[180] On p. 212, Dr. Sommer states that Q. does not, at this point of the story, say what becomes of Perceval. This is wrong; Q. distinctly says he leaves Lancelot to return to the recluse.
[181] In his summary of the conversation on p. 213, Dr. Sommer again misrepresents his text—all agree in saying that Perceval asks his aunt about his mother and 'parens,' not that the aunt asks Perceval!
[182] The adventure of Perceval on the rock agrees closely with that of Mordrain in the Grand S. Graal. There also are two ships—in one a man who encourages, in the other a woman who tempts, him. In both cases the woman accuses the man of being an enchanter; in both her ship is covered with black silk, and she departs in a tempest. Cf. Hucher, Le S. Graal, vol. ii. pp. 354, et seq.
[183] S. Graal, ii. p. 444.
[184] As I said before, this may be due to the influence of Morien, but we must not overlook the fact that this poem certainly has some curious points of contact with the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach, which also knows of the hero (or more accurately here, his son) regaining his kingdom, which he also does in Perceval li Gallois.
[185] The scribe of the original MS. may have had to condense on account of space here, which is contrary to the usual practice of 1533; but in a printed edition it is not easy to decide the real value and significance of such omissions.
[186] 1533 ten, representing the number as thirteen, Galahad taking the place of Our Lord. This is a point on which we might expect to find different readings, according as the compiler held, or did not hold, Judas to have been present at the Institution—a question on which a difference of opinion has always existed.
[187] This is the passage to which I referred in connection with the Yvain sources, p. 76. This son of King Claudas is, no doubt, the same who played such a valiant part in the war between Lancelot and his father, related at great length in the Lancelot.
[188] This arrival of the nine knights at the Grail Castle, and their share in the Grail revelation, is a striking proof of the unreality of the Galahad Queste quâ quest, on which I have remarked elsewhere. Who are these knights? What claim have they to be admitted to a feast so holy that even King Pelles and his son are excluded? Practically they are as much achievers of the Quest as Galahad himself. The fact is the writer is so taken up with the religious symbolism of the relic that in exaggerating and insisting on symbolic details he loses sight of the real point of his story. I very much doubt whether any one but the Grail Winner himself ought to reach, or was ever contemplated as reaching, the Grail Castle, much less be witness of the full explanation of the relic. To this it may be objected that Gawain reaches it; but Gawain was certainly at one time looked upon as the Grail Winner, and I believe it is only in this character that he ever found the castle. The accessibility of Corbenic is a very weak point of the Galahad Queste.
[189] I cannot agree with M. Gaston Paris's suggestion that this passage, which he takes as part of the Mort Artur, refers to an earlier Queste redaction. A Queste giving a full account of the fate of so many of the knights engaged would be of portentous length, and there is absolutely no sign of this Galahad Queste having existed in another form. I regard it as a summing up, by the author, of the general results of the expedition, a postscriptum which enabled him to have a final fling at his bête-noire Gawain. The addition of Baudemagus's name may have been his work, or that of a copyist, and designed to give point to his accusation. Whether the tradition that he should be killed by Gawain arose from this passage, or was incorporated in the Merlin from another source we cannot say. The Baudemagus tradition demands study. In the Merlin he is represented as but six years older than Gawain, whose dearest friend he is, but in the Charrette he appears as quite an old man, whose son, Meleagant, is the contemporary of Gawain and Lancelot; while in the prose Lancelot and Queste he appears as the devoted friend of the family of King Ban, sharing the adventures of these young knights on an equal footing. The whole presentment is hopelessly confused. The frequent reference to the Arthurian records, as kept in the 'almeryes' at Salisbury, appears to me to be a parallel case to the allusions in the Charlemagne Romances to the records at S. Denys. I suspect there is as much, or as little, truth in the one ascription as in the other.