Queen Guinevere: Her Lovers and Suitors as Portrayed in the Mediaeval French Verse and Prose Romances

124 Pages·1982·5.49 MB·English

by  Richard Thomas James Trotman

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TROTMAN, Richard T. :
NAME OF AUTHOR//VOW Of L’AUTEUR.
QueenGuinevere: Her Lovers and Suitors as portrayed
riTLE OF THESIS/77Wf DE LA THESE_
in the MediaevalFrench Verse and Prose Romances.
McMaster
jNivERSiTY/i//v/vm/r£__ ___ L.
OcGREE FOR WHICH THESIS WAS PRESENTED/, , * Master of Arts
GRADE POUR LEQUEL CETTE THESE PUT PRiSENTEE_
YEAR THIS DEGREE CONFERRED/A Awfr D’OBTENTION DE CE DEGRE__________I? 82
•.AME OF SUPERVISOR/WOK DU D1RECTEUR DE THESF Dr. G.D. West
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QUEEN GUINEVERE : HER LOVERS AND SUITORS
AS PORTRAYED■IN THE
MEDIAEVAL FRENCH VERSE AND -PROSE ROMANCES
*
L_ '
Richard Thomas James Trotman, B. A.
©
- A Thesis
Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies
in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements
for the Degree
• Master of Arts
McMaster University
April 1982
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GUINEVERE
s *
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MASTER OF-ARTS (1932) McMASTER UNIVERSITY
(French) Hamilton, Ontario
TITLE j Queen Guinevere: Her Lovers and Suitors
as Portrayed in the Mediaeval French
Verse and Prose Romances.
AUTHOR * Richard Thomas James Trotman, B.A.
(University College London)
SUPERVISOR i Professor G.D. West
NUMBER OF PAGES * v, Il6
ii
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ABSTRACT
Except in her relationships-with Lancelot, Guinevere
has hitherto been comparatively neglected by Arthurian
- . scholarship, with the result that many links between extant
romances, and many suggestions of links with earlier, now
lost, romances, have remained uncommented upon. ' Thess links
are important to the establishment of the extent of'the
various romances1 dependence on their antecedents, whether.
extant or postulated, as well as the extent of their borrowings
from older tradition, Classical or Celtic. While it seems as
if rather too much emphasis has been placed (by the Celticist
school oftthought in particular) on the dependence of the
*
Lancelot legend upon ancient Celtic tradition rather than upon
the contemporary mores which it so vividly reflects, certain
other liaisons involving Guinevere, which have been neglected
(her almost-certain one-time dalliance with Gauvain, and her •
abduction by Brun de Morois for example), are shown in the
present study to have greater dependence on anterior tradition
than has been allowed by some scholars.
Guinevere's relationship with her husband Arthur is
also discussed, as are the various other dalliances and
.abductions in which she is involved. *Brief mention has had to
be made of th^ non-French abductions and suits of Guinevere,
as they demonstrate, intricate links with the French versions
N
and also suggest the one-time existence of a written and oral
Arthurian tradition widespread bSfore Chretien de Troyes and
of which we now possess but a small proportion.
. iii s
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ACKNOJ/LEDGEMENT
I would like' to take this opportunity
to sincerely thank my supervisor, Dr. G. D.
West, without whose assistance the present
study could not have been*undertaken.
iv
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One
Introduction t Queen Guinevere
Chapter Two
Yder and the Modena Archivolt.
Chapter Three
The Minor Suitors............
Chapter Four
* The Abductors................
i
Chapter Five
Lancelot..
Chapter Six
Conelusion
Bibliography...
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION: QUEEN GUINEVERE
From a state of comparative obscurity, at least
insofar as can be made out from those texts which have
survived the passage of time, Queen Guinevere was turned,
almost overnight, into a literary sensation by a poet of
Troyes known only to us as Chretien, but who, in the
absence of any other textual sources, seems to have been
responsible for the popularization throughout Europe of the
Arthurian legend, and in particular the activities of two of
• its principal characters, Guinevere'and Lancelot. For
prior to Le Chevalier de la Charrete1 (circa II?8), which
gives us the earliest extant account of their liaison,
neither features prominently in the matiere de Bretagne '
(indeed, the name Lancelot does not appear as such until ;
'2 '
Chretien's Erec et Enide of circa 1170). However, while
Lancelot is the name most readily associated with that' of
1 Chretien de Troyes, Le Chevalier de la Charrete. ed. W.
Foerster, Niemeyer, Halle, I&99; repr. Rodopi,Amsterdam,
1965* All references will be to this edition. (Hereafter
abbreviated to Charrete.)
2 Chretien de Troyes, Erec et Enide, ed. M.Roques, CFMA,
Paris, 1978. All references will be to this edition.
(Hereafter abbreviated to Erec.) With reference to the
dating of the works of Chretien, see ALMA, pp.158-9, and the
following articles from the BBSIA: A.Fournier, 'Encore la
chronologie des oeuvres de Chretien de Troyes'(II,1950,69-88);
J.Misrahi, 'More light on the chronology of Chretien de
Troyes?'(XI,1959,89-120)j T.Hunt, 'Redating Chretien de
Troyes' (XXX,1978,209-37)• The tendency in recent years has
been to give his works a somewhat later datingj those dates
given here are the ones postulated by Frappier, and for the .
purpose of this study can be taken as approximate termini
a quo.
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2
Guinevere (a phenomenon no doubt inspired by Chretien's
Charrete). there exist recurrent allusions, both overt and
v*
covert - together with a number of complete accounts -
throughout the whole range of French mediaeval verse' and
prose Arthurian romance, concerning other extra-marital
liaisons with, or suits of, Queen Guinevere. In some cases
4
she was forcibly abducted, in others she either reciprocated
t
the love offered her or rejected it. There are also cases
where it is not clear what, if anything, happened. It is
the purpose of the present study to examine these various
relationships, many of which have been of interest in the
long-standing debate over the origins of the matiere de
Bretagne t and this issue will be borne in mind and returned
to frequently, as it appears as yet to remain unresolved.
What, then, of Guinevere herself? Concerning her
origins, little is known and nothing is certain, beyond the
fact that she" first appeals as Gwenhwyfar, Arthur * s. queen,
%
in the Welsh tale Kwlhwch ac Olwen^ of around 1100. Attempts
to trace her name further back seem largely hypothetical^ and
are not of great importance here, since eyen in the
Mabinogion she exists as little more than a name. Her only
3 The White Book Mabinogion.ed. J.G.Evans, Pwllheli, I907.
Quoted by Goetinck, rr.4 below.
4 G.Witchard Goetinck, 'Gwenhwyfar, Guinevere and Guenievre',
• Etudes Celtiques. XI (1964-7), 351-60; see p.351.
i
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