Meaning & Analysis
Love does not follow logic or rational thought; it operates independently of reason.
Insights
Irrational Passion
The proverb emphasizes love’s nature as a powerful emotion that overrides logical decision-making and rational control.
Emotional Autonomy
Love is portrayed as an autonomous force, acting beyond the bounds of reason and conscious deliberation.
Conflict with Reason
Highlights the inherent tension between reason and emotion, suggesting love is often in opposition to sensible or prudent behavior.
Renaissance and Early Modern Thought
Rooted in the Renaissance skepticism about love’s rationality, this proverb was reflected in writings by Lyly, Greene, and Marston, who articulated love’s unpredictability and resistance to counsel.
Shakespearean Perspectives
Shakespeare explores this tension in plays like *The Winter’s Tale* and *The Taming of the Shrew*, where love’s irrationality complicates human relationships and decisions.
Psychological Reality
Modern psychology supports the proverb’s truth in the idea that strong emotions can impair judgment, highlighting cognitive biases and emotional decision-making.
Moral and Social Implications
The proverb warns of love’s potential to disrupt social order and personal wellbeing, reflecting anxieties about unchecked passion.
Rhetorical Devices
Antithesis
Sets up a clear opposition between 'love' and 'reason,' dramatizing the emotional versus rational divide.
Personification
Love is depicted as an agent that deliberately excludes reason from its counsel, intensifying its perceived independence.
Aphorism
The concise and assertive form allows the proverb to function as a memorable statement of emotional truth.
Transcription
Quotations
He that loueth is voyde of all reason.
You neede not muse that I shoulde so sodeinely bee intangled, loue giues no reason of choice, neither will it suffer anye repulse.
(As thei saie) Loue is without lawe, so it maketh the pacientes to be as utterly voide of reason.
Reason and Loue, are enemies.
You say that in loue there is no reason, and therefore there can be no likelyhood.
Womens reasons would seeme no reasons, especially in loue, which is without reason.
Exhort him I may, but perswade him I cannot; for Loue admits neither of counsaile, nor reason.
Madame, if loue were not a thing beyonde reason, we might then giue a reason of our doings.
Loue hath no reason.
Love values not the bridle of reason.
Shakespeare Citations
Though Love use Reason for his physician, he admits him not for his counsellor.
And I have heard you say Love's reason's without reason.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.