How we cite our quotes: (Day.Story.Page)
Quote #4
'It is my conviction that no mortal being who is without experience of love can ever lay claim to true excellence. And if you are in love, or have ever been in love, it will not be difficult for you to understand what it is that I desire. For I am in love, gentlemen, and it was love that impelled me to engage you for the task that lies before us.' (IV.4.323, Elissa's story of Gerbino)
Gerbino subscribes to a system of love called amour courtois or courtly love. He is expressing two core tenets of this belief system: love ennobles and love compels. Gerbino can count on his European crew to understand this and go with him into battle to rescue his beloved. But will the hostile Tunisian crew be convinced? Spoiler: they won't.
Quote #5
'Surely, all we need to say is that the lofty virtues instilled by Heaven in Cimon's valiant spirit were chained together and locked away by envious Fortune in a very small section of his heart, and that her mighty bonds had been shattered and torn apart by a much more powerful force, in other words, that of Love. Being a rouser of sleeping talents, Love had rescued those virtues from the darkness in which they had lain so cruelly hidden, and forced them into the light [...]' (V.1.370, Panfilo's story of Cimon)
We've got two major agents of Fate working at cross-purposes in the character of Cimon. While Cimon acts like a troglodyte for the majority of his young life, it really only takes one glimpse of Iphigenia's naked body to turn him into a gentleman and a scholar. In the Fortune vs. Love smackdown, score one for Love, who turns a disheveled blockhead into a noble gentleman.
Quote #6
'As we have already had occasion to remark, whilst Love readily sets up house in the mansions of the aristocracy, this is no reason for concluding that he declines to govern the dwellings of the poor. On the contrary, he sometimes chooses such places for a display of strength no less awe-inspiring than that used by a mighty overlord to intimidate the richest of his subjects.' (IV.7.338, Emilia's Tale of Simona and Pasquino)
It may seem like an obvious thing to say—poor people can fall in love as easily as the wealthy—but this concept is a bit more complex. According to the tenets of courtly love, you're really only capable of loving if you are gentil, and generally that only happens if you've been brought up in a wealthy household. Emilia makes it clear that Love can succeed wherever he moves in and sets up shop.