Quote Originally Posted by sithkittie View Post
You mentioned before that he hated adultery. I don't see it. Especially in comparison to Tennyson (good lord almighty!), I thought he handled affairs (one affair really...) really nicely. What makes you say he hated adultery (and I know this is slightly off topic, but I'm curious)?
Well, I argue that Chretien hates adultery in comparison with marriage. In Erec and Enide, he lets us know right from the start that Enide has NOT cheated on Erec, and that his fears are baseless, which makes Erec look like that much more of a tool for subjecting poor Enide to all those punishments. And in Yvain, Yvain really shouldn't have won Laudine the way he did; it doesn't really follow the ideals of courtly love to have the lady's maidservant act as the spokesperson for you. It is more through Lunette's wiles and Laudine's political needs that she takes Yvain for a husband. But as inauspicious as his marriage is, it seems to transform him into a better person (check out the brief section between Yvain's marriage and his madness). Then, the rest of the text after Yvain's madness is a huge step-by-step lesson to teach him how to be a better knight/husband. He's winning his way back into a legitimate marriage. Chretien is all about teaching knights how to balance their public chivalric life with their private romantic lives. And he prefers those romantic lives to be in legitimate marriages.

As for hating adultery, that's what I've heard from my professors, though I've not yet read Lancelot, which is obviously the big Chretien text which will prove/disprove that theory. (Cliges, also?) I've read that Chretien's patroness, Marie de Champagne, specifically requested that he write a text with the theme of fin' amor, or courtly love, which is opposed to marriage...and Chretien was very reluctant to do it. (But then he went and INVENTED the character of Lancelot and the adulterous love affair, so you have to wonder...) The legend goes that Chretien hated his subject material so much that he left the work unfinished, leaving it to his clerk Godfrey, to finish the last 1000 lines.

Did you notice anything to suggest this in the Lancelot? I believe I'm scheduled to read this text (and possibly Cliges) in a week or two, so I'll have more concrete examples to discuss soon. (Ah, remind me to tell you about the extra Arthurian texts my professor and I have decided on for my one-on-one grad section. Right now, he's having me read a 14th-century French manual on chivalry, which - according to the editors - owes much to the Arthurian tradition for their definitions of chivalrous behavior.)

Edit: I have plenty to say about your other points, sithkittie, but my flu-ridden body is telling me to take a nap. So I'll be back later.