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David Moretti (English, 2025)
Chrétien de Troyes writes Lancelot as a narrative isolated from any other stories within Arthurian legend, or Arthuriana. However, in Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur, the Lancelot and Guinevere story is written in following other works, specifically, the Quest for the Sangrail. Following the Grail quest, Lancelot has denounced his adulterous relationship with Guinevere. However, as he backslides back into the relationship, the effects of the Grail quest seem to fall apart. This narrative tactic by Malory causes the love’s value to be diminished, he is then responsible for making their love seem valid and true. While Troyes writing his narrative independently allows him to have certain values in direct opposition to love, Malory must cast Lancelot and Guinevere's love as idealized and unconflicted because of its truth and passion in an effort to prompt the reader to root for their love after Lancelot's backslide following the Grail Quest.
"Therefore, because of reason, Lancelot and Guinevere’s love is put into a conflict. Troyes casts reason as the opposition of love because he wants to show their love as overcoming some type of trial. If reason opposes love, Lancelot must face the dilemma of choosing one."
When de Troyes gives the emotion of love opposites such as reason, he causes Lancelot to face a moral dilemma that jeopardizes his love for Queen Guinevere and tasks de Troyes with proving the value of their love in opposition to the value of things like reason or virtue. In de Troyes’s story, Lancelot must travel on a cart to find Guinevere after she is taken away from King Arthur. On his journey, Lancelot faces many trials and tribulations that result in a delayed arrival to the Queen and conflict between the lovers upon this arrival. In Lancelot, a contributing factor to the conflict with the Queen is Lancelot’s hesitation to get into the cart. The reason for this hesitation is that “reason, which does not follow love’s command, told him to beware of getting in [the cart].”1 In Troyes’s story, reason is shown in direct opposition to love, especially in this moment. Therefore, because of reason, Lancelot and Guinevere’s love is put into a conflict. Troyes casts reason as the opposition of love because he wants to show their love as overcoming some type of trial. If reason opposes love, Lancelot must face the dilemma of choosing one. Therefore, there is a chance that something in de Troyes’s narrative is more important than love. Upon Lancelot’s arrival, the Queen says, “Sir, in truth he has wasted his efforts. I shall always deny that I feel any gratitude towards him.”2 Here, Guinevere denounces her love for Lancelot, which is the driving force behind the “Knight of the Cart” story. The reason for his disdain is that since Lancelot hesitated due to reason’s command to stay off the cart, he must not love her enough. Through this conflict, de Troyes shows that it is unclear which is more important: reason and courtly honor, or love and devotion. Therefore, the value of their love is called into question against greater narrative themes in this isolated story. Since there is an opposition to the love between Lancelot and Guinevere, de Troyes can give their love value by choosing one of these two things to take importance over the other. Eventually, love is the chosen emotion over reason, solidifying the bond between Lancelot and Guinevere. Malory however, shows love as something worth risking one’s honor for in his version of the cart story.
Bringing honor and shame back into the framework of the story allows Lancelot to risk something for the Queen other than the achievements he made in the Grail quest; this further shows that Lancelot will risk courtly values for his lover, heightening the credibility of love, rather than showing love in direct opposition to something. In Malory’s cart story, Lancelot shows no hesitation in taking a cart to Guinevere. Lancelot asks, “what shall I give the to suffer me to leap into thy chariot?”3 The carter responds by saying “thou shalt not enter into this chariot.”4 Malory changes the conflict and makes the opposition to Lancelot getting into the cart an opposition to Lancelot’s request. Rather than a hesitation, Lancelot is actually told no. Therefore, the opposition to love here is not one under Lancelot’s control. The carter is then easily dismayed when Lancelot gives a command to let him into the cart, showing the priority love takes in this story. Malory changes this story because he wants the reader to root for the love between Lancelot and Guinevere. While de Troyes gives the reader the option to root for something such as a reason, Malory gives the reader the option to only root for Lancelot because the carter who opposes the cart ride is an insignificant character who represents a roadblock to the story’s main arc. Malory also uses honor and shame to make the cart story worth something in favor of the love between Lancelot and Guinevere. Upon Lancelot’s arrival at Maleagant’s castle, an onlooker says, “we suppose he rideth into hanging.”5 What Lancelot has sacrificed without hesitation is his honor and public image. Something cast as important by Malory in the narrative. The sacrifice of these knightly virtues and the lowered public image that ensues underscores the love as the most important aspect of the story, unconflicted by something like reason or shame.
"In holding his love in high value, Lancelot not only forgets the Grail quest achievements, but he also shows that he is stable in valuing his love over things such as honor and shame."
In Malory’s narrative, Lancelot and Guinevere have a more perfect love partly because Malory tasks them with upholding perfection.6 Malory uses his intervention about love to give Lancelot and Guinevere a philosophy to oppose. He says, “And right so fareth the love nowadays, soon hot, soon cold– this is no stability. But the old love was not so; for men and women could love together seven years, and no lecherous lusts were betwixt them."7 What Malory does with this intervention is set forth the cart episode in direct contrast to de Troyes’s version of it. In de Tryoes’s cart narrative, the love between Lancelot and Guinevere cools when Guinevere sees that Lancelot has hesitated to get into the cart. However, the stability of the love depicted by Malory shows that it is true love. In holding his love in high value, Lancelot not only forgets the Grail quest achievements, but he also shows that he is stable in valuing his love over things such as honor and shame. Therefore, in an effort to draw the reader’s sympathy for their love, Malory shows that the love is completely stable due to its priority over honor and the achievements of the Grail quest. Malory then says “and then was love, truth, and faithfulness."8 In casting the love exemplified by Lancelot and Guinevere, Malory asserts that the love is good and stable because it is true. This idea of true love adds to the fact that Lancelot makes no hesitation in getting on the cart. Had he hesitated, he would not have been completely faithful to the Queen. The love’s stability, faithfulness, and truth make it the most important aspect of the story for Malory, rather than something else like reason being in conflict with love for de Troyes.
The conflict between Lancelot and Guinevere upon Lancelot’s arrival further underscores the faithfulness they share because the conflict was significantly easier for Malory to resolve as opposed to de Troyes. As Guinevere tells Lancelot that, “the knight full sore repents him of the misadventure that is befallen him,” Lancelot replies by saying, “and I had wist that ye would have been so lightly accorded with him, I would not have made such haste unto you.”9 The nonchalant nature of Guinevere’s actions here may cause the reader to think that she does not care about Lancelot. However, due to the truth of their love, Malory actually wants the reader to see that the honor that Lancelot would experience from killing Maleagant would be worthless now that the pair is back together. Furthermore, Lancelot’s response is typical of someone who feels that his duty is not being taken into consideration. While Guinevere doesn’t care about her own dishonor because Lancelot is back, Lancelot has a normal reaction to this type of statement from someone he loves.
The argument upon Lancelot’s arrival is also in direct opposition to the one that happens between them in de Troyes’s narrative of the cart. As previously mentioned, upon Lancelot’s arrival in de Troyes’s narrative, Guinevere denies the love they share. This causes their love to be put at a much higher stake than it is in Malory’s narrative. In the argument they have in Malory's text, there is no direct opposition to love such as reason, and there is no fear or reason to believe that the lovers will split up. This lack of significant risk for their relationship is Malory’s way of showing that their love is true and worth sacrificing things for; Malory furthers the idea that the only emotion at the center of the story is love. He does not put this love in conflict with something like reason or religion.
As a standalone story,Chretien de Troyes's narrative allows him to put things at odds with the love between Lancelot and Guinevere. Malory— writing in a larger canon of works such as the Quest for the Sangrail— must prove the truth and importance of Lancelot and Guinevere’s love. Through a less conflict-ridden version of the “Knight of the Cart” story, and a narratorial intervention about faith in love, Malory solidifies to the reader that the most important thing in Lancelot and Guienevere’s lives is their love for one another; it is not a religious achievement or an achievement of honor. These two characters are willing to give up everything for their love with no opposition of reason. This lack of opposition from reason is because, for Malory, love is reasonable and it is real. Based on Malory’s interactions with other Arthurian texts, if de Troyes wrote in a larger canon, he may have put the love between Lancelot and Guinevere in less jeopardy than he does in his isolated narrative.
End Notes
Norris J. Lacy, ed., The Romance of Arthur: An Anthology of Medieval Texts in Translation, 3rd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2013), 117.
Lacy, The Romance of Arthur, 151.
Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, ed. Stephen H. A. Shepherd (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004), 449.
Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, 449.
Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, 450.
Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, 444.
Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, 444.
Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, 444.
Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, 451.
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