Part 15 (1/2)

The iher level I incline to think that Gautier, with less skill of narrative and far greater prolixity, yet trod closely in Chrestien's footsteps In the love episodes he is as full of char of Perceval and Blanchefleur is told with that graceful laughing _navete_ of which French literature of the period has the secret But of a plan, an aniht traces as Chrestien had introduced into the story are lacking Here, as in Chrestien, the mysterious talismans themselves in no way help forward the story Chrestien certainly had the Christian signification of them in his mind, but makes no use of it The Vessel of the Last Supper, the Spear that pierced Christ's side ic spear or vessel as far as he is concerned The original Pagan essence is retained; the narohen it came into the hands of the author of the Queste The subject matter had been partly shaped and trimmed by a master of narrative, the connection with Christian tradition had been somewhat accentuated It was open to the author of the Queste to take the story as it stood, and to read into its incidents a deep sy based upon the Christian character of the holy talismans He preferred to act otherwise He broke entirely with the traditional frainal hero, and left not an incident of hismay be likened to a shuffle rather than to a transformation The incidents reappear in other connection, but do not reveal the author's plan any more than is the case in the Conte du Graal The Christian character of the talismans is dwelt upon with almost wearisome iteration, the sacramental act supplies the matter of many and of the finest scenes, and yet the essence of the talised The Holy Grail, the Cup of the Last Supper, the Sacraic food-producing vessel of the old Pagan sagas What is the author's idea? Undoubtedly to show that the attain of this world; only by renouncing every hu into a land intermediary between this earth and heaven, is the Quest achieved In the story of the prosecution of that Quest so the cardinal virtues and deadly sins by means of the adventures of the questers, and of the innumerable exhortations addressed to them

But no skill is shown in the conduct of this plan, which is carried out chiefly by the introduction of numatic and moral expositions In this respect the author compares unfavourably with Robert de Borron, who shapes his story in full accord with his conception of the Grail itself, a conception deriving directly from the symbolic Christian nature he attributed to it, and who ic Fisher subserve his guiding idea[149]

If the author's way of carrying out his conception cannot be praised, how does it stand with the conception itself? The fact that the Quest is wholly disassociated from this earth at once indicates the standpoint of the romance The first effect of the Quest's proclamation is to break up the Table Round, that type of the noblest hus cheer or strengthening to no living man The successful questers alone in their unhuman realm have any joy of the Grail The spirit in which they prosecute their quest is best exeic tower and is tempted of the maidens, who threaten to cast themselves down and be dashed to pieces unless he yield the it better ”they lose their souls than he his” So little had the Christian writer apprehended the signification of Christ'sThe character of the principal hero is in consonancy with this aim, wholly remote from the life of man on earth A shadowy perfection at the outset, he rehout, a bloodless and unreal creature, as fit when he first appears upon the scene as when he quits it, to accomplish a quest, purposeless, inasmuch as it only removes him from a world in which he has neither part nor share Such human interest as there is in the story is supplied by Lancelot, who takes over many of the adventures of Perceval or Gawain in the Conte du Graal In hiher life hich we can sy as the Queste affords is given us rather by sinful Lancelot than by sinless Galahad

But the aversion to this world takes a stronger form in the Queste, and one which is the vital conception of the work, in the insistence upon the need for physical chastity To rightly understand the author's position we lance at the state of manners revealed by the romances, and in especial at the sex-relations as they were conceived of by the most refined and civilised men and women of the day The French romances are, as a rule, too entirely narrative to enable a clear realisation of what these were Wolfram, with his keener and more sympathetic eye for individual character--Wolfram, who loves to analyse the senti of his personages--is our best guide here The manners and custos which underlie theht for in the German poet

The marked feature of the sex-relations in the days of chivalry was the institution of _ht bound himself to serve a particular lady, , patient, and discreet was his part of the bargain, and when fulfilled the lady must fulfil hers and pay her servant The relation must not for one moment be looked upon as platonic; the last favours were in every case exacted, or rather were freely granted, as the lady, whetherthus to reward her knight It would have been ”bad form” to deny payuilty of such conduct would have been scouted by her felloo is htfully told episode of Gawain and Orgueilleuse The latter is unwedded, a great and noble lady, but she has already had several favoured lovers, as indeed she frankly tells Gawain

He proffers his service, which she hardly accepts, but heaps upon hinity and insult, which he bears with the patient and resourceful courtesy, his characteristic in mediaeval romance Whilst the tiesture, escapes him

But when he has accomplished the feat of the Ford Perillous he feels that he has done enough, and taking his lady-love to task he lectures her, as a grave irl, upon the duties of a well-bred wohthood in his person

To point the moral he winds up, at mid-day in the open forest, with a proposition which the repentant scornful one can only parry by the nave remark, ”Seldom she had found it warm in the embrace of a mail-clad arm”

Not only was it the lady's duty to yield after a proper delay, but at tiht even ht of Blanchefleur coueilleuse, overcoht's prowess, offers him her love True, she has doubts as to the propriety of her conduct, but when she sub, he unhesitatingly approves her--Perceval's fame was such that had he accepted her proffered love she could have suffered naught in honour

Custos such as they imply, are so remote from us, that it is difficult to realise them, particularly in view of thethe nature of chivalrous love which have obtained currency But we e was pre-eminently one of individual prowess The warlike virtues were all in all That a man should be brave, hardy, and skilful in the use of his weapons was the essential in a tile hero was alfried, or Cuchullain That _minnedienst_ tended to this end, as did other institutions of the day which we find equally blamable, is its historical excuse Even then many felt its evils and perceived its anti-social character Soraded the ideal of love

A protest against this morality was indeed desirable Such a one the Queste does supply But it is not enough to protest in aovern the sex-relations Not only ht lines, but a truer and loftier ideal must be set up in place of the one attacked In how far the Queste fulfils these conditions we shall see Meanwhile, as a saarded it, and as an attempt to explain its historical and ethical _raison d'etre_, I cannot do better than quote Mr Furnivall's enthusiastic words: ”What is the lesson of it all? Is the exahest spiritual object set before hi to us? Is that of Perceval, pure and teht of the symbol of his Faith, to be of no avail to us? Is the tale of Bohors, who has once sinned, but by a faithful lifeat last tasting spiritual food, and returning to devote his days to God and Good--is this no lesson to us? On another point, too, this whole Arthur story may teach us Monkish, to some extent, the exaltation of bodily chastity above al is a true one; it is founded on a deep reverence for wo and one of the noblest sentih without suffering harm to his spiritual life”

It would be hard to find ainstance of how the ”editorial idol” s fro theion, ory, and on one point he must entirely falsify the mediaeval conception Whether this is desirable is a question we can have no hesitation in deciding negatively It is better to find out what the author really meant than to interpret his symbolism in our own fashi+on

The author of the Queste places the object and conditions of his mystic quest wholly outside the sphere of human action or interest; in a similar spirit he insists, as an indispensable requirement in the successful quester, upon a qualification necessarily denied to the vast lorification of physical chastity ”Blessed are the pure--in body--for they shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven,” is the text upon which he preaches In such a case everything depends upon the spirit of the preacher, and good intent is not enough to win praise His conception, says Mr Furnivall, is founded upon a deep reverence for wo that had the iven the stupidity which ignores all that constitutes the special dignity and pathos of wo of the kind Woman is for him the -block, the tool the devil finds readiest to his hands when he would overcoin Mother, and of those who like her are vowed to mystical le instance will suffice to characterize the mediaeval standpoint When the Quest of the Holy Grail was first proclaireat commotion, and the ladies would fain have joined therein, ”car cascune dame ou damoiselle (qui) fust espousee ou amie, dist a son chiualer qu'ele yroit od lui en la queste” But a hermit comes forward to forbid this; ”No daht lest he fall into deadly sin” Wife or leman, it was all one for the author of the Queste; woman could not but be an occasion for deadly sin, and the sin, though in the one case less in degree (and even this is uncertain), was the sa exemplification of the essential vileness of the sex-relation, worked out with the ian The author was of his time; it was natural he should think and write as he did, and it would be uncritical to bla vieomanhood or for his narrow and sickly view of life But e are bidden to seek example of him, it is well to state the facts as they are[151]

If his transforard to its inherent possibilities, if the spirit of his ideal proves to be miserably ascetic and narrohat then remains to the Queste, and how may we account for its popularity in its own day, and for the abiding influence which its version of the legend has exercised over posterity

Its literary qualities are at tireat; certain scenes, especially such as set forth the sacramental nature of the Grail, are touched with a iven some of the ends But I see in the idea of the mystic quest proclaimed to and shared in by the whole Table Round the real secret of the writer's success This has struck the iiven the Queste an undeserved fa aside ordinary cares and joys, given wholly up to one over spiritual airee the outcoht and intent but was dictated to the writer by the form into which he had recast the story Galahad had supplanted Perceval, but the latter could not be suppressed entirely The achieve away out of this world of the chief heroes, hence a third less perfect one is joined to thes to earth of the ned so many of Perceval's adventures, cannot be denied a share in the quest; it is the same with Gawain, whose character in the older romance fits him, moreover, excellently for the _role_ of ”dreadful exarown, and the hts called up the names of others hom they were invariably connected by the roh every hero of iic circle, and the mystic Quest assumed, almost inevitably, the shape it did

This conception, to which, if I aht, the author of the Queste was led half unconsciously, see in his work It was, however, his ideal of virginity which struck the idea of his contee with such a gross ideal of love ross ideal of purity Physical chastity plays henceforth the leading part in the moral development of the cycle With Robert de Borron it is the sin of the flesh which brings down upon the Grail host the wrath of Heaven, and necessitates the display of the Grail's wondrous power Here le of the new conception with the older forht, would rather be flayed than inal model Robert is consistent in all that relates to the symbolism of the Grail, but in other respects, as we have already seen, he is easily thrown off his guard In the Didot-Perceval, written as a sequel to Robert's poele between old and new continues, and the reconciling spirit goes to work in nave and unskilful style The incidents of the Conte du Graal are kept, although they accord but ill with the hero's ascetic spirit In the portion of the Conte du Graal itself which goes under Manessier's na with adventures taken direct from Chrestien's model, and far less Christianised than in the earlier poet's work, many occur which are simply transferred fro elements, and the effect of the contrast is at times almost comic In two of the later romances of the cycle the fusion has been more co The prose Perceval le Gallois keeps the original hero of the Quest as far as naressive virginity and the proselytising zeal of Galahad Gerbert's finish to the Conte du Graal is, perhaps, the strangest outcome of the double set of influences to which the later writers were exposed Without doubt his model differed from the version used by Gautier and Manessier It is more Celtic in tone, and is curiously akin to the hypothetical lost source of Wolfram von Eschenbach The hero's absence fro to her before he can find peace The genuineness of this feature admits of little doubt Many folk-tales tell of the severance of lover and beloved, and of their toilful wanderings until they ain; such a tale easily lends itself to the idea that separation is caused by guilt, and that, whilst severed, one or other lover must suffer hter of King Under the Waves (_supra_, p 194), definite ed taboo Such an incident could scarcely fail to assuiven it Thus he had only to listen to his model, to take his incidents as he found them, and he had the matter for a moral conception wholly in har for hiether, but only to exemplify the virtue of continence in the repulsive story of their bridal night After Gerbert the cycle lengthens, but does not develop The Queste retains its supreh Malory its dominant conception entered deeply into the consciousness of the English race

How far the author of the Queste end is worth enquiry Like so much else therein, it may have its roots in the folk and hero tales which underlie the romances

The Castle of Talismans visited by Perceval is the Land of Shades In popular tradition the incident takes the for holds his court and hoards untold riches

Poverty and simplicity are the frequent qualifications of the successful quester; oftener still so a Sunday's child for instance, or a seventh son; or again freedom from sin is required, and, perhaps, most frequently maidenhood[152] The stress which so inity in the holy prophetic maidens, who can transport the thence the commands of the God, may be noted in the same connection No Celtic tale I have exaht upon the Grail romances insists upon this idea, but some version, now lost, ave the roes material and foriven the ideal of chastity[153]

All this tiress is end The Holy Grail becoan essence, even in the only version, the Grand St Graal, which knew of Borron and of his rowth of the legend in one direction The original incidents were either transformed, mutilated, or, where they kept their first shape, underwent no ethical deepening or widening The talismans they, but their fate was still bound up with the otherworld He ould seek them must turn his back upon this earth from which the Palace Spiritual and the City of Sarras were evenWas no other course open? Could not framework and incidents of the Celtic tales be retained, and yet, raised to a loftier, wider level, becoht and ured the hero as wresting the talismans from the otherworld powers for the benefit of his fellow men Could not this form of the myth be made to yield a hu of the Holy Grail?

We are luckily not reduced to conjecture in thisthese hypothetical requirements exists in the Parzival of Wolfra individual work of modern European literature prior to the Divina Commedia, and its author has a better claienius He must, of course, be measured by the standard of his tieneity of narrative, that artistic proportion of style first met with 150 years later in Italy, and which from Italy passed into all European literatures Coave their present shape to the Nibelungenlied or to the Chanson de Roland he is an individual writer, but he is far fro this epithet even in the sense that Chaucer deserves it His subject do it under a new aspect he anxiously holds to the traditional forreat inconsistencies in his treatment of the the his , the frequent doubt as to how far the interpretation is correct Here, as in the discussion respecting the _origines_ of the Grail legend, resort must often be had to conjecture, and any solution of the fascinating probleely subjective

Wolfram's relation to his predecessorsthe value of the Parzival The earlier portion of his work differs entirely, as we have seen, fro French rorees with the opening The greater part of the story is closely parallel to Chrestien; there are points of contact, peculiar to these triters, with Gerbert Little invention, properly so called, of incident can be traced in the Parzival The part common to it and Chrestien is inco in the German poet, but the main outlines are the same Wolfram has, however, been at soend

That much is allowed to remain at variance therewith is a clear proof of his timidity of invention

Doubt, he says, is the ives himself over to unfaith and unsteadfastness treadeth in truth the doard path God Hiainst Hihest sin But humility and repentance may expiate it, and he who thus repents shi+p, the summit of earthly holiness Peace of soul and all earthly power are the chosen one's; alone, unlawful desire and the company of sinners are denied hi conception worked out? The framework and the march of incidents are the sae at once, however, lifts the story to a higher level The Fisher King suffers from a wound received in the cause of unlawful love, in disobedience to those heavenly co question can be put only by one worthy to take up the high office Ah the strife of doubt, and become reconciled to God by repentance and hulected to put the question on his first arrival at the Grail Castle, it was that in the conceit of youth he fancied all wisdom was his Childish insistence upon his ht down reproof upon him; he had learnt the world's wisdom from Gurnemanz, he had shown hiht, worthy of power and wo sorrow of Amfortas, he is too full of hihtly use the opportunity