Krantz
Franklin's Tale
Reflections and Definitions Pertinent to the Tale

Courtly Love was defined by a twelfth century cleric Andreas Capellanus in his The Art of Courtly Love. It originated in Ovid's Ars Amatoria and possibly in Moslem love poetry which influenced Spain, then France, and finally England. It was brought into France and England by Eleanor of Acquitaine and her daughter Alix and Marie de France. Andreas wrote his book for Marie as instruction and entertainment.
Andreas begins with definitions. He then classifies by listing first 12 rules of love and then 31.

The garden was the traditional setting for courtly love.

Marriage in the 14th and 15th C.
In the 12 and 13th century the scholastic philosophers declared that sin lay in the intention rather than in the act. This led to a new mode of introspection, and, as moral space moved inward, profound changes in other areas of life occurred.
The view of marriage shifted from what was good for the family and the collective decision of families to mutual consent, the personal commitment of husband and wife. Still deep-rooted misogyny sometimes came out with respect to marriage codes. Young girls could still be wed to older, sometimes old, men as a form of sound investment. The married bourgeois would not tolerate the wife who dressed up or spoke up in private. But by the end of the 14th century the idea of marriage had evolved to where the wife of one gentleman farmer, at least, was conducting much of her husband's business and looking after his property interests.

The Franklin tries to combine the courtly-servant-in-love with the Pauline lord-in-marriage.

"Courtesy" = refinement of manners and spirit as well as a command of the behavior required at court and a sense of tender, charitable comportment, graceful politeness, generosity, benevolence, goodness, and elegance.

"Noble" had to do with the crusading ideal--piety related to the willingness to lay down one's life for the recovery of the Holy Land.
Nobility-being nobel in respect of excellence, value, or importance; dignity of mind. Person of high rank.
Noble-illustrious or distinguished by position, character, or exploits; distinguished for genius or skill; having qualities of an admirable kind; surpassingly good.

Some notes from Lewis's The Discarded Image pertinent to the medieval attitude toward alchemy.
The fundamental concept in Medieval science was that of sympathies, antipathies, and strivings inherent in matter. Everything has its right place and, unless restrained, moves towards it. Thus the sea follows the moon and iron follows the lodestone (magnet).

In general they did not believe that inanimate objects had sense and purpose and therefore moved purposely (anymore than we think a rock knows the law of gravity). They did believe that the stars were somehow alive and intelligent.

The medievals accepted the Ptolemaic model of the universe (moving concentric spheres) and believed that God who had all power caused the Primum Mobile, the sphere farthest from earth) to rotate and that this movement caused that of all the other spheres of the heavenly bodies.
Besides movement, the spheres also transmit Influences to the earth. Orthodox theologians could accept that the planets had an effect on events, on human psychology, and much more on plants and minerals. They could not accept astrological predictions, the idea that the influence of the planets overrode free will (although they could affect the body), or planetolatry, the worship of the gods with whom the heavenly bodies were associated. Still, it appears that the visible planet, the source of the influence, and the god generally acted as a unit on the medieval mind.