Some gems of wisdom include the following: “All men have waited with ever-decreasing hope, day after day, for someone or for something that does not come, and all would willingly forget the experience.

This fall is important, for it allowed later thinkers to speak of a universe that was neither pagan nor ordinary.Sorry for the real-time freak out, but I just realized that TWO, count them TWO Pride and Prejudice adaptation alums appear in this episode! The rest of the book is devoted to the English tradition, closing with a detailed study of Spenser, The Faerie Queene. Whatever its undeniable explanatory power may have been, Platonism always had a dangerous relationship with paganism. The Allegory of Love, for lovers of medieval literature/poetry and romance allegory, is a must-read. The allegorical form is found to be at once an imaginative bridge from mythical to reflective consciousness and a principal origin of romanticism; and the formalities of mediaeval love are seen in their true relation both to the Nineteenth Century theory of marriage and to our present discontents.

I'm afraid my reading of The Allegory of Love sacrificed the poets for the sake of reading more Lewis. S. Lewis from scholars who have written far and wide about his stories, his theology, and his world. In his sermon on opposite sex, same sex relationships he mentioned one thing, one statement that "marriages a long time ago were utilitarian marriages. Outdated now, but still one of those things that you probably should read if you're doing anything about courtly love.Endeavour and Robbie were a marvellous combination - as much as anything else because they were so different. While the bulk of the book elaborates the development and use of allegory in medieval love poetry, my imagination was captured most by the potentially apologetic (in the Christian sense) logic behind his claim that allegory and symbolism are the inverse of each other. One specific instance that I enjoyed was when Lewis noted how, if he were laid up in bed with a slight illness for the rest of his life, in view of the ocean, and all he had to read was Italian Epics, he would be happy.