Last week, we talked a little about Arthur’s reactions in “Lancelot and Guinevere.” When Guinevere was accused of murder, Arthur was able to be impartial, and try to provide a fair judgement to the accused and the accuser. Though he was saddened, his judgement was calm and reasonable. However, in the section we read for today, he seems a little less so. He’s a little quick to agree to Agravain and Mordred’s accusation, and allows the two to conduct their “stakeout,” then, despite Gawain’s counsel, goes to war with Lancelot. Why do you think Arthur was quick to escalate this accusation, even though he considers Lancelot one of his greatest knights. Why would he not be impartial in this accusation, as opposed to the earlier one we’ve seen?
King Arthur & His World
ENGL 361 | Spring 2019 | Dr. Myra Seaman
I think King Arthur knew Guinevere was having an affair. Sir Agrarian says “I marvel that we all be not ashamed both to see and to know how Sir Launcelot lithe daily and nightly be the queen.” If the Knights of the Round Table know Lancelot is having an affair with Guinevere, I suspect King Arthur knew as well. I think he had been turning a blind eye to the affair but had to act on it when allegations were vocalized. He had to defend his honor and leadership/ not appear weak. I think another possible reason he didn’t acknowledge Guinevere was having an affair was because he loves her. When the news was told to him by Sir Mordred, Mallory writes he was “sore amoved.” He is emotionally distressed after hearing this news. I’m not entirely sure why he didn’t address the affair but I think he had reasoning behind it, maybe he knew it would be an end to the Round Table or maybe he had reverence for Lancelot. I think if he didn’t know for certain he would of wanted a trial. I think King Arthur is shown as attune to his surroundings. I was surprised by the number of times he cried in our reading. It was repeatedly said “the tears boast out of his eyes.”(272) King Arthur wanted peace at times unlike vengeful Sir Gawain. I think if King Arthur had doubt he would have put Sir Lancelot and Guinevere on tria
I agree with Teresa that King Arthur was more aware than his knights may have realized about the romantic relationship between Guinevere and Lancelot. The text explicitly says that he “had a deeming of it, but he would not hear thereof, for Sir Launcelot had done so much for him and for the queen” (248). I wouldn’t necessarily call Arthur’s actions as showing a lack of calmness and planning, although I think Michael made a good point in pointing out the difference in his behavior from the last section we read. I didn’t view Arthur’s agreement to Sir Agravain’s plan as rash, but rather more as a necessity because the accusation about his wife and his best knight has now finally been publicly brought to his attention. This may be off, but I kind of got the impression that Arthur would rather this hadn’t been brought to his attention in this way, because as a king he is now obligated to acknowledge and address such infidelity appropriately, even though he already had an inkling of it, and he recognizes that to do so will inevitably be very disruptive for his court. In the section we read for today’s class, we see an Arthur who loves both Guinevere and Lancelot, and, as Teresa mentioned, has to balance his emotions with his duty to being a king and carrying out justice. This is evident from remarks such as, when Sir Mordred tells him that they found Guinevere and Lancelot together, “me sore repenteth” (259). The language he uses in this scene to me expresses his sadness that the truth has risen to the surface in the way it has: “And now it is fallen so… that I may not with my worship but my queen must suffer death” (259).
While Arthur is indeed quick to escalate the situation, he does not necessarily seem to want to; rather, he believes killing his queen and going to war with Lancelot is the only way to hold on to his honor. When discussing such, he says, “me sore repenteth that ever Sir Launcelot should be against me,” implying that he certainly never wanted things to happen that way. He also seems to regret having escalated the situation so quickly after the fact. After Lancelot and Gawain battle and Lancelot injures Gawain, King Arthur says, “alas that this ever unhappy war began!” [291]. In great contrast wit Gawain, who is relentless and vengeful as Teresa said, Arthur is much more cautious about warring with Lancelot. I get the impression that he does so because he knows it is his duty as king to react in a manner that preserves his honor, but he isn’t rearing to go or anything.
I agree with my peers above, but I see a different way to view Arthur. Here, we nearing the end of Malory’s work; there are only a few chapters left. And remember the name of this text: “The Death of Arthur.”. Through most of this, Arthur remains an impartial ruler, above the knights whose stories we read. But now the action moves back to Arthur; his death approaches, and he must become a full, partial character again. The tales of the Round Table begin with Arthur, the spiral outward to his knights. But Arthur remained the driving force of the Table; and now that we come to the end, the table must fall with him.
I think King Arthurs was being somewhat impartial when he agreed to let Agravain set the trap. If you think back to the story’s we read about Guinevere and Lancelot, Arthur let similar traps occur and each time Lancelot was proven to be innocent in the eyes of Arthur. This occurred in Malory’s “Lancelot and Guinevere” and the story which was translated from a Hebrew text. What is truly different about Le Morte D’Arthur is Lancelot is found with the Queen in her private chambers. Another unique thing that transpired is only one knight was left living after they assailed Lancelot. The only one who escaped with his life was Mordred who also had the most to gain from a wedge being driven between Lancelot and Arthur. As long as Mordred kept his mouth shut about how the fight went down between the 13 knights and Lancelot then Arthur would not have a way of discerning whether or no Lancelot was being an honest servant to him. I think Arthur would have chosen to back Lancelot from the beginning if the fight were to of occurred in a proper joust like Lancelot pleaded for before killing all the knights. If Arthur had seen the combat take place then he would have decided Lancelot was the rightful victor and a knight of honor.