Ausias March: Knight, Poet, and Master of Love
A 15th-Century Life
Ausias March, son of the poet Ausias March and Lionor Ripoll, was born in Gandia (Valencia) around 1397. His father died in 1413, leaving Ausias a large estate at age 16. Six years later, he was knighted and summoned by King Alfonso V of Aragon for military expeditions to Sardinia and Corsica. Ausias March bravely fought against the Genoese (1420-1422) and North African pirates (1424).
From 1425, Ausias March focused on his property (introducing sugarcane cultivation), hunting, and writing. His military service earned him King Alfonso’s favor; he became governor and judge of the Duchy of Gandia and “Falconer over the King’s household.” He commanded numerous servants responsible for the king’s hunting dogs and birds.
In 1437, Ausias March married Isabel Martorell (sister of Joanot Martorell, author of Tirant lo Blanc). Family tensions arose over Isabel’s dowry. After her death two years later, he remarried Joanna Escorna in 1443. Though he had no offspring with either wife, his 1458 will acknowledged at least five children born out of wedlock. Ausias March died in 1459.
His life exemplified a 15th-century knight: a young warrior and skilled manager of his feudal lands.
Master of Love
Ausias March, the self-proclaimed “master of love,” is renowned for his profound understanding of love. He claimed to guide those seeking love’s path, asserting that without his insights, true love would cease to exist. For Ausias March, love was a complex problem, distinguishing between honest love (spiritual) and sensuous love (carnal), presenting a choice between the two. While desiring both, he admitted to being often dominated by the latter. Poem IV illustrates this duality, representing the two loves through fruits and women, forcing the poet to choose.
A Master of Imagery
Ausias March excelled at creating vivid images and extended comparisons. Poem XLVI exemplifies this. He compares his loving situation, fraught with worry, to a perilous sea journey. The first stanza depicts a ship adrift, at the mercy of seven of eight winds—some favorable, some adverse. This powerful marine image represents the poet’s emotional state, buffeted by opposing forces with an uncertain outcome.
The second stanza portrays an even more dangerous situation: a catastrophic sea, boiling like a pot, uninhabitable even for fish. This image expresses the immense dangers the poet must overcome to attain love—one of Ausias March’s many exaggerations to convey his unique experiences.
The fourth stanza reveals the source of his torment: the fear of being forgotten by his beloved. He counters this fear by asserting the enduring nature of his love, unconquerable even by death.
A Unique Voice
Ausias March is consistently portrayed as a unique character: experiencing love more deeply, enduring unparalleled torments, achieving unparalleled loving wisdom. Poem LXVIII depicts him forsaking society to serve a particular lord (love), remaining the only faithful lover with a pure love, devoid of sensual desires.
Creator of Catalan Lyrical Language
Ausias March is considered the creator of Catalan lyrical language. He was the first to write poetry entirely in Catalan, utilizing resources employed by troubadours while diverging from their conventions. He wrote poetry in Catalan, expressing his thoughts with originality and sincerity.
He depicted a relationship between equals, portraying men and women as real individuals with virtues and defects. Conscious of his departure from troubadour poetry, one poem begins: “Like leaving the troubadours’ path.”
Ausias March pioneered new poetic avenues: his poems chronicle his life, love problems, and moral struggles with vivid sincerity. He employed decasyllabic verse (ten syllables) with a caesura after the fourth syllable, creating stanzas of eight lines (octaves) typically rhyming ABBACDDC. The final stanza, a chorus, usually has four verses. He also used signs, like the troubadours, to designate the poem’s recipient. His work comprises 128 poems totaling 10,261 lines.
A Lasting Legacy
Ausias March remains a cornerstone of classic Catalan literature, the creator of Catalan lyrical language. His poetry explores love, death, fate, and the struggle between good and evil with vivid sincerity. He broke from the troubadour tradition by: writing in Catalan (instead of Occitan), expressing his thoughts sincerely and originally (abandoning troubadour themes), and portraying women in his love poems as real people with flaws and virtues.
Ausias March possessed a remarkable ability to craft large images and extended comparisons, expressing his experiences and thoughts on love.