At that time, society was only dimly conscious of the great idea of courtesy. They gave this idea expression, and such pronounced expression that all society became pervaded with it. At that time It was one of these knights, William the IX., a type of manly prowess, chivalrous not as yet hardened into caste, and the knights were fit teachers of the people too, Christian as ceticism and feudal heartlessness had made both marriage and love little esteemed among the people. Marriage was tolerated only as a necessary evil, and love was decried as the snare of the devil. Against such sentiments the finer natures of both sexes cried out, and the troubadours voiced this cry.
They did indeed reduce both courtesy and love to a fantastic code and concerned themselves with questions whose solutions were of no value, but back of all this ill-balanced effort there lay a spirit of gentle relations between all men and women that has made a profound impression on succeeding ages.
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Mr. Copeland's Reading.
