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Week 11.1 Malory's Tale of Lancelot and Guenevere
Introduction
The Noble Tale of the Sangrail ends with Lancelot's sonGalahad attaining the Quest "as a clean maid" (p. 401); before hisAscension he sends Bors to remind Lancelot "to remember of thisunsure world." Then The Tale of Sir Lancelot and QueenGuenevere tells us "Sir Lancelot began to resort unto queenGuenevere again" (p. 403). In the five episodes that follow, Lancelotand Guenevere pursue their love, narrowly escaping detection. Forthis compilation, Malory draws upon the French Mort Artu with helpfrom the English Stanzaic Le Morte Arthur ; he inserts a muchreduced version of Chrétien's Knight of the Cart, andadds two adventures: a tournament in which Gareth comes over fromGawain's side to Lancelot's, and, finally, Lancelot's miraculoushealing of Sir Urry.
The Tale
I. In Book XVIII, the episode of The Poisoned Apple,Lancelot has fallen into his old adulterous ways with Guenevere andGawain's brother Agravain is spying and plotting against them.Lancelot tries to warn Guenevere that they should be guarded, but shethinks he is trying to rid her for other women and exiles him. She isaccused of poisoning a knight with an apple at her feast. InLancelot's absence. Bors stands up for her as her champion, butLancelot himself returns in the nick to defend her.
II. In the next episode, The Fair Maid of Ascolat(XVIIII.9-25, pp. 415-), Lancelot leaves the court at Guenevere'sadvice, to stop scandalous rumor. To disguise himself, he borrows thearmor of one of Sir Barnard of Ascolat's sons and brings the otherson, Lavain, along as a disciple-companion to the tournament. Hewears the red sleeve of Barnard's daughter, the maid of Ascolat, muchto Guenevere's chagrin when she learns of it. In his great victory onthe field against his own kinsmen, Lancelot is severely wounded byBors. An aristocratic hermit cures him gradually, as he is tended bythe Maid. On his recovery he refuses her as wife or mistress and themaid dies for love of him. As she requested, her body is loaded on abarge and floated to court, where her sentimental story is divulged.His motives explained, Lancelot is forgiven once more by thewrong-headed Guenevere.
III. In XVIII, 21-25 (pp.437-), Lancelot, despite a wound in thebuttocks caused by a huntress's misdirected arrow, is victorious intournament while displaying the Queen's sleeve of gold; he is aidedby Gareth, who leaves the Gawain-clan to join the opponentLancelot, because he "is the same man that made me knight" (p. 441).The section ends with Malory's paean to the steadfast love of oldendays, during which Queen Guenevere "while she lived was a true lover"(p. 444).
IV. The Knight of the Cart (XIX, pp. 445-) while derivingultimately from Chrétien's Knight of the Cart is markedlydifferent throughout the narrative; Malory's version is filteredthrough the French prose romance and compressed.
After a comparison of springtime growth to a worshipful knight'svirtuous love for God and lady, unlike the hasty love nowadays, "soonhot, soon cold," action begins with Guenevere taking ten of theQueen's Knights a-maying, minus Lancelot but with Kay. Meliagauntmakes his move with his forces against the Queen with her knights;they are wounded and the Queen surrenders on condition that herknights be spared. Guenevere sends a child with a message ring forLancelot to rescue her; Meliagaunt, who owns the castle, orders hisarchers to attack Lancelot 's horse. Asking Lavain to follow after,Lancelot crosses the river at Westminster Bridge, and the defendersshoot his horse, so he commandeers a cart. Lancelot challengesMeliagaunt, "knight of the Table Round" (!), who promptly throwshimself at the Queen's mercy. Lavain arrives to bring first aid tothe ten knights, whom the Queen has put in her chamber as a recoveryroom. Lancelot at Guenevere's invitation arrives by night withladder, pulls open the iron bars, rips his hand, and lays with her(as in C). In the morning, Meliagaunt churlishly pulls back the bedcurtains to reveal the bloodied sheets; the ten (!) wounded knightsare accused of royal commerce. Lancelot takes the challenge to defendtheir honor in eight days, but is led to a trap door by Meliagaunt. Adamsel offers to release Lancelot from his imprisonment for sex, butsettles for a kiss. Lancelot appears and kills Meliagaunt with onehand tied behind his back, to the admiration of Arthur andGuenevere
V. In the added Tale of Sir Urry (XIX, 10-13, p. 460-),whose wounds by enchantment could not be healed "until the bestknight of the world had searched his wounds" (p. 460), Lancelotproves the sacral physician whose touch is more effective than theking's or any other knight's. The two young associates of Lancelot,Lavain and Urry, having proved themselves worthy on the tournamentfield, become knights of the Round table, and Lavain marries Urry'ssister. But even while "they lived in all that court with greatnoblesse and joy" (p. 466), Sir Agravain, Gawain's brother, plottedto put Guenevere and Lancelot to shame.
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