How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Page)
Quote #1
Before they left Ireland, Yseut's mother prepared a love potion which she entrusted to Brangain, Yseut's maid, and instructed her to give it to Yseut and her husband to drink on the wedding night. (1.44)
Yseut's mother wants to make sure that her daughter feels love for her new husband. It seems like she has a more "modern" view of marriage—one in which it is ideally a love connection between the husband and wife, rather than just an exchange of property. Boy, do things turn out differently.
Quote #2
By mistake, Brangain brought the love potion and handed it to Tristan, who drank and passed it to Yseut. Both thought it was good wine; neither knew that it held for them a lifetime of suffering and hardship and that it was to cause their destruction and their death. After some hesitation Tristan and Yseut confessed their love, and it was soon consummated. (1.44-45)
Yup, that's right: the greatest and most famous love affair in all of medieval literature is a tragic mistake. Tristan and Yseut aren't initially attracted to one another because they're soul mates but because they're under the influence of magic. (Or, wait, is that the same thing? Metaphorically speaking?) Although this fact might seem to cheapen their love just a little bit, the love potion may symbolize the way all love supposedly makes the lovers powerless to resist it.
Quote #3
'Tristan, I am sure the king does not realize that I have loved you for his sake; I loved you because we were related. I used to think that my mother dearly loved my father's family, and she said that a wife who does not do so does not love her lord: I am certain this was right. I have loved you because of him and by doing this I have lost all his good will.' (2.49)
Yseut knows that Mark is listening to her at this point, so she plays the role of a dutiful wife who loves her in-laws for her husband's sake. The kind of love that Yseut feigns here—platonic filial love—is the same category of love she will claim she actually feels for Tristan after the potion wears off. But her deception here makes that later claim of filial love suspect by association.
Quote #4
'If he loved me wickedly, you would have seen signs enough. On the contrary, by my faith, you saw that there was no hint of his coming up to kiss me or behave in an unseemly way. Surely, Tristan's love for me is blameless. Sire, if you had not seen us just now you would certainly not have believed me.' (2.58)
Here Yseut makes an argument that the narrator will reiterate a few pages later: that the signs of love are impossible to hide. This "truth" is the reason that Tristan and Yseut's affair is eventually exposed. Their inability to hide their love is proof of its depth and truth. Yet Tristan and Yseut have hidden their love from Mark, testifying to their skill at slipping easily in and out of the different roles they must perform.
Quote #5
Who can be in love for a year or two and not reveal it? For love cannot be concealed. Often one lover would wink at the other, often they would speak together both alone and in the sight of others. They could not find their pleasure everywhere and they had to meet many times. (3.60)
The narrator's certainty that "love cannot be concealed" is ironic given that Tristan and Yseut have done just that a few pages earlier. Of course, at that point the lovers were both aware of Mark's presence. It's only when they drop their guard that they reveal themselves, suggesting that they are so absorbed in their love that they don't think of anyone but themselves. That's probably why they never notice the barons watching them make out.
Quote #6
'Sir, I love Yseut so much. Because of her I cannot sleep nor even doze. My decision is soon taken: I would rather be a beggar with her and live on herbs and acorns than possess the kingdom of the rich King Otran. I beg you not to ask me to leave her, for I cannot do so.' (7.79)
Like a lot of other heroes in romance, Tristan suffers for love. Although Ogrin has counseled repentance both for the sake of God and for worldly position, Tristan appears to consider only the latter, weighing his love for Yseut against a rich worldly kingdom, rather than a heavenly one.
Quote #7
'If he were mine, I should let him off the leash. It would be a shame if he were to go mad. There was never a dog like Husdant, always so quick and now so sad for his master. There was never such a loving animal.' (8.80)
Husdant's refusal to eat and impending madness without his master, Tristan, foreshadows Tristan's condition when he is far from Yseut in Brittany. The proof of the depth of both of their loves is their inability to thrive when separated from their beloved.
Quote #8
Yseut's mother, who brewed [the love potion], made it for three years of love. She made it for Mark and her daughter; another tasted it and suffered because of this. For as long as the three years lasted the potion had such power over Tristan and the queen that each of them could say: 'I am not weary.' (11.96)
The love potion's effect is to create a love so strong that the drinkers will suffer any indignity for love. As soon as it wears off, Tristan and Yseut become unwilling to sacrifice worldly comforts and position for their love. What is ambiguous is whether or not they really stop loving one another at this point, or whether they simply stop being willing to live in exile for the sake of love.
Quote #9
'Never for the rest of my life shall I have any thoughts of wickedness. You understand that I am not saying that I repent on Tristan's account nor that I do not love him honourably and without shame as a friend. But our physical intercourse is at an end.' (12.99)
Yseut's decision to stop having sex with Tristan does not last long. What's interesting here is that Yseut speaks these lines rather than Tristan, suggesting that she is the one who does what she wants with her body when it comes to sex. This may seem like no big deal to us modern readers, but for a medieval woman this is something unusual.
Quote #10
'God,' said Tristan, 'what sorrow it is to part! How unhappy is the man who loses his beloved! But it must be done to make up for all the suffering you have endured on my account; you need suffer no longer. When the time comes to take leave of each other I will pledge my love to you and you shall pledge yours to me. Whatever land I am in, neither peace nor war will prevent me from sending my news to you. And send me your greetings, my love.' (12.107)
Tristan and Yseut are still behaving like romantic lovers despite the effects of the potion wearing off. Maybe this means that their love is actually true: even without magic, they are still devoted to one another.
Quote #11
'Oh God,' he said, 'what a fate! What I have suffered for the sake of love! I never complained of my love, nor do I now lament my distress. But why does love assail me? Why wound me? God, what should I do? [For it seems to me that I have already suffered greatly because of my love.] Have I not done all that love requires? [. . .] May love, which conquers all things, grant me my desire to hold her once more in my arms.' (18.152)
Here Tristan behaves like a "typical" medieval romance lover. He speaks about his love as a "wound" that causes him to suffer greatly in a figure of speech that emphasizes the physical effect of love on the body. He also personifies love itself as a god or sovereign that can grant or deny petitions at will. Long gone is the Tristan under the influence of magic who could declare, "I am not weary."