Four Arthurian Romances
against the Saracens, or else to the strife and rivalry of French
vassals among themselves, had been current for perhaps a century before
our poet began to write. These epic poems, of which some three score
have survived, portray a warlike, virile, unsentimental feudal society,
whose chief occupation was fighting, and whose dominant ideals were
faith in God, loyalty to feudal family ties, and bravery in battle.
Woman's place is comparatively obscure, and of love-making there is
little said. It is a poetry of vigorous manhood, of uncompromising
morality, and of hard knocks given and taken for God, for Christendom,
and the King of France. This poetry is written in ten- or twelve-
syllable verses grouped, at first in assonanced, later in rhymed,
"tirades" of unequal length. It was intended for a society which was
still homogeneous, and to it at the outset doubtless all classes of the
population listened with equal interest. As poetry it is monotonous,
without sense of proportion, padded to facilitate memorisation by
professional reciters, and unadorned by figure, fancy, or imagination.
Its pretention to historic accuracy begot prosaicness in its approach
to the style of the chronicles. But its inspiration was noble, its
conception of human duties was lofty. It gives a realistic portrayal of
the age which produced it, the age of the first crusades, and to this
day we would choose as our models of citizenship Roland and Oliver
rather than Tristan and Lancelot. The epic poems, dealing with the
pseudo-historical characters who had fought in civil and foreign wars
under Charlemagne, remained the favourite literary pabulum of the middle
classes until the close of the thirteenth century. Professor Bedier
is at present engaged in explaining the extraordinary hold which these
poems had upon the public, and in proving that they exercised a distinct
function when exploited by the Church throughout the period of
the crusades to celebrate local shrines and to promote muscular
Christianity. But the refinement which began to penetrate the ideals of
the French aristocracy about the middle of the twelfth century craved a
different expression in narrative literature. Greek and Roman mythology
and history were seized upon with some effect to satisfy the new demand.
The "Roman de Thebes", the "Roman d'Alexandre", the "Roman de
Troie", and its logical continuation, the "Roman d'Eneas", are all
twelfth-century attempts to clothe classic legend in the dress of
mediaeval chivalry. But better fitted to satisfy the new demand was the
discovery by the alert Anglo-Normans perhaps in Brittany, perhaps in the
South of England, of a vast body of legendary material which, so far as
we know, had never before this century received any elaborate literary
treatment. The existence of the literary demand and this discovery of
the material for its prompt satisfaction is one of the most remarkable
coincidences in literary history. It would seem that the pride of the
Celtic populations in a Celtic hero, aided and abetted by Geoffrey of
Monmouth, who first showed the romantic possibilities of the material,
made of the obscure British chieftain Arthur a world conqueror. Arthur
thus became already in Geoffrey's "Historia regum Britaniae" a conscious
protagonist of Charlemagne and his rival in popularity. This grandiose
conception of Arthur persisted in England, but this conception of the
British chieftain did not interest the French. For Chrétien Arthur had
no political significance. He is simply the arbiter of his court in all
affairs of justice and courtesy. Charlemagne's very realistic entourage
of virile and busy barons is replaced by a court of elegant chevaliers
and unemployed ladies. Charlemagne's setting is historical and
geographical; Arthur's setting is ideal and in the air. In the oldest
epic poems we find only God-fearing men and a few self-effacing women;
in the Arthurian romances we meet gentlemen and ladies, more elegant and
seductive than any one in the epic poems, but less fortified by
faith and sense of duty against vice because breathing an enervating
atmosphere of leisure and decadent morally. Though the Church made the
attempt in "Parzival", it could never lay its hands so effectively upon
this Celtic material, because it contained too many elements which
were root and branch inconsistent with the essential teachings of
Christianity. A fleeting comparison of the noble end of Charlemagne's
Peers fighting for their God and their King at Ronceval with the futile
and dilettante careers of Arthur's knights in joust and hunt, will show
better than mere words where the difference lies.
The student of the history of social and moral ideals will find much to
interest him in Chrétien's romances. Mediaeval references show that he
was held by his immediate successors, as he is held to-day when fairly
viewed, to have been a master of the art of story-telling. More than any
other single narrative poet, he was taken as a model both in France and
abroad. Professor F. M. Warren has set forth in detail the finer points
in the art of poetry as practised by Chrétien and his contemporary
craftsmen (see "Some Features of Style in Early French Narrative Poetry,
1150-1170 in "Modern Philology", iii., 179-209; iii., 513-539; iv.,
655-675). Poets in his own land refer to him with reverence, and foreign
poets complimented him to a high degree by direct translation and by
embroidering upon the themes which he had made popular. The knights made
famous by Chrétien soon crossed the frontiers and obtained rights of
citizenship in counties so diverse as Germany, England, Scandinavia,
Holland, Italy, and to a lesser extent in Spain and Portugal. The
inevitable tendency of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to reduce
poetry to prose affected the Arthurian material; vast prose compilations
finally embodied in print the matter formerly expressed in verse, and it
was in this form that the stories were known to later generations until
revived interest in the Middle Ages brought to light the manuscripts in
verse.
Aside from certain episodes of Chrétien's romances, the student will be
most interested in the treatment of love as therein portrayed. On this
topic we may hear speaking the man of his time. "Cligés" contains the
body of Chrétien's doctrine of love, while Lancelot is his most perfect
lover. His debt to Ovid has not yet been indicated with sufficient
preciseness. An elaborate code to govern sentiment and its expression
was independently developed by the troubadours of Provence in the early
twelfth century. These Provencal ideals of the courtly life were carried
into Northern France partly as the result of a royal marriage in 1137
and of the crusade of 1147, and there by such poets as Chrétien they
were gathered up and fused with the Ovidian doctrine into a highly
complicated but perfectly definite statement of the ideal relations of
the sexes. Nowhere in the vulgar tongues can a better statement of these
relations be found than in "Cligés."
So we leave Chrétien to speak across the ages for himself and his
generation. He is to be read as a story-teller rather than as a poet,
as a casuist rather than as a philosopher. But when all deductions are
made, his significance as a literary artist and as the founder of a
precious literary tradition distinguishes him from all other poets
of the Latin races between the close of the Empire and the arrival of
Dante.
--W. W. COMFORT.
EREC ET ENIDE [11]
(Vv. 1-26.) The rustic's proverb says that many a thing is despised that
is worth much more than is supposed. Therefore he does well who makes
the most of whatever intelligence he may possess. For he who neglects
this concern may likely omit to say something which would subsequently
give great pleasure. So Chrétien de Troyes maintains that one ought
always to study and strive to speak well and teach the right; and he
derives from a story of adventure a pleasing argument whereby it may be
proved and known that he is not wise who does not make liberal use of
his knowledge so long as God may give him grace. The story is about Erec
the son of Lac--a story which those who earn a living by telling stories
are accustomed to mutilate and spoil in the presence of kings and
counts. And now I shall begin the tale which will be remembered so long
as Christendom endures. This is Chrétien's boast.
(Vv. 27-66.) One Easter Day in the Springtime, King Arthur held court in
his town of Cardigan. Never was there seen so rich a court; for many
a good knight was there, hardy, bold, and brave, and rich ladies and
damsels, gentle and fair daughters of kings. But before the court was
disbanded, the King told his knights that he wished to hunt the White
Stag, [12] in order to observe worthily the ancient custom. When my lord
Gawain heard this, he was sore displeased, and said: "Sire, you will
derive neither thanks nor goodwill from this hunt. We all know long
since what this custom of the White Stag is: whoever can kill the White
Stag must forsooth kiss the fairest maiden of your court, come what may.
But of this there might come great ill, for there are here five hundred
damsels of high birth, gentle and prudent daughters of kings, and there
is none of them but has a bold and valiant knight for her lover who
would be ready to contend, whether right or wrong, that she who is his
lady is the fairest and gentlest of them all." The King replies: "That
I know well; yet will I not desist on that account; for a king's word
ought never to be gainsaid. To-morrow morning we shall all gaily go to
hunt the White Stag in the forest of adventure. And very delightful this
hunt will be."
(Vv. 67-114.) And so the affair is arranged for the next morning
at daybreak. The morrow, as soon as it is day, the King gets up and
dresses, and dons a short jacket for his forest ride. He commands the
knights to be aroused and the horses to be made ready. Already they
are ahorse, and off they go, with bows and arrows. After them the Queen
mounts her horse, taking a damsel with her. A maid she was, the daughter
of a king, and she rode a white palfrey. After them there swiftly
followed a knight, named Erec, who belonged to the Round Table, and had
great fame at the court. [13] Of all the knights that ever were there,
never one received such praise; and he was so fair that nowhere in the
world need one seek a fairer knight than he. He was very fair, brave,
and courteous, though not yet twenty-five years old. Never was there
a man of his age of greater knighthood. And what shall I say of his
virtues? Mounted on his horse, and clad in an ermine mantle, he came
galloping down the road, wearing a coat of splendid flowered silk which
was made at Constantinople. He had put on hose of brocade, well made and
cut, and when his golden spurs were well attached, he sat securely in
his stirrups. He carried no arm with him but his sword. As he galloped
along, at the corner of a street he came up with the Queen, and said:
"My lady, if it please you, I should gladly accompany you along this
road, having come for no other purpose than to bear you company." And
the Queen thanks him: "Fair friend, I like your company well, in truth;
for better I could not have."
(Vv. 115-124.) Then they ride along at full speed until they come into
the forest, where the party who had gone before them had already started
the stag. Some wind the horns and others shout; the hounds plunge ahead
after the stag, running, attacking, and baying; the bowmen shoot amain.
And before them all rode the King on a Spanish hunter.
(Vv. 125-154.) Queen Guinevere was in the wood listening for the dogs;
beside her were Erec and the damsel, who was very courteous and fair.
But those who had pursued the stag were so far from them that, however