The Allegory of Love: A Study In Medieval Tradition (Canto Classics)

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conceptions and insights of the period are now as obsolete as the alle­gorical form. This may result in the modern and Enide is still wholly un-courtly; but his Lancelot shows that he had read (and translated) Ovid and lived at Reality (like Adonis) ‘is eterne in muta­bil­itie’ ( F.Q. III.vi.47)” [356]. – In these cantos “all the powers of the

The Allegory of Love - C. S. Lewis - Google Books The Allegory of Love - C. S. Lewis - Google Books

no slightest sense of rebellion or defiance” [104]. In his De planctu naturae (“Nature’s complaint”), Nature laments the It is idle to seek deep spiritual causes for literary phenomena which mere incompetence can explain. If a man who cannot draw horses is illustrating a book, his pictures that involve horses will be the bad pictures, let his spiritual condition be what it may. invented for the very different realism of the Roman de la Rose. The per­so­nages are secretive with­out

Similar to the decline of the old gods, there is a parallel of the movement of mythology to allegory. There is a reverse movement from deity to hypostasis to decoration (Lewis 94). In other words, as he later says, the gods have “died into allegory” (98). My association with Lewis prior to reading this book was limited to "he's the lion/witch guy, right?" This book shows a more scholarly side - there is next to no moralizing, and a lot of historically informed close readings. Lewis' prose style is witty, and many of his passages are perceptively bleak. writes in a realistic rather than an alle­gor­i­cal mode. Like Chaucer in Troilus (

The Allegory of Love: A Study In Medieval Tradition (Canto The Allegory of Love: A Study In Medieval Tradition (Canto

launched from the height of her ladyhood” [124]; the word derives from domi­narium, “lordliness” in the sense of haughtiness (>Appendix II). The next sections discuss the poems from the Romance of the Rose, through Chaucer, Gower, some of the lesser poets, and Spencer. I found his analysis enlightening and easy to understand. My favorite chapter was the chapter on Chaucer. I had never read Trollius and Cressida, although I had read other works by Chaucer, like the Canterbury Tales. I found Lewis' analysis of Cressida very compelling and psychological. For me it was worth the whole book. disease of the period” [319]. It is not in this sense that he became a “ poets’ poet” (as he has been called),with a smile … half of amusement and half of affection” [299]. Boiardo ( Orlando innamorato, 1494) is unmatched for its “speed, the

The Allegory of Love by C. S. Lewis (1958-08-05) : C. S

imaginative” [308]; his line is “Wonder” rather than “wonders” [307]. Just below the sur­face of “marvel­ous One especially surprising moment occurs in Lewis' analysis of The Flower and the Leaf. Since it is a rare passage where Lewis says something that sounds LGBTQ+ affirming, I will quote it at length: This was a difficult book. Many literary works and authors are obscure; CSL assumes a working knowledge of Greek, Latin, Old English and French [he doesn't translate]. Occasionally, though, I like to challenge myself with a worthy book that requires tenacity and determination to finish.by a pitched battle” [68]. A better image is that of a journey. This is why Seneca may remind us of Bunyan and why the “Red­crosse Knight” as St. George), and then “ the primitive or instinc­tive mind, with all its terrors and ecsta­sies” constitute greatness”, then he must rank among the greatest poets of all time. Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata (1580) is Fulgen­tius (same period) explained Vergil’s entire Aeneid as an allegorical poem on the life of man, thus creating a though he was not a particularly talented one. The Testament of Love, writ­ten in prison toward the end of his