I had to leave but, unresigned,
my stubborn heart remained behind
and would not go with me from there.
That surely was a strange affair,
that I should rule my body so
but could not force my heart to go.
It stayed with her both night and day
and had no rest from sad dismay.
Ulrich von Liechtenstein1 was a tournament knight2 who wrote a semi-autobiographical poem Fraundienst - anglicized as The Service of Ladies - about his life.
Exactly how autobiographical is in question. The characterization is exaggerated, even parodical, with a sense that it’s meant to amuse the audience… but in what way matters because the fictional Ulrich von Liechtenstein, which is the main record we have of this knight’s life, is a train wreck.
Does he know? Is this a tongue-in-cheek takedown of the silly social norms of the day, using himself as the butt of the joke - or just a bit of irony in that direction - or is some of this serious boasting about his real actions or actions he thinks would make him look cool? Commentators are unsure.
Most of the narrative3 revolves around his courtship of an older married woman he used to serve, who - it is exceedingly obvious - absolutely hates his guts4. Ulrich is also married and seems to praise and love his wife5, so it’s unclear how much of this is kayfabe - and also how much of it has gotten internalized. Courtly love incentivizes a strange kind of romantic pursuit for pursuit’s sake6, and Ulrich certainly gets the strange part down:
Great was my happiness when I
could be with others standing by
at meals and see the water poured
on those white hands which I adored.
I took the water secretly
with which she washed away with me
and, filled with love, I drank it all;
because of this my grief was small.
What a weirdo. What a fascinating weirdo and what an engaging peek into a social pattern of celebrity that’s so obscure to us.
Footnotes
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This is who the main character in A Knight’s Tale is named after, though more as an easter egg than claiming it’s a biography of him. ↩
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i.e. he gained a lot of fame and money from winning tournaments. ↩
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Which is told with a very modern sensibility of pacing and plot development, and translates well from German to English while keeping the lively verse. It’s hard to dislike this disaster of a knight because he’s a good poet. ↩
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It’s a very interesting look into the conventions of courtly love, which is a romantic paradigm that’s unfamiliar to us today. Part of that does have a kind of “play hard to get” game that Ulrich can try to frame this as… but this woman’s utter contempt for him seems to shine through despite all the obscurity of differing cultural traditions and the theoretically pro-Ulrich autobiographical voice of the text. ↩
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And be quite satisfied sexually, as he makes sure to let us know as he takes a weekend off from one of his bizarre pursuits of his courtship target to go home to his wife and remain in bed with her for three days straight. ↩
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And this attracts attention to his tournament stunts, which is his career after all. ↩