The love which is always a lie
And deceiver of men, I decry
And denounce; I had more than enough.
Can you count all the evil it wrought?
When I think of it I am distraught.
What a madman I was to believe,
To sigh, to rejoice and to grieve;
But no longer I'll squander my days,
We have come to the parting of the ways. Etc.
He was indefatigable in abusing the tender passion, and had a great deal
to say about the immorality of women. But it is characteristic of the
strong public opinion of the time that even this misogynist (who,
perhaps, after all was only a disappointed man) praised "high love."
The subject also found its theorists, prominent among whom was the
court-chaplain Andreas, who wrote a very learned book on love in Latin.
He expressed in propositions and conclusions what the contemporary poets
expressed in verse, proving thereby that spiritual love was not merely a
poetic fiction but the profoundest belief of the period, supported by
the full complement of its philosophical weapons.
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