At its simplest definition, courtly love is the forbidden love between a single, unmarried man and a married, unattainable woman.

“Le Rossignol,” or “Laüstic,” captures this definition of courtly love perfectly. When we first meet the lovers, they’re neighbors; she’s married, he isn’t.

He enjoys the good life by spending lots of money, and jousting whenever he can. He covets her, chases after her, and eventually she gives into his affections because she sees that he is a good man.

The woman begins to secretly see the knight in their respective gardens at night while her husband is blind to their affair. Her husband is annoyed at her nighttime visits, not realizing her true intentions.

There are only two endings to courtly romances: they end well or they end badly. “Le Rossignol” ends badly with the death of the nightingale, and by default, the forbidden romance.

The love between a married woman and a single man in courtly romances is presented as the purest, highest form of love between two people.

The problem with courtly romances is that this unattainable love is meant to be impossible for a reason. It forces the man to strive for that which he cannot have, pushing him to reach a higher, almost godly existence that he would not have reached if he was not in love.

Furthermore, if the love were to be consummated it would destroy the couple. The most famous example of a consummated courtly love is Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot in the Arthurian tradition. They unknowingly brought about the end of Camelot, King Arthur, and the Round Table.

The superficiality of the“courtly romance” designation to “Le Rossignol” is because it doesn’t follow the conventions of courtly romance accurately. Using a more fleshed out definition of a courtly romance, the story wouldn’t be considered a courtly romance in the traditional sense.

For example, in courtly romances, the man and the woman meet each other once, often by chance. From that point, the man worships the lady from afar.

“Le Rossignol” makes it a point to say that they are neighbors.

Another convention of courtly romance is that the lady must reject her potential lover, even if she were attracted to him.

“Le Rossignol” explains that the woman decided to pursue the knight’s affections because he lived in close proximity.

Furthermore, courtly romances make it a point to have the man be so lovesick that his own physical death is imminent and the only way to be healed is if she were to accept his love. This spurs the lady to accept his declaration of love.

The only physical death in “Le Rossignol” is that of the nightingale, a rather unusual death in the scheme of things. The nightingale was the innocent bystander in the woman and the knight’s love affair, sacrificed to save face.

Her husband is crude in his treatment of the nightingale:

“Il jette le cadavre sur la dame/ce qui ensanglante sa robe/un peu sur le devant de sa poitrine/et sort de la chambre.”

trans. “He throws the corpse on the lady/which bloodied her dress/a little on the front of her chest/and leaves the room.”

The nightingale’s death stands out because it’s so different from a courtly romance. The nightingale personifies the finality of their entire affair.

In sorrow, the lady wraps the dead bird’s corpse in an embroidered piece of fabric and sends it to her lover. The nightingale’s death means that she has lost her excuse for their continued meetings in the garden. By sending the bird, the lady sends a clear message that their romance must end.

He comes to accept this, but rather than letting go, he fashions a coffin for the bird. The nightingale will exist in death to remind him of their forbidden love and how he must seal it away for all eternity.

If anything, “Le Rossignol” stands out by not following the same formula as a courtly romance. There is death occurring because of a forbidden love, but the creator determines how each topic is presented to the reader.

The storytellers of the time, Marie de France in this case, can take the basic principles of a courtly romance and change it enough to remind the reader of the humanity of it.

“Le Rossignol” shows us that love has always been a complicated emotion. We can simplify the reading of this story/poem from the Middle Ages with a modern lens by stating that men and women of that time married for survival, for God, for country.

But at the end of the day, the appeal of the story of courtly love lies in its natural human inclination to feel connected to two lovers in a forbidden relationship that belongs to them alone.