26 Chretien de Troyes Quotes

Chretien de Troyes quotes

1. Amors sanz crieme et sans peor Est feus sanz flame et sanz chalor, Jorz sanz soloil, bresche sanz miel, Estez sans flor, iverz sanz giel, Ciaus sanz lune, livres sanz letre.

2. Bien pert que c'est apres mangier, Fet Kex, qui teire ne se pot Plus a paroles an plain pot De vin qu'an un mui de cervoise.

3. Joie d'amors qui vient a tart Sanble la vert busche qui art, Qui dedanz rant plus grant chalor Et plus se tient en sa valor, Quant plus demore a alumer.

4. Qu'a toz mangiers est sausse fains Bien destanpree et bien confite.

5. Par le sornon connoist on l'ome.

6. Nus ne puet estre trop parliers Qui sovent tel chose ne die Qui torne li est affolie, Car li sages dit et retrait: Qui trop parole, il se mesfait.

7. Que molt est malvais qui oblie S'on li fait honte ne laidure.

8. Qui baise feme et plus n'i fait, Des qu'il sont sol a sol andui, Dont quit je qu'il remaint en lui. Feme qui se bouche abandone Le sorplus molt de legier done.

9. He was one of the first explorers of the human heart, and is therefore rightly to be numbered among the fathers of the novel of sentiment.

10. Chretien is nothing if not versatile: popular, recherche, allusive, insistent, arch, naive, racy and demure...He has a dramatist's flair for the handling of dialogue, a deft and economic way with characterization, the sharp confidence of the logician in his handling of rhetorical figures and the self-assurance of the entertainer in the deployment of humour (he is master of the verbal nudge). It is his essential vivacity that one misses most in his imitators.

1. The joy of late love is like green firewood when set aflame, for the longer the wait in lighting, the greater heat it yields and the longer its force lasts…

2. “Because no one has ever seen a woman behave so wrongly as to ask a man to love her, unless she were more deranged than the next person. I would be a proven fool if I ever spoke a word that would bring me reproach. If he were to learn it from my mouth, I think he would lose esteem for me and lastingly reproach me for having spoken first. May love never stoop so low that I beseech him first since he would then esteem me less.”

3. “When it hurts and destroys its follower, Love is worse than Hatred.”

4. “Potem dobywa nagiego i przetrzymawszy chwilkę w dłoni wkłada z powrotem do pochwy. Wiedzcie, że pięknie mu z mieczem u boku, a jeszcze piękniej – z mieczem w dłoni.”

5. “[G]enerosity... is the mistress and queen that gives lustre to every virtue, as it is not hard to prove. Where could one find a man, however powerful and rich, who isn't blamed if he is mean? And who, though not appreciated for his many other qualities, doesn't earn praise by his generosity? Liberality on its own makes a worthy man; and that can't be achieved by high birth, courtliness, wisdom, nobility, wealth, strength, chivalry, boldness, authority, beauty, or anything else. But just as the rose is more lovely than any other flower when it opens fresh and new, so where liberality appears it surpasses all other virtues and increases five hundred times the qualities it finds in a worthy, upright man.”

6. “My good sir, is she your daughter then?' 'Yes, but don't pay any attention to what she says,' said the lord. 'She's a child - a silly, foolish thing.' 'Indeed,' said my lord Gawain, 'then I'd be very ill-mannered not to do what she wants.”

7. “Through their kisses and caresses they experienced a joy and wonder the equal of which has never been known or heard of. But I shall be silent...; for the rarest and most delectable pleasures are those which are hinted at, but never told.”

8. “But many have to look on in silence at what distresses them.”

9. “What the eyes do not see can never pain the heart.”

10. “...the most delightful and choicest pleasure is that which is hinted at, but never told.”

11. “For sorrow to which one gives voice is worth nothing if it does not touch the heart.”

12. “I'd rather be torn limb from limb than have our love remembered like that of Tristan and Isolde, which has become a source of mockery and makes me ashamed to talk of it. I could never agree to lead the life Isolde led. Love was greatly abased in her, for her heart was given entirely to one man, but her body was shared by two; so she spent all her life without refusing either. Her love was contrary to reason, but my love will always be constant, because nothing will ever cause my heart and body to be separated. Truly my body will never be prostituted, nor will it ever be shared. Let him who possesses my heart possess my body, for I abjure all others.”

13. “I have not been given the name Soredamors for nothing. I must love and I must be loved, and I wish to prove this by my name, if I can reason it out. It is significant that the first part of my name is of golden hue, for the more blonde one is, the better. Therefore I consider my name the best, since it begins with the colour with which gold is most in harmony. And the end of my name reminds me of Love, for whoever calls me by my right name evokes Love's tint within me. One half of my name gilds the other with the bright yellow hue of gold, for "Soredamors" means "gilded over with Love".”

14. “Alexander did not dare request what he really desired, though he knew that if he asked him for his sweetheart's hand he would have it. But he was so afraid of displeasing her (who would have been overjoyed) that he preferred to suffer without her than have her against her will.”

15. “He who spends all his time amassing wealth is a slave to it.”

16. “One cannot love with the eyes alone.”