year 1176.

In the Bibliothèque du Roi may be found a manuscript (No. 8758) of the work of André, which was formerly in the possession of Baluze. Its first title is as follows: "Hic incipiunt capitula libri de Arte amatoria et reprobatione amoris."

This title is followed by the table of chapters.

Then we have the second title:—

"Incipit liber de Arte amandi et de reprobatione amoris editus et compillatus a magistro Andrea, Francorum aulae regiæ capellano, ad Galterium amicum suum, cupientem in amoris exercitu militari: in quo quidem libro, cujusque gradus et ordinis mulier ab homine cujusque conditionis et status ad amorem sapientissime invitatur; et ultimo in fine ipsius libri de amoris reprobatione subjungitur."

Crescimbeni,Lives of the Provençal Poets, sub voce Percivalle Boria, cites a manuscript in the library of Nicolo Bargiacchi, at Florence, and quotes various passages from it. This manuscript is a translation of the treatise of André le Chapelain. The Accademia della Crusca admitted it among the works which furnished examples for its dictionary.

There have been various editions of the original Latin. Frid. Otto Menckenius, in hisMiscellanea Lipsiensia nova, Leipsic1751, Vol. VIII, part I, pp. 545 and ff., mentions a very old edition without date or place of printing, which he considers must belong to the first age of printing: "Tractatus amoris et de amoris remedio Andreae cappellani Innocentii papae quarti."

A second edition of 1610 bears the following title:—

"Erotica seu amatoriaAndreae capellani regii, vetustissimi scriptoris ad venerandum suum amicum Guualterium scripta, nunquam ante hac edita, sed saepius a multis desiderata; nunc tandem fide diversorum MSS. codicum in publicum emissa a Dethmaro Mulhero, Dorpmundae, typis Westhovianis, anno Una Caste et Vere amanda."

A third edition reads: "Tremoniae, typis Westhovianis, anno 1614.".

André divides thus methodically the subjects which he proposes to discuss:—

Each of these questions is discussed in several paragraphs.

Andreas makes the lover and his lady speak alternately. The lady raises objections, the lover tries to convince her with reasons more or less subtle. Here is a passage which the author puts into the mouth of the lover:—

"... Sed si forte horum sermonum te perturbet obscuritas," eorum tibi sententiam indicabo[2]Ab antiquo igitur quatuor sunt in amore gradus distincti:Primus, in spei datione consistit.Secundus, in osculi exhibitione.Tertius, in amplexus fruitione.Quartus, in totius concessione personae finitur."

"... Sed si forte horum sermonum te perturbet obscuritas," eorum tibi sententiam indicabo[2]

Ab antiquo igitur quatuor sunt in amore gradus distincti:

Primus, in spei datione consistit.

Secundus, in osculi exhibitione.

Tertius, in amplexus fruitione.

Quartus, in totius concessione personae finitur."

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