How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Page)
Quote #1
Soon after Rivalen had defeated his enemies, Blanchefleur gave birth to a son, but amid great lamentation died in childbirth. The child born in sorrow was named Tristan. (1.39)
Tristan's name, given to him because of the circumstances of his birth, literally means "sadness." (triste is the French word for "sad.") His name and birth foreshadow the rest of his life, which, because of his ill-fated love for Yseut, will largely be one of suffering.
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. (1.44)
Tristan and Yseut's ingestion of the love potion has religious overtones of the Fall of Adam and Eve, in which ingestion of the fruit of knowledge brings about suffering and death on earth. Like Adam and Eve, Tristan and Yseut believe that what they are about to ingest is good, but seem to be mistaken.
Quote #3
If you give her to us lepers, when she sees our low hovels and looks at our dishes and has to sleep with us—in place of your fine meals, sire, she will have the pieces of food and crumbs that are left for us at the gates—then, by the Lord who dwells above, when she sees our court and all its discomforts she would rather be dead than alive. The snake Yseut will know then that she has been wicked! She would rather have been burnt. (4.74)
The leper's vivid description of the suffering in store for Yseut if Mark gives her to the leper colony serves the double function of persuading everyone that life with the lepers is worse than burning, and of making our desire for Yseut to escape her fate that much stronger. The leper thinks that the purpose of suffering is to make people understand their sinfulness. Yseut's suffering will teach her "that she has been wicked."
Quote #4
They were very short of bread in the wood, they lived on flesh and nothing else. How could they help losing their colour? Their clothes were ragged, for branches tore them. They were a long time in the forest of Morrois. Each of them was suffering equal hardship, but neither was distressed on the other's account. (9.85)
Several times, the narrator comments on Tristan and Yseut's lack of bread as evidence of their suffering, possibly because bread was the most basic and cheapest food available to medieval Europeans. It may also symbolize their excommunication from the church and its Eucharist because of their life of sin. But Tristan and Yseut do not mind the hardship they are suffering "on the other's account"—because each one is more concerned about the other than himself.
Quote #5
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)
Although Tristan and Yseut are suffering physical hardship in the woods, the effect of the love potion prevents them from experiencing psychological suffering. They simply do not mind their harsh living conditions, because of their love.
Quote #6
'God, I have had so much hardship! For fully three years today there has not been a moment when I was not suffering, either on a feast-day or a week-day. I have forgotten chivalry and the life of a knight at court. I am an exile in this country and there is nothing left of the light and grey furs I had. I am not in the company of the knights at court. God, how dearly my uncle would love me if I had not caused him so much distress.' (11.96)
The types of hardship Tristan laments once the love potion has worn off tell us what he values most: chivalry, the knightly life, fellowship with other knights and his king and—this is random!—light and grey furs, which represent material luxuries.
Quote #7
'Alas, poor wretch, why were you give youth? You are here in the wood like a slave, you can find few people to serve you [. . .] I ought to have around me in my rooms the damsels of the kingdom and the daughters of the free vassals, and I should be arranging good marriages for them with noblemen. (11.97)
The things Yseut regrets are slightly different from Tristan's: she misses having servants and ladies-in-waiting. Life is tough! Like Tristan, though, she also regrets the obligations she can no longer fulfill as part of her social role, like arranging the marriages of her ladies.
Quote #8
'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.'
Tristan sees his return of Yseut as his way of making restitution for the things Yseut has lost because of him. For her suffering in the woods, he offers his suffering at their separation. In this, Tristan is truly unselfish in his love for Yseut, raising the possibility that his potion-induced possession of her was actually selfish.
Quote #9
'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.] [...]Because of her I am in great agitation at every moment of the night and day. When I do not see her I nearly go out of my mind.' (18.153)
The description of love as a wound, disease, or madness, is typical figurative language to describe love in French courtly poetry of this time period. It emphasizes the effect of love on the lover's body and mind. Tristan's love-induced madness inspires him to put on the disguise of a fool or madman. In this way, his exterior costume matches what he feels inside.
Quote #10
'She could soon cure my sickness just by calling me her love. I am a lover, so is she. Our love is not equally divided: I suffer doubly, but she has no pity for me. I have suffered many hardships, hunger and thirst, rough places to sleep, and the deep grief that I bear in my heart. [...] May God inspire her to rid me of this madness.' (18.159)
Continuing to describe his love for Yseut in the traditional manner of French courtly poetry, Tristan holds out the return of his lady's love as the only "cure" for his "sickness" and "madness." This figure resonates with the story of Tristan and Yseut specifically because Yseut has healed Tristan of actual life-threatening wounds twice now.