By relating the production of literature and culture to global phenomena such as forms of political organization, demographics, and economics, the authors develop an argument that similar conditions produce similar responses even across seemingly impenetrable cultural divides. They contend that, in an age dominated by immensely powerful absolute rulers and troubled by war, cultural change, and apocalyptic speculation, the attachments of dependent courtiers and the longings of anxious commoners aroused an intense and peculiar interest in love and the beloved.