Spiritual love and sexuality were irreconcilable contradistinctions; the
man who thought otherwise was looked upon as a libertine. The following
passages from the poems of the troubadours and their heirs, the Italian
poets of the _dolce stil nuovo_, will prove the historical reality of
this relationship, the ideal of the declining Middle Ages. We need take
no account of the German minnesingers, for although they shared the same
ideal, they did not influence principle in the same way as the neo-Latin
poets.
Bernart of Ventadour:
Lady, I ask no other meed
Than that you suffer me to serve;
My faith and love shall never swerve,
I'm yours whatever you decreed.
Peire Rogier:
Mine is her smile and mine her jest,
And foolish were I more to ask
And not to think me wholly blest.
'Tis no deceit,
To gaze at her is all I need,
The sight of her is my reward.
Gaucelm Faidit:
Of all the ways of love I chose the best,
I love you, love, with ardour infinite,
Yours is my life, do as you will with it.
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