Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail Part 4

En ten povoir l'enseigne aras De ma mort et la garderas Et cil l'averunt a garder A cui tu la voudras donner. (847-50)

These will be three--

Joseph, bien ce saras garder, Que tu ne le doiz commander Qu'a trois persones qui l'arunt.

Ou non dou Pere le penrunt Et dou Fil et dou Saint-Esprit (871-75)

The offices Joseph rendered to Christ's body were symbolical of the Sacrament: the sepulchre is the altar; the sheet in which the body was wrapped the corporal; the vessel in which the blood was received shall be called chalice; and by the patina upon which it rests is signified the tombstone (v. 901-912). Finally Christ promises Joseph that:--

Tout cil qui ten veissel verrunt, En ma compeignie serunt; De cuer arunt empliss.e.m.e.nt Et joie pardurablement. (917-20)

The prose versions repeat this account in the main, but with some important additions, thus: B II, Cange MS., adds after Christ's last words, "Lors li aprant Jhesu Christ tex paroles que ja nus conter ne retraire ne porroit," etc. (I, 227); when Christ hands the vessel to Joseph, "Tu tiens lou sanc as trois personnes en une deite, qui degota des plaies de la char au fil," etc. (I, 225-26); after the description of the Grail, "lou Graal c'est a dire sor lou caalice."... In C, Didot-Perceval, the Holy Ghost, speaking to Brons, commands him to reveal to Perceval, "icelles paroles segroies qu'il (_i.e._, Christ) aprist a Joseph en la prison," which, adds the narrator, "je ne vous puis dire ne ne doi" (I, 483). E, Grand St. Graal: The Jews, angry at Joseph's having taken Christ's body down from the Cross, throw him into "la plu hideuse chartre qui onques fust veue" and when they hear of the Lord's resurrection propose to starve him; but Christ comes to him, brings him for comfort "la sainte esceuele que ostoie en sa maison a tot le sanc qu'il Auoit requelli," and comforted him much, and a.s.sured him that he should not die in prison but come out safe and sound, and his name be glorified. And Joseph "fu en la prison ... tant qu'il demoura xlii ans" (pp. 25-26).[48]

Here again are three distinct accounts:--

(1) That of Pseudo-Gautier, which merely mentions Joseph's devotions to the Grail, and does not connect that devotion with any solace during his captivity.

(2) That of the B versions, in which Christ Himself brings the holy vessel to the captive, and connects it with certain promises and recommendations which He makes to him; the vessel shall remain with his seed, but it is to be in charge of three persons, a symbol of the Trinity. The services rendered by Joseph to Christ's body are connected with the Ma.s.s. The late (prose) drafts of this version insist still more upon the sacramental nature of the Grail.

(3) The Grand St. Graal and Pseudo-Manessier introduce a fresh element--the Grail is the material means by which Joseph is sustained (forty years according to the one, forty-two years according to the other version) without food or drink.

The great importance of the incident in the B versions is most remarkable when contrasted with the comparative indifference displayed by the other versions, and notably by the Grand St. Graal, which, at the first blush, looks so like a mere amplification of B, still more remarkable the agreement between the prose versions of B, with C, Didot-Perceval, respecting Christ's words to Joseph against B I, Metr. Jos. It is difficult to decide which of the two versions is the older; B I, after Christ's words, has the following important pa.s.sage:--

Ge n'ose conter ne retreire, Ne je ne le pourroie feire, Neis, se je feire le voloie, Se je le grant livre n'avoie Ou les estoires sunt escrites, Par les granz clers feites et dites: La sunt li grant secre escrit Qu'en numme le Graal et dit.

which may either have been the reason why the prose versions, followed by the Didot-Perceval, speak as they do about the secret words, or may be the versifier's excuse for giving those secret words themselves, _i.e._, the explanation of the mysteries of the Grail in its relation to the Sacrament, in which case the verse would be later than the prose forms.[49] Finally, it would seem that Pseudo-Manessier, A IIIA, and the Grand St. Graal drew their information one from the other or from a common source.

_Properties and Effect of the Grail._

In Chrestien these seem to be of a purely physical nature; the Grail is borne uncovered through the hall at every meal (4,470-79), it feeds the Fisher King's father--

D'une seule oiste li sains hom Quant en ce Greal li aporte Sa vie sostient et conforte Tant sainte cose est li Graaus. (7,796-99)

the most direct testimony in Chrestien to its sacred nature. In Gautier, likewise, the physical properties are insisted upon in the following pa.s.sages:--

Lors vit parmi la sale aler La rice Greail ki servoit Et mist le pain a grant esploit. (20,114-16)

Moult mangierent a grant loisir; Adonques veissies servir Le Greail moult honestement. (20,142-43)

but in verses 28,078-81 a remarkable spiritual effect is attributed to it--

Car li diables ne decoit Nul homme ki le jor le voie, Ne ne le met en male voie Por faire pecie creminal.

In A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, the physical side alone is insisted upon--

Et de quanqu'il lor ert mestiers Les fornissoit a tel plente Com s'il n'eust neant couste; (12-14)

Et li Graaux par tot aloit Et pain et vin par tot portoit Et autres mes a grant plante. (171-74)

Manessier makes no special reference to the properties of the Grail.

In the B versions it is the spiritual power of the Grail which is dwelt upon. Christ's words to Joseph have already been quoted (_supra_, p. 71), and the use which the latter puts the Grail to, and which is specially indicated to Joseph by the Holy Ghost, is in accordance with them. The Grail is to serve him as a touchstone to distinguish the sinners of his company--

Car il n'a a nul pecheour Ne compaignie ne amour; (2,629-30)

whereas to those who have not defiled themselves with sin it brings

La douceur, l'accompliss.e.m.e.nt De leur cueurs tout entierement; (2,565-67)

so that according to them--

... Cuers ne pourroit, A pourpenser ne soufiroit Le grant delit que nous avuns Ne la grant joie en quoi nous suns. (2,609-12)

This testing power of the Grail is especially brought into play when the vessel is placed on the table in connection with the fish which Brons caught, and which won him the name of the Rich Fisher.

C, Didot-Perceval, has only one reference, "ne il ne covient mie en sa compagnie pechier" (I, 483), agreeing with B and with Gautier's lines 28,079-80.

In D, Queste, we revert to the physical gifts of the Grail. "And as soon as it entered the door of the hall the whole court was filled with perfumes ... and it proceeded to every place in the hall. And as it came before the tables it filled them with every kind of meat that a man would wish to have." When it comes in, "Every one looked at each other, and there was not one that could say a single word;" when it goes out, "Every one recovered his speech" (D II, pp. 442-43). There is no allusion to a gathering at which the Grail is used to test the state of grace of its devotees. E, Grand St. Graal, shows a curious mixture of the two ideas; the Grail feeds its wors.h.i.+ppers, but only those who are "de sainte vie,"

to them it bring "toutes le boines viandes ke cuers d'omme pourroit penser," but "li pecheour n'auoient ke mangier." This version shows itself here, as in so many other pa.s.sages, one of the latest in date, embodying and reconciling as it does the conceptions of the older versions--conceptions which it is difficult to derive, either from a common source or from one another. If it were not for the solitary phrase of Gautier's, lines 28,079, etc. (a pa.s.sage which affords the strongest proof against the h.o.m.ogeneity of that part of the Conte du Graal which goes under Gautier's name), there would be an unbroken chain of testimony as to the food-giving power of the Grail on the part of the earlier A versions, supported by the Queste in opposition to the spiritual gifts insisted on by the B and E, Grand St. Graal, forms. It is in any case difficult to believe that if the writer of the Queste, with his strong tendency to mystic allegory, had had before him the highly spiritual presentment of the Grail-power found in B, he would have neglected it in favour of the materialistic description he uses. In one point this version differs from all others, the dumbness with which the Grail strikes those to whom it appears.[50]

_Name of Grail._

Whilst the majority of versions afford no explanation of the name of the Grail, B and C attach a curious punning meaning to it, thus B I, Metr.

Jos.:

Par droit Graal l'apelera; Car nus le Graal ne verra, Ce croi-je, qu'il ne li agree; (2,659-61)

and C, Didot-Perceval, "Et por ce l'anpelon-nos Graal, qu'il agree as prodes homes" (p. 483). E, Grand St. Graal, seems to follow these versions in Nasciens' words, "Car tout mi pense sont accompli, puis ke ie voi chou qui en toutes choses me plaist et m'agree" (I, 212). Is such a punning explanation more consonant with the earliness or the lateness of the versions in which it is found? If the meaning of "Greal" as cup or vessel was a perfectly well-established one, it is difficult to see why in the first treatment of the subject it should have been necessary to explain the word at all.

_Arrival of the Grail in England._

Neither A I, Chrestien, nor A II, Gautier, give any indication how the Grail came to England; not until we come to A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, do we learn anything on the subject. It is there related (v. 139-48) how Joseph and his companions take s.h.i.+p and sail till they come to the land promised Joseph by G.o.d--the White Isle, namely, a part of England; and how (v.

161-66) Joseph, finding that "sa vitaille li falloit," prays G.o.d to lend him that Grail in which he had collected the holy blood. The prayer is granted and the Grail appears and feeds the company. A III, Manessier, simply says that Joseph, after leaving Sarras, carried the Grail about with him, then in a singularly enigmatic pa.s.sage (the Fisher King is speaking):--

Et, quant il furent departis, Il s'en ala en son pas, Et tout partout u il aloit La loi Jhesucrist essaucoit.

Puis vint en cest pas manoir, Od lui le saint Greal, por voir.

Josep qui en Dieu se fia Icest pas edefia. (35,123-30)

The B versions account is much more elaborate, and demands the most careful a.n.a.lysis. In B I, Metr. Jos., the first mention of the West is found in Christ's words to Joseph concerning his nephew, Alain, who is to keep the Grail, to take charge of his brothers and sisters, and

Puis s'en ira vers occident Es plus loiteins lius que pourra; (3,100-01)

further that Petrus is likewise to go "es vaus d'Avaron" (3,123), it being added that--

Ces terres trestout vraiement Se treient devers occident. (3,125-26)

Effectively we learn (v. 3,262, etc.) that Alain leads his brothers into strange lands. But the Grail remains behind, and in v. 3,353, etc., an angel declares it necessary that all the people should go to the West, that Brons should have the vessel, that he should go straight to the West, and that Petrus, after seeing the Grail safe in Brons' keeping, is to go likewise. Joseph follows the angel's command, and three days after he has committed the Grail to Brons' hands.