Lovesickness and the Therapy of Desire: Aquinas, cancionero Poetry, and Teresa of Avila's 'Muero porque no muero'

Abstract

Modern readers of the poetry of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross are often struck by their use of the language of desire and of courtly love themes also found in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century cancioneros. In an article published over a decade and a half ago, Terence O’Reilly (1992) examined some of the most crucial similarities between cancionero and mystical poetry in the light of Alexander Parker’s earlier claims (1985) about the use of the language of religion and the moral value attributed to suffering within the courtly love tradition. As Parker had suggested, cancionero poetry tended to present human love in terms of ‘desire without fulfilment’, and even if this love might be linked to sexual desire, the focus was generally not on bodily pleasure but on desire (1985: 20–21). In explaining this emphasis on desire, Parker made the provocative claim that ‘fifteenth-century poets found satisfaction in posing as suffering martyrs of love’ (17). O’Reilly demonstrates that, in the context of Christian ideas about redemption and of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century emphasis on the imitation of Christ, the notion of suffering love was linked to merit and hope. He then turns to the theme of desire as ‘longing’ in John of the Cross, addressing the controversial question: ‘what kind of human love is mystical longing being compared to?’ (66). In this paper, I return to the question of desire, and discuss its function in relation to love. In contrast with Parker’s emphasis on the pain and anguish caused by unfulfilled desire and on the constraints of sensory experience as themes found both in mystical and non-mystical love poetry from sixteenthcentury Spain, I will look at the notion of wilful desire in cancionero poetry and in Teresa’s poem ‘Muero porque no muero’, against the background of Thomas