La Princesse de Clèves and the Myth of Courtly Love
1969; University of Toronto Press; Volume: 38; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Francês
10.3138/utq.38.2.105
ISSN1712-5278
Autores Tópico(s)Historical Art and Culture Studies
ResumoThe action of La Princesse de Clèves evolves in a setting almost too splendid to be real. As the first sentence suggests, life at the court of Henri II had reached an exemplary stage of brilliance, never known before and never to be known again; "La magnificence et la galanterie n'ont jamais paru en France avec tant d'éclat que dans les demières années du règne de Henri second." This was a Golden Age of courtesy, a privileged era when women were more lovely, men more handsome, nature more bountiful in her production of the courtly species: "Jamais cour n'a eu tant de belles personnes et d'hommes admirablement bien faits; et il semblait que la nature eût pris plaisir à placer ce qu'elle donne de plus beau dans les plus grandes princesses et dans les plus grands princes." (242) This place of beauty and pleasure was populated by a "nombre infini de princes et de grands seigneurs d'un mérite extraordinaire." (242)
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