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CASTIGLIONE'S THE COURTIER
As you read Thomas Hoby’s translation of Castiglione’s The Courtier (pp. 578-593), consider the following issues:
• is the concept of sprezzatura (579, note 8) translatable to our own culture?
• what is the relationship between love and beauty? (580)
• the debate over whether physical beauty always = moral goodness (581)
• the divine source of beauty (582)
• examples of the beautiful in the physical world (582-3)
• whether old or young men appreciate love more (583-4)
• the dangers of beauty (584-5)
• whether it’s necessary for a beautiful woman to return love (585-6)
• the significance of the kiss (596-7)
• what happens when the moral lover ascends the “stair” of Love (587-90)
• women and the Stair of Love (throughout)
THE PROCESS OF LOVE (585):
|
GOOD LOVE |
BAD LOVE |
|
the eye perceives a beautiful face and carries the image to the soul the soul feels pleasure in the beauty the senses are stimulated by the soul’s pleasure and return to the sight of the beloved |
the eye perceives a beautiful face and carries the image to the soul the soul feels pleasure in the beauty the senses are stimulated by the soul’s pleasure and return to the sight of the beloved |
|
the reason reminds the senses that the source of beauty is not the person, but God, and that physical contact would corrupt that beauty — only sight and hearing are “ministers of reason” |
the senses demand more and more contact with the beautiful one — not satisfied with sight and hearing, touch, taste, smell are indulged |
|
the purely delighted mind and soul turn to thoughts of virtue |
the mind and soul are overcome by lust |
|
the virtuous lover longs to instruct the beloved in virtue and goodness |
the lustful lover begs his beloved to satisfy his lust |
|
through sight and conversation, the beloved shares her goodness and beauty with the virtuous lover; |
the beloved refuses or teases the lover, causing frustration, jealousy, anger, etc. |
|
the Platonic lovers share their souls in a chaste kiss |
the lustful lovers either break up or have sex |
|
Platonic lovers, when separated, comfort themselves with the beauty of Creation and the memory of the beloved’s beauty |
because their love is only sensual, the lovers suffer great pain whenever they are apart from each other, or, once the body is sated, the mind becomes disappointed and the soul becomes disgusted; the love dies and the lovers separate |
|
Platonic lovers do not limit the mind to desiring one person’s outward beauty, but begin to perceive the inward light of all beings. The happiness and awe caused by this perception brings the lover close to God |
The disappointed lover becomes bitter and cynical, incapable of selfless love |
|
the fire of love purifies and refines the virtuous lover, burning away all sensual distractions |
the “fire” of love in this case is hellfire or the burning sensation caused by venereal disease (not in Bembo but in later, satiric drama and poetry) |
Prepare answers to the following questions in complete sentences, based on your reading in The Courtier.
1. What (in your own words) is sprezzatura? Can you describe of a contemporary example of it in the arts, in any other public figure, or in someone you are acquainted with?
2. According to Lord Gaspar, why can women never completely ascend the ladder to attain Neoplatonic “grace”?
