s of pure love were Montanhagol, Sordello
and Guirot Riqiuer. The former maintained that a lover who asked for
favours incompatible with his lady's honour, neither loved her nor
deserved to be loved.--"Love begets purity, and he who knows the meaning
of love can never forsake virtue."

There is a controversy between Peire Guillem of Toulouse and Sordello,
which contains the following passages:

Of all mankind I never saw
A man like you, Sordell', I wis,
For he who woman does adore
Will never flout her love and kiss.
And what to others is a prize
You surely don't mean to despise?

Honour and joy I crave from her,
And if a little rose she bind
Into the wreath, Sir Guillem Peire,
From mercy, not from duty, mind,
That would be happiness indeed,
Oh! that such bliss should be my meed!

A humble lover such as you,
Sordell', in faith, I never knew.

Sir Peire, methinks what you express
Is lacking much in seemliness.

In another poem the talented Sordello says:

My love for her is so profound
I'd serve her, spurn and scorn despite
Ere with another I'd be found--
Yet I'd not serve without requite,

and in another, after stating that he loves his lady so much that he
would thank her even if she killed him, he continues:

Thus, lady, I commend to thee
My fate and life, thy faithful squire
I'd rather die in misery
Than have thee stoop to my desire.

The knight who truly loves his dame
Not only loves her comely face,
Dearer to him is her fair fame
Undimmed, unsullied by disgrace.

How grievously I should offend
Thy virtue, if I spoke of passion;
But if I did--which God forfend!
Sweet lady, stoop not to compassion.

Although Sordello appeared so extremely modest, yet he was grieved to
death because his lady did not return his love. There is a poem in which
he compares himself to a drowning man whom the beloved alone could save.

This spiritual love (then as now) puzzled the commonplace, and was
misunderstood and regarded with scepticism. Bertran d'Alaman taunted
Sordello with his "hypocritical happiness" and "the whole deception of
his love," and Granet, in a satirical poem, cast doubt upon his
sincerity.

It is very significant to find that Sordello, that typical champion of
chaste love, kept up a number of questionable liaisons with all sorts of
w