h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have been reading about WB Yeats (1865 - 1939). He seemed to have had a strong affection for a lady called Maud Gonne. He proposed to her on numerous occasions, each time rebuffed. He may have said he would have given up his writings if that were a condition of being with her. So his love for her was unrequited love:

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

My question is: "Are there any other well known cases of Unrequited love?"


ps: I know of the unrequited love of Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321) for a Beatrice but the evidence suggests he kept his love to himself and never put any effort into trying to court her.

It never quite worked out for Debbie Harry and I

Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann?

Eloise and Abelard, especially after her father threw Eloise into a nunnery and castrated Abelard.

David Walliams and Simon Cowell

Charly Brown and the little red-haired girl.

I remember Charlie Brown and the Little Red Head Girl . The others are knew to me

Gregory's Girl

Educating Rita

...

or did you mean IRL?

Pete Wills, when I was 12

Maybe for context I should also say he was also 12 and not in anyway famous

Unrequited love was also known as courtly love
in Medieval culture and is celebrated in much of
that ancient literature.

It's origins are in southern France and the tradition
of young men, especially squires and knights, focusing
their devotions on unreachable and unattainable ladies,
especially princesses, is reflected in the Arthurian Tales
and many folk stories.


~jwf~

Isn't it more a case of unrequited lust though?

Perhaps. It was the Middle Ages and they couldn't look at dirty pictures on the Internet, so they made do with what they had. Besides, lifespans were so much shorter that the misery at being thwarted didn't last all that long.....