In the remote days of Greek antiquity, we find an example
of undivided wifely love in Alcestis, whose devotion to her husband sent
her to voluntary death in order to lengthen his life. Wifely devotion
accomplished what parental love could not achieve. The _Alcestis_ of
Euripides represents a feeling very familiar to us. Penelope, the
faithful martyr, is a similar instance.
At the time when spiritual love, accompanied by eccentricities and Latin
treatises, gradually, and amidst heavy conflict, struggled into
existence, the soul of woman was already glowing with the emotion which
we, to-day, realise as love. I have three witnesses to prove this
statement. The _Lais_ of the French poetess Marie de France, based on
Breton and Celtic motifs, are permeated by a sweet sentimentality, very
nearly related to the sentiment of our popular ballads. They tell of
simple feelings, of love and longing and the grief of love. One of her
_lais_ treats the touching story of Lanval and Guinevere, and another an
episode of Tristan and Isolde.
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