PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

Efforts thus far to sketch out an overall picture can be summarized in this way:

• Proof has been put forth to show that an allegorical interpretation of Le Conte du Graal, with particular emphasis on the generally neglected role of the prologue in such an interpretation, is justified.

• The type of allegorical interpretation most applicable to Le Conte du Graal has been identified and its main points highlighted.

• The allegory contained in the prologue has been illustrated and the point at which it connects to the remainder of the narrative ascertained.

Having accomplished these tasks, the importance of the prologue in providing the allegorical model according to which the rest of the tale should be interpreted needs once again to be underlined.  In order to do this, one must recall also the general framework in which Hugh of Saint Victor defined the function of allegory: the representation of past and future events via the chronological progress of man from a State of Nature, through a State of Written Law, and into a State of Grace as related in the scriptures.  By combining the pattern drawn from the prologue and the three states through which man progresses on his return to a State of Grace, a precise allegorical understanding of Chrétien’s narrative can be obtained.  Following is an illustration of the general outline of just such a project.

Perceval and the State of Nature

Chrétien shows Perceval in a state of nature in a passage lasting from the beginning of his poem until the protagonist’s meeting with Gornemant.  In the person of Perceval, this state is characterized by ignorance, impulsiveness, a lack of reflected responses to stimuli, and a concentration on physical appetites.  Chrétien constructs his narrative so that Perceval displays these characteristics in a variety of circumstances, with the result that, throughout this first portion of Le Conte du Graal, the inclusive depiction of the future chevalier is one of shocking naïveté, egocentricity and boorishness.  For Perceval in a State of Nature, there is absolutely no thought for what is right and what is wrong; instead, everything is solely a question of the boy’s own will, which at this stage is driven by the desire to obtain whatever attracts his attention at the time. 

Chrétien introduces the reader to Perceval by illustrating his reaction upon hearing the clamor of a group of knights entering the Gaste Forest.  The ignorant youth immediately responds to what he hears:

Li vaslez ot et ne voit pas

Ces qui vienent plus que le pas,

Si s’en mervoille et dit : « Par m’ame,

Voir me dist ma mere, ma dame,

Qui me dist que deable sont

Plus esfrée que rien del mont….[1]

But once Perceval’s curiosity gets the better of him and he goes to see the source of this din, his conclusions change immediately:

« Ha ! sire Dex, merci!

Ce sont ange que je voi ci.

Hé! voir, or ai ge mout pechié,

Or ai ge mout mal esploitié,

Qui dis que c’estoient deable.

Ne me dist pas ma mere fable,

Qui me dist que li ange estoient

Les plus belles choses qui soient….[2]

One is impressed that Perceval’s connection to his environment is purely through physical perception, and that he can only react to what he senses on the basis of his ignorance.  Moreover, to complete the picture of Perceval as an uninformed, uncivilized country boy, Chrétien portrays the young protagonist paying little attention to what the chief knight, who has approached to speak to him, is saying as he inquires into the whereabouts of five knights and three maidens.  Perceval is obviously without regard for anyone but himself: “Li vaslez a autres noveles / anquerre et demander antant.”[3]  He touches and handles the knight’s equipment, interrupting him at regular intervals to ask about this or that piece of armor or the use of a particular weapon.  The entire scene is constructed to revolve around Perceval’s naïveté, and the description of the boy provided by one of the accompanying knights is pertinent:  “Sire,” he says, addressing the knight who has been trying without success to communicate with Perceval, “sachiez bien antreset / Que Galois sont tuit par nature / Plus fol que bestes an pasture. / Cist est aussi com une beste.”[4]

Chrétien’s comparison of Perceval to a beast is noteworthy, as it is important to a true comprehension of the narrative, for it emphasizes the natural aspect of the young man’s character: ignorance that results in immediate reactions to events occurring around him, emotions like fear, amazement and unbridled will.[5]  But this is not all, for Perceval is also driven by his physical appetites which, in concert with the aforementioned characteristics, seem to interfere with his ability to hear the word as it is given to him.

After seeing the knights, Perceval expresses his determination to join their ranks, desiring for this reason to leave the forest in order to seek out the “roi qui fet les chevaliers”[6]  His mother finds out about her son’s decision when he returns home.  After her initial state of shock, she comprehends his resolve and proceeds to instruct him in his history, to speak of a great “fall” which has brought about the State of Nature in which Perceval finds himself.  She recounts that “li mellor sont decheü” while “malvestiez, hone ne peresce / ne chiet pas, car ele ne puet / mais les bons decheoir estuet.”[7]  Perceval, however, will have none of it, preferring instead to eat: “Li vaslez antant mout petit / a ce que sa mere li dit / A mangier, fet il, me donez.  Ne sai de coi m’aresonez…”[8]  While Perceval certainly requires sustenance, Chrétien places knowledge in outright contrast with the young man’s physical appetites, and it is clear which of the two Perceval favors at this stage in his development. 

And yet, before leaving his mother, Perceval at least pays token attention to the instructions she provides concerning acceptable behavior, to the point that he even commits to enter churches and monasteries whenever he passes them.  But the reader soon discovers that this word, too, has fallen upon barren ground.  Perceval experiences confusion in the scene in which he comes across a richly decorated tent, mistaking it for a church and compounding his error through his treatment of the lady within the tent.[9]  Perceval plainly did not understand what his mother related to him, and the word sown within him has not borne fruit.  Once again in this scene, Chrétien emphasizes both Perceval’s ignorance and his overpowering will to satisfy his own appetites as he shows the youth embracing the maiden when this act is obviously against her will, and then helping himself to the food in the tent.

Perceval’s unchecked ignorance and concupiscence and their influence on his will mirror descriptions of mankind after the Fall elaborated by Hugh of Saint Victor, who describes natural man in terms that relate closely to the portrait of Perceval that Chrétien provides.  Hugh indicates that the Fall “infects nature with a twofold corruption, namely, the mind with ignorance and the flesh with concupiscence.”[10]  This is integral to Hugh’s doctrine, for he posited in man three movements: that of the mind, that of the body, and that of sensuality.  The mind represents the will, to which the body is obedient.  Both of these movements were present in mankind in the Garden and were perfectly ordered.  The mind, or the will, obeyed God; the body, being obedient to the mind, followed.  After the Fall, however, the mind was punished with ignorance, leaving the will disconnected from its divine source and therefore in a disordered state.  The body remained obedient to the mind, but the movement of sensuality was instituted as a punishment in mortality to draw away the mind.  This is why Hugh indicates that humanity must work toward restitution, or a more correct reordering in which the mind desires what is right and removes itself from the sway of sensuality.  The movement of the body will naturally follow, as it is obedient to the mind.[11]

Perceval’s great failure in this period is, of course, the result of a similar disjunction: he does not return to his mother whom he sees fall and who dies of the sadness she felt upon seeing her son depart.  For Perceval, following his own will is so important that he feels no compassion toward her.  This act will cost him the grace he requires at the castle of the Fisher King.

In relation to this incident, it may seem that Perceval was punished later, through not being able to speak, for having done something that he did not know was wrong, for he had no idea his mother would die.  If one looks at Perceval as representing natural man after the Fall, however, this confusion is easily dissipated.  Humanity did not ask to bear the burden of the sin of Adam and Eve; nevertheless, those who accept such a Fall as a reality also accept that the deficiencies resulting from the effects of original sin are passed on to the rest of humanity at birth.  This often leads individuals to act improperly and to continue to do so until they become actively involved in, as Hugh states, overcoming their deficiencies and working to enter into a state in which their minds, properly informed and ordered, overcome ignorance and concupiscence.[12]  Perceval’s silence before the Fisher King was both a punishment and a natural consequence of who he was at the time he committed the act of leaving his mother fallen on the bridge.  He has shown no love for God or neighbor and no charity motivates his actions.  This is illustrated in Figure 4.

Perceval Under the Law

Perceval continues in a state of nature until he meets Gornemant and begins to comprehend and assimilate the precepts of chevalerie and courtoisie.  After a cursory reading, one might wonder why this is such an important step, for on the surface there appears to be little difference between the counsels given to Perceval by his mother and those offered by the vavasor.  Gornemant does train Perceval to a limited extent in horsemanship and the use of his weaponry, but not much distinguishes his advice from that which Perceval’s mother tried to teach him.  The sole variant seems to be Perceval’s newfound willingness and aptitude for learning.  If one looks closer, however, there are subtle divergences between the two periods that concern us here (Perceval in a State of Nature and Perceval entering into a State of Law), which indicate that the time Perceval spends with Gornemant is more structured and meaningful than at first glance.  Perceval has now reached a point in which he leaves his former state behind him and enters, in a very official way, into a new one.

Implicit in the scene with Gornemant is the idea that Perceval has understood that there are things he must learn, and he willingly turns to Gornemant as the person capable of dispensing this information and training.  This was not the case when Perceval was with his mother, from whom he neither requested nor desired counsel.[13]  For example, when Gornemant asks the young man if he would like to learn “la lance et l’escu demener / et le cheval poindre et mener,” Perceval accepts gladly accepts: “Et cil dit que tot a delivre / ne queroit ja mes un jor vivre, / ne terre ne avoir n’eüst, / mais qu’aussi fere le seüst.”[14] 

That Perceval has come to recognize a portion of his deficiency and has become teachable is strictly in line with what Hugh of Saint Victor says of man leaving the natural state and entering the state of law:

And thus there is need that [God], meanwhile, lay aside the character of the judge, and assume first the character of counselor, then that of the helper, at least in such a way that He first leave man entirely to himself, in order that man himself may both experience his own ignorance and realize that he is in need of counsel, then also feel his lack and recognize that he has need of help….  For such a reason, therefore, in the time of the natural law man was left entirely to himself, afterwards in the time of the written law counsel was given to him when he realized his ignorance….[15] 

Perceval, having finally taken this step, will apply himself to the instruction that he receives, combining the two important traits of natural inclination and determined effort: “…il li venait de nature ; / Et quant nature li aprant / Et le cuers des tot i antant, / Ne li puet estre riens grevainne / La ou nature et cuers se painne.”[16]

In addition to showing a newfound willingness to learn from Gornemant, Perceval also undergoes several changes that concretely signify his entry into a state of Law.  He is washed and the remaining clothes that he received from his mother are now left behind in favor of the new ones he receives from Gornemant.  After this bathing and changing, Perceval formally enters into the order of knighthood through a dubbing ceremony.[17]

Having entered a new community, Perceval receives further instruction from his mentor, who provides him with guidance that differs at three key points from the directions he received from his mother:

• He instructs Perceval to show mercy to defeated knights.

• He gives Perceval the fateful instruction that: “Qui trop parole pechié fet.”[18]

• He makes Perceval promise not to tell those he meets that his mother has instructed him, but rather, that he, Gornemant, has taught him.

Significantly, everything that Perceval has been given by his mother, those things representing his inheritance obtained while in a State of Nature, from clothing to instruction, has been removed and replaced by Gornemant.  Perceval no longer wears the clothes his mother made for him, and she is no longer associated with the rules that will guide his new life.[19]  Moreover, the freshly dubbed knight has been initiated into a strictly defined group, one constrained by principles.  The establishment of a community of believers obliged to abide by regulations represented a significant step for humanity according to Hugh of Saint Victor, and he sees it as one of the primary reasons that the Written Law was instituted:

That first age under the natural law had passed, as it were, in a kind of confusion and those who had existed as the faithful in that age, like some few grains dispersed among the human race and separated from each other, had been united within by faith alone.  Therefore, that an exterior unity might be founded to commend the interior unity, and that the form of faith might be manifest to which those who had to be called out of their dispersion might be invited, one was set forth to whom, in accomplishing one, all who had afterwards to be assumed might be gathered.[20]

In Hugh’s program, Abraham was the organizer of a community functioning according to written laws to whom the dispersed faithful might come.[21]  Perceval, the reader discovers, is a born knight, who learns because he has the two characteristics of natural endowment and desire.  He is very much representative of one of the faithful persons who is called out from among the dispersed, recognizes his or her deficiency, and comes into the community to abide with those already there.

Interestingly, unlike Perceval in a Natural State, his obedience to the word Gornemant provides him undoubtedly bears fruit, for he is receptive, but it is worldly fruit, insufficient, and will fail him at the time he needs it before the Fisher King.  It is reminiscent of the generosity of Alexander in that it is motivated by vainglory.  Perceval has indeed progressed in his willingness to learn from another, but this newfound “humility” is inspired uniquely by his desire for recognition.  Chrétien is attempting to show that worldly chivalry is deficient, that it requires completion, just as the Written Law was insufficient for man to obtain grace thereby.  Strict obedience to minute laws in order to accrue glory to himself could not enable Perceval to utter the words that would have restored the kingdom of the Fisher King.[22]  Our schema as it stands now is illustrated in Figure 5.

It should be emphasized that Chrétien’s portrayal of Perceval as receptive to the word of Gornemant and as subsequently perfecting himself in chevalerie, an allegorical representation of humanity under the Written Law, is part of a purposeful design, and that this word should bear fruit is not surprising.  The reader must recall that God instituted the Mosaic Law in order to prepare the Israelites to receive a higher law.  For this reason it was good, but incomplete.  In the same way, Perceval is now outwardly “good,” but for selfish purposes.  He becomes expert in combat, defeating Anguinguerron the seneschal and his master, Clamadeu while defending Beaurepaire and Blancheflor, sparing both their lives in obedience to the precept of Gornemant.  Perceval also defeats Orguilleus and ensures that he will take proper care of his lady.  In addition, the young knight is now capable of expressing courtly feeling, as when he contemplates Blancheflor’s face in droplets of blood on the snow.

Perfection in chivalry represents Perceval’s progression out of his state of niceté.  The Written Law likewise represents man’s progress from the Natural State into a better condition:

Under the natural law there were few sacraments; under the written law, both were multiplied, namely, the precepts and the sacraments.  For when God the physician first proceeded to cure sick men, disease had seized him entirely whom health had left entirely.  And He placed in the body of the human race first of all a few antidotes for a few members, that is for a few persons, in order that gradually disease might fail and health increase.  Afterwards under the written law He brought together more remedies, and He restored more [emphasis added].[23]

This Written Law comports important characteristics, some of which have already been mentioned.  It is codified, for example, more detailed, and its adherents form a defined group.  Gornemant’s instructions to Perceval reflect this.  They are expanded and specific, and their acceptance is part of Perceval’s initiation into a community of believers.  Perceval has progressed, and inasmuch as the Written Law was not sufficient, Perceval, when he reaches the summit of progression possible under it, eventually discovers his personal inadequacy.  The key question now is this: what brings about this further change?

Perceval Under the Higher Law

Perceval spends five years perfecting himself in chevalerie, to the point, however, that “de Dieu ne li sovient mais. / .v. foiz passa avrix et mais / ce sont .v. ans trestuit antier, / qu’an eglise ne an mostier / ne Deu ne sa croiz n’aora.”[24]  Perceval, in other words, remains under the Written Law until, one day, he comes across a strange company of knights and maidens, “lor chiés an lor chaperons mis, / et si aloient tuit a pié / et an langues et deschaucié.”[25]  Surprised at seeing Perceval armed on “vanredis aorez”, they immediately question him.  Perceval, not sure what day it is, asks the knight who has addressed him for an explanation.  There follows another period of instruction, but this time greatly expanded and differentiated from that which he has received from either his mother or from Gornemant, for it specifically concerns the New Law, ushered in by Christ, who died for the sins of the world.  “Don ne creez vos Jhesu Crist, / qui la novele loi escrist / et la donna as crestïens?” the knight asks Perceval.  Speaking of the Savior, he continues :

Il fu nez de la Virge dame,

Et si prist d’ome et forme et ame

Avoec la sainte deïté,

Que a tel jor por verité

Con hui est fu an la croiz mis

Et trest d’anfer toz ses amis.[26]

Perceval, his curiosity aroused, then asks them from whence they have come. They tell him of the hermit whom they visited in order to confess their sins and repent:

De noz pechiez i demandames

Consoil, et confesse i preïsmes.

La greignor besoigne i feïsmes

Que nus crestïens puisse feire,

Qui bien voelle a Damedeu pleire.[27]

Perceval, touched by the message he hears, breaks down into tears, desiring himself to see the hermit, confess his sins and repent. 

What has happened within Perceval to operate such a change of heart?  For five years he has sought only chivalric adventure and glory, but this has apparently not been enough.  One thinks immediately of the description of Perceval as he encounters the knights and ladies: he has paid no attention to the day, “tant avoit a son cuer enui….”  These lines should be read in view of what Chrétien has been careful to highlight in the lines leading up to this key event: Perceval’s exploits over the past five years have been nothing short of astounding, and Chrétien underlines that Perceval “n’onques n’anprist chose si grief / dom il ne venist bien a chief.”[28]  But even having accomplished these numerous feats, having become an exemplary knight, Peceval still wanders, dejected, feeling emptiness and lack.[29]  The message provided by the troupe he meets, the knowledge they share with him concerning Christ and the possibility of repenting of his sins, brings him to an understanding of the one aspect of his life that has been missing.  Perceval “sopire del cuer del vantre / por ce que mesfez se savoit / vers Deu et si s’an repantoit.”[30]

The young knight arrives at the hermit’s chapel, humbled and saddened:

Percevaux se met a genolz

Tantost con antre an la chapele ;

Et li bons hom a lui l’apele,

Qui mout le vit sinple et plorant,

Et vit jusqu’au manton colant

L’eve qui des ialz li degote.

Et Percevax qui mout se dote

Avoir vers Damedeu mespris,

A l’ermite par le pié pris,

Si l’anclina et les mains joint

Et li prie que il li doint

Consoil, que grant mestier en a.[31]

The hermit, seeing Perceval’s penitent state, instructs him in what he must do.

Et li boens hom li comanda

A dire sa confession,

Que ja n’avra comenion,

Si n’est confés et repantanz.[32]

This process seems simple, perhaps overly so, but for the first time, Perceval has humbled himself enough to ask to receive the word.  Perceval’s recognition of his sins, his penitence, has led to a reordering of his will.  Perceval weeps and confesses, a motif heavy with religious significance.  This process is first mentioned when the knights and maidens that Perceval encounters tell him of Christ and explain that they have confessed their sins, touching Perceval and subsequently reducing him to tears.  The tears continue until he arrives at the chapel and is brought by the hermit to confession.  In this context, Hugh of Saint Victor’s comments on humility and confession shed light on Perceval’s entry into a State of Grace:

First there must be weeping, afterwards confession.  For in the confession of sins man should be ashamed, so that he may humbly realize what he has done and yet not be so ashamed that he is silent….  On this account rightly is it said that first there should be weeping, afterwards confessing.[33]

Perceval’s overall mood, the feeling that brings about such a great change within him and enables him to complete his progression, is his meek feeling of contrition, one that Hugh specifically associates with the reordering of the will.  “Penance,” he writes, “is grief for something committed in the past, when you grieve that you have done what is evil,”[34] and he adds that, “[t]hrough interior penance the blame of a depraved will is amended.”[35]  Perceval is caught up in this process, and it will gain him entry into a new family, one that operates under a better law.  Perceval comprehends that because he has not loved and believed in God, nothing that he has done has been anything but evil.[36]  He is recognizing the disorder in his will, a disorder rectified by the hermit, whose teaching centers around the idea that love of God must be first in the knight’s mind.[37]  Perceval is taught to do God’s will, and the reader can assume that Perceval’s sin of not loving God and neighbor has been set right.  The new schema appears in Figure 6.

Summary

It has been illustrated that through a chronological reading of Chrétien’s narrative, an important allegorical picture arises from the literal flow of the text: Perceval passes from a lower state to a higher one through the reception of a word, a seed provided each time by a sower.  It has also been demonstrated that at each step in the way, Perceval’s progression mirrors the progress of mankind through three states explained by Hugh of Saint Victor.  Perceval moves from a Natural State to one of Written Law, and through this state to a State of Grace.  Even Perceval’s reasons and motivation for moving from one state of his existence to another reflect those reasons Hugh proposed for mankind moving from one state into the next.  At a general allegorical level, then, Perceval represents mankind in its progress from one state of being into another.  But an important question still remains to be addressed: is there an allegorical interpretation of the narrative meant for Chrétien’s individual readers?  The reader should recall that Chrétien claims that he is sowing a seed, and that the ground upon which it is being sown is his readership.  What fruit, then, is this kernel that Chrétien disseminates meant to produce? 

[1] Le Conte du Graal, v. 111-116.

[2] Ibid., v. 135-142.

[3] Ibid., v. 184-185.

[4] Ibid, v. 240-243.

[5] Sargent-Baur, 1995.  She emphasizes the fact that Perceval is “a lad not even minimally qualified to function in a romance except as a foil, a source of comic relief” (p. 323), contrasting them to the heros of Chrétien’s previous four romances.  She identifies Perceval’s “most salient trait” as his ignorance (p. 320).

[6] Le Conte du Graal, v. 492.

[7] Ibid., v. 425, 430-432.

[8] Ibid., v. 487-490.

[9] When he encounters the tent, Perceval cries out: “Dex, ci voi ge vostre meison ! / Or feroie je mesprison / se aorer ne vos aloie.”  See Le Conte du Graal, v. 653-655.

[10] On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith, I.7.xxvi.  Hugh also adds, when speaking of man and the Fall : “In him, indeed, the spirit swelling with pride against the Creator did not keep obedience, and, therefore, the Creator to avenge His injury punished the spirit with ignorance indeed but the flesh with concupiscence, so that the spirit does not see in itself the good to be done but in its flesh desires to do evil.  These two vices to punish man’s pride are justly confirmed in him, ignorance, indeed, because the light of truth is taken from the mind, but concupiscience because the flesh is afflicted with the punishment of morality.”

[11] Ibid, I.6.iv.  “Moreover there are three movements in man: the movement of the mind, the movement of the body, the movement of sensuality.  The movement of the mind is in the will, the movement of the body in work, the intermediate movement of sensuality in pleasure….  The mind, therefore, moves by itself, and is the first movement of the will.  The movement of the body follows the movement of the will….  Therefore, the movement of the mind is always justice or injustice, but the movement of the body is always obedience….  Now, however, since it [the mind] itself did not cling to its rectitude, it still indeed through the kindness of the Creator  has obedient movement of the body, but for punishment an opposing movement of sensuality, whose violence when weakened it sometimes follows, but when strengthened it sometimes restrains and dominates.  But if the movement of sensuality dominates the movement of the mind, it dominates also the movement of the body which is subject to it, and then sin begins to reign in our mortal body.  But if it does not dominate, the mind uses the service of its body, and shows its members as arms of justice, and the movements of the mind and the movements of the body are together, the movement of the sensuality apart, and justice is accomplished and iniquity is restrained.”

[12] Ibid, I.7.xxiv.  “When, therefore, mortal flesh through coition is sown in concupiscence to generate progeny, both punishment [concupiscence of the mind through the effect of sensuality] and guilt [concupiscence of the flesh, which follows concupiscence of the mind] pass in the flesh through concupiscence to the progeny to be born.  But when by the sacrament of redemption they are regenerated who were generated in punishment and guilt, from those to be cleansed through the spirit of regeneration not the punishment but the guilt is taken away in the original vice itself.  For guilt is taken away, that they may be justified, but punishment remains that they may be exercised.”

[13] It is true that the only thing Perceval requests of Gornemant is lodging, though his willingness to accept what Gornemant is able to teach him signifies, in our eyes, a fundamental realization on the part of Perceval that he has much to learn.

[14] Le Conte du Graal, v. 1453-1454, 1455-1458.

[15] On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith, I.8.iii

[16] Le Conte du Graal, v. 1476-1480.

[17] Ibid., v. 1620-1635.

[18] Ibid., v. 1652

[19] J.-J. Vincensini also attaches importance to the symbolic value of the changing of Perceval’s clothing as representing the passage from one mode of existence into another: “Avant de quitter Gornemant, le jeune homme reçoit la marque « pédestre » de la chevalerie: l’éperon droit.  Ce don signe la fin des « revelins » gallois, moyens de déplacements propres à son premier mode de vie.  Grâce à son maître en chevalerie, Perceval n’a aucun mal à passer de l’un de ces états à l’autre, d’un accessoire symbolique à l’autre.  Car Gornemant de Goort lui apprend à faire un usage chevaleresque des aptitudes naturelles, pour ne pas dire « sauvages », qui sont celles de son jeune élève,” (pp. 123-124).

[20] On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith, I.12.i

[21] The fascinating concept of restoring social order is one upon which we have not had occasion to touch in this thesis, though it certainly merits attention.  There is a similarity in the description of the exile of Chrétien’s family as related by his mother and the idea of the few faithful, dispersed in the world as described by Hugh in his touching metaphor.  This bears also on Perceval’s failure before the Fisher King, for it is clear that the same sort of disastrous social consequences may result if his kingdom is not restored.  Sara Sturm-Maddox notes that “Chrétien’s text underlines again and again the necessity for a ruler who can ‘tenir sa terre en pais’ as n indispensable condition of social stability and social justice.  Here the impassioned lament of Perceval’s mother, identifying the disruption of political and social order as the source of suffering for the ruined nobility as well as for the weak and dispossessed, is programmatic for the narrative.”  See Sara Sturm-Maddox.  “Social Order in the Brut and in the Conte del Graal.”  Studies in Philology LXXXI.1 (Winter 1984), pp. 36.  As Chrétien pursues his analysis of chivalry, he may indeed have addressed “the question of anarchy latent in the chivalric system, from whose consequences none is exempt….”   It seems logical to assume that Perceval, once having found his way after visiting his uncle the hermit, would have completed the task of restoring his kingdom to the Fisher King.  See also p. 37. 

[22] Other critics note that Chrétien is illustrating the deficiencies of “traditional” conceptions of chivalry, but are often hesitant to accept that he is advocating that this type of knighthood must be surpassed.  Norris Lacy, for example, sees a connection between Perceval and the sword he receives at the castle of the Fisher King that demonstrates the insufficiency of chivalry: “Thus it is with chivalry, symbolized by the sword : in ordinary situations it is more than adequate, but to meet severe tests it must be remade by a higher conception of love and devotion.  Perhaps it would be going too far – or perhaps not? – to suggest a further parallel between the sword and the hero himself, for the latter also possesses a tragic flaw; he too will fail when he is severely tried, and the flaw can be repaired only by his own return to his maker.”  See Norris J. Lacy.  “Gauvain and the Crisis of Chivalry in the Conte del Graal.”  The Sower and His Seed: Essays on Chrétien de Troyes.  Ed. Rupert T. Pickens.  Lexington: French Forum, 1983 page 109.  Lacy is right in noting the insufficiency of chivalry, but seems to imply that this it is manifest only under certain extreme circumstances.  In our model, Chrétien is advocating the total abandonment of worldly chivalry in favor of a Christian one.  Under his uncle’s guidance, Perceval undergoes a conversion, a spiritual rebirth.  It would be illogical to assume that Chrétien supported the idea of only a temporary conversion or partial rebirth.

[23] On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith, I.12.iv.

[24] Le Conte du Graal, v. 6011-6015.

[25] Ibid., v. 6038-6038.

[26] Ibid., v. 6075-6080.

[27] Ibid., v. 6100-6104.

[28] Ibid., v. 6023-6024.

[29] On this, Barbara Nelson Sargent-Baur comments: “The status of chevalier, on which the bedazzled Welsh youngster set his heart and to which he bent his will, turns out, once attained, to be a disappointment.  What had enabled Erec, Yvain and Lancelot from the outset to function and achieve their goals, what had eventually and richly crowned the efforts of Alexander and Cligés, leaves Perceval at loose ends, successful in worldly terms and yet miserably unfulfilled.  I am persuaded that this last, unfinished work shows the romancier approaching in a more sober and questioning spirit a rank and function that he earlier had treated as simple ‘givens.’”  See Barbara Nelson Sargent-Baur.  “Promotion to Knighthood in the Romances of Chrétien de Troyes.”  Romance Philology XXXVII.4 (May 1984), p. 408.

[30] Le Conte du Graal, v. 6122-6124.

[31] Ibid., v. 6136-6147.

[32] Ibid., v. 6148-6151.

[33] On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith, II.14.i

[34] Ibid., II.14.ii.

[35] Ibid.

[36] Le Conte du Graal, v. 6152-6155.

[37] This brings immediately to mind the factor differentiating the largesse of Alexander from that of Philip.  The outward action was the same, but it was the motivation of each that determined whether or not the deeds of each were good or bad.