In contrast to the use of cointe for the dress and deportment of young heroes, the word is applied in a positive manner to several powerful figures given feminine gender. Notably, the Rose's Venus, the personification of feminine sexuality, is twice called cointe in the Lover’s attempt to describe her.
Si fu si cointe et si tifee qu’el resembla deesse ou fee.
Dou grant ator que ele avoit bien puet conoistre, qui la voit, qu’el n’iert pas de religion.
Ne ferai or pas mencion de sa robe et de son ore et de son tregoer dore, ne de fermail ne de corroie, por ce que trop i demoroie.
Mes bien sachiez seurement qu’ele fu cointe durement, et si n’ot point en li d’orguieil.252
She was so cointe and so adorned that she looked like a goddess or a fairy.
By her impressive appearance
Anyone who saw her would be able to tell
That she was no member of a religious order.
Now I will not mention her robe or her hem or her golden hair ornaments, nor her neck brooch nor her belt,
Because I would linger on them too long.
But know for certain
That she was extremely cointe,
And there was not a bit of pride in her.
The word is unambiguously associated with appearance here. it is also associated with sexual attraction, both by venus’ identity, and by the comment that one could tell she was not a nun, conveying that her appearance represented the opposite of sexual renunciation (fulfilling criterion 9).
Elsewhere in the Rose, the earth, personified as feminine, is twice referred to in conjunction with the term: first, in the beginning of the poem when she makes a new cointe robe for herself out of spring flowers (line 61) and later as the narrator notices her flowers a second time (line 1405). In the “Mariage des Sept Arts,” the Liberal Arts are personified as nubile women; clothing is described only for the highest among them. Theology, the queen of the Faculties, who wears a rich hood (“chape de camelin”). She is also the only one said to be cointe (line 217).253 In Le Bel Inconnu, the term is applied to the hero’s lover-patron, the marvelous queen of Wales, in her richly figured embroidered robes (lines 5143-70), and not to any other women.254 In these contexts, the word is used in the depiction of figures given feminine gender that represent the summit of a hierarchy. They represent things which men dream of possessing: power over women’s affections, mastery of the highest level of study, seasonal renewal, prestigious sponsorship. This pattern of usage links young men and the objects of their ambitions more than it links women and cointerie.
World History
