CHIVALRY AND PLATONIC LOVE 69 



however, both Petrarch and Dante strike a note which 

 reverberates through all modern literature.^ 



It would be tedious to trace the platonic idea 

 through its various phases down to the present time, 

 but its results may be noted, and some of them are 

 sufficiently curious. Modern forms of politeness as 

 practised by men towards women have no other 

 origin. The man who hastens to pick up a fan that 

 a lady has dropped by his side, or who, being inside 

 an omnibus, gets outside at some personal inconveni- 

 ence to "oblige a lady," obeys unconsciously the 



^ Dante talks of Beatrix as lie would of a divinity. " Near her," 

 he says, "I forgot the existence of my enemies. My whole being 

 seemed suffused with charity and all viriuous feelings. I would 

 have forgiven any one who had offended me ; there was no thought 

 in my mind but love." In another passage of the Vita Nuova he 

 congratulates himself upon the fact that nobody suspects the object 

 of his adoration. This same feeling occurs in the beautiful lines 

 of Alfred de Musset — 



Si vous croyez que je vais dire 



Qui j'ose aimer ! 



Je ne saurais pour un empire 



Vous la nomraer. 



Petrarch says of his love : " It is as pure as the beauty of Laura. 

 It is to Laura I owe everything I am. It is her love that has caused 

 the germs of goodness in my heart to blossom ; it is she who has 

 preserved my youth from the stains of vice, who has taught me 

 virtue, who has given me the impulse to soar heavenwards. For 

 love transforms a lover's nature, and makes him resemble the object 

 of his love." 



