“To these simple troubadours that love which is not physical, which begs to serve, not to be served, and poetry, itself, were one, and known by one term alone,—Love. But disputes arose regarding this term for an ideal new under the sun,—disinterested love in its highest and its fullest. Therefore, where the shades of classic refinement lingered latest, in fair Provence, I instituted tribunals before which my troubadours might plead their subtle causes in song, and styled them Courts of Love. My judges were the gentlest of ladies and poets bowed before them, saying: ‘For all my words here and every part I speak them all under correction Of you that feeling have in love’s art, And put it all in your discretion.’” History interrupts: “Among my humoresques, I happen to have a literal account of one of those old Courts of Love. It was convened by the Countess of Champagne; she had fifteen more women on the bench with her, all decked out in green and gold. Monkey-fashion, those scented ladies (_precieuses ridicules_) of old had the proceedings of their toy court solemnly recorded. André, their scribe, adds that the perfumes on the fair judges kept him sneezing continually while he was taking testimony. At that time chivalry had most absurdly exalted ‘my ladye,’ also the ‘beautiful unseen,’ styled the ‘beautiful unknown,’ and see the things men were expected to do!” “Yes, and what is more, they did them,” retorted Romance, “and at the bidding of woman without other coercion, and the spirit of her law still rules.” “I am confining myself to documentary evidence,” says History tartly. “This Chief Justice of Love, Maria of Champagne, was the daughter of that Queen Eleanor of France, who would go on the Second Crusade. Had she only behaved herself in the East, she might have figured as the first New Woman. However, that was not to be. Formal action was brought before the Court of the Chief Justice of Love in the Province of Beauty by plaintiff, a servitor of love, against defendant, a Fair Lady—likewise a married one. Plaintiff had agreed to walk twice a week past defendant’s door, for which service defendant agreed to throw him a bunch of violets. As the weather was cold and the road muddy, plaintiff tired of the job and claimed in legal phraseology, as he did not always get his violets, that breach of contract should release him from further obligation.