Courtney’s Blog

Love, Damian.  “‘Al This Peynted Process’: Chaucer and the Psychology of Courtly Love.”  English Studies 5 (2002): 391-398.

            In his essay “‘Al this peynted process’: Chaucer and the Psychology of Courtly Love,” Damian Love explores the connections between the psychology of courtly love and the psychology of Chaucer’s Troilus.  Love discusses how the Troilus’s obsessive nature interacts with the lyric, religious, and secular elements of courtly love.  His essay contains several interesting insights, but Love fails to explore them fully.

            The most important thing Love establishes about the psychology of Troilus is that he is an absolutist (397).  Whatever Troilus is currently experiencing is everything to him, even when he felt the opposite moments before.  An example Love gives to support the absolutist Troilus is the rapid change from Troilus’s wholehearted dismissal of love to an equally wholehearted devotion to love (395).  Love also points out the constantly changing emotional state of Troilus, as he moves from despair about loving Criseyde, joy in receiving her love, and back to despair (397).  Troilus’s emotions consume him.

            Since the character of Troilus is so obsessive and absolute, Love explains that the addition of courtly conventions serve to heighten his flaws.  The lyricism that Troilus embraces reveals why such an embrace is bad from someone like him.  As Love says, “The lyrics transfixes a moment of passion and lends itself to stasis and introspection … a dangerous tendency for one of Troilus’s temperament” (396).  Troilus’s passions rule him.  The addition of lyricism, with its inward focus, increases this as he is encouraged to think and reflect on that emotion.  Troilus is too obsessive for introspection to be healthy; instead, it heightens his melodramatic nature.

            Love connects the absolutist Troilus with a religiously minded Troilus, suggesting that this also draws Troilus to courtly love (395).  Early in the essay, Love discusses how the courtly tradition combines the sacred and profane, as a knight pledges an almost spiritual devotion to his lady, while at the same time possessing a physical desire for her (392).  Love explains that Troilus is religious in temperament, as he wants greater meaning in his life.  Troilus’s purely physical desire for Criseyde is insufficient, so he enters a tradition that elevates that desire (Love 396).

            Love never dismisses Troilus’s emotions as anything less than honest.  However, he suggests that Troilus is aware that his internal drama regarding love and Criseyde might not bear up outside of his own mind (Love 396).  Troilus experiences a fear of exposure for all five books of the poem (Love 397).  The psychology of Troilus is focused inward, and Troilus knows his world might not survive if he turns outward.  An example Love refers to is how Troilus faints upon meeting with Criseyde, as this forces his internal drama to become external (397). 

            Love’s examination of the psychology of courtly love raises some interesting points, but ultimately Love did use all the information at his disposal.  I like Love’s description of how the conventions of courtly love were harmful to Troilus because of his personality.  In Calabrese’s book on Chaucer and Ovid, he notes that Chaucer uses Troilus to reveal problems in the art of rhetoric.  Love’s essay supports this as he shows the lyricism of courtly love enabling Troilus to continue to obsess over an event or emotion.  I believe this was the most valuable contribution from Love’s essay.         

            Love also briefly discusses the connection between courtly love and the religious tradition in Troilus and Criseyde, something noted in other essays I have read on the subject.  Love notes how “the lyrical love of a woman” reflects religious devotion in Troilus, a subject that is explored further in
Moore’s essay “Who’s Solipsistic Now?” (Love 394).  In
Moore’s exploration of devotion, she refers to the writings of St. Anselm.  Similarly, Love turns to
St. Augustine at the beginning of his essay.  However, despite using extensive quotes from the Confessions of St. Augustine, Love does not explore how Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde is connected to the writings of
St. Augustine, though Chaucer would have been aware of him.  He refers to the words of
St. Augustine regarding the ability of the mind to order itself to change, and how difficult it can be to summon enough willpower to effect change, such as increasing one’s devotion (Love 391).  This struck me because in the essay “Who’s Solipsistic Now?”
Moore notes how devotion is a process of persuading one’s self what is true.  To mention such an idea from
St. Augustine in an essay about Troilus and Criseyde and not continue to explore the connection is unfortunate.  I would have taken
St. Augustine’s remarks and connected it to Chaucer’s discussion of the power of rhetoric to control one’s world, something explored in the poem.  Troilus and Criseyde is full of instances in which characters try to convince themselves to believe something.  For example, Criseyde convinces herself to accept Troilus, and later Troilus attempts to convince himself that Criseyde’s love remains true.  These instances, however, involve characters persuading themselves that courtly love is viable, and not the religious devotion
St. Augustine discusses.  The combination of secular and religious elements in Troilus and Criseyde reflects a desire on Chaucer’s part to explore the ambiguities of these conventions.  In his essay, Love refers to these ambiguities, but does not use the information he has to examine them fully.

            Love’s essay on the psychology of courtly love in Troilus and Criseyde declares that Troilus has an obsessive and absolutist personality.  However, Love also refers to several interesting ideas regarding the connection between
St. Augustine and Chaucer’s obsessive Troilus that he fails to utilize fully.  Love’s essay can serve as a starting point in understanding interpretations of Troilus and Criseyde that others go into in more depth and detail.

Courtney Brown