The Two Venuses and Courtly Love

Author / Editor
Economou, George D.

Title
The Two Venuses and Courtly Love

Published
Ferrante, Joan M., and George D. Economou, eds. In Pursuit of Perfection: Courtly Love in Medieval Literature (Port Washington, NY, Kennikat, 1975), pp. 17-50.

Description
Distinguishes two kinds of love associated with Venus in the Middle Ages, both of them subsets of earthly love: one "legitimate, sacramental, natural, and in harmony with natural law; the other, illegitimate, perverted, selfish, and sinful." Traces the two kinds in patristic commentary, mythographic tradition, and vernacular literatures, including Chaucer--in PF and, more extensively, in TC, where the dual view of earthly love is cast in political and Boethian frames.

Contributor
Ferrante, Joan M, ed.
Economou, George D., ed.

Alternative Title
In Pursuit of Perfection: Courtly Love in Medieval Literature.

Chaucer Subjects
Troilus and Criseyde
Parliament of Fowls