Guinevere

The legend of King Arthur's queen Guinevere and her fatal love for the knight Sir Lancelot was extremely popular in the Middle Ages when most people had arranged marriages (even peasants.) Although the Cathar-influenced troubadour culture in the south of France tended to glorify love outside of marriage, the basic plot of the legend is that adulterous romance has heavy consequences. The dalliance of Guinevere and Lancelot led to the destruction of Camelot and ruined many people's lives. Although Tennyson captures the intoxication of the initial infatuation in one of his poems, he also shows the many tears and repentance after disaster has overtaken the lovers and the kingdom.

Here is an excerpt from Tennyson's " Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere:"

Then, in the boyhood of the year,
Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere
Rode thro' the coverts of the deer,
With blissful treble ringing clear.
   She seem'd a part of joyous Spring;
A gown of grass-green silk she wore,
Buckled with golden clasps before;
A light-green tuft of plumes she bore
   Closed in a golden ring.

Here is Tennyson's rendition of the queen's repentance:

Then she stretched out her arms and cried aloud

"Oh Arthur!" there her voice brake suddenly,

Then--as a stream that spouting from a cliff

Fails in mid air, but gathering at the base

Re-makes itself, and flashes down the vale--

Went on in passionate utterance:

"Gone--my lord!

Gone through my sin to slay and to be slain!

And he forgave me, and I could not speak.

Farewell? I should have answered his farewell.

His mercy choked me. Gone, my lord the King,

My own true lord! how dare I call him mine?

The shadow of another cleaves to me,

And makes me one pollution: he, the King,

Called me polluted: shall I kill myself?

What help in that? I cannot kill my sin,

If soul be soul; nor can I kill my shame;

No, nor by living can I live it down.

The days will grow to weeks, the weeks to months,

The months will add themselves and make the years,

The years will roll into the centuries,

And mine will ever be a name of scorn.

All the legends agree that both Lancelot and Guinevere entered monasteries and spent the rest of their lives in penance.

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