value of the lady = <br>the difficulty of obtaining her<br>
The belief in the immense value of the lady is a psychological effect of the difficulty of obtaining her, and I think itmaybe laid down that when a man has no difficulty in obtaining a women, his feeling towards her does not take the form of romantic love.
A man who deeply loved and respected a woman would find it impossible to associate with her the idea of sexual intercourse, since all sexual intercourse would be to him more or less impure; his love would therefore take poetic and imaginative forms, and would naturally become filled with<br>symbolism.
The sentimental point of Pyramus and Thisbe, of Cephalus and Procris, lies in their tragic end in the heart-rending loss of a happiness already enjoyed.
men had so little difficulty in securing the women they desired that it hardly ever became necessary to woo them with music and poetry. From the point of view of the arts, it is certainly regrettable when women are too accessible; what is most to be desired is that they should be difficult but not impossible of access.
Romantic love as it existed in Shelley depends upon a state of unstable equilibrium, where the conventional barriers still exist but are not quite insuperable; if the barriers are rigid, or if they do not exist, romantic love is not likely to flourish.
