Section 12/11/14

Write a sufficient amount to answer the questions.

Guido Cavalcanti

About 2 men, one named and one unnamed

Go out and look for beautiful women
Spot an ugly looking woman
In normal situations, these two people would openly mock an old woman
looking like this
o However, her appearance as dressed up and higher status ->
Would not laugh at her
Talks about how laughing can be a coping mechanism
Ugly woman with appearance risks shattering world view
Two men are not good people, openly mock people
Similar to Narcissus (mock people for their looks)
One must be careful about ones reactions to beauty, always
mutable and changeable

How did Narcissus mother and father meet? What does Teiresias prophecy mean?
What is Echos fate? Is it true that Echo simply repeats Narcissus words, or does
she change and alter them, and if so, how?

Tiresiass propechy about Narcissus

o His prophecy continues thru
Echos fate
o Fall in love with Narcissus and watch him die
o Echo cannot be seen, only can be heard
o Juno has condemned Echo to repeat only the last words of which she
hears
Narcissus would call out and Echo would respond with only last
three words
He thought he was being tricked

What is the social status of the two main characters? What is the topic of Longus
novel? Comparing the different chapters of the novel think about the way they are
structured. What is the relation between men, animals, and the gods in Longus
text?

Characters are shepherds

Learning about sex and love, methods taught to them
Chapters are chronological (children to playmates to lovers)
Learn things about love, themselves
o Chloe learns about someone admiring her
o Progression of love thru finding, unified at the end
Life at the beginning of novel -> herd sheep, play in the meadows, act as
children
o As book goes along Chloe is kidnapped and almost raped

o Pirates invade the country, resulting in full war

End of novel
o Takes place in a kingdom/farm/estate
o As turn into adults, deal with situations that occurred when they were
kids as well
Come to know the world as they come to know love
Relationship between men and animals
o Animals are inherently connected in all ways
o Survival, livelihood
Taught Daphnus sex
Philaetus teaches both of them how to kiss, kissing is an important part of
love

To which kind of literary genre does Jaufre Rudels poem belong? How does it
compare to the poem we read by Sappho? Note the allusions to historical events of
the time when the poem was written. To which events do they refer? What can you
say about the rhyme scheme when you look at the original?

Lyrical poetry
Each stanza had the same rhyme, continues to loop around
o More songlike, connecting to lyrical poetry
o Topic of poem is love from afar
o Hypothetical woman is far away, turns and turns and the repeats
Apparent in rhyme scheme
Talks about Christian God

How does Heinrich von Morungens poem compare to Ovids story about Echo and
Narcissus? How does it compare to the story about Echos origins in Longus novel
Daphnis and Chloe? What is the function of mirror? What about the little bruise on
the lovers lip?

Both deal with reflection, breaks the illusion of beauty

o Often times we can be clouded with the idea of what beauty is, might
not be actual reality
Function of mirror is connected to Ovids story
Bruise on womans lip symbolizes death
o Echos speaking problem, not able to fully articulate herself
Minne: translation of name of ideal lover, also courtly love
o How does the poet feel about courtly love?
Blemish on lip alludes to mortality
Love is not perfect, ideal image of somebody that doesnt
exist, constantly turn somebody down when idea doesnt
exist (Narcissus)
Imperfection in the idea of courtly love, shatters illusion

What do you think of the lady in Marie de Frances story about the nightingale, or
Laustic? Has she been unfaithful? Is she innocent? And what about her husband,
her lover? What is the role of the nightingale?

Nightingale is the symbol of their love

Married woman can only communicate across the tower with her lover
Question is very opinionated, defend POV
Husband kills nightingale
o Kills it in front of her, snaps the neck of the bird
o Makes husband look like an asshole
o Gives reason for why she would fall in love with someone else
o Act of extreme violence
Disturbs her
o Snapping the birds neck = warning the he could kill her lover,
nightingale can no longer sing, snaps the line of communication and
excuse that she had for doing it
Symbol is broken, actual bird itself can no longer communicate,
also dead
o Night puts the nightingale in a coffin of gold? Symbolizes the woman
who he loved

Do you recognize some of the characters in this Canto? How does Dante react to the
story of Paolo and Francesca, and why does he react in this way? Compare Canto V
of Dantes Inferno to Jaufre Rudels poem When Days Grow Long, to Heinrich von
Morungens The Mirror, as well as to Marie de Frances Laustic? Why do Dantes
lovers end in hell? What do you make of the two lines: Thus it is willed where there
is power to do / what has been willed ... (Lines 23-24)

4 of them are connected by problems of love

o Always love from afar, cannot touch/come to the lover, idea of
someone he will never be with, only talk to each other, distance in a
significant way appears in all of these, distance is the inherent/biggest
problem that can affect love, two-sided coin to love -> never get full
harmony with person
thus it is willed
o Refers to God, only way he knows how to term it
Dante is written in Italian
o Dante would have not known about stories without Virgil
Virgil is the bridge to the characters
Virgil communicates for them
The act of writing is huge

Dantes Divine Comedy was written about two centuries before Columbus set sail
for the so called New World. How does this bold enterprise compare to Dantes tale
of Odysseus/Ulysses last voyage?

Age of discovery
All leaving from Spain, Portugal
Must pursue knowledge
Odysseus acts as a literary symbolic father figure for the age of discovery