A song she seems among the rest and these
     Have all their beauties in her splendour drowned. 
     In her is ev’ry grace,—­
     Simplicity of wisdom, noble speech,
     Accomplished loveliness;
     All earthly beauty is her diadem. 
     This truth my song must teach—­
     My lady is of ladies chosen gem.

(Transl. by D.G.  ROSSETTI.)

And Cavalcanti sings: 

What’s she whose coming rivets all men’s eyes,
Who makes the air so tremble with delight,
And thrills so every heart that no man might
Find tongue for words but vents his soul in sighs?

(Transl. by SIR THEODORE MARTIN.)

The sentiment which pervades these verses has lifted us into the higher sphere which will henceforth be our main theme.  The beloved was more and more extolled; in her presence the lover became more and more convinced of his insignificance; she was worshipped, deified.  The overwhelming emotion, the longing for metaphysical values which dominated the whole epoch, had reached its highest characteristic, had reached perfection.  It proved the eternal quality of human emotion:  the impossibility of finding satisfaction, the striving towards the infinite; it soared above its apparent object and sought its consummation in metaphysic.  The love of woman and the mystical love of God were blended in a profounder devotion; love had become the sole giver of the eternal value and consolation, yearned for by mortal man.  Christianity had taught man to look up; now his upward gaze lost its rigidity and beheld living beauty—­metaphysical eroticism had been evolved—­the canonisation and deification of woman.  The ideal of the troubadours to love the adored mistress chastely and devoutly from a distance in the hope of receiving a word of greeting, no longer satisfied the lover; she must become a divine being, must be enthroned above human joy and sorrow, queen of the world.  Traditional religion was transformed so that a place might be found in it for a woman.

The reason for the recognition of spiritual love from the moment of its inception as something supernatural and divine, is obvious.  The heart of man was filled with an emotion hitherto unknown, an emotion which pointed direct to heaven.  The soul, the core of profound Christian consciousness, had received a new, glad content, rousing a feeling of such intensity that it could only be compared to the religious ecstasy of the mystic; man divined that it was the mother of new and great things—­was it not fitting to regard it as divine and proclaim it the supreme value?  The troubadours had known it.  Bernart of Ventadour had sung: 

     I stand in my lady’s sight
     In deep devotion;
     Approach her with folded hands
     In sweet emotion;
     Dumbly adoring her,
     Humbly imploring her.

Peire Raimon of Toulouse: 

     I would approach thee on my knees,
     Lowly and meek,
     I would fare far o’er lands and seas
     Thy ruth to seek.