Book IX · TREVREZENT, part 14 of 16

¶'It grieveth me sore for my red squire, men honoured me for his sake, And Ither was thy near kinsman tho' of that thou small heed didst take! Yet God He hath not forgotten, and thy deed shall He count for sin, 1125 And I wot thou shalt first do penance ere thou to His peace shalt win. And, weeping, this truth I tell thee, two mortal sins shall lie On thine heart, thou hast slain thy kinsman, and thy mother, thro' thee, must die. And in sooth shalt thou sore bewail her; in the day thou didst leave her side, So great was her love, and faithful, that for grief at thy loss she died. 1130 Now do thou as here I rede thee, repent thee and pay sin's cost, That thy conflict on earth well ended thy soul be not ever lost.'

¶Then the host he quoth full kindly, 'Nephew, now say the word, Whence hast thou yon gallant charger? Not yet I the tale have heard!' 'In a joust, Sir Host, did I win it, when I rode from Siguné's cell 1135 In a gallop I smote the rider and he from the saddle fell, And the steed was mine, I rode hence,--from Monsalväsch he came, the knight.' Quoth the host, 'Is the man yet living who thus with thee did fight?' 'Yea, I saw him fly before me, and beside me stood his steed.' 'Nay, if thou in such wise dost bear thee thou art scant of wit indeed! 1140 The Grail-knights dost thou rob, and thinkest their friendship thereby to win?' 'Nay, my uncle, in strife I won it, and he who shall count it sin Let him ask how the thing hath chanced thus, 'twas a fair fight we fought, we twain, Nor was it for naught that I took it, for first had my steed been slain!'

¶Quoth Parzival, 'Who was the maiden who the Grail in her hands did bear, 1145 Her mantle, that eve, she lent me?'--Quoth the hermit, 'That lady fair Is thine aunt, if her robe she lent thee of the loan shalt thou not be vain, For surely she deemed that hereafter thou shouldst there as monarch reign. And the Grail, and herself, yea and I too, should honour thee as our lord: And a gift didst thou take from thine uncle, for he gave thee, I ween, a sword, 1150 And sin hast thou won in the wearing, since thy lips, which to speak are fain, There spake not the mystic question which had loosened his sorrow's chain, And that sin shalt thou count to the other, for 'tis time that we lay us down. Nor couches nor cushions had they, but they laid them upon the ground, And for bedding the rushes served them--too humble, I ween, such bed 1155 For men of a race so noble, yet they deemed they were not ill-sped.

¶Then twice seven days he abode there, with the hermit his lot did share, And the herb of the ground was his portion--yet he sought not for better fare, Right gladly he bare such hardness that should bring to him food so sweet, For as priest did his host absolve him, and as knight gave him counsel meet! 1160

¶Quoth Parzival to the hermit, 'Say who shall he be, who lay Before the Grail? grey was he, yet his face it was as the day!' Spake the host, 'Titurel thou sawest, and he shall grandsire be To thy mother, first king and ruler of the Grail and Its knights was he. But a sickness hath fallen on him, and he lieth, nor findeth cure, 1165 Yet his face on the Grail yet looketh, by Its power shall his life endure! Nor his countenance changeth colour, and his counsel shall aye be wise-- In his youth he rode far and jousted, and won to him valour's prize.'

¶'An thou wouldst that thy life be adornèd with true worth as thy crown of fame, Then ne'er mayst thou hate a woman, but shall honour, as knight, her name, 1170 For women and priests, thou knowest, unarmèd shall be their hand, Yet the blessing of God watcheth o'er them, and as shield round the priest doth stand; For the priest, he careth for thee, that thine end may be free from ill, So treat thou no priest as a foeman, but serve him with right good will. For naught on the earth thou seest that is like to his office high, 1175 For he speaketh that word unto us which our peace and our life did buy; And his hand hath been blest for the holding of the pledge on the altar laid, To assure us of sin's forgiveness, and the price for our pardon paid. And a priest who from sin doth guard him, and who to his Lord shall give Pure heart and pure hand for His service, say, what man shall holier live?' 1180

¶Now this day was their day of parting--Trevrezent to our hero spake, 'Leave thou here thy sins behind thee, God shall me for thy surety take, And do thou as I have shown thee, be steadfast and true of heart!' Think ye with what grief and sorrow the twain did asunder part.

¶APPENDICES

¶APPENDIX A

¶THE ANGEVIN ALLUSIONS OF THE 'PARZIVAL'

¶One of the most striking peculiarities of this version of the Perceval legend consists in the fact that the writer closely connects his hero with a contemporary princely house, and exercises considerable ingenuity in constructing a genealogy which shall establish a relationship alike with the legendary British race of Pendragon, and with the hereditary House of Anjou. Now, that Parzival should be represented as connected with Arthur is not surprising, taking into consideration the great popularity of the Arthurian legends; the English 'Sir Percyvelle' makes the relationship even closer; there, Percyvelle is Arthur's nephew, his sister's son; but it is far more difficult to account for the Angevin connection. It has been suggested that the writer of Wolfram's French source was Walter Mapes, to whom another of the Grail romances the Queste is generally ascribed; and who, as is well known, was closely attached to the Court of Henry Fitz-Empress, Count of Anjou, and King of England. Setting on one side the great difference, in style and treatment, between the Parzival and the Queste, which render it impossible to believe that the same man could have treated the same legend from two such practically opposite points of view, a close examination of the Angevin allusions found in the Parzival reveals a correspondence between the characters and incidents of the poem, and the facts, real and traditional, of Angevin history, which seems to point to a familiarity with the subject scarcely likely to be possessed by a foreigner.