[96] The printed editions of the prose Lancelot chronicled by Dr. Sommer, Sources of Malory, p. 8, note, are 1494, Ant. Verard; 1513, Philippe Lenoire; 1533, Jehan Petit. There was also an edition 1533, Philippe Lenoire, which represents a very important text, and one which Dr. Sommer does not appear to know. A copy is in the Bodleian (Douce collection).
[97] It is difficult to know exactly what value to place on the traditional relationship of uncle and nephew as postulated of Arthur and Lancelot in the poem of Ulrich von Zatzikhoven. This is so completely a lieu commun of heroic romance. Except in the case of a hero of distinctly mythical origin such as Gawain, I am inclined to consider it as marking a secondary stage in the evolution of a hero, he would have attained to a certain degree of popularity before it was postulated of him—thus Perceval and Caradoc are each, in turn, Arthur's nephews. In the case of Lancelot it probably represented an intermediate stage between entire independence of Arthur (the original) and son of a faithful ally (the final) form.
[98] Merlin, Sommer's ed., chap. xxxiii. The Lancelot legend appears to me to offer a very interesting parallel to the methods employed by the compilers of the Chansons de Geste, which are so ably pointed out by M. Leon Gautier in his Epopées Françaises. The original story of the hero forms a nucleus from which other romances depart in a downward direction—dealing with sons and, perhaps, grandsons;—in an upward, dealing with father and grandfather—till a complete cycle is thus formed. We have exactly this process in Lancelot—the Queste extols the deeds of his son, the Merlin those of his father; and we have indications that the story was well on the way to the evolution of a secondary branch, that of Bohort and his son. None of the other Arthurian heroes has undergone a parallel development.
[99] Cf. Merlin, ed. Paris and Ulrich, vol. ii. pp. 137, 143.
[100] Ibid. pp. 231 et seq.
[101] Cf. Merlin, ed. Sommer, chap. xxvii. It may be as well here to remark that Professor Foerster apparently attributes considerable importance to the pseudo-historical account of Arthur's wars with the Saxons contained in the prose romances, notably the Vulgate Merlin (cf. Charrette, p. xcvi., and review of Legend of Sir Gawain, Zeitschrift für Franz. Sp., Band 20, p. 102), asserting that the prose romances contain, side by side with the later, the remains of the oldest stages of Arthurian tradition. To me it seems patent that these romances have simply borrowed from the Chronicles. There is nothing in them which cannot be found in Geoffrey or his translators, and the fact that they represent the romantic legend in a demonstrably late form, and not in one consonant with the pseudo-historic indications, while there is no trace of any fundamental revision of the story, such as might be expected, seems to make it quite clear that they are of comparatively late invention. They by no means stand on the same footing as do Wace and Layamon, which are of distinct value in determining earlier forms of the legend. To take one instance alone, the Merlin gives a long account of the sons of King Lot, who play a most important part in the action of the story, but the genuine early tradition gives Gawain no brother save Mordred, and Layamon distinctly says, 'he wes Walwainnes broðer, næs þer nan oðer' (ll. 25467-8). The existence of these sons marks a secondary stage in the story; but they are in all the prose romances. An exception should perhaps be made in favour of the Didot Perceval, which gives the Mort Artur section in a form differing from the other prose romances and much more closely in accord with the Chronicles. I shall return to this point later on.
[102] The two accounts should be carefully compared.
[103] Cf. Parzival, Book III. l. 937 et seq. I unfortunately omitted to note the reference in the prose Lancelot. The passage is on p. 127, vol. iii. of M. Paulin Paris's abridged edition.
[104] Cf. Parzival, Hertz, n. 66, p. 495.
[105] Cf. Lais inédits, M. Gaston Paris, Romania, vol. viii.