In this tale, Guinivere is implied to have committed adultery with Lancelot. How does this square with the chivalrous value of promises kept? And how do you think the idea of courtly love would have been recieved by medival society?
King Arthur & His World
ENGL 361 | Spring 2019 | Dr. Myra Seaman
Guinevere’s involvement with Lancelot, as Jonathan pointed out, challenges the enormous value that this society placed upon the power of the “word” or promise. Lancelot also breaks an implicit bow to Arthur when he sleeps with Guinevere, of course. This is surprising. However, if one examines the relationship between just Guinevere and Lancelot, ignoring Arthur (which is easy to do since he is seldom mentioned or seen) we see countless elements of the type of courtly love that the medieval culture valued and was looking for in these stories. Descriptions such as, “in truth the two of them felt a joy and wonder the equal of which has never been heard or known” (264-265) mirror standards spelled out in The Art of Courtly Love. Furthermore, through authorial remarks like, “But I shall let it remain a secret for ever, since it should not be written of: the most delightful and choicest pleasure is that which is hinted at, but never told,” I think Chretien de Troyes provides entertainment and excitement for his 12th century audience. Guinevere and Lancelot’s romance may defy the power of promise, but it gives the audience what they want in terms of chivalry and courtly love.
I think that it is significant that the character who reacted the most strongly to Guinevere having an affair is Melegant, crying out “So help me God, the demons and the living devils have betrayed you! You become too excited last night, and no doubt because you overtaxed yourself your wounds were reopened!” (267) It is an extremely negative reaction to the idea of Guinevere and Kay having an affair. Melegant is not a well liked character, even his own Dad seems to dislike him. Melegant is cruel, narrow-minded, and possibly sociopathic. A poor reaction coming from a person with merit would have the reader think medieval society would completely disapprove but Melegant’s reaction only re-enforces the idea that maybe they would not. Melegant looks childish and extreme especially because we know that he is blaming the wrong person, Kay is not having the affair but Lancelot. I think it’s also significant that blood is evidence of the affair and Lancelot is later wearing red armor during the tourney. He displays love during the tourney and is the victor of the tournament. I think this symbolism shows Lancelot is willing to give up his body for her and Lancelot’s love for Guinevere is its own continuous promise.
The obvious answer is, of course, that Guinevere’s adultery with Lancelot doesn’t “square” with promises kept at all. She is breaking her promise to King Arthur. However, love and marriage do not always go hand in hand. The first “rule of love” is that “Marriage is no real excuse for not loving” and the 17th is “A new love puts to flight an old one.” Thus it is acknowledged that one may fall out of love with someone and into love with someone else–and that one isn’t always in love with their spouse. In fact, I don’t see anything at all in the rules of courtly love about promises being kept, nor do the rules say anything about adultery either. The text neither condones or condemns it; it simply acknowledges that it happens. Thus Guinevere’s adultery with Lancelot fits right into the rules set forth in “The Art of Courtly Love.” Guinevere is condemned in the story for her adultery, which was frowned upon, but the point of the story was that only Lancelot and Guinevere’s opinions of each other matter because they are the epitome of courtly love. For Lancelot, “Love had taken root in his heart, and was so entirely there that little was left over for other hearts” (264) and for Guinevere, Lancelot was “the one to whom she belonged completely; and she knew, too, that he was fully hers (279).
Courtly love continues to be romanticized even today. Given the behavior of medieval nobles (King Henry VIII beheading wife after wife, for example) as well as the literature of the time period (the Knight of the Cart was written in the 12th century, the Middle Ages), this story and the idea of courtly love were obviously well-received by medieval society. It is acknowledged that Chretein was infleunced by the theme of courtly love, which meant the idea was still popular and influencial at the time. Moreover, a high number of Chretein’s romances survived, which meant he was widely published–and thus widely read in medieval society.
I think that both Guinevere and Lancelot stick to the rules of courtly love; even though Guinevere and Lancelot are engaged in an adulterous affair. I think that Heather magnificently explained in her post that love and marriage are not necessarily interconnected in her post so I won’t go too deep into that idea. However, what I would like to point is the magical effect that courtly love has over the bodies of Guinevere and Lancelot. As Lancelot proceeds on his quest to rescue the queen, he seems to have superhuman powers. You can see this over and over again in the battles that play out. Love even gave him the strength to bend iron bars in order to lay in bed with her. The power of Love in this story also shows that when a person loses their true the may lose their will to live. This is seen when both Guinevere and Lancelot try to take their own lives. I thought Lancelot’s suicide by horse attempt was one of the most interesting points of the story. I doubt that people during the middle ages would have had problems with accepting the ideas of courtly love because people rarely married each other for love. I also think that they would have enjoyed these stories more because many of them would have surely been committing adultery too.
As Heather points out from the rules of Courtly Love, ” a new love puts flight to an old one” which excuses the love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere. It is also important that Lancelot follows the correct path to get to Guinevere. He comes and saves her from another kingdom and almost kills himself over her proving that he is worthy of her. This is different than if he just tried to take her away from Arthur within their own kingdom. Lancelot is praised for saving the queen in comparison to the alleged affair with Kay. Kay is chastised while Lancelot is praised because Lancelot is following his heart making him noble while Kay would be betraying King Arthur directly. Even after Arthur hears what has happened, “overwhelming him with grief and anguish,” he is still happy because he has gotten his queen and his people back (273). The King does not want to give up his queen but does not blame Lancelot for anything because of his uncontrollable hear and noble actions to help out his kingdom.