To any one thoroughly familiar with the Arthurian romances, the juxtaposition of these three names is extremely significant. The adventure itself is elsewhere assigned to Lancelot. The hero with whom the Lancelot story in its earlier stages is most closely associated is Perceval; Chrétien himself here introduces Perceval as a famous knight, with whose renown Cligés was already familiar, and ranks him above Lancelot. One of the best-known adventures ascribed to Perceval is, as we have already shown, one in which the three colours, black, red, and white, figure, and in which he overthrows Kay in a manner curiously akin to other versions of the tournament episode. But previous to overthrowing Kay he had vanquished Segramor, who was the first to attack him. Is it not evident that Chrétien, like the authors of the Ipomedon and the original Lanzelet, was here reminded of the blood-drops adventure? If it be asked why introduce Segramor instead of Kay, we may recall the fact that while Cligés is represented as nephew to the Emperor of Constantinople, Segramor, as the Merlin tells us, was son to that potentate. Chrétien may have introduced him as less known in connection with this than Kay, who is never once named in Cligés; but I think it more likely that it was his parallelism to the hero, as well as his connection with Perceval, which determined his appearance.
But with regard to the latter, there is another point which deserves mention. In that section of the Peredur which does not correspond to any section of the Conte del Graal we find the hero, released from prison by the daughter of his jailer, attending a warlike tournament, in which each day he carries off the prizes; but there is no change of armour, and the days appear to be four instead of three. Previously to this he has also appeared three successive days at a tournament; but overcome by the beauty of the empress, of whom he is enamoured, he remains gazing at her, instead of taking part in the contest, until the third and final day. These passages are deserving of note, as they appear to me to show direct contact between the Perceval and Lancelot stories, and in this instance the borrowing appears to be on the part of the earlier story. Not only is Lancelot released from the prison of the Lady of Malehault to attend a tournament, thus corresponding with the one instance, but when he arrives on the spot he behaves in precisely the same manner at the sight of Guinevere as is recorded of Peredur with the empress. I do not feel able to accept the tournament as a real part of the Perceval story, no other feature of any version of the Perceval ‘Enfances’ corresponding with the formulæ of the group in question; yet the correspondence of detail between the two stories is so undeniable that contact of some sort, direct or indirect, there must be, and I think in this case we must hold that the Peredur has been influenced by a version of the Lancelot akin to that preserved in the prose redaction.
To return to Cligés. Taking into consideration all the evidence, the importance and widespread character of the folk-tale, the closer correspondence of both the Ipomedon and the Lanzelet to the popular form, and the peculiarities of the Cligés version, it becomes, I think, impossible to doubt that this latter, so far from being the source of the Lanzelet, is, as submitted above, not merely posterior to, but distinctly dependent upon a form of that story. And if we admit this, must we not also admit that here, at least, Chrétien did not understand the character of the material with which he was dealing, and that in this instance he certainly deserves the epithet which Professor Foerster asserts we would wish to apply to him, that of ein verschlechternder Ueberarbeiter? The phrase, be it remembered, is Professor Foerster’s, and not mine; but so admirably does it suit the present question, that I can only say, ‘I thank thee, friend, for teaching me this word!’ Chrétien was not dealing directly with popular tradition, but taking it at second-hand after it had already been modified and worked over in romantic form. To put it tersely, in the Three Days’ Tournament we have a folk-tale theme intelligently adapted by the authors of the Ipomedon and the Lanzelet, and misunderstood and ‘muddled’ by Chrétien.
THE BEARING ON THE LANCELOT STORY
But the interesting problems connected with this episode are not all solved when we have determined the ultimate source of the story, and the position to be assigned to Chrétien’s version. As we have seen, there is strong ground for believing that the French poet knew two versions of the Lancelot story; is it not possible that one of these versions may have been the lost French source of the Lanzelet? The ‘setting’ of the Cligés tournament, in which the hero makes his first appearance at Arthur’s court, corresponds with that of the Lanzelet; and, as we have remarked above, in the Erec we find not only the name of Lancelot, but also that of the enchanter Mauduiz, who appears nowhere save in U. von Zatzikhoven’s poem. Professor Foerster’s opinion is that we must consider the German Lanzelet as ‘die möglichst getreue Wiedergabe eines französischen Originals’; and on this point at least, I, for one, am quite prepared to agree with him. Whether, after a real study of that poem (with which I strongly suspect he had only a superficial familiarity), the learned professor will desire to maintain his opinion is another question! But, granting that the German version correctly reproduces the French original, the nature of the work—a loosely connected collection of independent tales, of marked folk-lore character—points to a period of evolution anterior to Chrétien’s well-knit and elaborately polished literary productions.
Then, again, there arises the question, Granting the existence of a Lancelot romance previous to Chrétien, could Walter Map have been the author? On this point it is not easy, with the material at our disposal, to express a decided opinion. Map and Chrétien were certainly contemporaries, but in neither case do we know the date of birth. Map died in 1209, therefore we may suppose he was not born long before 1140; a later date is scarcely probable, as he was a student at Paris in 1154, and at the court of Henry II. before 1162.[59] We do not know when Chrétien wrote the Erec, but it was almost certainly some time in the decade 1150-60. That Map should have been the author of a Lancelot poem earlier than the Erec is quite possible, but, perhaps, not very probable; but there would have been ample time for him to write one before the Cligés. Thus, while I think it highly probable that Chrétien borrowed from Map in the latter poem, I would reserve my opinion as to the former. Of the probable character of such a work we can gather some idea from Map’s undoubted literary remains; De Nugis Curialium offers abundant proof of the writer’s taste for popular tales and traditions. Had he lived in the nineteenth-twentieth centuries, instead of the twelfth-thirteenth, Map would undoubtedly have been a prominent member of the Folk-Lore Society.[60] His Lancelot poem might have been a short episodic romance of folk-tale character, a Three Days’ Tournament story, or it might have been a collection of such episodes, like the Lanzelet, i.e. its character would probably be popular rather than literary. I should myself have felt inclined to decide for the Lanzelet source, were it not for the evidence of the Ipomedon, which appears to presuppose a version closer to the original folk-tale.
Another point to be borne in mind in connection with the Cligés, and one to which I have already drawn attention,[61] is the peculiar geography of the poem, which is distinctly Anglo-Norman rather than Arthurian; the tale is obviously composed of originally independent themes; and whatever may have been contained in the book of the Beauvais Library, I think it is at the least possible that part of Chretien’s material came to him from insular sources.
As regards the Lanzelet, we know that the source of that poem came from England, and elsewhere[62] I have pointed out that a curious allusion to England (not as is more usual to Britain) seems to make it probable that the French original was written in this island. If we couple with this the authorship and evidence of the Ipomedon, and the persistent attribution of a Lancelot romance to Walter Map, we have, I think, a strong presumption in favour of an early insular version of that story.
While this study was in the printer’s hands I came across the following allusion to the slaying of a dragon by Lancelot; it occurs in the Auchinleck Manuscript version of Sir Bevis of Hampton (Cxxx):—
‘After Josianis cristing