14,681. Le Chevalier à la Manche (van den riddere metter mouwen).
18,603. Gauvain et Kei (Hoe Keye Waleweine verriet).
22,271. Lancelot et le cerf au pied blanc (van der jonc frouwen metten hondekine).
23,122-26,980. Torec.[163]
Book IV. Mort Artur, 13,054 ll. The united three books thus comprising a total of over 87,000 lines.
It will be seen from the above brief summary that the D. L. presents many features of great interest for the student of the Arthurian story, but so far, with the exception of the studies published by M. Gaston Paris, to which I have just referred, it does not appear to have attracted much attention from scholars. It is especially to be regretted that Dr. Sommer did not use it for the purpose of his 'Malory' collation; had he done so, he would certainly have come, on many points, to a very different conclusion from that at which he ultimately arrived.
In the following comparison I shall confine my remarks chiefly to such decided variants as cannot possibly be ascribed to the mistakes or emendations of copyists; nor shall I include those minor verbal differences which, however important for a critical edition of the text, do not in themselves definitely prove a divergence of sources. The point I desire to prove is that the versions D. L. and 1533 represent a text radically different from that consulted by Dr. Sommer; and that, in conjunction with Malory, they may be held to represent a family of mss. hitherto unregarded, or unsuspected.
As readers of Malory are aware, he gives no account of the birth or early adventures of Lancelot; the section dealing with that hero begins with Book VI., and takes up his adventures at a point well advanced in what, following M. Paulin Paris, I have called the Agravain section (l. 13,351 in D. L.). That Malory had before him any version of the earlier section of the Lancelot I very much doubt. It must be apparent to any careful reader that, in his view, the Lady of the Lake is connected rather with Arthur than with Lancelot; whenever she intervenes in the story it is to aid the former, rather than the latter. I incline to the belief that Malory's ms. only began at an advanced point of the story, and that he knew little, or nothing, of what had preceded it.
At the commencement of the Terriquen (D. L. gives the name as Tarquijn) adventure, D. L., 1533, and M. all represent Lancelot and Lionel as sleeping under the shadow of a 'pomier' instead of a perron as in S.[164]
When Hector comes to the fountain he finds D. L. LX. shields and helmets, and XL. swords (the first letters have evidently been transposed and should read XL.). 1533. Forty-five helmets, forty-five swords, and 'more than' forty-five shields. S. Forty swords, forty-five shields, and five spears: helmets are not mentioned. Here S. appears to have a confused version of the two preceding accounts.
In the account of the queens who carry off Lancelot D. L. and 1533 agree with S. in naming the ladies (the queen in D. L. is of Foreestan, not Sorestan); otherwise the accounts seem to vary. D. L. and 1533 do not say, as does S., that the first-named is on her way to Norgales through 'Sorelois,' but that her land 'borders on' these kingdoms. It is not the three but only the two last-named, Morgain le Fay and Sibile (Cybele) l'enchanteresse, who are learned in enchantments; and neither D. L. nor 1533 give any indication of their being the 'queen's ladies' as S. represents; they are simply travelling with her.[165]