CHAPTER IX

THE DUTCH LANCELOT

In the previous chapters we have examined, so far as the material at our disposal permitted, the _Lancelot_ legend in its gradual evolution from a collection of scattered tales, or _lais_, to the vast body of cyclic romance which was its final form. In this task we have restricted ourselves to those features which more intimately concern the personal character and fortunes of our hero; a choice which leaves untouched a large section of his adventures, such as his friendship with Galehault, and his winning of the _Dolorous Garde_. These are features which, affecting no romance or chronicle outside the _Lancelot_ proper, cannot well be examined till more versions of this latter are available. In this, the concluding section of these studies, I propose, leaving the question of the nature and origin of the legend, to discuss the relation subsisting between those different versions of the text, on an examination of which I have based the three preceding chapters dealing with the prose _Lancelot_.

The texts in question are (1) the so-called Dutch _Lancelot_; (2) the printed edition of 1533 (Lenoire, Paris); (3) Dr. Sommer's summary of the prose _Lancelot_, based upon the printed edition of 1513, and compared by him with Malory's text; (4) Dr. Furnivall's edition of the _Queste_; and (5) Malory's _Morte Arthur_.[158] This gives us practically four different texts for each section (Dr. Sommer having also used the _Queste_), two of which, the Dutch _Lancelot_ and the 1533 edition, appear to me to be of far greater importance than has hitherto been suspected.

I propose to publish in an Appendix a detailed summary of the contents of the distinctively _Lancelot_ portion of the =D. L.=, but the compilation covers such an extent of ground, and contains texts of such value to the student of Arthurian literature, that I think it will not be superfluous to give here a brief outline of its general character.

A noticeable peculiarity of the version is, that, contrary to all other known versions of the _Lancelot-Galahad-Grail_ story, it is in verse and not in prose. The MS. containing it appears to be of the beginning of the fourteenth century;[159] but Dr. Jonckbloet gives reason to think that the version contained in it was decidedly older than this date, and there are certainly references to the _Lancelot_ story in much earlier Dutch MSS. Probably it is a compilation similar to that of Sir Thomas Malory, intended to combine the various romances of the Arthurian cycle with which the compiler was familiar, or of which MSS. were at his disposal. In the first instance it was a translation, and I think we must hold a very faithful translation, from the French. Even as we have it we shall find that it agrees closely with parallel French versions. In its original form it consisted of four books, the first of which has unfortunately been lost.