Everyone loves love! We all know about Romeo and Juliet, but that story was added late to the body of great love stories. Let's look at that and five others, all "blockbusters" in their day. Click the links to read the stories--all free!
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Pyramus and Thisbe: In some ways the inspiration for Romeo and Juliet, this Roman legend is found in Ovid's Metamorphoses (published 8 CE), and tells of two young lovers in the city of Babylon whose houses were separated by a wall. Because of the rivalry of their parents, they could only communicate through a crack in the wall. They arrange to meet at a tomb under a mulberry tree outside the city. Thisbe arrives first, and when she sees a lioness with a mouth bloody from a recent kill, she runs away, leaving her cloak behind. The lioness rips the cloak up and leaves it there, bloody, with her pawprints all around it. Pyramus arrives and, thinking Thisbe has been killed, kills himself on his sword. Thisbe returns, finds his dead body, and kills herself with the same sword.
- https://gutenberg.org/files/21765/21765-h/21765-h.htm#bookIV (Ovid)
- https://gutenberg.org/files/9313/9313-h/9313-h.htm#link2H_4_0016 (a retelling)
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Abelard and Heloise: Unlike every other story told here, this one really happened. Peter Abelard (c. 1079-1142) was a young priest who fell in love with his beautiful and brilliant student Heloise (c. 1101-1163). After they were married in secret, her protective uncle had some thugs break into Abelard's room and castrate him. Afterward they both lived separately in religious communities, he as a monk, she as a nun, and carried on a lively correspondence. Abelard's sister raised their son, whom Heloise named "Astrolabe" after an astronomical instrument which was Abelard helped popularize in France. Their careers continued separately, but it's popularly believed that their remains lie together in a tomb in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, where lovers leave letters to honor the two--or lovelorn singles leave letters in hope of finding true love.
- https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/35977 (their Letters, with a history of their relationship)
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Troilus and Criseyde: Troilus is mentioned in Homer's Iliad, a prince of Troy who was murdered by Achilles. Around two millennia later, say around the 12th century, the story arose of Troilus's love for Cressida (or Criseyde). As told by both Chaucer and Shakespeare (among others), her father--a priest--has foreseen the fall of Troy and defected to the Greek (winning) side. Though Cressida has pledged her love to Troilus, when she is sent as a hostage to the Greeks she forsakes her promises and falls for the Greek hero Diomedes. A demoralized Troilus later dies in battle.
- https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/257 (Chaucer, in Middle English)
- https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1790 (Shakespeare)
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Tristan and Iseult: Told in many versions, this 12th-century tale tells how Tristan (also Tristran or Tristram), nephew of King Mark of Cornwall, is entrusted by the king to fetch for him his bride-to-be, the Irish princess Iseult (also spelled Isolde or Yseult). There are various versions of the story, but they all center around a bit of magic: the nervous bride is given an everlasting love potion to ensure the king's affections, but she falls for Tristan along the way and gives it to him instead. Though the royal marriage still takes place, the enchanted couple can't stay away from each other, forming a love triangle that reflects that of Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot.
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Aucassin and Nicolette: In this anonymous medieval French romance of the 12th or 13th century, Aucassin, son of the Christian Count Garin of Beaucaire, falls in love with Nicolette, a Saracen (Muslim) maiden, who has been adopted by another French count and baptized a Christian. Aucassin's love causes him to refuse to fight the Muslims, so his father forbids the relationship and at last locks Aucassin in a tower. Nicolette's foster-father locks her in a tower, too, but she escapes and, after comforting Aucassin in his confinement, builds a house in the woods to await his release. When he arrives, they decide to flee the country, where after many adventures, they are separated. He returns to his country, where he succeeds to his father's estate after his death; she returns to her own country, where, as the king's daughter, she is to be forced into a marriage. Disguised as a minstrel she goes to Aucassin's land again, sings to him of their love, and, at last unmasked, they wed.
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Romeo and Juliet: You know this one. In Shakespeare's 1597 play, two "star-cross'd lovers"--actually a couple of Italian teenagers--fall in a sort of puppy love, but with tragic results. Separated from each other by the enmity of their families, like Pyramus and Thisbe, they pursue their relationship anyway. Along the way, they are secretly married; then Juliet's cousin kills Romeo's friend, so Romeo kills the cousin. Romeo is exiled to Mantua (his mother dies of heartbreak at the news); Juliet's dad arranges a marriage; and the complicit friar who married them comes up with a scheme: Juliet will fake her death by taking a sleeping potion; Romeo will be sent for to whisk her away when she awakes. Wires get crossed. Romeo arrives at the tomb and kills her "betrothed"--a count--in a sword fight. He thinks Juliet's really dead and kills himself (Pyramus and Thisbe again), and when she sees him dead she kills herself. Total body count: 6.
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