Reader’s Notes
Prologue: In Which Love Has Many a Tale
A Heterogeneous Text
Re-congnizing Romance
The Medieval Globe
Mythos and Ethos
Love at a Crux
1. Phantasy: The Rise of Romance
An Act of Creation
Legends and Legerdemain
Heroic Lives and Amorous Tales
By Way of Symbol
Why Read Romance?
Like Kingly Pearls
2. Ethics: An Affair of Conscience
The Ethos of Romantic Love
Conflicting Signals and False Starts
Vis Unveiled
From Media to Marv: A Tale of Three Seductions
A New Covenant
3. Authority: The Prisoner of His Skin
“All Kings Were His Slaves”
Beholding Mehr
The Sacred Bond
The Iron Band
Un/knowing the Truth
Smashing the Mirror
“The World is a Dream”
4. Affect: The Limits of Lyric
Lyrics, Episodes, and Adventure-Time
Episode 1 Mode-Switching
Episode 2 Lyrical Reality
Episode 3The Mirror of the Self
Episode 4 A Crisis of Authority
Breakdown and Breakup
The Final Word
5. History: The Death of Romantic Love
Transcribing the Soul
Love-Death (Liebestod)
False Death (Scheintod)
Endings and Beginnings
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Appendices
Appendix A: A Summary of Vis & Rāmin
Exordium
From Media to Marv
A King’s Collapse
Vis and Rāmin Separate
Death and Deliverance
Appendix B: Rāmin’s Songs
Rāmin Falls in Love
Rāmin Woos Vis
Episode 1: The Ordeal
Episode 2: The Bed-Trick
Episode 3: The Devil’s Grotto
Episode 4: The Garden
The Breakup
The Coup
Appendix C: Concordance
Bibliography
Index
