even lowest in the social scale provided that he is a virtuous man. It
is not an affair solely of gentle blood. It has no pedigree of birth or
richness. "In this sense the true lover need not be a _gentleman_
but he must be a _gentle man_, loving not by genteel code of caste
but by gentle code of character." (J.B. Fletcher: Dante p. 27.)

Thus Dante makes Guido Guinicelli say: "Love and the gentle heart are
one and the same thing." And Dante himself in one of his Canzoni writes:

"Let no man predicate
That aught the name of gentleman should have
Even in a king's estate
Except the heart there be a gentle man's."

Love, Then, Became In Literature Such A Refined Emotion That To Quote
Dante: "It Makes Ill Thought To Perish, It Drives Into Foul Hearts A
Deadly Chill" And On The Other Hand It Fills Indeed The Lover With Such
Delicacy Of Sentiment For His Beloved That She Is His Inspiration To
Virtue And The Muse Who Directs His Pen. In Harmony With "The Sweet New
Style" Of Sincerity With Which Dante Treats Of Love, Thomas Bernart De
Ventadorn Sings:

"It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer, for my heart
draws near to Love and I am a better man for Love's command."

Not in literature alone but in actual life did chivalry exalt "the
eternal womanly." In Dante's age, to quote the author of Phases of
Thought and Criticism, "Knights passed from land to land in search of
adventure, vowed to protect and defend the widow and the orphan and the
lonely woman at the hazard of their lives: they went about with a prayer