420 ([return])
[ The hero of the poem is here first mentioned by name.]
421 ([return])
[ The classic love-story of Pyramus and Thisbe, told by Ovid et al., was a favourite in the Middle Ages.]
422 ([return])
[ Here he have the explanation of Guinevere's cold reception of Lancelot; he had been faithless to the rigid code of courtesy when he had hesitated for even a moment to cover himself with shame for her sake.]
423 ([return])
[ The expression "or est venuz qui aunera", less literally means "who will defeat the entire field". Though Chrétien refers to the expression as a current proverb, only two other examples of its use have been found. (Cf. "Romania", xvi. 101, and "Ztsch. fur romanische Philologie", xi. 430.) From this passage G. Paris surmised that Chrétien himself was a herald-at-arms ("Journal des Savants", 1902, p. 296), but as Foerster says, the text hardly warrants the supposition.]
424 ([return])
[ The evident satisfaction with which Chrétien describes in detail the bearings of the knights in the following passage lends colour to Gaston Paris' conjecture that he was a herald as well as a poet.]