The _tensons_ of the troubadours were poetic disputes on points of love and on lovers' conduct. If, says Jean de Nostredame, the disputants "could not come to an agreement they referred the matter for decision to the illustrious lady presidents who held open and plenary court at the Castle of Signe, and other places, and these gave judgments which were called the judgments of Love." If a lady treated her troubadour lover unfairly, or if a lover were guilty of any dereliction or crime in love, or if, for the guidance of future generations of lovers, a decision on a mere point of gallantry were sought, all such cases came before the Courts of Love, which had a regular code of laws, thirty-one in number, upon which decisions were based. The court, composed of a jury of the most beautiful, accomplished, and celebrated ladies of the neighborhood, and presided over by some lady of special distinction, heard the pleas on both sides, and gave judgment, which depended upon a unanimous vote of the jury. There were several of these courts, the most famous being those of Queen Eleanor of England, of her daughter, Marie de Champagne, of the Viscountess of Narbonne, and of the Countess of Flanders. The code under which these fantastic tribunals are said to have given their judgment is a very curious document. The statutes of love are hardly so rigorous as might be expected; some of them are merely proverbial bits of wisdom, with here and there a hint very far from romantic: IV. Love never stands still; it always increases--or diminishes. X. Love is always an exile where avarice holds his dwelling. Some seem so distinctly suggestive of a smirk beneath all this affected seriousness that one can hardly take them seriously. XV. Every lover is accustomed to grow pale at the sight of his lady-love. XVI. At the sudden and unexpected sight of his lady-love the heart of the true lover invariably palpitates. XX. A real lover is always the prey of anxiety and malaise. XXIII. A person who is the prey of love eats little and sleeps little. This last is, of course, a rule not only venerable, but universal. One recalls Chaucer's Squire, "as fresshe as is the moneth of May," who "coude songes make, and wel endite;... so hote he loved that by nightertale he slep no more than doth the nightingale." Others of the troubadour statutes are frankly suggestive of that moral laxity, not to say obliquity of vision, of which we have spoken before. I. Marriage cannot be pleaded as an excuse for refusing to love. XI. It is not becoming to love those ladies who love only with a view to marriage. XXVI. Love can deny nothing to love.