Aucassin and Nicolette, Anonymes, Jean Dufournet

When Aucassin heard Nicolette say that she wanted to go to another country, a deep sorrow filled his soul: "My sweetest friend," he said, "you will not leave, for that would be to kill me. The first man who saw you and had the opportunity would immediately abduct you and put you in his bed, making you his mistress. And once you had slept in another man's bed, do not imagine that I would wait to find a knife to stab myself and kill myself. (...) - Ah! she said, I don't believe you love me as much as you say; but I love you more than you do. - Come now! replied Aucassin, my sweetest friend, it is not possible that you love me as much as I love you. A woman cannot love a man as much as a man loves a woman; for a woman's love resides in her eye and at the very tip of her breast and at the very tip of her toe, but a man's love is planted deep in his heart from which it cannot depart."