[147] M. Renan’s article “De la Poésie des Races Celtiques” (Revue des Deux Mondes, 1854, pp. 473-506) only came into my hands after the bulk of this chapter was printed, or I should hardly have dared to state in my own words those conclusions in which we agree. It may be useful to indicate those points in which I think this suggestive essay no longer represents the present state of knowledge. When M. Renan wrote, the nature of popular tradition had been little investigated in France—hence a tendency to attribute solely to the Celtic genius what is common to all popular tradition. Little or nothing was then known in France of early Irish history or literature—hence the wild, primitive character of Celtic civilization is ignored. The “bardic” literature of Wales was still assigned wholesale to the age of its alleged authors—hence a false estimate of the relations between the profane and ecclesiastical writings of the Welsh. Finally the three Mabinogion (The Lady of the Fountain, Geraint, Peredur), which correspond to poems of Chrestien’s, are unhesitatingly accepted as their originals. The influence of Welsh fiction in determining the courtly and refined nature of mediæval romance is, in consequence, greatly exaggerated. It is much to be wished that M. Renan would give us another review of Celtic literature based on the work of the last thirty years. His lucid and sympathetic criticism would be most welcome in a department of study which has been rather too exclusively left to the specialist.
[148] Malory is a wonderful example of the power of style. He is a most unintelligent compiler. He frequently chooses out of the many versions of the legend, the longest, most wearisome, and least beautiful; his own contributions to the story are beneath contempt as a rule. But his language is exactly what it ought to be, and his has remained in consequence the classic English version of the Arthur story.
[149] See [p. 112] for a brief summary of Borron’s conception; Sin the cause of want among the people; the separation of the pure from the impure by means of the fish (symbol of Christ); punishment of the self-willed false disciple; reward of Brons by charge of the Grail; symbolising of the Trinity by the three tables and three Grail Keepers.
[150] The greater delicacy of the Welsh tale has already been noted. “To make him such a offer before I am wooed by him, that, truly, can I not do,” says the counterpart of Blanchefleur in the Mabinogi. “Go my sister and sleep,” answers Peredur, “nor will I depart from thee until I do that which thou requirest.” I cannot help looking upon the prominence which the Welsh story-teller has given to this scene as his protest against the strange and to him repulsive ways of knightly love. The older, mythic nature of Peredur’s beloved, who might woo without forfeiting womanly modesty, in virtue of her goddesshood, had died away in the narrator’s mind, the new ideal of courtly passion had not won acceptance from him.
[151] The perplexities which beset the modern reader of the Queste are reflected in the Laureate’s retelling of the legend. Nowhere else in the Idylls has he departed so widely from his model. Much of the incident is due to him, and replaces with advantage the nauseous disquisitions upon chastity which occupy so large a space in the Queste. The artist’s instinct, rather than the scholar’s respect for the oldest form of the story, led him to practically restore Perceval to his rightful place as hero of the quest. His fortunes we can follow with an interest that passing shadow, Galahad, wholly fails to evoke. Nor, as may easily be seen, is the fundamental conception of the twelfth century romance to the Laureate’s taste. Arthur is his ideal of manhood, and Arthur’s energies are practical and human in aim and in execution. What the “blameless king” speaks when he first learns of the quest represents, we may guess, the author’s real attitude towards the whole fantastic business.
It is much to be regretted by all lovers of English poetry that Hawker’s Quest of the Sangraal was never completed. The first and only chant is a magnificent fragment; with the exception of the Laureate’s Sir Galahad, the finest piece of pure literature in the cycle. Hawker, alone, perhaps of moderns, could have kept the mediæval tone and spirit, and yet brought the Quest into contact with the needs and ideas of to-day.
[152] Cf. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, II, 811, and his references.
[153] The ideas held by many peoples in a primitive stage of culture respecting virginity are worthy careful study. Some physiological basis may be found for them in the phenomena of hysteria, which must necessarily have appeared to such peoples evidences of divine or demoniac possession, and at that stage are hardly likely to have been met with save among unmarried women. In the French witch trials these phenomena are often presented by nuns, in whose case they were probably the outcome of a life at once celibate and inactive. On the other hand the persons accused of witchcraft were as a rule of the most abandoned character, and it is a, morally speaking, degraded class which has furnished Professor Charcot and his pupils with the subjects in whom they have identified all the phenomena that confront the student of witch trials.
[154] Domanig, Parzival-Studien, I, II, 1878-80.
[155] San-Marte, Parzival-Studien, I-III, 1861-63.