Passione e Compassione nella prima poesia lirica Medio Inglese

During the 12th-14th centuries, a new culture developed in England, strongly influenced by the French tradition. The central component of the new literature is courtly love and all the themes related to it. Themes such as love for women, erotic desire, passion, pleasure and the ‘pain of love’ became dominant within a series of texts that spread throughout the island by minstrels and singers and that were recited and sung. However, despite their oral character, their transcription and subsequent preservation in manuscripts, mostly of a religious nature, can be considered a fortunate event. Parallel to this profane genre, another religious production developed, where compassion became one of the essential nuclei. The aim of this work is to demonstrate how this new lyric had contributed to the creation of a balance and stability within the literary culture of the time, which despite the process of secularization, still remained under the control of the Church.