Carnal love could have many different manifestation forms in Renaissance literature.
There could be explicit expressions or such disguised expressions that were used in order to avoid too bold or embarrassing expressions in different ways. During the Renaissance such translation procedures as disguisings were in common use, and replacements or omissions could be considered as an art in literature. For instance, referrings to intimate parts of the body or carnal matters were avoided, and could be replaced with more convenient expressions. They could be replaced with symbolic expressions or referrings to the matters behind the curtains, as well as with omissions, and there were taboo words that could be avoided because of religious or social reasons.
Typical expressions of carnal love during the Reinaissance were, for instance, descriptions that were connected somehow to nature, for example substitution of breasts with the expression “valley”. Intimate parts of the body could as well be substituted by
“those parts that are pink”, that were taboos in Renaissance literature. Carnal acts could be avoided by using, instead, the descriptions “sleeping with a woman”, “leaving the bed” or “a weapon”. Whole chapters or works could be sensured by the Catholic Church. The explicit expressions and different techniques for disguising carnal expressions are discussed more specifically in the following chapters.
3.3 Explicit Expressions
The explicit expressions used during the Renaissance can be described in different ways. They include such ones that describe sexual acts directly as they appear, without any disguisings or replacements. The Renaissance way of thinking of carnal matters differs from that of today. Carnal expressions appearing in the lyrics from the late Medieval and early Renaissance period, concerning emotions, are defined in this subchapter according to humanists from that period: Marcilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Niccolò Macchiavelli and Juan Luis Vives (C. C. Barfoot 2006: x, 6 &
Amy M. Schmitter 2010: 11). Additionally, concepts of sex and erotics of the Renaissance period are discussed by Barfoot (2006: 6, 8).
Barfoot (2006: x, 6) claims that Early English lyrics already contain erotic or sexual material. He has divided the late Medieval and early Renaissance lyric into two types:
the popular carol and the courtly love lyric. Both of those text types are basically anonymous, written in the first person. The carols have been in oral circulation, while courtly lyric is more literary and formal. Of those two types carols are more explicit and respond better erotic expression, while the courtly love is less explicit. (Barfoot 2006: x, 6) Even though this research concerns English poetry, the same basic concepts are characteristized generally for all literature in Europe during that period. The tradition of troubadours, love poems and lyrics was followed also in other parts of Europe, and the songs of the troubadours were imitated all over Europe.
Despite of most of the writers during the Renaissance being men, good examples of carnality in the Renaissance literature can be found from the survived Middle Age woman-voiced lyrics. Barfoot (2006: 6) sees them particularly challenging, while decoding erotic identities, as those texts are especially intriguing. Many of the texts of carol tradition, penned by men, include ironic sexual relations. Barfoot (2006: 6) gives an example of this kind of explicit lyric: maiden’s holiday tryst by Gonville and Caius MS 383, in a mid-fifteenth century Cleric’s manuscript:
17) ”Sone he wolle take me ke the hond, And he wolle legge me on the lond.
That al my buttocus ben of sond Opon this hye holyday
On he pult, and out he drow.
And over ye lay on lym y-low.
”By Godus dethm you dest me wow Ypon this hey holyday!” (Barfoot 2006: 6)
Actually, this bawdy poem is written by a woman (Barfoot 2006: 6). Accoring to Barfoot (2006 :8), the Wife of Bath13 shows that even medieval women could use sexual themes on female eroticism in front of social structure. Tradition concerning courtly love can, therefore, be linked with concepts of medieval sexuality, and they elaborate metaphors of emotion. According to Barfoot (2006: 8), the language of love covers physical sexuality. An idea of ridded sexual desire is presented in the sixteenth-century lyrics as follows:
18) ”The knyght knokett at the castell gate;
The lady mervelyd who was therat.
She asked hym what was his name;
He said: ”Desyre, your man, madame14.” (Barfoot 2006: 8)
Barfoot (2006: 8) claims that this kind of eroticism, presented in courtly love, can be found from the lyrics of the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Social parlour of this kind of lyric held then inside it powerful erotic undertones (ibid :8).
The general understanding of emotions was not always consistent, since, according to Schmitter (2010: 11), the Florentine writers considered the emotions unsystematically from the humanistic point of view. Such writers as Marcilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola wanted to revitalize non-Platonic approaches, concerning emotions, and the most important discussions were made about ”Platonic love”. In the work Prince and Discourses Niccoló Machiavelli characterized humans in geographically specific groups, according to their motional dispositions and behavior. He gave a role to something what he called ”glory”. It was not as an emotion, but an achievement, actually a desire for something like glory. (Schmitter 2010: 11) For a modern reader these classifications seem odd and challenging and show the idea in the background of erotic lyrics of the Renaissance period.
13 A Tale in Geoffrey Chauser’s Canterbury Tales ( 1475)
14 John Stevens: Music and Poetry in the Early Tudor Court (1961: 402)
One of Renaissance philosophies, concerning emotions is, according to Schmitter (2010: 11), tome De Anima et Vita (1538), by a humanist and writer, Juan Luis Vives, who discusses psychology and education, including seminal discussion. Vives claims that uncontrolled emotions are morally and cognitively disruptive. He has published such vocabulary that includes distinguishing of emotions that are not disruptive from violent passions. By that way his use of ̓affectus’ or ’affectiones’ became popular. He gave for an emotion a narrower, generally more gentle modification. (Schmitter 2010:
11) The writers of the Renaissance had to find a balance between emotions and violent passions. There were opposite forces between the divine and evil, that are actually close to each other in Renaissance works, describing angelic women temptating men into carnal acts that were considered, in this case, as evil.
Some italian writers of the Renaissance express carnal love considerably liberately, from the point of view of a modern reader, like Ariosto in his epic Orlando Furioso (1532). Certain norms and manners of the society restricted the expressions to some extent, and taboo words were avoided in literature, for instance the names of the intimate parts of the body, despite of otherwisely liberated expression and functions.
Different functions of carnal love, including additions, omissions, replacements and taboo words are discussed more specifically for the following.