A Short History of French Literature
_Merlin_, attributed also to Robert de Borron, wherein the Welsh legends
begin to have more definite influence. This, in its turn, leads to
_Artus_, which gives the early history of the great king. Then comes the
most famous, most extensive, and finest of all the romances, that of
_Lancelot du Lac_, which is pretty certainly in part, and perhaps in
great part, the work of Map; as is also the mystical and melancholy but
highly poetical _Quest of the Saint Graal_, a quest of which Galahad and
Lancelot, not, as in the earlier legends, Percival, are the heroes. To
this succeeds the _Mort Artus_, which forms the conclusion of the whole,
properly speaking. This, however, does not entirely complete the cycle.
Later than Borron, Map, and their unknown fellow-workers (if such they
had), arose one or more _trouveres_, who worked up the ancient Celtic
legends and lays of Tristram into the Romance of _Tristan_, connecting
this, more or less clumsily, with the main legend of the Round Table.
Other legends were worked up into the _omnium gatherum_ of _Giron le
Courtois_, and with this the cycle proper ceases. The later poems are
attributed to two persons, called Luce de Gast and Helie de Borron. But
not the slightest testimony can be adduced to show that any such persons
ever had existence[54].
These prose romances form for the most part the original literature of
the Arthurian story. But the vogue of this story was very largely
increased by a _trouvere_ who used not prose but octosyllabic verse for
his medium.
[Sidenote: Chrestien de Troyes.]
As is the case with most of these early writers, little or nothing is
known of Chrestien de Troyes but his name. He lived in the last half of
the twelfth century, he was attached to the courts of Flanders,
Hainault, and Champagne, and he wrote most of his works for the lords of
these fiefs. Besides his Arthurian work he translated Ovid, and wrote
some short poems. Chrestien de Troyes deserves a higher place in
literature than has sometimes been given to him. His versification is so
exceedingly easy and fluent as to appear almost pedestrian at times; and
his _Chevalier a la Charrette_, by which he is perhaps most generally
known, contrasts unfavourably in its prolixity with the nervous and
picturesque prose to which it corresponds. But _Percevale_ and the
_Chevalier au Lyon_ are very charming poems, deeply imbued with the
peculiar characteristics of the cycle--religious mysticism, passionate
gallantry, and refined courtesy of manners. Chrestien de Troyes
undoubtedly contributed not a little to the popularity of the Arthurian
legends. Although, by a singular chance, which has not yet been fully
explained, the originals appear to have been for the most part in
prose, the times were by no means ripe for the general enjoyment of work
in such a form. The reciter was still the general if not the only
publisher, and recitation almost of necessity implied poetical form.
Chrestien did not throw the whole of the work of his contemporaries into
verse, but he did so throw a considerable portion of it. His Arthurian
works consist of _Le Chevalier a la Charrette_, a very close rendering
of an episode of Map's _Lancelot_; _Le Chevalier au Lyon_, resting
probably upon some previous work not now in existence; _Erec et Enide_,
the legend which every English reader knows in Mr. Tennyson's _Enid_,
and which seems to be purely Welsh; _Cliges_, which may be called the
first Roman d'Aventures; and lastly, _Percevale_, a work of vast extent,
continued by successive versifiers to the extent of some fifty thousand
lines, and probably representing in part a work of Robert de Borron,
which has only recently been printed by M. Hucher. _Percevale_ is,
perhaps, the best example of Chrestien's fashion of composition. The
work of Borron is very short, amounting in all to some ninety pages in
the reprint. The _Percevale le Gallois_ of Chrestien and his
continuators, on the other hand, contains, as has been said, more than
forty-five thousand verses. This amplification is produced partly by the
importation of incidents and episodes from other works, but still more
by indulging in constant diffuseness and what we must perhaps call
commonplaces.
[Sidenote: Spirit and Literary value of Arthurian Romances.]
From a literary point of view the prose romances rank far higher,
especially those in which Map is known or suspected to have had a hand.
The peculiarity of what may be called their atmosphere is marked. An
elaborate and romantic system of mystical religious sentiment, finding
vent in imaginative and allegorical narrative, a remarkable refinement
of manners, and a combination of delight in battle with devotion to
ladies, distinguish them. This is, in short, the romantic spirit, or, as
it is sometimes called, the spirit of chivalry; and it cannot be too
positively asserted that the Arthurian romances communicate it to
literature for the first time, and that nothing like it is found in the
classics. In the work of Map and his contemporaries it is clearly
perceivable. The most important element in this--courtesy--is, as we
have already noticed, almost entirely absent from the Chansons de
Gestes, and where it is present at all it is between persons who are
connected by some natural or artificial relation of comradeship or kin.
Nor are there many traces of it in such fragments and indications as we
possess of the Celtic originals, which may have helped in the production
of the Arthurian romances. No Carlovingian knight would have felt the
horror of Sir Bors when the Lady of Hungerford exercises her undoubted
right by flinging the body of her captive enemy on the camp of his
uncle. Even the chiefs who are presented in the _Chanson d'Antioche_ as
joking over the cannibal banquet of the Roi des Tafurs, and permitting
the dead bodies of Saracens to be torn from the cemeteries and flung
into the beleaguered city, would have very much applauded the deed.
Gallantry, again, is as much absent from the Chansons as clemency and
courtesy. The scene in _Lancelot_, where Galahault first introduces the
Queen and Lancelot to one another, contrasts in the strongest manner
with the downright courtship by which the Bellicents and Nicolettes of
the Carlovingian cycle are won. No doubt Map represents to a great
extent the sentiments of the polished court of England. But he deserves
the credit of having been the first, or almost the first, to express
such manners and sentiments, perhaps also of having being among the
first to conceive them.
These originals are not all equally represented in Malory's English
compilation. Of Robert de Borron's work little survives except by
allusion. _Lancelot du Lac_ itself, the most popular of all the
romances, is very disproportionately drawn upon. Of the youth of
Lancelot, of the winning of Dolorous Gard, of the war with the Saxons,
and of the very curious episode of the false Guinevere, there is
nothing; while the most charming story of Lancelot's relations with
Galahault of Sorelois disappears, except in a few passing allusions to
the 'haughty prince.' On the other hand, the _Quest of the Saint Graal_,
the _Mort Artus_, some episodes of _Lancelot_ (such as the _Chevalier a
la Charrette_), and many parts of _Tristan_ and _Giron le Courtois_, are
given almost in full.
It seems also probable that considerable portions of the original form
of the Arthurian legends are as yet unknown, and have altogether
perished. The very interesting discovery in the Brussels Library, of a
prose _Percevale_ not impossibly older than Chrestien, and quite
different from that of Borron, is an indication of this fact. So also is
the discovery by Dr. Jonckbloet in the Flemish _Lancelot_, which he has
edited, of passages not to be found in the existing and recognised
French originals. The truth would appear to be that the fascination of
the subject, the unusual genius of those who first treated it, and the
tendency of the middle ages to favour imitation, produced in a very
short space of time (the last quarter or half of the twelfth century) an
immense amount of original handling of Geoffrey's theme. To this
original period succeeded one of greater length, in which the legends
were developed not merely by French followers and imitators of
Chrestien, but by his great German adapters, Wolfram von Eschenbach,
Gottfried of Strasburg, Hartmann von der Aue, and by other imitators at
home and abroad. Lastly, as we shall see in a future chapter, come
Romans d'Aventures, connecting themselves by links more or less
immediate with the Round Table cycle, but independent and often quite
separate in their main incidents and catastrophes.
The great number, length, and diversity of the Arthurian romances make
it impossible in the space at our command to abstract all of them, and
useless to select any one, inasmuch as no single poem is (as in the case
of the Chansons) typical of the group. The style, however, of the prose
and verse divisions may be seen in the following extracts from the
_Chevalier a la Charrette_ of Map, and the verse of Chrestien:--
Atant sont venu li chevalier jusqu'au pont: lors commencent
a plorer top durement tuit ensamble. Et Lanceloz lor demande
porquoi il plorent et font tel duel? Et il dient que c'est
por l'amor de lui, que trop est perillox li ponz. Atant
esgarde Lanceloz l'eve de ca et de la: si voit que ele est
noire et coranz. Si avint que sa veue torna devers la cite,
si vit la tor ou la raine estoit as fenestres. Lanceloz
demande quel vile c'est la?--'Sire, font-il, c'est le leus
ou la raine est.' Si li noment la cite. Et il lor dit: 'Or
n'aiez garde de moi, que ge dont mains le pont que ge onques
mes ne fis, ne il n'est pas si perilleux d'assez comme ge
cuidoie. Mes moult a de la outre bele tor, et s'il m'i
voloient hebergier il m'i auroient encor ennuit a hoste.'
Lors descent et les conforte toz moult durement, et lor dit
que il soient ausinc tout asseur comme il est. Il li lacent
les pans de son hauberc ensenble et li cousent a gros fil de
fer qu'il avoient aporte, et ses manches meesmes li cousent
dedenz ses mains, et les piez desoz; et a bone poiz chaude
li ont peez les manicles et tant d'espes comme il ot entre
les cuisses. Et ce fu por miauz tenir contre le trenchant de
l'espee.
Quant il orent Lancelot atorne et bien et bel si lor prie
que il s'en aillent. Et il s'en vont, et le font naigier
outre l'eve, et il enmainent son cheval. Et il vient a la
planche droit: puis esgarde vers la tor ou la raine estoit
en prison, si li encline. Apres fet le signe de la verroie
croiz enmi son vis, et met son escu derriers son dos, qu'il
ne li nuise. Lors se met desor la planche en chevauchons, si
se traine par desus si armez comme il estoit, car il ne li
faut ne hauberc ne espee ne chauces ne heaume ne escu. Et
cil de la tor qui le veoient en sont tuit esbahi, ne il n'i
a nul ne nule qui saiche veroiement qui il est; mes qu'il
voient qu'il traine pardesus l'espee trenchant a la force
des braz et a l'enpaignement des genouz; si ne remaint pas
por les filz de fer que des piez et des mains et des genous
ne saille li sanz. Mes por cel peril de l'espee qui trenche
et por l'eve noire et bruiant et parfonde ne remaint que
plus ne resgart vers la tor que vers l'eve, ne plaie ne
angoisse qu'il ait ne prise naient; car se il a cele tor
pooit venir il garroit tot maintenant de ses max. Tant s'est
hertiez et trainez qu'il est venuz jusqu'a terre.
This becomes in the poem a passage more than 100 lines long, of which
the beginning and end may be given:--
Le droit chemin vont cheminant,