Meaning & Analysis
Both love and power dislike sharing; they demand exclusivity and do not tolerate rivals or equals.
Insights
Possessive Exclusivity
Love, especially romantic or passionate love, is portrayed as inherently jealous—intolerant of divided attention or emotional competition, just as political authority resists shared power.
Dominance and Individuality
Whether in the realm of affection or governance, this proverb asserts a human tendency to reject shared control—love and lordship alike seek solitary command.
Power Mirrors Passion
It draws a parallel between the personal and political: both emotional intimacy and rulership are intense states requiring loyalty and subservience, and are destabilized by competition.
Renaissance Political Philosophy
Early modern thinkers often drew analogies between romantic and political domains. The proverb echoes Machiavellian ideas of singular sovereignty, applied metaphorically to love.
Jealousy as a Political and Emotional Force
Jealousy undergirds both spheres: lovers fear rivals; rulers fear usurpers. The proverb identifies a deep-seated human discomfort with shared possession, linking eros and ego.
Cultural Anxiety About Rivals
From feudal kings to courtly lovers, this wisdom reflects a cultural belief that rivalry—be it romantic or hierarchical—breeds instability and unrest.
Poetic Tension Between Love and Equality
Love is ideally mutual, yet this proverb suggests its darker, possessive side. It implicitly critiques the illusion of equality in both romance and rule, revealing latent authoritarian impulses.
Rhetorical Devices
Alliteration
The pairing of 'love' and 'lordship' and the phrase 'like no fellowship' uses strong initial consonants to create a forceful, rhythmic impact that enhances memorability.
Antithesis
By contrasting the ideas of 'love/lordship' with 'fellowship,' the proverb highlights incompatibility between unity and shared experience versus exclusivity and dominance.
Parallelism
Presents love and lordship as structurally and functionally equivalent—both positions of power that demand undivided allegiance—reinforcing the thematic unity of the comparison.
Transcription
Quotations
Non bene cum socys regna Venusque manent. Loue ne lordshyp wol no feloshyp that is to saye. The nature of man or woman is suche, that lyke as he or she can not abyde any other to loue the same person that he or she loueth. So also he can not wel endure in his hert, an other to be ioyned with hym in imperie or gouernaunce, but coueteth aswell in the one as in the other to be alone.
Neyther loue nor soueraigntie will haue companye.
Neither loue nor frindship, wyl haue company.
Ambition . . . not suffring loue or Lordship to brooke any fellowship.
But either algates would be lord alone: For love and lordship bide no paragone.
Loue, and lordlinesse neuer held companie together; a friend, and a lord are incompatible.
(abide no fellowship).
Loue and royaltie suffer no equall.
There is no Maxime more holding than this Scepters and Suitors hate Competitors.
Love and ambition (I have heard men say) Admit no fellowship.
Two sparrowes on one eare of corne, ill agree, and loue and lordship brooke no fellowship.
(never kept fellowship).
Love and dominion admits of no companion.
*The meaning of our English Proverb is, Lovers and Princes cannot endure rivals or partners.
(like no Marrows [partners]).
Scepters and Suitors hate Competitors.
(hate companions).
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.