Abstract
The love described by Thomas d'Angleterre in Tristan and by Chretien de Troyes in Cliges is conceived in different terms than the conventional model of fin'amor put forward by the troubadours; both authors treat the phase of their protagonists' falling in love as a true and proper disease whose symptoms can easily be mistaken for those of any medical condition such as sea-sickness. The two romances differ, however, in their rendering of the affective states and the somatic reactions that correspond to each of those states of the individual. A comparison of the relevant passages shows how the pathology of love brings about individual emotive characteristics and physical manifestations. This understanding of love as a disease is rooted in the literary tradition going back to Ovid, but the two authors reinterpret it in distinctive ways and leave it to their protagonists' own choice to seek healing.
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