Permeable Aesthetic

Because of the dual existence of the lady as both perfection and an imperfect human being who shares the quest, the stress in Troubadour experience is on the phase leading up to union, in which uncertainty, jealousy, distance, cannot but rule. Love seems to have its own inner unpredictable law. “Love can descend,” says Robert de Ventadour, “wherever it may please her.” The lover declares his love without any claim on the beloved. “In love man has no dominion; who seeks it there serves woman basely. Love does not want what is unfitting.”

-- Jack Lindsay, The Troubadours and their world