Читать книгу Galahad - John Erskine - Страница 3
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Twice in his life a woman asked Lancelot for his love. Two very different women, both named Elaine. But as all the world knows, Lancelot cared for no woman except Guinevere.
To take the second incident first. In his middle age he came to the house of Sir Bernard of Astolat, who had a daughter. She was called Elaine the White, from her appearance and because she knew nothing of the world. This is the Elaine we usually hear of. The old books say she loved Lancelot incurably and died of it. Their words at parting are recorded.
“I would have you for my husband.”
“I thank you,” said Lancelot, “but I shall never be married man.”
“Then, fair knight, will you be my paramour?”
“God forbid!” said he. “Your family would not like it.”
“Then alas,” said she. “I must die of love.”
“Don’t,” said he. “I might have been married before this, if I had applied myself to it. It’s too late now. But since you feel about it as you say, I will do what I can. When you marry—oh yes, you will—I promise a part of my lands to you and your heirs, and as long as I live I will be your true knight.”
“No,” she said, “—not unless you will marry me, or at least be my paramour.”
“Fair damsel,” said Lancelot, “from these two things I must be excused.”
When he said he might have married before, he was not thinking of Guinevere. He was remembering his youth. There had been another Elaine, King Pelles’ daughter. She too had offered herself, heart and body, and though at first he had said no, in the end he tired of saying it. Galahad was their son.
Galahad’s mother came of a distinguished family. King Pelles was keeper of the Holy Grail, and a near relative of Joseph of Arimathea. But this is thought to be legend.
Many fables attached themselves to King Pelles, some of them hardly befitting a man of saintly lineage. It is said, for example, that he determined to marry his daughter to none but the best knight in the world, and her standards for a husband were equally severe. But how could he tell who was the best? There happened to be a lady near by, a beautiful but dolorous lady, shut up in a tower. An enchantress had kept her there five years, immersed in scalding water, and she was never to get out till the best knight in the world should come and take her by the hand. King Pelles was sorry for the lady, yet she would serve as a barometer of chivalry. When handsome Sir Gawaine arrived at the tower, the king paid close attention. The lady was still in distress when Gawaine rode away. But when Lancelot came, the doors unlocked themselves and unbolted, and when he took the lady by the hand, she immediately stepped out of her discomfort. Though at the moment she was, they say, naked as a needle, the five years’ parboiling had had no ill effect, and she seemed to Sir Lancelot the handsomest lady he had ever met, next after Queen Guinevere. His opinion seems irrelevant. But the whole episode is fictitious.
It is said also that King Pelles selected Lancelot another way, by his success with the dragon in the tomb. There was a tomb, and on it in letters of gold these words: “Here shall come a leopard of king’s blood, and he shall slay this serpent. And this leopard shall engender a lion, the which lion shall surpass all other knights.” The king determined to have this leopard in the family, and the lion too, of course. Lancelot killed the dragon. Then the king asked his name, but he knew already, from Lancelot’s way of killing dragons. But there is no more warrant for the dragon than for the scalded lady.
Finally, it is said that King Pelles and his daughter went to some trouble to insure the truth of these prophecies. Since Lancelot was loyal to Guinevere, they had the family necromancer put enchantments on him, so that Elaine seemed the woman he loved, and he spent the night in her arms. In the morning the charm was gone. His impulse was to kill the girl who had tricked him, but she got down on her knees and pleaded the desperate state of her affections. She was very beautiful, and anyway it was too late to help it. This comes nearer the fact, but there was no necromancer, and King Pelles was not involved.
It is well to mention these legends because they are known, and if we did not warn the reader he might be looking for them in this book. But we shall tell the story as it happened in our world, to people like ourselves or only a little better—the story, that is, as it was before poets lifted it out of its origin and used it as a language for remote and mystical things. In its humble form it had its own meaning. We say nothing here of the Grail, nor of Joseph of Arimathea, nor of the Round Table, nor of Excalibur; we confine our report to the first causes, as it were, of these famous dreams.
The story begins when Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot were young. Four years after Arthur’s wedding, to fix the date. The plot is composed of three women and one coincidence. When the White Elaine offered her love and Lancelot declined it, he was an experienced man and on his guard.
