Last class we discussed a lot about courtly love. In this story, chivalry is emphasized quite often. Is courtly love still supported by the story or is it undermined and left at odds with chivalry? If so, refer to specific instances.
King Arthur & His World
ENGL 361 | Spring 2019 | Dr. Myra Seaman
In many places it does seem that courtly love is supported in this story by Lancelot’s love for Queen Guinevere. Courtly love is ennobling and causes the knight in its grasp to undertake dangerous quests and thrust themselves into tough combat in order to “win” their lady, which in Lancelot’s case is Guinevere. Indeed, Lancelot, in his quest to rescue the queen, has to pass through several obstacles and fight multiple people in order to reach her and free her. For example, Lancelot must cross over a bridge, of which our narrator says, “there has never been such a treacherous bridge and unstable crossing” [245]. Lancelot faces the perilous challenge head on and succeeds in crossing, even as he injures himself in the process, with our narrator insisting that “Love, who guided him, comforted and healed him at once and turned his suffering into pleasure” [246]. Therefore the relationship between Lancelot and Guinevere fits perfectly into the model of courtly love.
This story seems to adhere to the conditions surrounding courtly love. First and foremost, this story revolves around the elite: namely, a knight is in love with the queen. Another key element of courtly love is the idea of sight: love, according to Andreas Capellanus, should be triggered by sight. Towards the end of the segment we read for this class, Lancelot is fighting Meleagant, and he sees Guinevere. According to the text, “Lancelot’s strength and courage grew because Love aided him” (253). Love aids and strengthens him during this fight, and the appearance of Love is triggered by the sight of his beloved.
In many ways, Lancelot displays many acts of courtly love towards Guinevere. In chapter four and eight of Capellanus’ “Art of Courtly Love,” he describes love as “adorn[ing] a man…with the virtue of chastity,” with no “desire to embrace in love anyone except his beloved.” In “The Knight of the Cart,” Lancelot, on page 219, is requested to sleep with a strange woman in exchange for lodging. When she’s being attacked on page 221, he sees her naked body, “yet [the] sight evoked no lust in [Lancelot], nor did he feel the least touch of jealousy” when the attacking knight held the woman. When the attack was over and Lancelot was fulfilling his promise, he laid in the bed with the woman, but looked away from her, as his heart was “focused” and “promised to another” (222). Another example of courtly love that “The Knight of the Cart” follows is Capellanus’ 30th rule of love: “A true lover is constantly and without intermission possessed by the thought of his beloved.” It’s mentioned several times throughout “The Knight of the Cart,” that Lancelot is driven by his love, treating it as a proper noun, first shown on page 212, when Lancelot, despite knowing the stigma of getting in the cart, is driven by “Love’s command,” who “urged and commanded him to climb into the cart at once.” His possession of Love becomes the motives for all of his actions, despite the embarrassment and shame it would bring him (like, for instance, being known as “The Knight of the Cart”).