THE SCENE: The passage below succinctly demonstrates the pressures – and dangers – that unmarried young women in the middle ages might face.
THE TEXT: In the city of Nantes in Brittany there dwelt a lady distinguished by her beauty, education and good breeding. There existed no knight in the region with any merit at all who, having once seen her, would not have fallen in love with her and wooed her. It was not possible for her to love them all, but neither did she wish to repulse them. It would be less dangerous for a man to court every lady in an entire land than for a lady to remove a single besotted lover from her skirts, for he will immediately attempt to strike back. She satisfied the desires of each lover at the behest of good will.
– Chaitivel, Marie de France, 12th Century AD
