THE ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION

The discussion to this point has raised and answered many questions.  What is the significance of the prologue to Le Conte du Graal and what, for example, was Chrétien trying to illustrate as he portrayed Perceval’s development in chronological fashion?  These issues have been addressed as clearly as possible, but one still remains.  How does the message of Le Conte du Graal relate to Chrétien’s audience at an allegorical level?  In other words, one must now inquire as to how general conclusions drawn from the history and future of mankind are made specific to the individual person reading or hearing Chrétien’s poem.  In order to respond to this, Hugh of Saint Victor’s own application of his general allegorical representation of the progression of humanity to the life of the individual will be discussed. 

Hugh begins by summarizing yet again his division of mankind’s existence into three chronological periods:

For there are three periods of time through which the space of this world runs.  The first is the period of the natural law, the second the period of the written law, the third the period of grace.  The first is from Adam even unto Moses, the second from Moses even unto Christ, the third from Christ even unto the end of the world.[1]

For Hugh, however, each of these three general stages has a specific bearing upon humanity at the present time.  He continues, explaining the application of the idea of the natural man to the individual:

Similarly, there are three kinds of men, that is, men of the natural law, men of the written law, men of grace.  Those can be called men of the natural law who direct their lives by natural reason alone, or rather those men are called men of the natural law who walk according to the concupiscence in which they were born.

Perceval represents this “natural man” from the point at which the book begins through to his willing reception of counsel from Gornemant.  At this period, the reader is brought face to face with an impulsive youth entirely overcome by a desire to follow a disordered will ruled by ignorance and concupiscence.  Eventually led to recognize his deficiencies by the kindly Gornemant, however, Perceval progresses into a State of Written Law.  Hugh describes men such as this as “those who by exterior precepts are instructed unto right living.”[2]

This seems a perfectly apt portrayal of Perceval as he strives to live according to the “exterior precepts” of chivalry.  Yet Perceval, after mastering the laws of chivalry, still experiences a barrenness that remains with him until he is moved by what occurs as he meets the group of knights and ladies which presented him with the message that so pricked his heart.  Hugh notes:

Men of grace are those who, breathed upon by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, are illumined to recognize the good which must be done, and are inflamed as they love and are strengthened to accomplish good.[3]

This depiction resembles Perceval as the message borne to him by the company of penitents he meets in the forest and during his ensuing visit to his uncle the hermit begins to take root in his heart.  The chevalier, deeply moved, finds within himself a determination to do good, or in this case, to humble himself, confess his sins, repent and reorder his will. 

Hugh continues with his allegorical interpretation, providing more information about men existing in the various states he has mentioned.  He says:

Yet the period of natural law pertains to those openly evil since those then were more in number and more excellent in state.  The period of the written law pertains to the fictitiously good since the men serving in fear purified their work, not their hearts.  The period of grace pertains to the truly good who now, although they are not more in number, yet are more excellent in state….[4] 

Perceval as a natural man was openly evil in the sense that he followed his own will regardless of any moral concerns.  He was selfish to the point that he could even leave his mother fallen at the bridge in sadness rather than inconvenience himself to turn around and comfort her.  But Perceval progresses, and with Gornemant he begins to purify his works, excelling in knighthood, but remaining tainted in heart by seeking his own glory.  Perceval only becomes “truly good” and “more excellent in state” once he understands his disordered will, sorrows over it, and finally asks forgiveness.[5]

Hugh, however, has not yet arrived at the crux of his message.  Having summarized his allegorical interpretation and applied it to the individual, he now forces home his point, which is that salvation has always been necessary for the individual, and it has always been available:

You should know, therefore, that at no time from the beginning of the world even to the end has there been or is there anyone truly good unless justified by grace and that no one could ever have obtained grace except through Christ, so that you should realize that all whether preceding or following were saved by the one remedy of sanctification.[6]

Perceval, even in his natural state, was told of the mission of Jesus Christ by his mother, and portions of Gornemant’s message also have religious overtones.  In other words, the message of salvation was offered to him, but his stubborn insistence on following after his own desires prevented him from fully receiving the seed from those trying to sow it within him.  Over time, the message itself has only changed in part, being gradually elaborated.  The greater change has occured within Perceval himself.  It has been measured and has occurred in perfect accordance with the schema drawn out by Hugh, or slowly but surely over a chronological period of time that the reader follows through Chrétien’s text.  Each of these stages has been indicated by the young man’s receptiveness or lack thereof to the word he receives from others.  In a natural state, the ignorance that clouded his mind and his desire to satisfy his concupiscence rendered him unfertile terrain for the seed that his mother attempted to plant within him.  As he acquired experience, however, the developing knight was brought to accept the word of Gornemant, and the old fittings of his natural state, represented by his mother’s teaching and clothing, were shed for the Written Law, or that of chevalerie.  Perceval was remediated in part, and brought at least to the stage of outward goodness through obedience to exterior principles.  And yet this law was inherently insufficient to enable Perceval to produce a true harvest of the venerable fruits meet for repentance.[7]  For this it was necessary for Perceval to receive another word, this one effective because of the knight’s receptive state, and to allow that word to work within him until he became worthy to enter into a State of Grace by reordering his will. 

Thus, the allegorical interpretation of the progress of Perceval as it is represented in the literal flow of Le Conte du Graal is that, in the first place, he is a representation of the three stages through which mankind progresses upon its return to God.  This interpretation is based upon principles explained by Hugh of Saint Victor in his system of historical allegory.  Hugh pushes his allegorical interpretation still further, indicating that the three stages through which humanity passes over time are also representative of individual persons, with some people existing in a Natural State, others in a State of Written Law, and still others in a State of Grace.  The genius of Chrétien’s narrative is that it portrays a young man progressing through these very stages in his lifetime, moving from one to the next, demonstrating to his audience, for whom first Philip of Flanders and then Perceval is an example, that further progression from the state of chevalerie as it existed was possible and necessary.[8]  As Hugh pointed out, salvation is only obtained through a more admirable means than chevalerie, or through Christ.  Chevalerie, as was the Written Law, required refocusing, and Perceval perfectly demonstrates the necessary change of focus.  Chrétien wanted his seed to bring the knight to a realization that the knighthood that seeks only its own glory is empty.  The chevalier must have a correctly ordered will, one that is motivated by charity, or love of God and neighbor, as opposed to vainglory.[9] 

Chrétien was likely more concerned with the latter two stages of progress, for he was presumably writing to those living by the laws of chevalerie.  It is for this reason that the adventures of Gauvain, the paragon of worldly knighthood, are portrayed alongside those of Perceval.  This leads to the speculative conclusion that it was the intention of Chrétien, had he finished his story, to demonstrate with finality the superiority of Perceval’s state to that of Gauvain.[10]

Using the pattern abstracted from the prologue, the completed schema is illustrated in Figure 7.  The complete allegorical interpretation is shown in figure 8.

[1] On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith, I.8.xi.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Cf. H.C.R. Laurie.  “Chrétien at work on the Conte du Graal.”  Romania 107 (1986): 38-54.  “…Chrétien seems to be working his way to a certain viewpoint, the conviction that to be truly free is not to be one’s own master, it is to be subject to the Saviour” (p. 50).

[6] Ibid.

[7] Susan Potters sees in Perceval’s failure at the castle of the Fisher King a Christian reflection upon Perceval’s state under the law.  Speaking of blood symbolism in the poem, she notes that: “In view of its previous associations with the violence and glory-seeking of the hero’s rising Arthurian fortunes the presence of blood in this context would seem to cast a shadow on that success and on the value of an ideal of chivalry which is based on personal glory rather than the spirit of true Christian charity.”  See Potters, Susan.  “Blood Imagery in Chrétien’s Perceval.”  Philological Quarterly 56.3 (Summer 1977), p. 303.

[8] Barbara Nelson Sargent-Baur also notes that the evolution of the concept of knighthood is present in Le Conte du Graal in a way that is different from that of Chrétien’s other works.  She notes: “While the fact of BEING a knight remains a condition of roughly equal importance from one of Chrétien’s romances to the next, the topic of BECOMING one undergoes a striking change in emphasis….  Specifically, it is around the figure of Perceval that accumulates the greatest concentration of commentary, both descriptive and normative, from the other characters and from the authorial voice.  Of the five romances of Chrétien, it is the Conte du Graal that most markedly centers on knights, knighting and knighthood.  Whereas in the earlier romances knighthood was conferred arbitrarily, as a manifestation of royal largesse and benevolence, or claimed as a right by exalted personages who cold hardly be denied, here it is something more significant and much more difficult to achieve.”  See op. cit., pp. 407-408.

[9] Not everyone would agree with this conclusion.  Jean Flori sees Chrétien’s conception of knighthood as rudimentary, vaguely defined and static.  He states: “La notion de chevalerie qui se dégage de l’œuvre de Chrétien de Troyes porte encore les marques de ses origines diverses.  Le vocabulaire, témoin des mentalités communes, n’est encore que très peu pénétré des valeurs que nous avons coutume d’appeler chevaleresques.  La chevalerie n’y est pas encore une institution, mais un état, celui des guerriers d’élite ; toutefois, ces guerriers forment un ordre qui a sa fonction propre, son code déontologique.  On attend de ses membres qu’ils se conforment à un certain type de comportement et respectent certains règles.  Les vertus et les devoirs des chevaliers sont encore très directement liés à l’exercice des armes et s’inspirent quelque peu du modèle déjà lointain que l’Eglise, par les institutions de paix, proposait aux milites.”  See Flori, Jean.  “La Chevalerie Chez Chrétien de Troyes.”  Romania 114 (1996), p. 313.  Flori is, however, evaluating chevalerie in the whole of Chrétien’s corpus, and for this reason, neglects to consider the uniqueness of Perceval’s story and progression.  Moreover, we are not here saying that Chrétien is responding to a well-defined thirteenth century image of chivalry.  We agree with Flori that “ces modèles [proposed by Chrétien]…transcendent la réalité commune plus qu’ils ne la reflètent, et qu’ils  la modifient par le moyen des mentalités du public, qu’elles finissent par imprégner.”  See p. 296.  Chrétien’s uniqueness lies in the fact that he had reflected upon the role of the knight and in Le Conte du Graal he formulates and expresses his conclusions.

[10] We are persuaded that Chrétien desires to contrast Perceval to Gauvain and uses, as the focal point of this contrast, the will.  In Perceval, the will is correctly ordered through an understanding of the need to love God and neighbor, whereas Gauvain is still directed by his own will.  Cf. H.C.R. Laurie, p. 48: “Both Perceval and Gauvain are the victims of circumstances, but whereas it was an operation akin to grace which took charge of Perceval’s mind through divine intervention, the will in Gauvain continues to assert its independence….”   When Norris Lacy comments that “Perceval and Gauvain share numerous traits, and none is more significant than their fundamental rigidity” (p. 161), one can only assume that the period to which he refers corresponds to Perceval as Chrétien represents him in a state of nature and a state of law.