Kimberly Ellis
12 December 2000
Lancelot andGuinevere:
The Love Affair through the Ages
This trend can be best illustrated by reviewing storiesthat have been written by many different authors over many different historicalperiods. Although the number of stories that have survived retelling afterretelling, century after century, is not large, there are isolated instances ofstories that have been passed down and retold in almost every historical andliterary period since the Middle Ages. Many of the Arthurian legends haveexhibited this kind of survivorship. In particular, the story of the adulterouslove affair between Sir Lancelot, Arthur's bravest knight, and Guinevere,Arthur's queen, has been included in some form in almost every Arthur storysince it was first invented, in Chrétien de Troyes's "The Knight of theCart." By following the evolution of how Lancelot and Guinevere'srelationship is depicted in Arthurian legends through the ages, and comparingthese depictions to the societies in which the legends' writers were living,contemporary society's importance on literary works can be demonstrated.
Chrétien de Troyes's"The Knight of the Cart"
Chrétien de Troyes wrote the first known story depictingthe adulterous affair between Guinevere and Lancelot around the year 1170 (Weigand7). The subject was not of his own choosing, but rather of his patroness's; inthe second paragraph of this work he attests that "the subject matter andmeaning are furnished and given him by the countess," that is, Marie deChampagne of France (Chrétien 207). Marie was the daughter of Eleanor ofAquitaine, Queen of France during the early 12th century. WhenEleanor and her husband Louis VII were divorced, she married Henry Plantagenet,who later became King Henry II ("Eleanor of Aquitaine"). With thepower and influence she gained through being queen of two different countriesduring her lifetime, Eleanor was able to direct the artistic works that werebeing written in her court. She was especially fond of the works of travelingminstrels (called troubadours), because they romanticized and glorified women,waxing poetic on their beauty and charms (Whyland, "Troubadour").Through patronizing such artists, Eleanor was almost single-handedly responsiblefor the creation of medieval romance. Marie, daughter of Eleanor and Louis,followed her mother's example, supporting her own legion of courtly writersand courtly lovers at her home in Champagne. Chrétien was just one of thesewriters, albeit one of the most well known today by virtue of the fact that hesigned his works ("Marie de Champagne") "The Knight of theCart," is the romance in which he first describes the relationship betweenGuinevere and Lancelot.
Chrétien's "Knight of the Cart" begins with achallenge from a mysterious and evil knight from distant lands. He challengesArthur to send his best knight out to the field for a joust. If the stranger isvictorious, he will claim Guinevere, but if he loses, he promises to return hishostages safely to Camelot. Sir Kay the Seneschal begs the king for this honorand is granted the right to be the queen's champion, but he loses the battlewith the mysterious knight, and in so doing loses the queen. The noble SirGawain comes to the rescue, however; immediately upon hearing the news that thequeen has been lost, he offers to go after her. He is joined almost immediatelyby an anonymous knight, who frantically rides on ahead, eager to save the ladyGuinevere. This nameless knight (whom we later discover is Sir Lancelot) rideshis horse to death on the way to the queen, and Gawain soon overtakes him againat a cart being driven by a dwarf. In those days, riding in the back of a cartwas a punishment for criminals, and so Lancelot hesitates a few seconds beforehe accepts the dwarf's offer of a ride, but seeing as he no longer has ahorse, he views this ignominy as the only way to reach the queen. Ever after,even when his true identity is disclosed, he is known as "The Knight of theCart." The dwarf, who knows where the queen has been taken, takes Lancelotand Gawain (following on his horse) to a crossroads. One of the forks leads toan underwater bridge and the other to a bridge made of nothing but a naked swordblade. These, the dwarf assured the knights, were the only ways to reach theplace where Guinevere is being held captive. Gawain opts to use the underwaterbridge, while Lancelot takes the sword bridge path. During his journey, Lancelothas many adventures, and after much travail he reaches the castle whereGuinevere is being held. By this point it has been made clear that Lancelot isin love with Guinevere, but when he bests Meleagant, the mysterious knight whohas stolen her in the first place, she spurns Lancelot because of the twoseconds he hesitated before boarding the cart. Eventually they are reunited,however; this comes after they have each been convinced of the other's death,and realizes that in the absence of each other, their own lives are not worthliving. Guinevere is finally allowed to return to the court, but the wickedMeleagant still wishes a final battle with Lancelot. This battle, scheduled totake place in Arthur's court, required both jousters to be present on anappointed day, lest they forfeit. Meleagant contrives to capture Lancelot,however, and walls him up in a tower so that he cannot reach Camelot on theprescribed day, thereby shaming his name. Lancelot is rescued by Meleagant'sown sister, and enraged, Lancelot returns to court. There he is granted hisfinal battle with his enemy; he emerges victorious, and Meleagant is killed inthe fight (Troyes 207-294).
The depiction of the love affair between Lancelot andGuinevere in this story is very much the product of the society in which it waswritten. The 12th century was the age of courtly lovers, especiallyin the courts of powerful ladies like Marie de Champagne. Time and again,Lancelot proves himself to be one of the greatest of all courtly lovers in thisstory; there are far too many instances of his courtliness to be covered in thisbrief analysis, but it would be worthwhile to mention a few of the moresignificant ones. For example, one of the most important objects any courtlylover carries with him is a token of his lady fair. Lancelot finds his token onthe way to the sword bridge; it is a comb with a few strands of Guinevere'sgolden hair still in its teeth. He gives the comb to the maiden with whom herides, but the hair he keeps, carrying it underneath his armor, against hisheart. He draws such joy from this token as befits a courtly lover; for example,"He would not have traded it for a cart loaded with emeralds or carbuncles;nor did he fear that ulcers or any other disease could afflict him..." (Troyes235).
Only in the society of courtly love would Lancelot'sarduous journey to the queen's rescue be met with disdain; but indeed,Guinevere is ungrateful at first for Lancelot's efforts. After he has won herfreedom, she declares, "in truth he has wasted his efforts. I shall alwaysdeny that I feel any gratitude towards him." Lancelot does not questionthis reaction at first; indeed, he believes that if she is angry with him, itmust be for good cause (Troyes 256). This illustrates the fact that in theetiquette of a courtly relationship, the lady had the power. The knight wassubject to her commands; everything that he did and everything for which hefought had to be condoned by his lover, lest he lose her favor (Dillon). If hedispleases his love, a knight has no choice other than to try and win her favorback, pining for her all the while.
The very idea of an adulterous relationship betweenLancelot and Guinevere comes from the tenets of courtly love. In AndreasCapellanus's Art of Courtly Love, which was written for Marie deChampagne, a series of "love trials" brings a case before her in whichshe is asked whether love can exist between married people. Marie replies thatin such cases, no true love can exist; meaning courtly lovers had to engage inadulterous relationships if they ever wished to enjoy the fruits of true love (Capellanus1990). Therefore, the idea of a relationship between Lancelot and Guinevere(which Marie invented herself) reflects the opinion of 12th centurycourtly love society; an adulterous relationship is normal by their standards.
Some critics argue that Troyes was quite displeased withhis patroness's choice of subjects for this piece (Cohen 232). As evidence,they point out the fact that Chrétien did not finish the work himself; hehanded it to another writer with his blessings: "The clerk Godefroy deLagny has put the final touches on The Knight of the Cart; ...he did itwith the approval of Chrétien, who began it" (Troyes 294). Additionally,throughout the piece, Lancelot is constantly being tricked and bested by hisantagonists, in such episodes as when he is made to believe that Guinevere isdead, or when he is trapped in the stone tower before the final fight withMeleagant. Finally, the introduction of the piece is almost an apology; he makesit clear that the patroness, not the writer, is the source of the story'ssubject. It is possible that Troyes was displeased by the adulterousrelationship Marie had envisioned, and that he never wanted to write the pieceat all. Like the elements of courtly love society about which he wrote, thisdispleasure would also have sprung from the society in which Troyes was living,particularly in its Church. The Church was displeased with the lack of fidelitypeople of the 12th century seemed to have for their spouses. Marriageas an institution was failing; in order to save their flock from further sin,the Church felt that it needed to take action. Therefore in the 12thcentury, it added marriage to the list of sacraments (Cohen 235). When peoplewere married, their bond was no longer merely legal; their contract was writtenbefore the Lord. If indeed contextual clues can be interpreted as Troyes'slack of enthusiasm for his subject, this too would have been a result of thesociety in which his work was being written.
Sir Thomas Malory's Morted'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur is probably the most importantversion of the Arthurian legends ever to be written. One of its greatestaccomplishments is that it draws together many of the stories surrounding thelives and adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table into onecohesive narrative; at least nine different sources were consulted by itsauthor. First published in 1485, it has survived up to the present as one of themost complete versions of the Arthurian legend (Loomis 169-171). The love affairbetween Lancelot and Guinevere is presented at length throughout the narrative.Although it is not usually the central part of what is happening at King Arthur'scourt, it is ever present in the background, and ultimately is the driving forcetowards Arthur's decline and fall at the end of the piece.
The trouble with describing the sociological contextduring which Le Morte was being written is that the identity of thewriter is unknown. There are at least three different candidates for the author,who identifies himself at the end of the work only as "Thomas Malory,Knight." However, this mysterious author does provide us with one otherimportant piece of information: that it was completed at the end of the ninthyear of the reign of King Edward IV of England (Malory 531). This places thecomposition Le Morte in either 1469 or 1470, in England.
Malory's time was one of instability in government.Edward IV, head of the house of York, had just come to the throne after thebitterly fought War of the Roses. He married a commoner and, displeased with thenobles at his court, attempted to replace them with more commoners, recentlyraised to noble positions. This angered the nobles, however, and he wasoverthrown for a brief time in 1470. By 1471 he had regained his throne, wherehe reigned until his death in 1483 ("Edward IV").
Socially, the days of feudalism were drawing to a close;although the world was still very neatly divided into "master" and"servant" classes, the lines between them were not as extreme as theyhad been in centuries before. The ever-glorified "knights in shiningarmor" still existed, but since the Hundred Years' War (which endedaround 1453), they had begun fading away; archers were able to cut them down bythe hundreds, ending their regime as the most powerful and elite soldiers in akingdom's arsenal. By the latter third of the 15th century, nobleswere pining for earlier, nobler days, while the peasant classes slowly paved theway for the bourgeoisie to form in the following centuries. The only power thatremained constant was in the hands of the Church, which would not suffer itsfirst serious blow in authority until the Protestant Reformation, still over acentury away ("Hundred Years' War," "Feudalism").
The relationship between Lancelot and Guinevere in LeMorte, drawn strongly from sources that had drawn on Chrétien himself,shares with its predecessor an abundance of the traditions of courtly love.Lancelot performs many deeds of chivalry in Guinevere's name, and time andagain, throughout Le Morte, Lancelot weaves in and out of favor with hislady. In contrast with Chrétien's Lancelot, however, Malory's Lancelot isnot primarily a lover; he is a fighter, as befits a knight being written aboutin the wake of the Hundred Years' War and the War of the Roses. To one of theladies at court, Lancelot says, "I love not to be constrained to love...";this is certainly a different Lancelot than the one put forth in "TheKnight of the Cart" (Malory 416). In Malory, the love between Lancelot andGuinevere seems to exist for one purpose only: to inspire Lancelot to performchivalrous deeds in the name of his lady and of the court of Camelot. In fact,with the exception of the downfall of Arthur's kingdom at the end of LeMorte, the love affair exists mostly as a background fact, rather than as akey point.
Midway through Le Morte, the greatest quest of allthe Arthurian knights begins: the quest for the Holy Grail. This magical cup,the one used in Jesus's last supper, was brought to England by Joseph ofArimathea, according to legend. All of the knights of the realm took part inthis quest, Lancelot among them. He has visions while searching for the Grail,and is told by one of the interpreters of his visions, "for great pridethough madest great sorrow that thou haddest not overcome all the white knightswith the cover of white by whom was betokened virginity and chastity; andtherefore God was wroth with you" (Malory 300). Here his sin with Guinevereis being held against him, but indirectly so; the people who warn him of hisimminent failure in the Grail quest rarely mention it outright. He attempts torepent of his love for Guinevere, hoping that will help him achieve the Grail,but failing this, he immediately goes back to Guinevere upon returning toCamelot. Although in this instance Lancelot fails to be the greatest of knights,15th century influence is clear in the seer's interpretation ofLancelot's dream, although it is unlikely that it was original to Malory. Thathe includes this detail shows that progress since the 12th centuryhad been made, however: three centuries before, virginity and chastity wereunnecessary virtues; here, by the power of the Church, they have beenreestablished among the traits necessary to be one of God's chosen and mostbeloved knights.
That the love affair is relatively undeveloped until theend of the work could hardly have been an accident on Malory's part. As aknight himself, Malory would have been a member of the noble class whose socialpositions were being threatened during the time of Edward IV. In light of theChurch's power at the time, it would have been unwise of Malory to depict hissocial peers engaging in graphically adulterous relations, and so he downplaysthe adulterous elements of his material until they become necessary to the plot(MacBain 59-60). When Malory's Lancelot and Guinevere consummate their love(although we are not led to assume that this is the first time), it is mentionedalmost in passing: "So, to pass upon this tale, Sir Launcelot went unto bedwith the queen..." (Malory 438). In spite of this brief mention, Maloryhedges on the point later, saying, "whether they were abed or at othermanner of disports, me list not hereof make no mention, for love that time wasnot as is nowadays" (Malory 460). This is in reference to the scene inwhich Lancelot and Guinevere are caught in their love by Sir Mordred, althoughLancelot, ever the noble knight, denies the allegations of treason that arelevied upon him. Guinevere joins a nunnery nonetheless, and the reign of KingArthur comes to a fiery end as Lancelot and Arthur's supporters wage waragainst one another.
It is important to note that none of the actual plotsurrounding Lancelot and Guinevere's love affair is original to Malory; forthe most part, he remains faithful to his sources, imparting only those thingsthat are written elsewhere. It is in the way in which he tells their story thatthe influence of his society on his writing can be seen. Using Lancelot as theideal nobleman, Malory uses glowing language whenever he talks of his adventuresand trials. In a time during which commoners were threatening the power ofcontemporary nobility, it is logical that Malory, a knight by his own admission,would present Lancelot in the best light he can muster. That, added to theomnipresent influence of the Church, would do well to explain why Malory refusesto be explicit when describing Lancelot's relationship with Guinevere.Instead, he hedges throughout; although everyone in Malory's Camelot was awareof Lancelot and Guinevere's love for each other, whether they ever consummatedtheir love is pointedly glazed over in Le Morte.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson's"Guinevere"
By the nineteenth century, the lifestyles described inArthurian legends were no more. Knights no longer rode horses and saved damsels;they were few, and those being knighted were scientists, writers, and otherpeople who had made a significant contribution to the world around them, notfighters or courtly lovers. A series of revolutions had overthrown manyaristocratic governments, and as time passed, the middle class became, by sheerweight of numbers, quite powerful. The industrial revolution was in full swing,and factories were sprouting all over the western world, speeding England,America, and the other western countries into a new, modern age.
During most of this time, Queen Victoria was in power inEngland. Ascending to the throne in 1837, she ruled Britain, Ireland, and(eventually) India until her death in 1901. Her reign, which would come to beknown as the Victorian era, strongly supported morality and ethics ineverything. Victoria championed family values, obedience to the law, and socialrespectability in herself and in her subjects. Much of the artistic and literaryoutput of England at the time reflected the philosophies of Victorianism,presenting the English social order of the day to the rest of the world["Victoria (queen)"].
The Idylls of the King byAlfred, Lord Tennyson is such a piece of literature, having been written inEngland during Victoria's rule. Begun in 1859 and not completed until 1885, itis one of the most highly acclaimed versions of the Arthur stories since Malory'sLe Morte. Tennyson chose a different style of writing than had been usedin other tellings of the Arthurian legends: he wrote episodically, in verse,keeping each of the stories independent of the others ("Tennyson, Alfred,Lord"). In one of these episodes, he writes specifically of the love affairbetween Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere and its effect on the fall of Camelot;its title, simply, is "Guinevere."
When Tennyson's version of the story begins, Guinevereis already with the nuns at Almesbury, anonymously in hiding because of theensuing war between Arthur and Lancelot for her honor. The first part of thepoem is her reflection upon the events that have led up to her disgrace atCamelot and in the eyes of her husband the king. Her troubles began when she andLancelot are very nearly caught in their romance by Modred; Lancelot manages to"pluck...him by the heel" before he can see or hear any of theirtreasonous behavior, but it is certainly a close call. At first the lovers laughoff the incident, but guilt and fear invade their thoughts, and they try toswear that they will never see one another again. They find themselves unable togo so far, however, and instead they make secret plans to meet. Vivian, one ofthe queen's ladies, overhears these plans, and takes them to Modred, who inturn catches Lancelot and Guinevere together. They flee, and Guinevere takessanctuary in the nunnery, never to be seen or heard from by any of them again.
Meanwhile, a novice in the nunnery, ignorant of Guinevere'strue identity, finds her weeping about her fate, and tries to comfort her.Ironically, however, the novice uses Arthur's sorrow as an example of extremesuffering, by whose example all other problems pale. In spite of the child'sgood intentions, Guinevere is not soothed, being the cause of the very sorrowsthe novice is describing to her. After their conversation is over, Arthurhimself arrives at Almesbury, and a very repentant Guinevere cries on her kneesas Arthur gives her both his woes and his forgiveness. Afterwards, he leaves,and Guinevere repents of all she has done, having learned through her guilt andsorrow the evilness of what she has committed.
The strict Victorian code of conduct is overwhelminglypresent in this version of the story. Very clearly does Tennyson condemnGuinevere for her adulterous relationship with Lancelot, time and again:"this is all woman's grief,/That she is woman, whose disloyal life/Hathwrought confusion in the Table Round"; "so glad were spirits andmen/Before the coming of the sinful Queen" (Tennyson). Even Arthur, whoclaims to love her still, condemns her: "Well is it that no child is bornof thee./The children born of thee are sword and fire,/Red ruin, and thebreaking up of laws" (Tennyson). Victorian society had no patience foradulterers, and even the legendary Guinevere could not escape their judgment.
Interestingly, no actual details of the relationshipbetween Lancelot and Guinevere are given in this poem. There is no indication oreven implication that they may have engaged in intercourse; even Malory was moreforthcoming on this point. This is yet another indication of 19thcentury morality in this piece. This morality is heightened still by Arthur'sassertion, "O Guinevere,/For I was ever virgin save for thee"(Tennyson). Few, if any, other versions of the Arthurian legends pretend thislevel of chastity in King Arthur; in fact, most versions, including Le Morte,cite him as the father of Sir Mordred with another woman, the product of his ownadultery. In this version Tennyson writes a King Arthur with whom a 19thcentury Victorian could identify; a blameless, upright man, who remains assinless as possible under the eyes of God. The legend rewritten, Guinevere takesmost of the blame–and the pain–for her downfall.
Conclusion
Although this is only a brief overview of the works inwhich the love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere is described, it is clearthat the story has changed much through the ages. Its plot certainly has changedwith retellings, but the details of the relationship, as well as the tone withwhich it is described, have changed with the times as well. These latter changeshave been caused by the changes in the authors' societies themselves. Evenmore modern versions of the story have more modernized descriptions; therelationship becomes more sexual and less condemned as time goes by. Inexamining these and other works, it becomes clear that the society in which anauthor is writing has much influence on how he describes his subjects and tellshis stories. Lancelot and Guinevere is only one example of this phenomenon;likely, it exists in literature wherever stories are retold time and again.
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