atonement you will make."
He bowed, and carried with him her image. Love's
will mastered his heart, as he thought of Blancheflur, of her
hair, her brow, her cheek, her mouth, her chin, and the glad
Easter day that smiling lay in her eyes. Love the heart-
burner set his heart aflame, and lo ! he entered upon, another
life ; purpose and habit changed, he was another man.
/ Sad is the short tale of these lovers. Riwalin is killed
in battle, and at the news of his death Blancheflur expires,
giving birth to a son. Rual the Faithful names the child
Tristan, to symbolize the sorrow of its birth.
The story of Tristan's early years draws the reader to
the accomplished, happy youth. He is the delight of all;
for his young manhood is courtliness itself, and valour and
Digitized by
Google
CHAP. XXIV ROMANTIC CHIVALRY 595
generosity. He is loved, and afterwards recognized and
knighted, by his uncle Mark. Then he sets out and avenges
his father's death ; after which he returns to Mark's Court,
and vanquishes the Irish champion Morold. A fragment
of Tristan's sword remained in Morold's head; Tristan
himself received a poisoned wound, which could be healed, as
the dying Morold told him, only by Ireland's queen, Iseult.
Very charming is the story of Tristan's first visit to Ireland,
disguised as a harper, under the name of Tantris. The
queen hearing of his skill, has him brought to the palace,
where she heals him, and he in return becomes the teacher
of her daughter, the younger Iseult, whom he instructs in
letters, music and singing, French and Latin, ethics, courtly
arts and manners, till the girl became as accomplished as she
was beautifid, and could write and read, and compose and
sing pastoreUes and rondeaux and other songs.
On his return to Cornwall he told Mark of the young
Iseult, and then, at Mark's request, set forth again to woo
her for him. The Irish king has promised his daughter to
whoever shall slay the dragon. Tristan does the deed, cuts
out the dragon's tongue as proof, and then falls overcome
and fainting. The king's cupbearer comes by, breaks his
lance on the dead dragon, and, riding on, annoimces that he
has slain the monster; he has the great head brought to
the Court upon a wagon. Iseult is in despair at the
thought of marrying the cupbearer; her mother doubts his
story, and bids Iseult ride out and search for the real slayer.
The ladies discover Tristan, with him the dragon's tongue.
They carry him to the palace to heal him, and the young
Iseidt recognizes him as the harper Tantris, and redoubles
her kind care. But after a while she noticed the notch in
his sword, and saw that it fitted the fragment found in
Morold's head ā ^and is not Tantris just Tristan reversed?
This is the man who slew Morold, her mother's brother!
She seizes the sword and rushes in to kill him in his bath.
Her mother checks her, and at last she is appeased, Tristan
letting them see that an important mission has brought him
to Ireland. There is truce between them, and Tristan goes
to the king with Mark's demand for Iseult's hand. Then
the cupbearer is discomfited, peace is made between the
Digitized by
Google
596 THE MEDIAEVAL MIND book iv
Irish king and Mark, and the young Iseult, with Brangaene
her cousin, makes ready to sail with Tristan. The queen
secretly gave a love-drink into Brangaene's care, which
Iseult and Mark should drink together. The people followed
down to the- haven, and all wept and lamented that with fair
Iseult the sunshine had left Ireland.
Iseult is sad. She cannot forget that it is Tristan who
slew her uncle and is now taking her from her home.
Tristan fails to comfort her. They see land. Tristan calls
for wine to pledge Iseult. A little maid brings ā the love-
drink! They drink together, not wine but that endless
heart's pain which shall be their common death. Too
late, Brangaene with a cry throws the goblet into the
sea. Love stole into both their hearts; gone was Iseult's
hate. They were no longer two, but one ; the sinner, love,
had done it. They were each other's joy and pain ; doubt
and shame seized them. Tristan bethought him of his
loyalty and honour, struggling against love vainly. Iseult
was like a bird caught with the fowler's lime ; shame drove
her eyes away from him; but love drew her heart. She
gave over the contest as she looked on him, and he also
began to yield. They thought each other fairer than before ;
love was conquering.
The ship sails on. Love's need conquered. They talk
together of the past, how he had once come in a little boat,
and of the lessons : "Fair Iseult, what is troubling you ?"
"What I know, that troubles me ; what I see, the heaven
and sea, that weighs on me ; body and life are heavy."
They leaned toward each other; bright eyes began to
fill from the heart's spring ; her head sank, his arm sustained
her ; ā "Ah ! sweet, tell me, what is it ? "
Answered love's feather-play, Iseult: "Love is my need,
love is my pain."
He answered painfully: "Fair Iseult, it is the rude wind
and sea."
"No, no, it is not wind or sea ; love is my pain."
"Beauty, so with me! Love and you miake my need.
Heart's lady, dear Iseult, you and the love of you have
seized me. I am dazed. I cannot find myself. All the
world has become naught, save thee alone."
Digitized by
Google
CHAP. XXIV ROMANTIC CHIVALRY 597
"Sir, so is it with me."
They loved, and in each other saw one mind, one heart,
one will. Their silent kiss was long. In the night, love
the physician brought their only balm. Sweet had the
voyage become ; alas ! that it must end.
With their landing begins the trickery and falsehood
compelled by the situation. The fearful Iseult plotted to
murder the true Brangaene, who alone knew. After a while
Mark's suspicion is aroused, to be lulled by guile. Plot and
coimterplot go on; the lovers win and win again; truth
and honour, everything save love's joy and fear and all-
sufficiency, are cast to the winds. Even the "Judgment of
God" is tricked ; the hot iron does not bum Iseult swearing
her false oath, literally true. Many a time Mark's jealousy
has been fiercely stirred, only to be tricked to sleep again.
Yet he knows that Tristan and Iseult are lovers. He calls
them to him ; he tells them he will not avenge himself, they
are too dear to him. But let them take each other by the
hand and leave him. So, together, they disappear in the
forest.
Then comes the wonderful, beautiful story of the love-
grotto and the lovers' forest-life; they had the forest and
they had themselves, and needed no more. One morning
they rose to the sweet birds' song of greeting; but they
heard a horn; Mark must be hunting near. So they were
very careful, and again prepared deception. Mark has been
told of the love-grotto in the wood. In the night he came
and found it, looked through its little rustic window as the
day began to dawn. There lay the lovers, apart, a naked
sword between them. A simbeam, stealing through the
window, touches Iseult's cheek, touches her sweet mouth.
Mark loves her anew. Then fearful lest the sunlight shotild
disturb her, he covered the window with grass and leaves
and flowers, blessed her, and went away in tears. The
lovers waken. They had no need to fear. The lie of the
naked sword again had won. Mark sends and invites them
to return.
Insatiable love knew no surcease or pause. The
German poet is driven to a few reflections on the deceits of
Eve's daughters, the anxieties of forbidden love, and the
Digitized by
Google
598 THE MEDIAEVAL MIND book iv
crown of worth and joy that a true woman's love may be.
At last the lovers are betrayed ā ^m each other's arms.
They know that Mark has seen them.
"Heart's lady, fair Iseult, now we must part. Let me
not pass from your heart. Iseult must ever be in Tristan's
heart. Forget me not."
Says Iseult: "Our hearts have been too long one ever
to know forgetting. Whether you are near or far, nothing
but Tristan enters mine. See to it that no other woman
parts us. Take this ring and think of me. Iseult with
Tristan has been ever one heart, one troth, one body, one
life. Think of me as your life ā Iseult."
The fateful turning of the story is not far off: Tristan
has met the other Iseult, her of the white hands. The poet
Gottfried did not complete his work. He died, leaving
Tristan's heart struggling between the old love and the new
ā the new and weaker love, but the more present offering
to pain. The story was variously concluded by different
rhymers, in Gottfried's time and after. The best ending is
'^ the extant fragment of the Tristan by Thomas of Brittany,
the master whom Gottfried followed. In it, the wounded
Tristan dies at the false news of the black sails ā the
treachery of Iseult of the white hands. The true Iseult
finds him dead; kisses him, takes him in her arms, and
dies.
From the time when on the ship Tristan and Iseult cast
shame and honour to the winds, the story teUs of a love
which knows no law except itself, a love which is not
hindered or made to hesitate and doubt by any command
of righteousness or honour. Love is the theme; the tale
has no sympathy or understanding for anything else. It is
therefore free from the consciously realized inconsistencies
present at least in some versions of the story of Lancelot
and Guinevere. In them two laws of life seem on the verge
of conflict. On the one ā the feebler ā side, honour, troth
to marriage vows, some sense of right and wrong; on the
other, passionate love, which is law and right unto itself,
having its own conmiands and prohibitions ; a love which is
also an inspiration and uplifting power unto the lover; a
love holy in itself and yet because of its high nature the
Digitized by
Google
CHAP. XXIV ROMANTIC CHIVALRY 599
more fatally impeached by truth and honour trampled on.
In the conflict between the two laws of life in the Lancelot
story, the rights and needs and power of love maintain
themselves ; yet the end must come, and the lovers live out
love's palinode in separate convents. For this love to be
made perfect, must be crowned with repentance.
Who first created Lancelot, and who first made the
peerless knight love Arthur's queen? This question has
not yet been answered.^ Chretien de Troies' poem, Le
Conte de la charrette, has for its subject an episode in
Lancelot's long love of Guinevere.* Here, as in his other
poems, Chr6tien is a facile narrator, with little sense of the
significance that might be given to the stories which he
received and cleverly remade. But their significance is
shown in the Old French prose Lancelot^ probably com-
posed two or three decades after Chr6tien wrote. It con-
tains the lovely story of Lancelot's rearing, by the Lady of
the Lake, and of his glorious youth. It brings him to the
Court of Arthur, and tells how he was made knight ā ^it
was the queen and not the king from whom he received
his sword. And he loves her ā cloves her and her only from
the first until his death. He has no thought of serving any
other mistress. And he is aided in his love by the "haute
prince Galehaut," the most high-hearted friend that ever
gave himself to his friend's weal.
From the beginning Lancelot's love is worship, it is
holy; and almost from the beginning it is unholy. From
the beginning, too, it is the man's inspiration, it is his
strength; it makes him the peerless knight, peerless in
courtesy, peerless in emprise ; this love gives him the single
eye, the unswerving heart, the resistless valour to accomplish
those adventures wherein all other knights had foimd their
shame ā they were not perfect lovers! Only through his
perfect love could Lancelot have accomplished that greatest
adventure of the Vol des faux amants; ā Vol sans retour for
all other knights.' Lancelot alone had alwa)rs been, and to
1 Cf. generally, J. L. Weston, The Legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac (London, zgox,
David Nutt).
* See Gaston Paris, Romania^ zii. 459-534.
* Paulin Paris, Romans de la Table Ronde, iv. 280 sqq.
Digitized by
Google
6oo THE MEDIAEVAL MIND book iv
his death remained, a lover absolutely true in act and word
and thought ; incomparably more chastely loyal to Guinevere
than her kingly spouse. Against the singleness of this
perfect love enchantments fail, and swords and lances break.
Yet this love, fraught with untruth and dishonour, must
conceal itself from that king who, while breaking his own
marriage vows as passion led him, trusted and honoured
above all men the peerless knight whose peerlessness was
rooted in his imholy holy love for Arthur's queen.
The first full sin between Lancelot and Guinevere was
conmiitted when Arthur was absent on a love-adventure,
which brought him to a shameful prison. He was delivered
by Lancelot, and recognizing his deliverer, he said in royal
gratitude: "I yield you my land, my honour, and myself."
Lancelot blushes! Thereafter, as towards Arthur, Lancelot;
and Guinevere are forced into stratagems almost as ignoble
as those by which Eling Mark was tricked. And Guinevo:^
ā she too is peerless anK>ng women; perfect in beauty,
perfect in courtliness, perfect in dutifulness to her husband
ā saving her love for Lancelot I Guinevere's dutifulness to
Arthur is not shaken by his outrageous treatment of her
because of the "false Guinevere," when he cast off and
sought to bum his queen. She will continue to obey him
though he has dishonoured her ā and all the time, imknown
to her outrageous, imjustly accusing lord, how had she cast ,
her and his honour down with Lancelot. Only while she
is put away from her lord, and under Lancelot's guard, for
that time she will be true to marriage vows ; and Lancelot
assents.^
The latter part of the story, when asceticism enters with
Galahad,^ suggests that the peerless knight of "les temps
^ See Paulin Paris, Ramans de la Table Rmde^ iv. Guinevere's woman-mind
is shown in the following scene. On an occasion the lover's sophisticated friend, the
Dame de Malehaut, laughs tauntingly at Lancelot :
" 'Ah! Lancelot, Lancelot, dit-elle, je vois que le roi n'a plus d'autre avantage
sur vous que la couronne de Logres ! '
"Ā£t comme il ne trouvait rien k i^pondre de convenable, 'Ma cfa^re Malebaut,
dit la reine, si je suis fille de roi, il est fils de roi ; si je suis belle, 11 est beau ; de plus,
il est le plus preux des preux. Je n'ai done pas h. rougir de I'avoir choisi pour mon
chevaUer' " (Paulin Paris, ibid, iv. 58).
* Galahad's mother was Helene, daughter of King Pelles {roi pickeur), the
custodian of the Holy Grail. A love-philter makes Lancelot mistake her for
Guinevere; and so the knight's byalty to hb mistress is saved. The damsel
Digitized by
Google
CHAP, xxnr ROMANTIC CHIVALRY 6oi
adventureux" was sinful. But the main body of the tale
put no reproach on Lancelot for his great love. It told of a
love as perfect and as absolute as the author or compiler
could conceive; and the conduct of Lancelot was intended
to be that of a perfect lover, whose sentiments and actions
should accord with the idea of courtly love and exemplify its
rules. Their underlying principle was that love should
alwa)rs be absolute, and that the lover's every thought and
act should on all occasions correspond with the most
extreme feelings or sentiments or fancies possible for a I
lover. In the prose narrative, for example, Lancelot goes
mad three times because of his mistress's cruelty, a cruelty
which may seem to us absurd, but which represents the
adored lady's insistence, under all circumstances, upon the
most imhesitating and utter devotion from her lover.
Chretien's Conte de la charrette is a dear rendering of the
idea that love shall be absolute, and hesitate at nothing ; it
is an example of courtly love carried to its furthest imagined
conclusions. It displays all the rules of Andrew the
Chaplain in operation. In it Lancelot will do anything for
Giunevere, will show himself a coward knight at her
command, or perform feats of arms ; he will desire the least
little bit of her ā ^a tress of hair ā ^more than all else which is
not she ; he will throw himself from the window to be near
her ; engaged in deadly combat, the sight of her makes him
forget his enemy ; at the news of her death he seeks at once
to die. Of course his heart loathes the thought of infringing
this great love by the slightest fancy for another woman.
On the other hand, when by marvels of valour Lancelot
rescues Guinevere from captivity, she will not speak to him
because for a single instant he had hesitated to mount a
charreUCy in which no knight was carried save one who
was felon and condemned to death. This was logical on
Guinevere's part; Lancelot's love should alwa)rs have been
so absolute as never for one instant to hesitate. Much of
this is extreme, and yet hardly unreal. Helofee's love for
Abaelard never hesitated.
Such love, imperious and absolute, shuts out all laws
herself was without passion, beyond the wish to bear a son begotten by the best of
knights {Romans, etc,, v. 308 $qq,).
Digitized by
Google
T
602 THE MEDIAEVAL MIND book iv
and exigencies save its own ; ^ it must be virtue and honour ^
unto itself; it is careless of what ill it may do so long as
that ill does not infringe love's laws. Evidently before it
the bonds of marriage break, or pale to insignificance. It is
its own sanction, nor needs the faint blessing of the priest.
The poet ā as the actual lover likewise ā ^may even deem
that love can best show itself to be the prindple of its own
honour when unsustained by wedlock ; thus unsustained and
unobscured it stands alone, fairer, clearer, more interesting
and romantic. Again, since mediaeval marriage in high life
was more often a joining of fiefs than a imion of hearts,
there would be high-bom dames and courtly poets to
declare that love could only exist between knight and
mistress, and not between husband and wife. Marriage
shuts out love's doubts and fears; there is no need of
further knightly services; and husband and wife by law
are bound to render to each other what between lovers,
is gracious favour; this was the opinion of Marie de
Champagne, it also was the opinion of Helo!se. In
chivalric poetry the lovers, when at last dtily married, may
continue to call each other ami et amie rather than wife and
lord ; ^ or a knight may shun marriage lest he settle down
and lose worship, doing no more adventurous feats of arms,
like Chretien's Erec, till his wife jEnide stung him by her
speech.' Some centuries later Malory has Lancelot utter a
like sentiment: "But to be a wedded man I think never
to be, for if I were, then should I be boimd to tarry with
my wife, and leave arms and tournaments, battles and
adventures."
If allowance be made for the difference in topic and
tre^^tment between the Arthurian romances and Guillaume
de Lorris's portion of the Roman de la rose, the latter will
be seen to illustrate similar love principles. De Lorris's
^ ''For what is he that may yeve a Uwe to lovers? Love is a gretter lawe and
a strengere to himself than any lawe that men may yeven" (Chaucer, B^ece, book
iii. metre 12).
* As in Chretien's Cligis^ 6751 sqq., when Cligā¬s is crowned emperor and Fenice
becomes his queen, then : De s*amie a/eite sa fame-ā hut he still calls her ā¬m9ā¬ et dame,
that he may not cease to love her as one should an amie. Of. also Chretien's Ertc,
4689.
* See also Gawain's words to Iwm idien the latter is married ā in Chretien^
IwUn, a4S4 sqq.
Digitized by
Google
CHAP. XXIV ROMANTIC CHIVALRY 603
poem is fancy playing with thoughts of love which had
inspired these tales of chivalry. Every one knows its gentle
idyllic character; ā ^how charming, for instance, is the
conflict between the Lover-to-be and Love, who quickly
overcomes the ready yielder. So he surrenders imcon-
ditionally, gives himself over; Love may slay him or
gladden him ā "le cuers est vostre, non pas miens," says the
lover to Love, and you shall do with it as you will. Then
Love sweetly takes his little golden key, and locks the
lover's heart, after which he safely may impart his rules
and counsels: the lover must adjure vilanie, and foul and
slanderous speech ā the opposite of courtesy. Pride also *
(orgoU) must be abandoned. He should attire himself
seemingly, and show cheerfulness; he must be niggardly in
nothing; his heart must be given utterly to one; he shall
imdergo toils and endure griefs without complaint; in
absence he will alwa)rs think of the beloved, sighing for her,
keeping his love aflame ; he will be shameful, confused and
changing colour in her presence; at night he will toss and
weep for love of her, and dream dreams of passionate
delight; then wakeful, he will rise and wander near her
dwelling, but will not be seen ā nor will he forget to be
generous to her waiting-maid. All of this will make the;
lover pale and lean. To aid him to endure these agonies,
will come Hope with her gentle healings, and Fond-thought,
and Sweet-speech of the beloved with a wise confidant, and
Sweet-sight of her dwelling, maybe of herself. The Roman
de la rose is fancy, and the Arthurian romances are fiction.
In the one or the other, imagination may take the place of
passion, and the contents of the poem or romance afford a
type and presentation of the theory of love.
END OF VOL. I
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by VjOOQlC
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by
Google