DCAD Writing Club
Presents
St. Valentine’s Day Cour Amoureuse
The Writing Club’s Valentine’s Day celebration is based on medieval poetry competitions practiced in France and England during the 14th and 15th centuries. The ancient competitions typically required poems on a subject like, “Who makes the best lover, the knight or the clerk?” The term lover here refers not only, or even primarily, to sexual prowess, but to everything involved in courtship: courtesy, for example, or generosity, or amiability.
For our competition the subject will be, “Which DCAD major makes the best lover?” The competition will be overseen by a Prince d’Amour, and entries will be judged by a panel. The festivities will include a supper provided by Student Services. No one, beside the Prince and judges, will be admitted without a poem on the subject. Poems will be read and submitted for judgment. The winner will receive a prize.
The St. Valentine’s Day Cour Amoureuse will be held on Tuesday, February 14th at 8:00 in the Student Center. Anyone who wishes to participate should send a poem on the subject of “Which DCAD major makes the best lover?” to one of the ministers of the Cour: Darrell Brock (dbrock@dcad.edu) Kevin Burke (kburke@dcad.edu), or Scott Straw (sstraw@dcad.edu) by noon on Monday, February 13th. Poets submitting poems will be invited to a small supper sponsored by Student Services. At 8:00 we will process to the Student Center for a reading and judging of the poems and the awarding of a winner. Remember, the poem must be on the subject designated for the Cour.
The following is a description of the Cour Amoureuse from Carl Lindahl’s Ernest Games:
“The Cour Amoureuse was monumental in both size and formality. Over six hundred members are listed on one of its registers, about seven hundred on another, all ranked according to a rigid system. Membership was exclusively male, though ladies were present at the meetings and played an important role in the proceedings. On St. Valentine’s Day, following a series of masses, the group assembled under the direction of the Prince of Love, an accomplished minstrel. Then ensued a competition among gentil poets, whose work had earlier been screened for entry by the twenty-four ministers of the Cour. The subject matter was love, and the entrants’ goal was to please the ladies who were called upon to judge. The winning poet was awarded a crown and chaplet made of gold.”
Read about Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe at the Block Museum = http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/view/exhibitions/2012/prints-and-the-pursuit-of-knowledge-in-early-modern-europe.html
