[182] The adventure of Perceval on the rock agrees closely with that of Mordrain in the Grand S. Graal. There also are two ships—in one a man who encourages, in the other a woman who tempts, him. In both cases the woman accuses the man of being an enchanter; in both her ship is covered with black silk, and she departs in a tempest. Cf. Hucher, Le S. Graal, vol. ii. pp. 354, et seq.
[183] S. Graal, ii. p. 444.
[184] As I said before, this may be due to the influence of Morien, but we must not overlook the fact that this poem certainly has some curious points of contact with the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach, which also knows of the hero (or more accurately here, his son) regaining his kingdom, which he also does in Perceval li Gallois.
[185] The scribe of the original MS. may have had to condense on account of space here, which is contrary to the usual practice of 1533; but in a printed edition it is not easy to decide the real value and significance of such omissions.
[186] 1533 ten, representing the number as thirteen, Galahad taking the place of Our Lord. This is a point on which we might expect to find different readings, according as the compiler held, or did not hold, Judas to have been present at the Institution—a question on which a difference of opinion has always existed.
[187] This is the passage to which I referred in connection with the Yvain sources, p. 76. This son of King Claudas is, no doubt, the same who played such a valiant part in the war between Lancelot and his father, related at great length in the Lancelot.
[188] This arrival of the nine knights at the Grail Castle, and their share in the Grail revelation, is a striking proof of the unreality of the Galahad Queste quâ quest, on which I have remarked elsewhere. Who are these knights? What claim have they to be admitted to a feast so holy that even King Pelles and his son are excluded? Practically they are as much achievers of the Quest as Galahad himself. The fact is the writer is so taken up with the religious symbolism of the relic that in exaggerating and insisting on symbolic details he loses sight of the real point of his story. I very much doubt whether any one but the Grail Winner himself ought to reach, or was ever contemplated as reaching, the Grail Castle, much less be witness of the full explanation of the relic. To this it may be objected that Gawain reaches it; but Gawain was certainly at one time looked upon as the Grail Winner, and I believe it is only in this character that he ever found the castle. The accessibility of Corbenic is a very weak point of the Galahad Queste.
[189] I cannot agree with M. Gaston Paris's suggestion that this passage, which he takes as part of the Mort Artur, refers to an earlier Queste redaction. A Queste giving a full account of the fate of so many of the knights engaged would be of portentous length, and there is absolutely no sign of this Galahad Queste having existed in another form. I regard it as a summing up, by the author, of the general results of the expedition, a postscriptum which enabled him to have a final fling at his bête-noire Gawain. The addition of Baudemagus's name may have been his work, or that of a copyist, and designed to give point to his accusation. Whether the tradition that he should be killed by Gawain arose from this passage, or was incorporated in the Merlin from another source we cannot say. The Baudemagus tradition demands study. In the Merlin he is represented as but six years older than Gawain, whose dearest friend he is, but in the Charrette he appears as quite an old man, whose son, Meleagant, is the contemporary of Gawain and Lancelot; while in the prose Lancelot and Queste he appears as the devoted friend of the family of King Ban, sharing the adventures of these young knights on an equal footing. The whole presentment is hopelessly confused. The frequent reference to the Arthurian records, as kept in the 'almeryes' at Salisbury, appears to me to be a parallel case to the allusions in the Charlemagne Romances to the records at S. Denys. I suspect there is as much, or as little, truth in the one ascription as in the other.
[190] Cf. Studies, p. 214. Dr. Sommer uses as an argument for this the difference of spelling in the name of Corbenic, but this proves nothing. D. L. has at least four ways of spelling this word, and sometimes a variant occurs in the space of a few lines. The general character of the name is always preserved, and in MSS. that have been frequently copied, to say nothing of printed, the substitution of one letter for another is too frequent to call for remark.
[191] Dr. Wechssler in his Lancelot study announces solemnly, 'So viel aber steht für uns fest, dass Malorys Quelle für sein sechstes Buch nicht die Branche eines Cyklus, sondern ein selbständiges Originalwerk gewesen ist' (Gral-Lancelot, p. 35). But we now see it was beyond any doubt part of a cyclic work.
[193] I take this opportunity of strongly protesting against the tone assumed by Professor Foerster on the question of Malory. He has not himself examined the question of the sources, but has simply accepted all Dr. Sommer's far too hasty and inadequately founded conclusions. When he says, on p. lxv. of the Charrette, 'Der überall seine Quellen und zwar nur seine Quellen und obendrein noch treu wiedergebende Malory ist ein Phantasiegeschöpf der Walliser und Engländer,' he is simply dogmatising in an unwarrantable manner on a question with regard to which he has no locus standi. Exaggerated as the statement is, and is meant to be, it is infinitely nearer the truth than are many of Professor Foerster's own hypotheses.
[195] The passage quoted by Dr. Wechssler (Gral-Lancelot, p. 60, et seq.), and which he considers belongs to an earlier version of the Queste, is manifestly only a condensed variant of the ordinary Queste into which an allusion to Tristan and Pallamedes has been clumsily introduced.
[196] This seems to point to the fact that the Agravain section of the Lancelot is that which offers the most important variants, and is the most likely to reward the careful critic. The final section is practically based upon a romance foreign to the original Lancelot story, and which has been incorporated into it; consequently we may expect to find all the versions in pretty general agreement as regards the Mort Artur proper.
[197] Cf. Studies, p. 220.
[199] Referred to in future as M. A.
[200] As I have said before, there can be no doubt which of the two is the prototype of Gareth; also, subsequent study has shown me that, outside the Lancelot proper and the romances which have been modified for cyclic purposes, we rarely find any mention of Guerresches, whereas we often meet with Gariët. I am strongly of opinion that originally the two characters were one, and that in that earlier form the knight was Gaheriet or Gariët.
[201] Studies, p. 254.
[202] Throughout this section it must be borne in mind that S. systematically replaces the Guerresches of his text by Gaheriet. This latter sides throughout with Gawain.
[203] It is of course possible that a negative may have dropped out here.
[204] On p. 260, Dr. Sommer makes a strange mistake. We are told that Bohort fights against Ywain; to this Dr. Sommer appends a note of exclamation, and a footnote to the effect that Ywain has already been killed by Gawain, as related in the Queste. Of course it was not the 'Chevalier au Lion,' but his bastard half-brother, 'Yvain li avoutres,' who was slain on that occasion. The text of Q. is quite clear.
[205] On p. 261, Dr. Sommer again falls into a curious error of identity. We are told that King Karados assists at the council between Arthur, Lancelot, and Gawain, when the fight is determined upon. Dr. Sommer reminds us in a note that Karados had been previously slain by Lancelot! That was, of course, the giant of that name, brother to Turquine; this is the famous Karados 'Brief-bras,' sometimes regarded as Arthur's nephew. Dr. Sommer's apparent lack of familiarity with the minor characters of the Arthurian cycle is inexplicable.
[206] On p. 263 the parallel passages quoted from M. and the English M. A. make mention of Baudemagus as one of Lancelot's councillors, whereas at the end of the Queste his death at the hand of Gawain is recorded. Cf. this with my remarks on the Baudemagus legend, p. 184. I do not think this story of his death was a genuine part of the cyclic Lancelot, but belonged to another line of tradition known to the author of Q. from the Merlin Suite, and unintelligently quoted by him. This, which is a real discrepancy, as there is but one Baudemagus, Dr. Sommer does not remark upon!
[208] (a) chap. ii., the Lanzelet of Ulrich von Zatzikhoven; (b) chaps. iii. and iv., Le cerf au pied blanc, Le Chevalier de la Charrette; (c) chaps. vi., vii., and viii., the prose Lancelot.
[211] I do not here intend to imply any opinion as to the original nature of the Grail, only to refer to the undoubted fact that as connected with Perceval it is more or less religious in character.
[212] Dr. Sommer's study on Malory is a case in point. It is a work of great extent, carried out with the most painstaking perseverance, yet because he omitted to consult such accessible texts as the Dutch translation and the Bodleian Lancelot, and assumed the general unanimity of the printed versions, a very important section of his work is largely deprived of value, and urgently requires revision.
[213] The parallel with the edition of 1533 begins vol. ii. fo. xxxix.; with the abstract of M. Paulin Paris, vol. v. chap. cxxii. That is, somewhat earlier than the beginning of the Agravain section proper.
[214] Is this perhaps the Sir Marrok of the were-wolf story?—M., Book XIX. chap. ix.; also vol. iii. of Arthurian Romances Unrepresented in Malory.
[215] D. L. always has the form Walewein.
[216] This name is spelt Hestore throughout. On the whole the spelling of proper names in D. L. is very erratic, and varies greatly.
[217] This adventure of the Perilous Cemetery is one of the 'cross-references' to which I have referred earlier. It is mentioned both in G. S. Graal and Queste. The wording here is not very clear, but it does not, I think, mean that Lancelot has already failed in the Grail adventure, but that he shall come to the cemetery after he has failed; which is fulfilled in Queste. At the same time we must remember that in Perceval li Gallois, which knows nothing of Galahad or the Queste, Lancelot fails for the same reason, and more completely, as the Grail does not appear at all in his presence, so this may refer to the earlier story.
[218] It may be noted that Chrétien knows nothing of a dove connected with the Grail, whereas Wolfram does.
[219] I have before remarked on the uncertain spelling of this name in D. L., the above is the more usual form.
[220] From this it appears that Gawain's failure at the Grail castle was in no way due to any defect of character, but to his omission of the reverence due to the Grail, of the sacrosanct nature of which he was ignorant. This explanation appears to me to be peculiar to the Lancelot version, which otherwise, as I have pointed out, regards Gawain with great respect.
[221] Certain details in this adventure recall that of the 'Joie de la court' in Erec.
[222] I think this is probably the explanation of A.'s vision, when he sees G. after death surrounded by the souls of poor men 'who have helped G. to conquer the heavenly kingdom.' Cf. Sommer, Studies, p. 266.
[223] These passages illustrate the difficulty previously referred to, of identifying the original of Gareth. I believe it can only be done by comparing the parallel adventures in M. and his source.
[224] In the account of the final battle all versions I have consulted give one hundred thousand on each side killed; the above is much more reasonable.
[225] There is a lacuna of a few lines here in D. L., so this may well have been in the text.
[226] This adventure of Ywein and the giant's shield should be compared with Meraugis de Portlesguez, ll. 1418 et seq. There lady has taken dwarf's horse; and it is the eye, not the hand, which the messenger loses. I believe the above to be the older version, as, though L'Outredotez is always spoken of as a knight simply, Meraugis once refers to him as a giant, which must have come from another version.
[227] This appears to be a reminiscence of Merlin and Vivienne. Cf. Merlin, Sommer's ed., chap. xix.
[228] Cf. this with Studies, p. 186; also remarks, supra, p. 153.
[229] It is quite possible that we have here the story of Urre of Hungary, which may well have been given at greater length in one of the Lancelot MSS. Also the source of Malory's version of Lancelot being wounded by a maiden, Book XVIII. chap. xxii., where the prose Lancelot gives one of his squires.
[230] M. Paulin Paris omits this adventure in his summary, which only records the Lancelot sections. It is thus apparently lacking in the MS. used.
[231] This is one of the adventures referred to previously, cf. pp. 137-139, Grand S. Graal, vol. iii. p. 303 et seq. It is worth noting that it is only in the passages parallel to Grand S. Graal that L.'s relations with queen are spoken of as sinful.
[232] This does not fit in with indications of story, which would place Galahad's birth considerably earlier, L.'s visit to Corbenic being some two or three years previous.
[233] All this section of Lancelot's adventures, from his meeting with Sarras of Logres, differs very much from M. Paulin Paris's summary. Cf. Romans de la Table Ronde, v. p. 322 seq.