The Olde Daunce: Love, Friendship, Sex, and Marriage in the Medieval World (SUNY series in Medieval Studies) - Hardcover

"The work comprises essays on an important subject by well-known and excellent medievalists and will prove a most useful collection to those engaged in a study of love, sex, friendship, and their role in human civilization. All the essays in this collection are embedded in first-rate scholarship and presentation and will greatly enhance medieval critical study, especially that of Middle English literature." -- Dorothee Metlitzki, Yale University

In this volume a variety of perspectives reevaluate the nature of friendship, desire, and the olde daunce of love in the Middle Ages. Challenging earlier scholarly notions about medieval marriage, this book suggests and explores the legitimacy of marital friendship, affection, and mutuality. The authors explore the relationship of medieval love to companionship, equality, and power, and relate medieval expressions of love to a number of issues including creativity, reading and writing, voyeurism, chastity, violence, and even hate.

The book reconsiders the theological, philosophical, and legal background of medieval attitudes toward marriage, analyzes expressions of love and desire in European vernacular literature, and considers several implications of Chaucer's treatment of love, marriage, and sexuality.