Chrétien de Troyes

Author(s): Robert Anacker

Source: The French Review, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Mar., 1935), pp. 293-300
Published by: American Association of Teachers of French
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/379519
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 CHRATIEN DE TROYES

CHRtTIEN DE TROYES

The First French Psychological Novelist

By ROBERT ANACKER

Much has been written and said about Chr&ien de Troyes;

he is certainly the most universally known of all the mediaeval
French authors, and any student of English, German, Italian,
Welsh and Icelandic literature is likely to come across a hundred
references to him. His name is forever linked with all the problems
of the so-called "Matter of Brittany," especially the Arthurian
cycle, of chivalry and of courtly love. Even if it were only for
his subject matter he would hold his place in the literature of all
European nations, having been the first author to treat this
matter in elaborate romances, or at least the first one to do it
successfully. But it is not this priority which makes Chr6tien's
work outstanding and quite unique: whereas there are still many
controversies as to his possible sources, all scholars agree in stat-
ing that the way in which Chr6tien treats matter distinguishes him
from all other mediaeval authors. There are perhaps hundreds of
more typical Arthurian romances, but there are no others like those
of Chritien.

It has been pointed out by several scholars that there could

hardly be any greater contrast than that between the mental atti-
tude of this 12th century French bourgeois and the mysticism and
the wild imagination of the Celtic story-tellers who indirectly
provided him with his subject matter. In Lanson's Histoire de la
Littirature fran(.aise a whole chapter is devoted to the illustra-
tion of this contrast: we see how the powerful visions and the deep
mysticism of the Celtic myths shrink and vanish as soon as they
come in contact with Chr6tien's rationalism and positivism. For
him, all these mythical elements are nothing but pleasant nonsense,

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 THE FRENCH REVIEW

mere conventional ornaments to make a long story more

to his readers, but he is utterly unable to understand a
ciate them as the venerable symbols of very ancient wi
the other hand, if Chr6tien does nbt know the real me
his enchanted castles, "from where no one ever returns,
tainly knows very much about the human heart, and if
not believe in the speaking animals he describes, he is q
miliar with the refined conversation of aristocratic circles. This
is why Lanson calls him "a Paul Bourget of the 12th century."
Others have stressed the fact that Chretien de Troyes liked to
display his knowledge of psychology, that while he does not care
to motivate any of the various adventures his heroes find, he never
fails to motivate their decisions, that he shows why and how they
change their mind, that he carefully analyses all their most secret
thoughts. To illustrate this no passage is better fitted than the
famous episode in Yvain, where Laudine, after a long soliloquy
and an imaginary conversation with the hero, comes to the con-
clusion that by slaying her husband he did her no wrong, and
finally yields to Lunete's frightfully logical arguments; since Yvain
was able to kill this much adored husband he must necessarily be
a still better man and there can be no harm in admiring and loving
him. This is certainly not the conventional treatment of courtly
love. Neither is there any relation with the mystic world of Celtic
folklore: it is French positivism, the matter of fact attitude of a
French bourgeois. In others of Chr6tien's works, however, we
find the conventional courtly love carefully analysed: in Lancelot,
in Cliges, where all the casuistry of this unique human madness is
displayed.
But the mere fact that there is an unusual amount of psychology
in all of Chretien's romances would not entitle one to call him a
psychological novelist. Any poetry, any literature of value is
based on psychology. It must be in some way "true to life," rooted
in human emotions or human experience. "Knowledge of the
human heart" as the French classics put it, is and will always be
the first requirement for anyone who wants to write. But this
knowledge is obtained by intuition rather than by scientific inves-
tigation and is therefore independent--quite fortunately-- of what
we commonly call progress. There is nothing astonishing in the

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 CHR6ATIEN DE TROYES

assumption that a medieval author might have had much more of

this psychological instinct than some modern, "successfully psycho-
analysed" novelist.
If we call Chr6tien de Troyes a psychological novelist we mean
to say that like any modern novelist he has a definite theme, that
he puts a problem, which he develops and tries to solve. This is
what makes him outstanding among the hundreds of good and
excellent authors of the 12th century. Yet this remarkable qua-
lity has very seldom been pointed out and I never found it men-
tioned in any of the more popular criticisms of Chr6tien's works.
Scholars of the rank of Forster or B6dier had of course a great
many other things to show and to emphasize, and it is not surpris-
ing that they did not stress this particular point.
I should like therefore to dwell a little longer on this aspect of
Chr6tien's work. What is this psychological theme of Chr6tien's
"novels ?" What is the problem that he develops and tries to solve?
Strangely enough, this medieval author is not interested at all in
the courtly love he praises and defends, his problem is whether
married life is compatible with a man's full devotion to some task
or mission. At first this seems to be a very poor and banal theme,
but, as usually, the simpler a psychological problem first appears,
the more complex it proves to be after careful investigation. I
am inclined to believe that by far the most difficult problems are
those for which we think we have an answer ready.
The question whether a man can fully give himself to a woman
and to his vocation at the same time, is most certainly one of the
main sources of conflicts between the sexes. It is a problem as
old as mankind, a problem that will never be definitely solved,
that will always arise again, one of the fundamental problems in
the relations of men and women. It is still and will always be
one of the most difficult things for any woman, no matter how
intelligent and tolerant and understanding she might be ,to acknow-
ledge and accept the fact that a man she loves may have something
else besides her, something on which to bestow his care, his in-
terest, his vitality. It will always make her feel that he does not
love her as much as she does him, that he is withholding some-
thing from her which she, in his place, would not withhold. On the
other hand, no woman can stand it if a man neglects all other

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 THE FRENCH REVIEW

things for her sake, if he cares for nothing but her and
pletely and definitely contented with his domestic happ
that case, she will get impatient, will try to stimulate
push him into active life, will by all means make him do som
All this, no doubt, sounds very old fashioned and may re
of all sorts of cheap generalizations and conventional pr
but there are certain things that are so banal, that is t
generally human, that they will always remain the invar
of all the possible ancient and modern variations of taste
and style. And, as a rule, banalities of that sort are n
theme for literature.

Chr&tien de Troyes was so fascinated by this psychological theme

that he had to treat it again, each time in a different way, wherever
the subject of his romance permitted it. To invent a new subject,
to create heroes of his own, heroes who would have been perfect
representatives of what he wanted to demonstrate, this modern
technique was forbidden to him. For nothing would have been
worse in the opinion of the 12th century, than to relate a story that
had never been told before by somebody else. He had to tell some
old story in a new way, and so he wrote the romances of Erec
and Yvain. Yet he was so fond of his psychological theme that he
treated it twice in Erec and once more in Yvain, and only death
prevented him from treating it again in Perceval.
Erec, after having married Enide, so fully enjoys his happiness
that he does not care for anything else in the world. He completely
forgets that being a knight, and even one of king Arthur's knights,
he has a mission to fulfill, a task to accomplish. This task, of
course, would consist primarily in fighting, in finding adventures
and gaining fame, but this is but a symbol for any real call a man
may have to follow. But Erec is about to "degenerate in mar-
riage," as Chretien puts it. He does not pay any attention to what
people whisper around him. He seems contented forever, decided
to enjoy this peaceful happiness for all the rest of his life. Enide
however hears well what people say, and although she is very much
in love and very happy, she does not like this gossip and feels
ashamed for her husband. Moreover she thinks she is responsible
for Erec's indolence and this thought destroys all her happiness.
So she finally tells him, and this, of course, is a hard blow for

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 CHRt3TIEN DE TROYES

Erec. Had he not sacrificed everything for her, fame and honor
and the joy of fighting, had he not changed his habits and deserted
his former friends for no other reason than because he loved her
so much? And now, instead of being grateful, she reproaches him.
He would never pardon her, he would make her suffer for that.
He feels bitterly offended, particularly because he must secretly
admit that she is right. So he treats her with the utmost cruelty,
makes her worse than his slave, never has a friendly word or a
smile for her. She has to come with him on his quest for adven-
tures, has to take care of all the horses he wins in battle. Her
patient suffering does not move him, it is only after a long series
of fights and adventures that he comes to his senses and sees how
much she loves him. But strangely enough, the last of their adven-
tures brings them in contact with two people who have obviously
tried to avoid that same psychological conflict. They meet a knight
who always stays with his mistress and yet has a fine opportunity
to do great deeds and to earn great fame. They live in a magic
garden, and whoever intrudes into that garden will have to fight
with the knight. Hundreds of brave men have tried in vain and
were defeated and had their heads put on stakes. Thus Mabona-
grain, the knight of the garden, has become famous all over the
world although he never left his lady. But she had saved him from
matrimonial degeneration by making her garden so dangerously
attractive: if anyone should conquer her knight, his would be the
magic "Joy of the Court," a joy so great that no words can
describe it.

Thus behind all the incoherent adventures of Eree there is to

be found this very plain teaching: it is very difficult for a hap-
pily married man to devote himself to his vocation or mission
and he will simply have to find some quite personal solution to
the problem. If he fails to struggle for this solution he will of
necessity destroy his own happiness.
The same theme is developped more clearly in Yvain. This
knight, after the introductory adventures, marries Laudine, the
lady of the Magic Fountain. They are very fond of each other
and very happy. So Yvain, too, forgets that he might have some-
thing else to do than merely to enjoy his happiness. But he is
saved from degeneration by his friend Gawain, who uses all his

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 THE FRENCH REVIEW

eloquence to show him how critical the situation alread

Yvain should tarry too long, he would never be able to
active again, he would become indifferenf and, as noth
last forever, he would even lose the intensity of passio
constitutes his happiness. Yvain realizes the danger and
to leave his wife for a short time in order to seek fi
adventures. She agrees reluctantly, but he must promis
will be back at a definite date. He then sets out and lives as it is
fitting for a knight to live, but he does it so well and with so much
intensity that he quite forgets the date. This is what she will never
forgive: since he failed to be back in time there is no use for his
coming back at all. She will never see him any more: he has too
clearly shown her how little he cared for her. Of course she can-
not see that her cruelty drives him mad; for her the situation is
clear. If he had loved her as much as she did him he would not
have forgotten the date. It is only after a very long time that her
love at last triumphs over her resentment, but even then Lunete
needs all her shrewdness to make her admit it.

If in Erec and Yvain Chretien shows that it might not be impos-

sible to solve the problem, to find some compromise, some combina-
tion of peaceful happiness and active life, the fragment of Perceval
illustrates the suffering of the woman whose lover is driven away
from her by some obscure call. Perceval's father is the type of
man who just cannot stay at home, the type that Edna Ferber
likes to describe, the man who gives up everything that is safe
in exchange for something that is to be conquered. And Perceval
himself, much more serious than his father, is unable to stay with
his young wife: he obscurely feels. that some great things are still
to be done, things that only he could do and that he certainly
cannot do if he stays with her. He loves her so much that her
image haunts him: three drops of blood on the white snow appear
to him as her face. He stares at it unconscious of anything else.
Unconsciously he defeats and almost kills three of king Arthur's
knights, and he would perhaps remain there forever if the spell
were not broken by Gawain.
Perceval is but a fragment and it is impossible to tell whether
Chr6tien would have given us a solution of the problem or not.
All the various continuations, imitations and translations, includ-

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 CHR16TIEN DE TROYES

ing the unsurpassed masterpiece of Wolfram von Eschenbach, are

obviously written in a different spirit.
The only two complete psychological novels by Chretien are
therefore Erec and Yvain. In both of them the main theme takes
little space besides all the thrilling fights and adventures and all
the elaborate -descriptions of arms and armour, of costumes, festi-
vities and refined conversation. A so-called "roman breton" had
to be "vain and pleasant" by definition. But this is exactly what
our modern motion pictures attempt to be-they are usually quite
successful in regard to the first of these two requirements!: their
only aim is to entertain, that is to carefully avoid any mental effort
on the part of the spectator. Yet quite a few Hollywood produc-
tions treat psychological problems, and one out of every 2,000
might even treat an interesting problem in an interesting way.
Chrbtien, too, wants first of all to entertain: he gives his readers
what they ask him for. If the countess of Champagne orders him
to write the story of Lancelot he will gladly do so and will use all
his skill to sing the praise of courtly love. He will narrate all the
fantastic adventures his readers are so fond of, but he will always
cover them, impregnate them with his delightful irony. It will
always be quite obvious that he does not believe a word of what
he writes, he will never give up his half concealed smile, no matter
whether he describes Yvain's lion--first weeping bitter tears and
then attempting to commit suicide with his master's sword!-or
any of those fights which are so terrible that they are almost
comical. But this same Chretien who never seems to take anything
seriously, neither the ideals of chivalry, nor those of the Church,
is greatly concerned about the real relations between men and
women, relations which are the exact opposite of the fashionable
game that is called courtly love.
The most difficult task of anyone who wishes to interpret me-
dieval literature will always be strictly to avoid the interference of
modern views and ijdeas 'we attribute to Chr&tien de Troyes. Might
there not perhaps be something we simply read into him, ideas and
views of our own that would be as strange to him as the conception
of wireless telegraphy? Did Chr6tien really mean to develop a psy-
chological theme or was it perhaps an intrinsic part of the story he
told, a feature that he reproduced without understanding it? Was

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 THE FRENCH REVIEW

he conscious of writing psychological novels.? If this

been the case, that is if Chritien had expressed all th
without knowing it, his readers would not have noti
either: they would have enjoyed his novels just as they d
Arthurian Romances: the "Knight with the two Swo
"Marvels of Rigomer" and the hundreds of adventure-s
which there is no psychological theme whatsoever. Yet t
not be the slightest doubt that at least one of Chr&tien's
readers clearly understood the psychological theme to be
thing in Erec as well as in Yvain. The German poet H
von Aue, who translated these two romances, did all he
stress and emphasize the underlying problem: especially
he condensed and cut the various adventures to the absolute mi-
nimum, whereas he lenghtened and intensified all the parts which
could throw light on the main idea. In his version Gawain not
merely warns his friend in more or less abstract words: he draws
a highly realistic portrait of the kind of a man Yvain would be-
come if he stayed at home any longer. "You would be like those
fellows who, when you visit them, car talk of nothing but the
weather or of this year's crop and last year's harvest, and who
would complain endlessly about all the petty worries of every day
life." It is quite obvious that to Hartmann von Aue Chr6tien's
romances meant exactly what they mean to us.
We do not know of any Arthurian romance previous to Chr6-
tien's Erec. There might of course have been a great many of them
and there certainly must have been written sources of some kind.
Chr6tien cannot possibly have been the first French author to
write about king Arthur and his knights, he is just the first one
who did it so successfully that his works were preserved. His
title to fame, however, is not that he was the first but rather that
he was the last French author to combine a psychological theme
with an Arthurian romance. After him the poets got tired of
displaying much conventional, artificial courtly psychology, in
Arthurian and later in allegorical romances, but no one ever
attempted to write anything we could justly call a psychological
novel.

University of Chattanooga.

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