How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
‘Am I so bold, and could I so stand by,
And see my dear lord wounded in the strife,
Or maybe pierced to death before mien eyes,
And yet not dare to tell him what I think,
And how men slur him, saying all his force Is melted into mere effeminacy?
O me, I fear that I am no true wife!’
(“Marriage of Geraint,” 102-108)
Enid finds it more difficult to tell Geraint about the rumors that he’s lost his mojo than to watch him be killed in battle. The slight to her husband’s good name—and the prospect of telling him about it—troubles her more than the thought of physical injury to him. Do these feelings constitute a betrayal of her wifely duty? Well, that depends: as Enid says, “I cannot love my lord and not his name” (92) since in a sense, his name, or reputation, is a part of him. On the other hand, whatever happened to unconditional love?
Quote #2
He heard but fragments of her later words,
and that she fear’d she was not a true wife.
And then he thought, ‘In spite of all my pains,
She is not faithful to me, and I see her
Weeping, for some gay knight in Arthur’s hall.’
(“Geraint and Enid,” 113-118)
Geraint’s statement that “I see her weeping for some gay knight” acknowledges that Geraint’s view of Enid is just his perception of her. Enid’s fear that she is not a true wife matches up so well with Geraint’s fears about her that it morphs into one shared delusion.
Quote #3
‘The flower of all their vestal knighthood, knelt
In amorous homage—knelt—what else?—O, ay,
And mumbled that white hand whose ring’d caress
Had wander’d from her own King’s golden head,
And lost itself in darkness, till she cried—
I thought the great tower would crash down on both
“Rise, my sweet King, and kiss me on the lips,
Thou art my King.”
(“Balin and Balan,” 501-509)
Vivien’s story about Guinevere’s betrayal of Arthur with Lancelot isn’t true, but—just like Enid’s unnecessary remorse and weeping before Geraint—it confirms the worst of Balin’s fears. It shapes his perception of the encounter he witnessed between Lancelot and Guinevere in the garden. The word “darkness” might refer to both the darkness of Lancelot’s hair (in contrast to the fair Arthur) and a moral darkness, wedding Guinevere’s physical sin to her spiritual one. Her declaration of Lancelot as her “king” emphasizes how her private love has political consequences.
Quote #4
“ ‘In love, if love be love, if love be ours,
Faith and unfaith can ne’er be equal powers:
Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.
“ ‘It is the little rift within the lute,
That by and by will make the music mute,
And ever widening slowly silence all.’”
(“Merlin and Vivien,” 385-390)
This song, which Vivien claims to have heard from Lancelot, is about how lack of trust in any part of a relationship ruins the whole relationship. But it could also be about how a single failure of faith—like one person’s failure to keep a vow—can poison the larger group that person is a member of. Read this way, it’s a commentary about the fate of Arthur’s kingdom when his queen and knights are unfaithful to their vows.
Quote #5
‘What! slay a sleeping knight? the King hath bound
And sworn me to this brotherhood;’ again,
‘Alas that ever a knight should be so false!’
(“Pelleas and Ettarre,” 439-441)
When Pelleas finds Gawain asleep in the arms of the woman he promised to help Pelleas win, Pelleas stops short of killing him because of his oath to Arthur. So although Gawain’s betrayal shakes him, he is not entirely broken. His integrity remains intact. So that's something, at least.
Quote #6
‘Is the Queen false?’ and Percivale was mute.
‘Have any of our Round Table held their vows?’
And Percivale made answer not a word.
‘Is the King true?’ ‘The King!’ said Percivale.
‘Why, then let men couple at once with wolves.
What! art thou mad?’
(“Pelleas and Ettarre,” 522-527)
Pelleas’s realization that the queen has not kept her marriage vow causes him to question the integrity of the entire Round Table, demonstrating how the purity of Guinevere is basically the same thing as that of the entire fellowship—in his mind at least. For Pelleas to leap from the dishonesty of a king’s knights to their king’s dishonesty seems like a logical step, but one that Percivale just can’t take. Arthur’s dishonesty would be like the coupling of men with wolves—something that defies nature. Perhaps that’s because honesty is as much a part of Arthur’s nature as its lack is a part of everyone else’s.
Quote #7
‘Ah, then, false hunter and false harper, thou
Who brakest thro’ the scruple of my bond,
Calling me thy white hind, and saying to me
That Guinevere had sinn’d against the highest,
And I—misyoked with such a want of man—
That I could hardly sin against the lowest.’
(“The Last Tournament,” 563-568)
Here Isolt explains how Tristram convinced her to betray her marriage vow to Mark by telling her about Guinevere’s affair with Lancelot, demonstrating the way that Guinevere’s infidelity has spread like a canker throughout the whole kingdom. If Guinevere can betray a man as pure as Arthur, goes Tristram’s thinking, then it’s hardly a betrayal at all with a man like Mark.
Quote #8
[…] But then their vows
First mainly thro’ that sullying of our Queen—
began to gall the knighthood, asking whence
had Arthur right to bind them to himself?
(“The Last Tournament,” 676-679)
Guinevere’s faithlessness caused the knights to question Arthur’s authority. Perhaps, in a deeply patriarchal Victorian sense, his inability to wield authority over his wife undermined him in the eyes of his men, causing them to look for further evidence of his lack of authority.
Quote #9
Then spake the King: ‘My house hath been my doom.
But call not thou this traitor of my house
Who hath but dwelt beneath one roof with me.
My house are rather they who sware my vows,
Yea, even while they brake them, own’d me king.’
(“The Passing of Arthur,” 154-158)
Bedivere’s characterization of Mordred as “the traitor of thine house” (meaning, “the traitor of your own flesh and blood”), prompts Arthur to define his house as everyone who swore allegiance to him. By implication, their betrayal is just as bad, or no different than, the betrayal of a family member.
Quote #10
‘Thou hast betray’d thy nature and thy name,
Not rendering true answer, as beseem’d
Thy fealty, nor like a noble knight.’
(“The Passing of Arthur,” 241-243)
Arthur describes Bedivere’s lie about what he did with Excalibur as a betrayal of his nature and name. Arthur believes that “man’s word is God in man.” To him, a lie is a betrayal of human nature. Bedivere’s reputation as a knight, moreover, is betrayed when he fails to keep his word.
Quote #11
‘Ah miserable; and unkind, untrue,
Unknightly, traitor-hearted! Woe is me!
Authority forgets a dying king,
Laid widow’d of the power in his eye
That bow’d the will. I see what thou art,
For thou, the latest-left of all my knights,
In whom should meet the offices of all,
Thou wouldst betray me for the precious hilt.
(“The Passing of Arthur,” 287-294)
When Bedivere lies again about what he has done with Excalibur, Arthur moves beyond a consideration of the personal consequences of his lie to an exploration of it as a political betrayal. To him this betrayal is evidence of the total loss of his authority, since he sees Bedivere as a representative of all his knights. With this speech, he ups the stakes of Bedivere’s actions, giving larger political significance to Bedivere’s loyalty or betrayal.