This course tracks Lancelot's development from hero of a medieval romance (part tale of adventure, part comedy of manners) to center of a political and moral tragedy. We look in detail at three texts: Chrétien de Troyes's Lancelot: The Knight of the Cart (c. 1180), Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur (1470) and Tennyson's Idylls of the King (1859).

Sir Lancelot, as everyone knows, is Arthur’s best and bravest knight—and also, the lover of Arthur’s wife, Guinevere. Examining this pivotal irony of the Arthurian tradition, this course tracks the development of Lancelot as a both character and a literary concept across three major works:

In Lancelot: The Knight of the Cart, master of French Arthurian romance, Chrétien de Troyes, invents a hero who loves Queen Guinevere beyond all bounds of reason—so much that he will face deadly perils and (worse yet) social humiliation to prove his devotion.

Sir Thomas Malory’s late medieval “Tale of Lancelot and Elayne” (part of his sprawling epic, Le Morte Darthur) introduces a would-be rival for Lancelot’s affections in the form of Elayne, the Fair Maid of Astolat. While retaining a few comic touches from earlier versions, this retelling cannot escape the doomed nature of Lancelot’s affair with the Queen.

Finally, Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “Lancelot and Elayne” (part of his Idylls of the King) depicts Lancelot and Guinevere’s betrayal of their king as the moral rot at the foundation of a perfect but unsustainable society—and in so doing, reveals a Victorian sense of worlds away from Chrétien’s light-hearted original.

This module contains a mixture of lecture and discussion, with one lecture for each of the three works, and the rest of the meetings focusing on discussion.

Session Outline:

• Lecture 1: Chretien de Troyes and the Creation of Lancelot
• Discussion 1: Lancelot, The Knight of the Cart (first half)
• Lecture 2: Courtly Romance and Comedy of Manners
• Discussion 2: Lancelot, The Knight of the Cart (second half)
• Lecture 3: Sir Thomas Malory: Knight Prisoner
• Discussion 3: Le Morte Darthur, “The Tale of Lancelot and Elayne”
• Lecture 4: Tennyson’s Tragic Arthurian Vision
• Discussion 4: Idylls of the King: “Lancelot and Elayne”