4. Honeysuckle(Chevrefoil)Marie de France
| This lai, a favorite of mine, | | Was named for the honeysuckle vine | | And written to commemorate | 4 | The incident which I’ll relate. | | Many times I’ve had the chance | | To hear or read the old romance | | Of Tristan and the queen, who were | 8 | So true to love and to each other | | And who, for their love, were sorely tried | | Until, on a single day, they died. |
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| Tristan, by King Mark’s command, | 12 | Was exiled back to his own land | | When, furious, the king had seen | | The love he bore Iseut, the queen. | | He stayed in South Wales for a year | 16 | And all that time did not appear | | At court. But then, in his despair, | | He couldn’t bring himself to care | | What might happen if he went back; | 20 | It was better to risk death than lack | | The one thing that counted in his eyes. | | This shouldn’t cause anyone surprise— | | A lover grieves and broods that way | 24 | If he is true and far away | | From the lady who has won his heart, | | And that’s why Tristan had to start | | For Cornwall. Whatever that could mean, | 28 | At least he was sure to see the queen. | | He went through the forest, all alone, | | So that his presence would not be known. | | When evening came, it seemed all right | 32 | To seek some shelter for the night. | | From poor peasants whom he met | | He took what lodging he could get, | | And asked if they knew anything | 36 | About the intentions of the king. | | They told him that by King Mark’s decree | | The barons who owed him fealty | | Had all been summoned forth to ride | 40 | To Tintagel, where at Whitsuntide[1] | | The king intended to hold his court. | | There would be feasting and good sport; | | The queen was going to be there too. |
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44 | Tristan was overjoyed. He knew | | That for the journey she would make | | There was just one road the queen could take. | | As soon as the king was on his way, | 48 | Tristan went into the woods to stay | | Close to the road where he could meet | | The queen as she passed by with her suite. | | Meanwhile, he cut down and squared | 52 | A hazel branch. When it was pared, | | He signed it, using his knife to write,[2] | | And placed the signal well in sight. | | The queen would never fail to notice, | 56 | Alert for such a sign as this— | | They had used it in another case | | To indicate a meeting place— | | And so the message would be clear; | 60 | She’d know her friend was somewhere near. | | Earlier, he had sent a letter. | | This is what he wrote to her:[3] | | In the forest, where he had to hide, | 64 | He’d waited a long time to decide | | How best to find her, where and when | | They might see each other once again. | | He could no longer live that way, | 68 | Cut off from the one he loved, for they | | Were like the honeysuckle vine, | | Which around a hazel tree will twine, | | Holding the trunk as in a fist | 72 | And climbing until its tendrils twist | | Around the top and hold it fast. | | Together tree and vine will last. | | But then, if anyone should pry | 76 | The vine away, they both will die. | | “My love, we’re like that vine and tree; | | I’ll die without you, you without me.” |
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| The queen, as she rode along the way, | 80 | Was waiting for something to betray | | The presence of her friend, and spied | | The hazel stick on a slope beside | | The road. Understanding what it meant, | 84 | She called to those knights present | | To be her escort, and expressed | | A wish to stop a while and rest; | | The traveling had made her tired. | 88 | The knights did as she desired, | | And waited there while she withdrew | | Alone, except for one she knew | | Would keep her secret, the faithful maid | 92 | Brangene. After a while they strayed | | Off the road and into the forest. | | There was the one the queen loved best | | In all the world, waiting for her. | 96 | Great was their joy at being together, | | With time to talk again at leisure. | | She told him that King Mark’s displeasure | | Had changed to grief at having exiled | 100 | Tristan; they’d soon be reconciled. | | The king was sure he’d been deceived | | By slander he should not have believed. | | But when it was time for her to go, | 104 | Both of them wept in bitter sorrow. | | Tristan went back to Wales and waited | | Until he had been reinstated. |
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| Because he wanted to express | 108 | The overwhelming happiness | | Of being with his love once more, | | What he had written to her before | | And her words to him, not to forget,[4] | 112 | Tristan, a skilled harpist, set | | To music. I will quickly say[5] | | How people referred to this new lai: | | Gotelef in English (which became | 116 | “Honeysuckle”) translates the name | | Chevrefoil. Here I’ve related | | Just what the lai commemorated. |
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Notes1. Line 40 Whitsuntide is Pentecost, the traditional time for King Arthur to hold his court and for chivalric adventures to begin. [BACK] 2. Line 53 See the Introduction, 16, on the ambiguity of Tristan’s inscription. [BACK] 3. Lines 61-62 I take these lines (“Ceo fu la somme de l’escrit / Qu’il li aveit mandé e dit”) to refer to an earlier message. Others believe they refer to the message on the bastun, or stick, which she would understand either from the name alone or in code. [BACK] 4. Lines 107-11 These lines have been accurately translated if they suggest the determined ambiguity of the original. [BACK] 5. Line 113 In the Tristan episode of a thirteenth-century continuation of Chrétien’s Perceval, Tristan, in disguise, identifies himself to Iseut by playing the Lai du Chievrefueil on a small flute. She is at first angry, thinking that Tristan had taught someone else “the lai that he and I composed.” Then she realizes that the musician is Tristan himself. Gerbert de Montreuil, La Continuation de “Perceval,” ed. Mary Williams, vol. 1 (Paris: Champion, 1922), lines 4066–4088 [BACK] |