Chrétien's Lancelot and the Sublimity of Adultery

Chretien's Lancelot and the Sublimity of Adultery Although Erec, Yvain, and Cliges, the heroes of Chretien de Troyes's other complete extant romances, are certainly superior individuals, neither their creator nor their fellow characters lavish upon them the praise Lancelot receives in Le Chevalier de la charrete. The usual superlatives pale in comparison: Lancelot is not simply the best and fairest of knights, as are all of Chretien's heroes, but a knight whom everyone he meets is forced to describe as uniquely perfect. His many deeds, too, are recounted in terms of their uniqueness among the accomplishments, not only of living knights, but of all men who ever lived: he alone dares to mount the cart, he alone of all men is fit to sleep in the enchanted bed, cross the sword bridge, and fulfil the prophecies of a perfect knight who will rescue the Queen and free the people of Logres from their long captivity in the land of Gorre. Moreover, the rhetoric Chretien uses to describe Lancelot as the greatest of all knights invites us to see him as a saint, a martyr, the perfect Christian pilgrim, even Christ himself. At the same time, however, Chretien makes no attempt to hide, and even revels in the details of, his hero's adultery with Guinevere. One mightassume this would disqualifyhim as Arthur's mostloyalknight, and certainly as a candidate for sainthood. But in fact Chretien's rhetoric of sublimity is often strongest when it describes the most questionable physical circumstances: during Lancelot's night of adultery with the Queen, for example, he is said to adore her, 'car an nul cors saint ne croit tant' ('holding her more dear than the relic of any saint: line 4653), and when he must leave her Chretien twice repeats that Lancelot is a 'droit martirs' - a true martyr.' The metaphors ask us to equate Lancelot with a pious Christian placing trust in a saint and a saint being slain for his perfect fidelity to God; yet Chretien also emphasizes the carnality of the scene, and there is no doubt as to the nature of our hero's union with the Queen. In Le Chevalier de la charrete we are not asked to believe that Lancelot fails to achieve spiritual perfection because of his sin, as in the thirteenth-century prose Queste del Saint Graal, or even that Lancelot achieves perfection despite his sin; but that he is like a saint and martyr precisely because of his illicit love. Many scenes in the poem hinge on the hero's ability to reconcile apparently conflicting loyalties and duties, as when he must be merciful to a vanquished knight but also do justice for a UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY, VOLUME 57, NUMBER 2, WINTER 1987/ 8 260 PAMELA RAABE maiden who wants the knight's head, or when he must so position himself as to be able to fight Meleagant and gaze at Guinevere simultaneously.2 But Chretien's central metaphors, likening Lancelot's love for the Queen to the good Christian's love for God and Christ's love for the human soul, make a similar demand of the reader: he must believe that the ideals of profane love, chivalry, and Christianity - manifestly irreconcilable - are somehow miraculously united in the perfect hero. This has proven too much to ask of many of the poem's critics, as a brief overview suggests. When Chretien demands their faith in Lancelot's impossibly sublime adultery, the critics tend to regard him as either 'serious' or 'ironic' - exclusive formulations which cannot account for the poem'scomplexityof tone. Ofthose whoidentify the theme of the CharTete with fin'arnors, for example, some argue that 'Lancelot as a lover can be taken quite seriously,' and that there is 'little of the ironist' in Chretien.' This is hard to accept when, amid protests that the lovers' consummation is a saintly affair, the narrator winks: Des joies fu la plus eslite et la plus delitable cele que Ii contes nos test et cele. (4682- 4) (Yet, the most choice and delightful satisfaction was predsely that ofwhich our story must not speak.) Others, who assert that Chretien uses irony to subvert the...