{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_The_Mediaeval_Mind_Chapter_23/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_The_Mediaeval_Mind_Chapter_23","id":"wikisource_The_Mediaeval_Mind_Chapter_23","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Mediaeval_Mind/Chapter_23","summary":null,"tags":["Headers_applying_DefaultSort_key","Subpages"],"text":"CHAPTER XXIII\n\nROMANTIC CHIVALRY AND COURTLY LOVE\n\nFrom Roland to Tristan and Lancelot\n\nThe instance of Godfrey of Bouillon showed how easy was\nthe passage from knighthood in history to knighthood in\nlegend and romance: legend springing from fact, out of\nwhich it makes a story framed in a picture of the time;\nromance unhistorical in origin, borrowing, devising, imagining\naccording to the taste of an audience and the faculty of the\ntrouv\u00e8re. A boundless mediaeval literature of poetic legend\nand romantic fiction sets forth the ways of chivalry. Our\nattention may be confined to the Old French, the source\nfrom which German, English, and Italian literatures never\nceased to draw. Three branches may be selected: the\nchansons de geste; the romans d'aventure; and the\nArthurian romances. The subjects of the three are distinct,\nand likewise the tone and manner of treatment. Yet they\nwere not unaffected by each other; for instance, the hard\nfeudal spirit of the chansons de geste became touched with\nthe tastes which moulded the two other groups, and there\nwas even a borrowing of topic. This was natural, as the\nperiods of their composition over-lapped, and doubtless their\naudiences were in part the same.\n\nThe chansons de geste (gesta=deeds) were epic narratives\nwith historical facts for subjects, and commonly were\ncomposed in ten-syllable assonanced or (later) rhyming couplets,\nlaisses so called, the same final assonance or rhyme extending\nthrough a dozen or so lines. They told the deeds of\nCharlemagne and his barons, or the feuds of the barons among themselves, especially those of the time following the\nemperor's death. So the subject might be national, for\ninstance the war against the Saracens in Spain; or it might\nbe more provincially feudal in every sense of the latter\nword. It is not to our purpose to discuss how these poems\ngrew through successive generations, nor how much of\nTeutonic spirit they put in Romance forms of verse. They\nwere composed by trouv\u00e8res or jongleurs. The Roland is\nthe earliest of them, and in its extant form belongs to the\nlast part of the eleventh century. One or two others are\nnearly as early; but the vast majority, as we have them, are\nthe creations, or rather the remaniements, of the twelfth and\nthirteenth centuries.\n\nThese chansons present the feudal system in epic action.\nThey blazon forth its virtues and its horrors. The heroes\nare called barons (ber) and also chevaliers; vassalage and\nprowess (proecce) are closely joined; the Roland speaks of\nthe vassalage of Charles le ber (Charlemagne). The usages\nof chivalry are found: a baron begins as enfant, and does\nhis youthful feats (enfances); then he is girt with manhood's\nsword and given the thwack which dubs him chevalier.\nNaturally, the chivalry of the chansons is feudal rather than\nromantic. It is chivalry, sometimes crusading against \"felun\npaien,\" sometimes making war against emperors or rivals;\nalways truculent, yet fighting for an object and not for pure\nadventure's sake or the love of ladies. The motives of\naction are quite tangible, and the tales reflect actual situations\nand conditions. They tell what knights (the chevaliers and\nbarons) really did, though, of course, the particular incidents\nrelated may not be historical. Naturally they speak from\nthe time of their composition. The Roland, for example, throbs with the crusading wrath of the eleventh century\u2014a\nnew fervour, and no passionate memory of the old obscure\ndisaster of Roncesvalles. It does not speak from the time\nof the great emperor. For when Charlemagne lived there\nwas neither a \"dulce France\" nor the sentiment which\nenshrined it; nor was there a sharply deliminated feudal\nChristianity set over against a world of \"felun paien\"\u2014those\nfalse paynim, who should be trusted by no Christian\nbaron. The whole poem revolves around a treason plotted\nby a renegade among vile infidels.\n\nIn this rude poem which carries the noblest spirit of the\nchansons de geste, the soul of feudal chivalry climbs to its\nheight of loyal expiation for overweening bravery. The\nbattle-note is given in Roland's words, as Oliver descries the\nmasses of paynim closing in around that valiant rear-guard.\n\nSaid Oliver: \"Sir comrade, I think we shall have battle\nwith these Saracens.\"\n\nReplied Roland: \"God grant it! Here must we hold\nfor our king. A man should suffer for his lord, endure heat\nand cold, though he lose hair and hide. Let each one strike\nhis best, that no evil song be sung of us. The paynim are\nin the wrong, Christians in the right!\"\n\nThen follows Oliver's prudent solicitation, and Roland's\nfatal refusal to sound his horn and recall Charles and his\nhost: \"Please God and His holy angels, France shall not be\nso shamed through me; better death than such dishonour.\nThe harder we strike the more the emperor will love us.\"\nOliver can be stubborn too; for when the fight is close to\nits fell end, he swears that Roland shall never wed his sister\nAude, if, beaten, he sound that horn.\n\nThe paynim host is shattered and riven; but nearly all\nthe Franks have fallen. Roland looks upon the mountains\nand the plain. Of those of France he sees so many lying\ndead, and he laments them like a high-born knight (chevaliers gentilz). \"Seigneurs barons, may God have pity on you and\ngrant Paradise to your souls, and give them to repose on\nholy flowers! Better vassals shall I never see; long are\nthe years that you have served me, and conquered wide\ncountries for Charles\u2014the emperor has nurtured you for an ill end! Land of France, sweet land, to-day bereft of\nbarons of high prize! Barons of France! for me I see you\ndying. I cannot save or defend you! God be your aid,\nwho never lies! Oliver, brother, you I must not fail.\nI shall die of grief, if no one slay me! Sir comrade, let\nus strike again.\"\n\nRoland and Oliver are almost alone, and Oliver receives\na death-stroke. With his last strength he slays his slayer,\nshouts his defiance, and calls Roland to his aid. He strikes\non blindly as Roland comes and looks into his face;\u2014and\nthen might you have seen Roland swoon on his horse, and\nOliver wounded to death. \"He had bled so much, that his\neyes were troubled, and he could not see to recognize any\nmortal man. As he met his comrade, he struck him on his\nhelmet a blow that cut it shear in twain, though the sword\ndid not touch the head. At this Roland looked at him, and\nasked him soft and low: 'Sir comrade, did you mean that?\nIt is Roland, who loves you well. You have not defied me.'\n\n\"Says Oliver, 'Now I hear you speak; I did not see\nyou; may the Lord God see you! I have struck you; for\nwhich pardon me.'\"\n\nRoland replied: \"I was not hurt. I pardon you here\nand before God.\"\n\n\"At this word they bent over each other, and in such love\nthey parted.\" Oliver feels his death-anguish at hand;\nsight and hearing fail him: he sinks from his horse and\nlies on the earth; he confesses his sins, with his two hands\njoined toward heaven. He prays God to grant him Paradise,\nand blesses Charles and sweet France, and his comrade\nRoland above all men. Stretched on the ground the count\nlies dead.\n\nA little after, when Roland and Turpin the stout\narch-bishop have made their last charge, and the paynim have\nwithdrawn, and the archbishop too lies on the ground, just\nbreathing; then it is that Roland gathers the bodies of the\npeers and carries them one by one to lay them before the\narchbishop for his absolution. He finds Oliver's body, and\ntightly straining it to his heart, lays it with the rest before\nthe archbishop, whose dying breath is blessing and absolving his companions. And with tears Roland's voice breaks:\n\"Sweet comrade, Oliver, son of the good count Renier, who\nheld the March of Geneva; to break spear and pierce shield,\nand counsel loyally the good, and discomfit and vanquish\nvillains, in no land was there better knight.\" Knowing his\nown death near, Roland tries to shatter his great sword, and\nthen lies down upon it with his face toward Spain; he holds\nup his glove toward God in token of fealty; Gabriel accepts\nhis glove and the angels receive his soul.\n\nThis was the best of knighthood in the best of the\nchansons: and we see how close it was to what was best\nin life. As the fight moves on to Oliver's blow and Roland's\npardon, to Roland's last deeds of Christian comradeship, and\nto his death, the eyes are critical indeed that do not swell\nwith tears. The heroic pathos of this rough poem is great\nbecause the qualities which perished at Roncesvalles were so\nnoble and so knightly.\n\nThe poem passes on to the vengeance taken by the\nemperor upon the Saracens, then to his return to Aix, and\nthe short great scene between him and Aude, Roland's\nbetrothed:\n\n\"Where is Roland, the chief, who vowed to take me for\nhis wife?\"\n\nCharles weeps, and tears his white beard as he answers:\n\"Sister, dear friend, you are asking about a dead man.\nBut I will make it good to thee\u2014there is Louis my son,\nwho holds the Marches.\u2026\"\n\nAude replies: \"Strange words! God forbid, and His\nsaints and angels, that I should live after Roland.\" And\nshe falls dead at the emperor's feet.\n\nAs was fitting, the poem closes with the trial of the\ntraitor Ganelon, by combat. His defence is feudal: he had\ndefied Roland and all his companions; his treachery was\nproper vengeance and not treason. But his champion is\ndefeated, and Ganelon himself is torn in pieces by horses,\nwhile his relatives, pledged as hostages, are hanged. All of\nwhich is feudalism, and can be matched for savagery in\nmany a scene from the Arthurian romances of chivalry\u2014not always reproduced in modern versions.\n\nSo the chansons de geste are a mirror of the ways and\ncustoms of feudal society in the twelfth century. The\nfeudal virtues are there, troth to one's liege, orthodox\ncrusading ardour, limitless valour, truth-speaking. There is\nalso enormous brutality; and the recognized feudal vices,\ncruelty, impiousness, and treason. In the Raoul de Cambrai,\nfor example, the nominal hero is a paroxysm of ferocity and\nimpiety. All crimes rejoice him as he rages along his\nruthless way to establish his seignorial rights over a fief\nunjustly awarded him by Louis, the weak son of Charlemagne.\nHis foil is Bernier, the natural son of one of the rightful\nheirs against whom Raoul carries on raging feudal war.\nBut Bernier is also Raoul's squire and vassal, who had\nreceived knighthood from him, and so is bound to the\nmonster by the strongest feudal tie. He is a pattern of\nknighthood and of every feudal virtue. On the day of his\nknighting he implored his lord not to enter on that fell war\nagainst his (Bernier's) family. In vain. The war is begun\nwith fire and sword. Bernier must support his lord; says\nhe: \"Raoul, my lord, is worse (plu fel) than Judas; he is\nmy lord; he has given me horse and clothes, my arms and\ncloth of gold. I would not fail him for the riches of\nDamascus\": and all cried, \"Bernier, thou art right.\"\n\nBut there is a limit. Raoul is ferociously wasting the\nland, and committing every impiety. He would desecrate\nthe abbey of Origni, and set his tent in the middle\nof the church, stabling his horse in its porch and making\nhis bed before the altar. Bernier's mother is there as a\nnun; Raoul pauses at her entreaties and those of his\nuncle. Then his rage breaks out afresh at the death of two\nof his men; he burns the town and abbey, and Bernier's\nmother perishes with the other nuns in the flames.\n\nNow the monster is feasting on the scene of desolation\u2014and\nit is Lent besides! After dining, he plays chess:\nenter Bernier. Raoul asks for wine. Bernier takes the cup\nand, kneeling, hands it to him. Raoul is surprised to see\nhim, but at once renews his oath to disinherit all of Bernier's\nfamily\u2014his father and uncles. Bernier speaks and\nreproaches Raoul with his mother's death: \"I cannot bring her back to life, but I can aid my father whom you unjustly\nfollow up with war. I am your man no longer. Your\ncruelty has released me from my duties; and you will find\nme on the side of my father and uncles when you attack\nthem.\" For reply, Raoul breaks his head open with the\nbutt of his spear; but then at once asks pardon and\nhumiliates himself strangely. Bernier answers that there\nshall be no peace between them till the blood which flowed\nfrom his head returns back whence it came. Yet in the\nfinal battle he still seeks to turn Raoul back before attacking\nhim who had been his liege lord. Again in vain; and\nRaoul falls beneath Bernier's sword. Here are the two\nsides of the picture, the monster of a lord, the vassal vainly\nseeking to be true: a situation utterly tragic from the\nstandpoint of feudal chivalry.\n\nIt is not to be supposed that a huge body of poetic\nnarrative could remain utterly truculent. Other motives\nhad to enter;\u2014the love of women, of which the Roland has\nits one great flash. The ladies of the chansons are not coy,\nand often make the first advances. Such natural lusty love\nis not romantic; it is not l'amour courtois; and marriage\nis its obvious end. The chansons also tend to become\nadventurous and to fill with romantic episode. An\ninteresting example of this is the Renaud de Montaubon\nwhere Renaud and his three brothers are aided by the\nenchanter, Maugis, against the pursuing hate of Charlemagne\nand where the marvellous horse, Bayard, is a fascinating\npersonality. This diversified and romantic tale long held its\nown in many tongues. In the somewhat later Huon de Bordeaux\nwe are at last in fairyland\u2014verily at the Court of\nOberon\u2014his first known entry into literature. Thus the\n'chansons tend toward the tone and temper of the\nromans d'aventure.\n\nThe latter have the courtly love and the purely\nadventurous motives of the Arthurian romances, with which\nthe men who fashioned them probably were acquainted, as\nwere the jongleurs who recast certain of the chansons de geste to suit a more courtly taste. Of the romans d'aventure, so-called, the Blancandrin or the Amadas or the\nFlamenco, may be taken as the type; or, if one will, Flore et Blanchefleur and Aucassin et Nicolette, those two enduring\nlovers' tales. Courtly love and knightly ventures are the\nthemes of these romans so illustrative of noble French\nsociety in the thirteenth century. They differ from the\nArthurian romances in having other than a Breton origin;\nand their heroes and heroines are sometimes of more easily\nimagined historicity than the knights and ladies of the\nRound Table. But they never approached the universal\nvogue of the Arthurian Cycle.\n\nIt goes without saying that tastes in reading (or rather\nlistening) diverged in the twelfth century, just as in the\ntwentieth. One cannot read the old chansons de geste in\nwhich fighting, and not love, is the absorbing topic, without\nfeeling that the audience before whom they were chanted\nwas predominantly male. One cannot but feel the contrary\nto have been the fact with the romances in verse and prose\nwhich constitute that immense mass of literature vaguely\ntermed Arthurian. These two huge groups, the\nchansons de geste and the Arthurian romances, overlap chronologically and geographically. Although the development of the\nchansons was somewhat earlier, the Arthurian stories were\nflourishing before the chansons were past their prime; and\nboth were in vogue through central and northern France.\nBut the Arthurian stories won adoptive homes in England,\nGermany, Italy, and elsewhere. Indeed their earlier stages\nscarcely seem attached to real localities: nor were their\nmanners and interests rooted in the special traditions of any definite place.\n\nThe tone and topics of these romances suggest an\naudience chiefly of women, and possibly feminine authorship.\nDoubtless, with a few exceptions, men composed and recited\nthem. But the male authors were influenced by the taste,\nthe favour and patronage, and the sympathetic suggestive\ninterest of the ladies. Prominent among the first known composers of these \"Breton\" lays was a woman, Marie de\nFrance as she is called, who lived in England in the reign\nof Henry II. (1154-1189). Her younger contemporary\nwas the facile trouv\u00e8re Chr\u00e9tien de Troies, of whose life little\nis actually known. But we know that the subject of his\nfamous Lancelot romance, called the Conte de la charrette,\nwas suggested to him (about 1170) by the Countess Marie\nde Champagne, daughter of Louis VII. Surely then he\nwrote to please the taste of that royal dame, whose queenly\nmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, was also a patroness of this\ncourtly poetry.\n\nThese are instances proving the feminine influence upon\nthe composition of these romances. And the growth of\nthis great Arthurian Cycle represents, par excellence, the\nentry of womanhood into the literature of chivalry. Men\nlove, as well as women; but the topic engrosses them less,\nand they talk less about it Likewise men appreciate\ncourtesy; but in fact it is woman's influence that softens\nmanners. And while the masculine fancy may be drawn by\nwhat is fanciful and romantic, women abandon themselves\nto its charm.\n\nOf course the origin or provenance of these romances\nwas different from that of the chansons de geste. It was\nBreton\u2014it was Welsh, it was walhisch (the Old-German\nword for the same) which means that it was foreign. In\nfact, the beginnings of these stories floated beautifully in\nfrom a weiss-nicht-wo which in the twelfth century was\nalready hidden in the clouds. When the names of known\nlocalities are mentioned, they have misty import. Arthurian\ngeography is more elusive than Homeric.\n\nIn the twelfth and thirteenth centuries these stories\ntook form in the verse and prose compositions in which\nthey still exist. Sometimes the poet's name is known,\nChr\u00e9tien de Troies, for instance; but the source from\nwhich he drew is doubtful. It probably was Breton, and\nArtus once in Great Britain fought the Saxons like as not.\nBut the growth, the development, the further composition,\nof the mati\u00e8re de Bretagne is predominantly French. In\nFrance it grows; from France it passes on across the Rhine,\nacross the Alps, then back to what may have been its old home across the British Channel. With equal ease on the\nwings of universal human interest it surmounts the Pyrenees.\nIt would have crossed the ocean, had the New World been discovered.\n\nFar be it from our purpose to enter the bottomless\nswamp of critical discussion of the source and history of the\nArthurian romances. Two or three statements\u2014general\nand probably rather incorrect\u2014may be made. Marie de France, soon after the middle of the twelfth century, wrote a number of shortish narrative poems of chivalric manners and romantic love, which, as it were, touch the hem of Arthur's cloak. Chr\u00e9tien de Troies between 1160 and\n1175 composed his Tristan (a story originally having\nnothing to do with Arthur), and then his Erec (Geraint), then\nClig\u00e9s; then his (unfinished) Lancelot or the Conte de la charrette; then Ivain or the Chevalier au lion, and at last\nPerceval or the Conte du Graal. How much of the matter\nof these poems came from Brittany\u2014or indirectly from\nGreat Britain? This is a large unsolved question! Another\nis the relation of Chr\u00e9tien's poems to the subsequent\nArthurian romances in verse and prose. And perhaps\nmost disputed of all is the authorship (Beroul? Robert\nde Boron? Walter Mapes?) of this mass of Arthurian Old\nFrench literature which was not the work of Chr\u00e9tien.\nWithout lengthy prolegomena it would be fruitless to attempt\nto order and name these compositions. The Arthurian\nmatters were taken up by German poets of excellence\u2014Heinrich\nvon Veldeke, Hartmann von Aue, Gottfried von\nStrassburg, Wolfram von Eschenbach,\u2014and sometimes the\nbest existing versions are the work of the latter; for instance,\nWolfram's Parzival and Gottfried's Tristan. And again the\nrelation of these German versions to their French originals\nbecomes still another problem.\n\nFor the chivalry of these romances, one may look to the\npoems of Chr\u00e9tien and to passages in the Old French prose\n(presumably of the early thirteenth century), to which the\nname of Robert de Boron or Walter Mapes is attached.\nChr\u00e9tien enumerates knightly excellences in his Clig\u00e9s, and,\nspeaking from the natural point of view of the jongleur, he\nputs largesce (generosity) at their head. This, says he, makes one a prodome more than hautesce (high station) or\ncorteisie or savoirs or jantillesce (noble birth) or chevalerie, or\nhardemans (hardihood) or seignorie, or biautez (beauty).\n\nSuch are the knightly virtues, which, however, reach\ntheir full worth only through the aid of that which makes\nperfect the Arthurian knight, the high love of ladies, shortly\nto be spoken of. In the meanwhile let us turn from\nChr\u00e9tien to the broader tableau of the Old French prose,\nand note the beginning of Artus, as he is there called. The\nlineage of the royal boy remains romantically undiscovered,\ntill the time when he is declared to be the king. It is then\nthat he receives all kinds of riches from the lords of his\nrealm. He keeps nothing for himself; but makes inquiry\nas to the character and circumstances of his future knights,\nand distributes all among them according to their worth.\nThis is the virtue of largesce.\n\nNow comes the ceremony of making him a knight, and\nthen of investing him with, as it were, the supreme\nknighthood of kingship. The archbishop, it is told, \"fist (made)\nArtu chevalier, et celle nuit veilla Artus a la mestre Eglise\n(the cathedral) jusques au jour.\" Then follows the\nceremony of swearing allegiance to him; but Arthur has\nnot yet finally taken his great sword. When he is arrayed\nfor the mass, the archbishop says to him: \"Allez querre\n(seek) l'espee et la jostise dont vos devez defendre Saincte\nEglise et la crestiante sauver.\"\n\n\"Lors alia la procession au perron, et la demanda li arcevesques\na Artu, se il est tiels que il osast jurer et creanter Dieu et madame\nSainte Marie et a tous Sains et toutes Saintes, Sainte Eglise a sauver\net a maintenir, et a tous povres homes et toutes povres femmes pais\net loiaute tenir, et conseiller tous desconseillies, et avoier (guide)\ntous desvoies (erring), et maintenir toutes droitures et droite justice\na tenir, si alast avant et preist l'espee dont nostre sire avoit fait de\nlui election. Et Artus plora et dist: 'Ensi voirement com Dieus\nest sire de toutes les choses, me donit-il force et povoir de ce\nmaintenir que vous avez dit.'\n\n\"II fu a genols et prit l'espee a jointes mains et la leva de\nl'enclume (anvil) ausi voirement come se ele ne tenist a riens; et\nlors, l'espee toute droite, l'enmenerent a l'autel et la mist sus; et lors il le pristrent et sacrerent et l'enoindrent, et li firent toutes iceles\nchoses que l'en doit faire a roi.\"\n\nAll this is good chivalry as well as proper feudalism.\nAnd there are other instances of genuine feudalism in these\nRomances. Such is the scene between the good knight\nPharien and the bad king Claudas, where the former\nrenounces his allegiance to the latter (je declare renoncer a vostre fief) and then declares himself to be Claudas's enemy,\nand claims the right to fight or slay him; since Claudas\nhas not kept troth with him.\n\nThere is perhaps nothing lovelier in all these Romances\nthan the story of the young Lancelot, reared by the tender\ncare of the Lady of the Lake. His training supplements\nthe genial instincts of his nature, and the result is the mirror\nof all knighthood's qualities. He is noble, he is true, he\nis perfect in bravery, in courtesy, in modesty, the Lady\nimparting the precepts of these virtues to his ready spirit.\nThere is no knightly virtue that is not perfect in this\npeerless youth, as he sets forth to Arthur's Court, there to\nreceive knighthood and prove himself the peerless knight\nand perfect lover. In this Old French prose his career is\nset forth most completely, and most correctly, so to speak.\nOne or two points may be adverted to.\n\nLancelot is not strictly Arthur's knight. Originally he\nowed no fealty to him; and he avoided receiving his sword\nfrom the king, in order that he might receive it from\nGuinever, as he did. And so, from the first, Lancelot was\nGuinever's knight, as he was afterwards her accepted lover.\nConsequently his relations to her broke no fealty of his to\nArthur.\n\nAgain, one notices that the absolute character of\nLancelot's love and troth to Guinever is paralleled by the\nfriendship of the high prince Galahaut to him. That has\nthe same pr\u00e9cieuse logic; it is absolute. No act or thought of Galahaut infringes friendship's least conceived requirement; while conversely that marvellous high prince leaves\nundone no act, however extreme, which can carry out the\nlogic of this absolute single-souled devotion. At last he\ndies on thinking that Lancelot is dead; just as the latter\ncould not have survived the death of Guinever. In spite of\nthe beauty of Galahaut's devotion, its logic and preciosity\nscarcely throb with manhood's blood. It will not cause our\neyes to swell with human tears, as did the blind blow and\nthe true words which passed between Oliver and Roland at\nRoncesvalles.\n\nChivalry\u2014the institution and the whole knightly\ncharacter\u2014began in the rough and veritable, and progressed\nto courtlier idealizations. Likewise that knightly virtue,\nlove of woman, displays a parallel evolution, being part of\nthe chivalric whole. Beginning in natural qualities, its\nprogress is romantic, logical, fantastic, even mystical.\n\nFeudal life in the earlier mediaeval centuries did not\nfoster tender sentiments between betrothed or wedded\ncouples. The chief object of every landholder was by force or policy to secure his own safety and increase his\nretainers and possessions. A ready means was for him to\nmarry lands and serfs in the robust person of the daughter,\nor widow, of some other baron. The marriage was prefaced\nby scant courtship; and little love was likely to ensue\nbetween the rough-handed husband and high-tempered wife.\nSuch conditions, whether in Languedoc, Aquitaine, or\nChampagne, made it likely that high-blooded men and\nwomen would satisfy their amorous cravings outside the\nbonds of matrimony. For these reasons, among others, the\nProven\u00e7al and Old French literature, which was the medium\nof development for the sentiment of love, did not commonly\nconcern itself with bringing lovers to the altar.\n\nIn literature, as in life, marriage is usually the goal of\nbliss and silence for love-song and love-story: attainment\nquells the fictile elements of fear and hope. Entire classes\nof mediaeval poetry like the aube (dawn) and the pastorelle\nhad no thought of marriage. The former genre of Proven\u00e7al\nand Old French, as well as Old German, poetry, is a lyric\ndialogue wherein the sentiments of lover and mistress\nbecome more tender with the approach of the envious\ndawn. The latter is the song of the merry encounter of\nsome clerk or cavalier with a mocking or complaisant\nshepherdess. Yet one must beware of speaking too\ncategorically. For in mediaeval love-literature, marriage is\nlooked forward to or excluded according to circumstances;\nand there are instances of romantic love where the lovers\nare blessed securely by the priest at the beginning of their\nadventures. But whether the lover look to wed his lady, or\nwhether he have wedded her, or whether she be but his\nparamour, is all a thing of incident, dependent on the\ntraditional or devised plot of the story.\n\nLike all other periods that have been articulate in\nliterature\u2014and those that have not been, so far as one may\nguess\u2014the Middle Ages experienced and expressed the\nusual ways of love. These need not detain us. For they\nwere included as elements within those interesting forms of\nromantic love, which were presented in the lyrics of the\nTroubadours and their more or less conscious imitators, and\nin the romantic narratives of chivalry. This literature\nelaborately expresses mediaeval sentiments and also love's\npassion. Its ideals drew inspiration from Christianity and\nmany a suggestion from the antique. More especially, in\nits growth, at last two currents seem to meet. The one\nsprang from the fashions of Languedoc and the courtly\ncentres of the north; the other was the strain of fantasy\nand passion constituting the mati\u00e8re de Bretagne.\n\nLanguedoc had been Romanized before the Christian\nera, and thereafter did not cease to be the home of the\nsurviving Latin culture. By the eleventh century, castles\nand towns held a gay and aristocratic society, on which\nChristianity, honeycombed with heresy, sat lightly, or at\nleast joyfully. This society was inclined to luxury, and the\ngentle relationships between men and women interested it\nexceedingly. Out of it as the eleventh century closes, songs\nof the Troubadours begin to rise and give utterance to\nthoughts and feelings of chivalric love. These songs\nflourished during the whole of the twelfth century, and then\ntheir notes were crushed by the Albigensian Crusade, which\ndestroyed the pretty life from which they sprang.\n\nShe whom such songs were meant to adulate or win,\nfrequently was the wife of the Troubadour's lord. The\nsong might intend nothing beyond such worship as the\nlady's spouse would sanction; or it might give subtle voice\nto a real passion, which offered and sought all. To separate\nthe sincere and passionate from the fanciful in such songs is\nneither easy nor apt, since fancy may enhance the\nexpression of passion, or present a pleasing substitute. At all\nevents, in this very personal poetry, passion and imaginative\nenhancings blended in verses that might move a lady's heart\nor vanity.\n\nLove, with the Troubadours and their ladies, was a source of joy. Its commands and exigencies made life's\nsupreme law. Love was knighthood's service; it was\nloyalty and devotion; it was the noblest human giving. It\nwas also the spring of excellence, the inspiration of high\ndeeds. This love was courteous, delicately ceremonial,\nprecise, and on the lady's part exacting and whimsical. A\nmoderate knowledge of the poems and lives of the Troubadours\nand their ladies will show that love with its joys and pains,\nits passion, its fancies and subtle conclusions, made the life\nand business of these men and dames.\n\nIn culture and the love of pleasure the great feudal\ncourts of Aquitaine, Champagne, and even Flanders, were\nscarcely behind the society of Languedoc. And at these\ncourts, rather than in Languedoc, courtly love encountered\na new passionate current, and found the tales which\nwere to form its chief vehicle. These were the lays\nand stories, as of Tristan and of Arthur and his knights,\nwhich from Great Britain had come to Brittany and\nNormandy. They were now attracting many listeners who had\nno part with Arthur or Tristan, save the love of love and\nadventure. Marie de France had put certain Breton lays\ninto Old French verse. And one or two decades later, a\nrequest from the great Countess Marie de Champagne led\nChr\u00e9tien de Troies, as we have seen, to recast other Breton\ntales in a manner somewhat transformed with thoughts of\ncourtly love. These northern poems of love and chivalry\nwere written to please the taste of high-born dames, just as\nthe Troubadours had sung and still were singing to please\ntheir sisters in the south. The southern poems may have\ninfluenced the northern.\n\nIn the courtly society of Champagne and Aquitaine\ndiverse racial elements had long been blending, and\nacquirements, once foreign, had turned into personal qualities.\nViews of life had been evolved, along with faculties to express them. Likewise modes of feeling had developed.\nThis society had become what it was within the influence of\nChristianity and the antique educational tradition. It knew\nthe Song of Songs, as well as Ovid's stories, and likewise his\nArs amatoria, which Chr\u00e9tien was the first to translate into\nOld French. Possibly its Christianity had learned of a\nboundless love of God, and its mortal nature might feel\nmortal loves equally resistless. And now, in the early\ntwelfth century, there came from lands which were or had\nbeen Breton, an abundance of moving and catching stories\nof adventure and of passion which broke through restraint,\nor knew none. Dames and knights and their rhymers would\neagerly receive such tales, and not as barren vessels; for they\nrefashioned and reinspired them with their own thoughts of the\njoy of life and love, and with thoughts of love's high service\nand its uplifting virtue for the lover, and again of its ways\nand the laws which should direct and guide, but never stem, it.\n\nThus it came that French trouv\u00e8res enlarged the matter\nof these Breton lays. Their romances reflected the loftiest\nthoughts and the most eloquent emotion pertaining to the\nearthly side of mediaeval life. In these rhyming and prose\ncompositions, love was resistless in power; it absorbed the\nlover's nature; it became his sole source of joy and pain.\nSo it sought nothing but its own fulfilment; it knew no\nhonour save its own demands. It was unimpeachable, for\nin ecstasy and grief it was accountable to no law except that\nof its being. This resistless love was also life's highest\nworth, and the spring of inspiration and strength for doing\nvalorously and living nobly. The trouv\u00e8re of the twelfth\ncentury created new conceptions of love's service, and\ntherewith the impassioned thought that beyond what men might\ndo in the hope of love's fruition or at the dictates of its\naffection, love was itself a power strengthening and ennobling\nhim who loved. Thought and feeling joined in this\nconviction, each helping the other on, in interchanging r\u00f4les of\ninspirer and inspired. And finally the two are one:\n\n\"Oltre la spera, che pi\u00f9 larga gira,\n\u2003Passa il sospiro ch' esce del mio core:\nIntelligenza nuova, che l'Amore\n\u2003Piangendo mette in lui, pur su lo tira.\"\n\nNo one can separate the thought and feeling in this verse.\nBut they were not always fused. The mediaeval fancy\nsported with this love; the mediaeval mind delighted in it as\na theme of argument. And the fancy might be as fantastic\nas the reasoning was finely spun.\n\nThe literature of this love draws no sharp lines between\nlove as resistless passion and love as enabling virtue; yet\nthese two aspects are distinguishable. The first was less an\noriginal creation of the Middle Ages than the second.\nAntiquity had known the passion which overwhelmed the\nstricken mortal, and had treated it as something put upon\nthe man and woman, a convulsive joy, also a bane.\nAntiquity had analyzed it too, and had shown its effects,\nespecially its physical symptoms. Much had been written\nof its fatal nature; songs had sung how it overthrew the\nstrong and brought men and women to their death. Looking\nupon this love as something put on man and woman,\nantiquity pictured it mainly as an insanity cast like a spell\nupon some one who otherwise would have been sane. But\nthe Middle Ages saw love transformed into the man and\nwoman, saw it constitute their will as well as passion, and\nperceived that it was their being. If the lover could not\navoid or resist it, the reason was because it was his mightiest\nself, and not because it was a compulsion from without; it\nwas his nature, not his disease.\n\nThe nature, ways, and laws of this high and ennobling\nlove were much pondered on and talked of. They were\nexpounded in pedantic treatises, as well as set forth in tales\nwhich sometimes have the breath of universal life. Ovid's\nArs amatoria furnished the idea that love was an art to be\nlearned and practised. Mediaeval clerks and rhymers took\nhis light art seriously, and certain of them made manuals of\nthe rules and precepts of love, devised by themselves and\nothers interested in such fancies. An example is the Flos amoris or Ars amatoria of Andrew the Chaplain, who compiled his book not far from the year 1200. He wrote with his obsequious head filled with a sense of the authority in love matters of Marie de Champagne, and other great\nladies. His book contains a number of curious questions\nwhich had been laid before one or the other of those reigning\ndames, and which they solved boldly in love's favour. Thus\non solicitation Countess Marie decided that there could be\nno true love between a husband and wife; and that the\npossession of an honoured husband or beautiful wife did not\nbar the proffer or acceptance of love from another. The\nliving literature of love was never constrained by the\nfoolishness of the first proposition, but was freely to exemplify the\nfurther conclusion which others besides the countess drew.\n\nAndrew gives a code of love's rules. He would have no\none think that he composed them; but that he saw them\nwritten on a parchment attached to the hawk's perch, and\nwon at Arthur's Court by the valour of a certain Breton\nknight. They read like proverbs, and undoubtedly represent\nthe ideas of courtly society upon courtly love. There are\nthirty-one of them\u2014for example:\n\n(1) Marriage is not a good excuse for rejecting love.\n\n(2) Who does not conceal, cannot love.\n\n(3) None can love two at once. There is no reason why a woman should not be loved by two men, or a man by two women.\n\n(4) It is love's way always to increase or lessen.\n\n(9) None can love except one who is moved by love's suasion.\n\n(12) The true lover has no desire to embrace anyone except his (or her) co-lover (co-amans).\n\n(13) Love when published rarely endures.\n\n(14) Easy winning makes love despicable; the difficult is held dear.\n\n(15) Every lover turns pale in the sight of the co-lover.\n\n(16) The lover's heart trembles at the sudden sight of the co-lover.\n\n(18) Prowess (probitas) alone makes one worthy of love.\n\n(20) The lover is always fearful.\n\n(23) The one whom the thought of love disturbs, eats and sleeps little.\n\n(25) The true lover finds happiness only in what he deems will please his co-lover.\n\n(28) A slight fault in the lover awakens the co-lover's suspicion.\n\n(30) The true lover constantly, without intermission, is engrossed with the image of the co-lover.\n\nThese rules were exemplified in the imaginative literature of courtly love. Such love and the feats inspired by it made the chief matter of the Arthurian romances, which\nbecame the literary property of western Europe; and the\nsupreme examples of their darling theme are the careers and\nfortunes of the two most famous pairs of lovers in all this\ngallant cycle, Tristan and Iseult, Lancelot and Guinevere.\nIn the former story love is resistless passion; in the latter\nits virtue- and valour-bestowing qualities appear. In both,\nthe laws forbidding its fruition are shattered: in the Tristan\nstory blindly, madly, without further thought; while in the\ntale of Lancelot this conflict sometimes rises to\nconsciousness even in the lovers' hearts. How chivalric love may\nreach accord with Christian precept will be shown hereafter\nin the progress of the white and scarlet soul of Parzival, the\nbrave man proving himself slowly wise.\n\nProbably there never was a better version of the story of\nTristan and Iseult than that of Gottfried of Strassburg, who\ntransformed French originals into his Middle High German\npoem about the year 1210. The poet-adapter sets forth\nhis ideas of love in an elaborate prologue. Very\nantithetically he shows its bitter sweet, its dear sorrow,\nits yearning need; indeed to love is to yearn\u2014an idea\nnot strange to Plato\u2014and Gottfried uses the words\nsene, senel\u00eech, senedaere (all of which are related to sehnsucht, which is yearning) to signify love, a lover, and his\npain. His poem shall be of two noble lovers:\n\n\"Ein senedaere, eine senedaerin.\"\n\nThe more love's fire burns the heart, the more one\nloves; this pain is full of love, an ill so good for the heart\nthat no noble nature once roused by it would wish to lose\npart therein. Who never felt love's pain has never felt love:\n\n\"Liep unde leit diu waren ie\n\nAn minnen ungescheiden.\"\n\nIt is good for men to hear a tale of noble love, yes, a\ndeep good. It sweetens love and raises the hearer's mood;\nit strengthens troth, enriches life. Love, troth, a constant spirit, honour, and whatever else is good, are never so\nprecious as when set in a tale of love's joy and pain. Love\nis such a blessed thing, such a blessed striving, that no one\nwithout its teaching has worth or honour. These lovers\ndied long ago; yet their love and troth, their life, their\ndeath, will still give troth and honour to seekers after these.\nTheir death lives and is ever new, as we listen to the tale.\nEvidently, in Gottfried's mind the Tristan tale of love's\nalmighty passion carried the thought of love as the\ninspiration of a noble life. Yet that thought was not native to the\nlegend, and finds scant exemplification in Gottfried's poem.\n\nThe tragic passion of the main narrative is presaged by\nthe story of Tristan's parents. His mother was Blancheflur,\nKing Mark's sister, and his father Prince Riwalin. She saw\nhim in the May-Court tourney held near Tintajoel. She\ntook him into her thoughts; he entered her heart, and\nthere wore crown and sceptre.\n\nShe greeted him; he her. She bashfully began: \"My\nlord, may God enrich your heart and courage; but I harbour\nsomething against you.\"\n\n\"Sweet one, what have I done?\"\n\n\"You have done violence to my best friend\"\u2014it was\nher heart, she meant.\n\n\"Beauty, bear me no hate for that; command, and I\nwill do your bidding.\"\n\n\"Then I will not hate you bitterly. I will see what\natonement you will make.\"\n\nHe bowed, and carried with him her image. Love's\nwill mastered his heart, as he thought of Blancheflur, of her\nhair, her brow, her cheek, her mouth, her chin, and the glad\nEaster day that smiling lay in her eyes. Love the\nheart-burner set his heart aflame, and lo! he entered upon another\nlife; purpose and habit changed, he was another man.\n\nSad is the short tale of these lovers. Riwalin is killed\nin battle, and at the news of his death Blancheflur expires,\ngiving birth to a son. Rual the Faithful names the child\nTristan, to symbolize the sorrow of its birth.\n\nThe story of Tristan's early years draws the reader to\nthe accomplished, happy youth. He is the delight of all;\nfor his young manhood is courtliness itself, and valour and generosity. He is loved, and afterwards recognized and\nknighted, by his uncle Mark. Then he sets out and avenges\nhis father's death; after which he returns to Mark's Court,\nand vanquishes the Irish champion Morold. A fragment\nof Tristan's sword remained in Morold's head; Tristan\nhimself received a poisoned wound, which could be healed, as\nthe dying Morold told him, only by Ireland's queen, Iseult.\nVery charming is the story of Tristan's first visit to Ireland,\ndisguised as a harper, under the name of Tantris. The\nqueen hearing of his skill, has him brought to the palace,\nwhere she heals him, and he in return becomes the teacher\nof her daughter, the younger Iseult, whom he instructs in\nletters, music and singing, French and Latin, ethics, courtly\narts and manners, till the girl became as accomplished as she\nwas beautiful, and could write and read, and compose and\nsing pastorelles and rondeaux and other songs.\n\nOn his return to Cornwall he told Mark of the young\nIseult, and then, at Mark's request, set forth again to woo\nher for him. The Irish king has promised his daughter to\nwhoever shall slay the dragon. Tristan does the deed, cuts\nout the dragon's tongue as proof, and then falls overcome\nand fainting. The king's cupbearer comes by, breaks his\nlance on the dead dragon, and, riding on, announces that he\nhas slain the monster; he has the great head brought to\nthe Court upon a wagon. Iseult is in despair at the\nthought of marrying the cupbearer; her mother doubts his\nstory, and bids Iseult ride out and search for the real slayer.\nThe ladies discover Tristan, with him the dragon's tongue.\nThey carry him to the palace to heal him, and the young\nIseult recognizes him as the harper Tantris, and redoubles\nher kind care. But after a while she noticed the notch in\nhis sword, and saw that it fitted the fragment found in\nMorold's head\u2014and is not Tantris just Tristan reversed?\nThis is the man who slew Morold, her mother's brother!\nShe seizes the sword and rushes in to kill him in his bath.\nHer mother checks her, and at last she is appeased, Tristan\nletting them see that an important mission has brought him\nto Ireland. There is truce between them, and Tristan goes\nto the king with Mark's demand for Iseult's hand. Then\nthe cupbearer is discomfited, peace is made between the Irish king and Mark, and the young Iseult, with Brangaene\nher cousin, makes ready to sail with Tristan. The queen\nsecretly gave a love-drink into Brangaene's care, which Iseult\nand Mark should drink together. The people followed down\nto the haven, and all wept and lamented that with fair\nIseult the sunshine had left Ireland.\n\nIseult is sad. She cannot forget that it is Tristan who\nslew her uncle and is now taking her from her home.\nTristan fails to comfort her. They see land. Tristan calls\nfor wine to pledge Iseult. A little maid brings\u2014the\nlove-drink! They drink together, not wine but that endless\nheart's pain which shall be their common death. Too\nlate, Brangaene with a cry throws the goblet into the\nsea. Love stole into both their hearts; gone was Iseult's\nhate. They were no longer two, but one; the sinner, love,\nhad done it. They were each other's joy and pain; doubt\nand shame seized them. Tristan bethought him of his\nloyalty and honour, struggling against love vainly. Iseult\nwas like a bird caught with the fowler's lime; shame drove\nher eyes away from him; but love drew her heart. She\ngave over the contest as she looked on him, and he also\nbegan to yield. They thought each other fairer than before;\nlove was conquering.\n\nThe ship sails on. Love's need conquered. They talk\ntogether of the past, how he had once come in a little boat,\nand of the lessons: \"Fair Iseult, what is troubling you?\"\n\n\"What I know, that troubles me; what I see, the heaven\nand sea, that weighs on me; body and life are heavy.\"\nThey leaned toward each other; bright eyes began to\nfill from the heart's spring; her head sank, his arm sustained\nher;\u2014\"Ah! sweet, tell me, what is it?\"\n\nAnswered love's feather-play, Iseult: \"Love is my need,\nlove is my pain.\"\n\nHe answered painfully: \"Fair Iseult, it is the rude wind\nand sea.\"\n\n\"No, no, it is not wind or sea; love is my pain.\"\n\n\"Beauty, so with me! Love and you make my need.\nHeart's lady, dear Iseult, you and the love of you have\nseized me. I am dazed. I cannot find myself. All the\nworld has become naught, save thee alone.\"\n\n\"Sir, so is it with me.\"\n\nThey loved, and in each other saw one mind, one heart,\none will. Their silent kiss was long. In the night, love\nthe physician brought their only balm. Sweet had the\nvoyage become; alas! that it must end.\n\nWith their landing begins the trickery and falsehood\ncompelled by the situation. The fearful Iseult plotted to\nmurder the true Brangaene, who alone knew. After a while\nMark's suspicion is aroused, to be lulled by guile. Plot and\ncounterplot go on; the lovers win and win again; truth and\nhonour, everything save love's joy and fear and\nall-sufficiency, are cast to the winds. Even the \"Judgment of\nGod\" is tricked; the hot iron does not burn Iseult swearing\nher false oath, literally true. Many a time Mark's jealousy\nhas been fiercely stirred, only to be tricked to sleep again.\nYet he knows that Tristan and Iseult are lovers. He calls\nthem to him; he tells them he will not avenge himself, they\nare too dear to him. But let them take each other by the\nhand and leave him. So, together, they disappear in the\nforest.\n\nThen comes the wonderful, beautiful story of the\nlove-grotto and the lovers' forest-life; they had the forest and\nthey had themselves, and needed no more. One morning\nthey arose to the sweet birds' song of greeting; but they\nheard a horn; Mark must be hunting near. So they were\nvery careful, and again prepared deception. Mark has been\ntold of the love-grotto in the wood. In the night he came\nand found it, looked through its little rustic window as the\nday began to dawn. There lay the lovers, apart, a naked\nsword between them. A sunbeam, stealing through the\nwindow, touches Iseult's cheek, touches her sweet mouth.\nMark loves her anew. Then fearful lest the sunlight should\ndisturb her, he covered the window with grass and leaves\nand flowers, blessed her, and went away in tears. The\nlovers waken. They had no need to fear. The lie of the\nnaked sword again had won. Mark sends and invites them\nto return.\n\nInsatiable love knew no surcease or pause. The\nGerman poet is driven to a few reflections on the deceits of\nEve's daughters, the anxieties of forbidden love, and the crown of worth and joy that a true woman's love may be.\nAt last the lovers are betrayed\u2014in each other's arms.\nThey know that Mark has seen them.\n\n\"Heart's lady, fair Iseult, now we must part. Let me\nnot pass from your heart. Iseult must ever be in Tristan's\nheart. Forget me not.\"\n\nSays Iseult: \"Our hearts have been too long one ever\nto know forgetting. Whether you are near or far, nothing\nbut Tristan enters mine. See to it that no other woman\nparts us. Take this ring and think of me. Iseult with\nTristan has been ever one heart, one troth, one body, one\nlife. Think of me as your life\u2014Iseult.\"\n\nThe fateful turning of the story is not far off: Tristan\nhas met the other Iseult, her of the white hands. The poet\nGottfried did not complete his work. He died, leaving\nTristan's heart struggling between the old love and the new\u2014the\nnew and weaker love, but the more present offering\nto pain. The story was variously concluded by different\nrhymers, in Gottfried's time and after. The best ending is\nthe extant fragment of the Tristan by Thomas of Brittany,\nthe master whom Gottfried followed. In it, the wounded\nTristan dies at the false news of the black sails\u2014the\ntreachery of Iseult of the white hands. The true Iseult\nfinds him dead; kisses him, takes him in her arms, and\ndies.\n\nFrom the time when on the ship Tristan and Iseult cast\nshame and honour to the winds, the story tells of a love\nwhich knows no law except itself, a love which is not\nhindered or made to hesitate and doubt by any command\nof righteousness or honour. Love is the theme; the tale\nhas no sympathy or understanding for anything else. It is\ntherefore free from the consciously realized inconsistencies\npresent at least in some versions of the story of Lancelot\nand Guinevere. In them two laws of life seem on the verge\nof conflict. On the one\u2014the feebler\u2014side, honour, troth\nto marriage vows, some sense of right and wrong; on the\nother, passionate love, which is law and right unto itself,\nhaving its own commands and prohibitions; a love which is\nalso an inspiration and uplifting power unto the lover; a\nlove holy in itself and yet because of its high nature the 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.\n\nWho first created Lancelot, and who first made the peerless knight love Arthur's queen? This question has not yet been answered. Chr\u00e9tien 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, Chr\u00e9tien 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 composed two or three decades after Chr\u00e9tien wrote. It contains 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 a knight\u2014it was the queen and not the king from whom he received his sword. And he loves her\u2014loves 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.\n\nFrom 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 found their shame\u2014they were not perfect lovers! Only through his perfect love could Lancelot have accomplished that greatest adventure of the Val des faux amants;\u2014Val sans retour for all other knights. Lancelot alone had always been, and to his death remained, a lover absolutely true in act and word\nand thought; incomparably more chastely loyal to Guinevere\nthan her kingly spouse. Against the singleness of this\nperfect love enchantments fail, and swords and lances break.\nYet this love, fraught with untruth and dishonour, must\nconceal itself from that king who, while breaking his own\nmarriage vows as passion led him, trusted and honoured\nabove all men the peerless knight whose peerlessness was\nrooted in his unholy holy love for Arthur's queen.\n\nThe first full sin between Lancelot and Guinevere was\ncommitted when Arthur was absent on a love-adventure,\nwhich brought him to a shameful prison. He was delivered\nby Lancelot, and recognizing his deliverer, he said in royal\ngratitude: \"I yield you my land, my honour, and myself.\"\nLancelot blushes! Thereafter, as towards Arthur, Lancelot\nand Guinevere are forced into stratagems almost as ignoble\nas those by which King Mark was tricked. And Guinevere\u2014she\ntoo is peerless among women; perfect in beauty,\nperfect in courtliness, perfect in dutifulness to her husband\u2014saving her love for Lancelot! Guinevere's dutifulness to\nArthur is not shaken by his outrageous treatment of her\nbecause of the \"false Guinevere,\" when he cast off and\nsought to burn his queen. She will continue to obey him\nthough he has dishonoured her and all the time, unknown\nto her outrageous, unjustly accusing lord, how had she cast\nher and his honour down with Lancelot! Only while she\nis put away from her lord, and under Lancelot's guard, for\nthat time she will be true to marriage vows; and Lancelot\nassents.\n\nThe latter part of the story, when asceticism enters with\nGalahad, suggests that the peerless knight of \"les temps adventureux\" was sinful. But the main body of the tale\nput no reproach on Lancelot for his great love. It told of a\nlove as perfect and as absolute as the author or compiler\ncould conceive; and the conduct of Lancelot was intended\nto be that of a perfect lover, whose sentiments and actions\nshould accord with the idea of courtly love and exemplify its\nrules. Their underlying principle was that love should\nalways be absolute, and that the lover's every thought and\nact should on all occasions correspond with the most\nextreme feelings or sentiments or fancies possible for a\nlover. In the prose narrative, for example, Lancelot goes\nmad three times because of his mistress's cruelty, a cruelty\nwhich may seem to us absurd, but which represents the\nadored lady's insistence, under all circumstances, upon the\nmost unhesitating and utter devotion from her lover.\n\nChr\u00e9tien's Conte de la charrette is a clear rendering of the\nidea that love shall be absolute, and hesitate at nothing; it\nis an example of courtly love carried to its furthest imagined\nconclusions. It displays all the rules of Andrew the\nChaplain in operation. In it Lancelot will do anything for\nGuinevere, will show himself a coward knight at her\ncommand, or perform feats of arms; he will desire the least\nlittle bit of her\u2014a tress of hair\u2014more than all else which is\nnot she; he will throw himself from the window to be near\nher; engaged in deadly combat, the sight of her makes him\nforget his enemy; at the news of her death he seeks at once\nto die. Of course his heart loathes the thought of infringing\nthis great love by the slightest fancy for another woman.\nOn the other hand, when by marvels of valour Lancelot\nrescues Guinevere from captivity, she will not speak to him\nbecause for a single instant he had hesitated to mount a\ncharrette, in which no knight was carried save one who\nwas felon and condemned to death. This was logical on\nGuinevere's part; Lancelot's love should always have been\nso absolute as never for one instant to hesitate. Much of\nthis is extreme, and yet hardly unreal. Helo\u00efse's love for\nAbaelard never hesitated.\n\nSuch love, imperious and absolute, shuts out all laws\nand exigencies save its own; it must be virtue and honour\nunto itself; it is careless of what ill it may do so long as\nthat ill does not infringe love's laws. Evidently before it\nthe bonds of marriage break, or pale to insignificance. It is\nits own sanction, nor needs the faint blessing of the priest.\nThe poet\u2014as the actual lover likewise\u2014may even deem\nthat love can best show itself to be the principle of its own\nhonour when unsustained by wedlock; thus unsustained and\nunobscured it stands alone, fairer, clearer, more interesting\nand romantic. Again, since mediaeval marriage in high life\nwas more often a joining of fiefs than a union of hearts,\nthere would be high-born dames and courtly poets to\ndeclare that love could only exist between knight and\nmistress, and not between husband and wife. Marriage\nshuts out love's doubts and fears; there is no need of\nfurther knightly services; and husband and wife by law are\nbound to render to each other what between lovers is\ngracious favour; this was the opinion of Marie de\nChampagne, it also was the opinion of Helo\u00efse. In\nchivalric poetry the lovers, when at last duly married, may\ncontinue to call each other ami et amie rather than wife and\nlord; or a knight may shun marriage lest he settle down\nand lose worship, doing no more adventurous feats of arms,\nlike Chr\u00e9tien's Erec, till his wife Enide stung him by her\nspeech. Some centuries later Malory has Lancelot utter a\nlike sentiment: \"But to be a wedded man I think never\nto be, for if I were, then should I be bound to tarry with\nmy wife, and leave arms and tournaments, battles and\nadventures.\"\n\nIf allowance be made for the difference in topic and\ntreatment between the Arthurian romances and Guillaume\nde Lorris's portion of the Roman de la rose, the latter will be seen to illustrate similar love principles. De Lorris's\npoem is fancy playing with thoughts of love which had\ninspired these tales of chivalry. Every one knows its gentle\nidyllic character;\u2014how charming, for instance, is the\nconflict between the Lover-to-be and Love, who quickly\novercomes the ready yielder. So he surrenders\nunconditionally, gives himself over; Love may slay him or\ngladden him\u2014\"le cuers est vostre, non pas miens,\" says the\nlover to Love, and you shall do with it as you will. Then\nLove sweetly takes his little golden key, and locks the\nlover's heart, after which he safely may impart his rules\nand counsels: the lover must abjure vilanie, and foul and\nslanderous speech\u2014the opposite of courtesy. Pride also\n(orgoil) must be abandoned. He should attire himself\nseemingly, and show cheerfulness; he must be niggardly in\nnothing; his heart must be given utterly to one; he shall\nundergo toils and endure griefs without complaint; in\nabsence he will always think of the beloved, sighing for her,\nkeeping his love aflame; he will be shameful, confused and\nchanging colour in her presence; at night he will toss and\nweep for love of her, and dream dreams of passionate\ndelight; then wakeful, he will rise and wander near her\ndwelling, but will not be seen\u2014nor will he forget to be\ngenerous to her waiting-maid. All of this will make the\nlover pale and lean. To aid him to endure these agonies,\nwill come Hope with her gentle healings, and Fond-thought,\nand Sweet-speech of the beloved with a wise confidant, and\nSweet-sight of her dwelling, maybe of herself. The\nRoman de la rose is fancy, and the Arthurian romances are fiction.\nIn the one or the other, imagination may take the place of\npassion, and the contents of the poem or romance afford a\ntype and presentation of the theory of love.","title":"The Mediaeval Mind/Chapter 23","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":10368}