LLT 180 Lecture We're picking up today with the last book in the four-part White book, and I hope

Transcription

1 LLT 180 Lecture 13 1 We're picking up today with the last book in the four-part White book, and I hope my comments on Lancelot made some sense. Again, while this material is always out there, I blew this up as much as I could. It's a "Wizard of Id" cartoon. And so, of course, Sir Rodney -- if you read the comics -- and I'm suspicious of anybody who doesn't read comics -- and so if you don't, start reading 'em. But Sir Rodney says, "I'm putting you on a cleaning detail, Rodney" and the king says, "Polish everything that's not nailed down." "Yes, sir." So he goes out and he spies Excaliber in a rock. And so he pulls it out. Sir Rodney, who is the total dufus of the world -- and he shines it and shines it, it's gleaming. He sticks it back in and he walks away, and he goes, "Ohh. Duh." and realizes the magnitude of what he did. So again, just showing how -- you know, there's evidently -- the expectation is, or expectation of those of us who are literate enough to read the comics, that we know this stuff, that we're conversant with this stuff. We're picking up, anyway, with the last part of Candle in the Wind. We're gonna get rid of White so we can move on to the original material in Chrétien. And again -- so we're showing all of Arthur's life. We're showing it from his birth until his death -- that's the point, his death. And so this is much later. Agravaine, an irritating character at best, is 55 years old. And we're gonna have a pairing off. In other words, with these five brothers, we're gonna end up with Mordred and Agravaine being the bad guys; Gawaine, who is the head of the family, and, of course, Gareth, who is the alternate good guy; and Gaheris, who kind of changes. He kind of gets better and better as the work progresses. I think they described him early

2 LLT 180 Tape #13 2 as being stolid. Look it up in the dictionary. I don't think you want to be described as being stolid. Not a good word. Kind of curious when you write on the board this way, all of a sudden you realize, "Hey, wait. All the good guys' names start with G." Is there some reason for that? Beats me. Just kind of curious. There's a new fashion about and the fashion is one of flamboyance. So, you know, we assume -- we associate with that they're talking about things of consumption. So decadence, all signs of decay. They are plotting -- and we're not sure exactly what their plot is, what they're trying to do at first. But Agravaine hates Lancelot and Mordred hates Arthur. The reasons will become clearer as we read this material. And, of course, Mordred is the very opposite of Arthur in so many ways. He is from an ancient race. And when they use these terms, they throw some things out here and they say that both Arthur and Mordred are from civilizations that historically were matriarchal. And, of course, I don't know if that's supposed to imply -- in Mordred's case especially -- that his civilization still pretty much is. Because Lot is certainly kind of a shadowy figure. The person who's a force in that family, who determines everything we see in that particular group, is Morgause. These people are not nice people, Mordred's ancestors. They use words like ferocious and murderous. And obviously, by telling us that the modern representation of them are people in the Irish Republican Army, we get an idea of what we're supposed to be imagining. The curious thing for me is -- and when you read this stuff sometimes, I don't know if you stop and think, "Gosh, he's writing this in 1939." And so he's writing

3 LLT 180 Lecture 13 3 this stuff over 60 years ago. And so when you talk about the times of trouble in Ireland, you realize this stuff's been going on a long time. A long time. What they're trying to do, then, is bring about the downfall of these two people individually and what they're gonna use is, they're gonna make a public announcement of the relationship concerning Lancelot and Guenever and try to drive a wedge then between Arthur and Lancelot, cause war, and they really don't care much what the outcome will be. They're just malicious, nasty people. In fact, they even use the term concerning Agravaine, on page 519, that he has malice at random. Just a malicious person. Say about line 15, Agravaine was uncomfortable. His hatred for the King was not a reality like Mordred's--indeed, he had little personal feeling against anybody except Lancelot. His attitude was more of malice at random. He does give some insight, though, into things, showing more maturity and a lot of times a lot of the characters -- Gawaine, Agravaine, I think even Arthur later -- tell Mordred, you know, "You're not mature enough to realize the ramifications of everything or the importance of everything." And Agravaine is telling them, you know, "Just saying that your father wronged you is not gonna be enough cause to have a big war. Things are not that simple anymore. And so if you expect to get people behind you, you're gonna have to get a bigger cause." On page 520, Mordred talks about the way his family has been wronged collectively. And Mordred is misshapen. They invariably refer to him here, in the part

4 LLT 180 Tape #13 4 where we're reading for today, as being of crooked shoulder, having a hunchback. And so whether this is supposed to be the result of this inbreeding or whatever, this again is White's little play; this is not tradition. Regardless, we've been saying almost since the get-go, that one of the things that drives Germanic literature forward is revenge. Revenge is always a good motivation -- well, not a good motivation; a common motivation. And pretty much what happens at the end of most Germanic folk material is everyone's dead. And so we're gonna move toward that end. Reese? [Inaudible student response.] No, no, no. This is all new information. We're still learning stuff, too. Yeah, when we get over to that -- I was gonna make sure people didn't miss that because that is new information. And so when Arthur reveals -- [Inaudible student response.] Yeah. It -- well, I think it explains in this material we're reading for today that Arthur had been advised by his close advisors who knew about this illegitimate child a la Moses, what you need to do is -- you know, you need to round up everybody who was born during this certain time and get rid of 'em. And so they put 'em on a boat and drifted 'em away. A bunch of 'em died but Mordred survived. And I think Arthur says in here because of an act of God. In other words, you know, Arthur obviously feels guilty about this. But if you read that far, Lancelot says, "You know, you shouldn't feel guilty. You know, you were young and stupid -- or young and ignorant, not really realizing the ramifications. You were

5 LLT 180 Lecture 13 5 listening to people who were advising you, and you've tried to make it right and that's the best you can do." And so it's a matter of sin, sin coming home to roost. And I think it's said at the end of The Queen of Air and Darkness -- I think on that very last page when they gave us the family tree -- I think that's the term White used. For this is the story of sin coming home to roost, or something to that effect, after the family tree and therefore the family tree was so important. I'm not sure. Maybe you can find the wording. Anyway, other questions, comments? This is common knowledge, obviously. We've known it for a long time that Lancelot and Gwen are doing the big nasty, and everybody in court knows this. If we had read Lancelot, if we had read La Chevalier Mal Fet, the ill-made knight, we would've seen all these times they'd been accused. And I know in my comments last time that I did make -- I didn't go into every little thing. Like when he was challenged here and then he defeated Count Malagrance, or whatever the case may be, but said just in three challenges to the fact that Gwen was not being a good girl and at every point Lancelot had come and rescued her from this challenge by being her champion. But in each one of these we read right at the end of The Ill-Made Knight that each one of these had brought them closer to disaster. Because again, based on tradition, you get three chances and after three chances you're in trouble. Okay. What they want to do, though, is confront Arthur with this material and use the new laws against him. They tell us, on the top of 522, "But nobody has told him about it in open court, face to face." Think what would happen if we were to denounce Sir Lancelot personally under this new fashioned law, some of these new fashioned

6 LLT 180 Tape #13 6 laws, so that the king was forced to investigate. And so the goal is to split Arthur and Lancelot, and through that to have them both suffer. They're gonna do -- and this kind of surprises Arthur when it gets to this point. That instead of using force in any way, they're going to use their brains. So just like Arthur's trying to do away with force and have Right through Right, they're gonna use Arthur's system against him. Use it to get at him, to basically bypass the force, the might of Lancelot. Sounds like the dentist. I don't know if you picked that up. You're all too young to remember the bad days at the dentist's when they had like, you know, 3/8" drills they stuck in your mouth. But you might've seen that ad on TV -- if you're your parents' age and stuff, you'll probably get a kick out of it -- where the guy's sitting out -- and I think it's a Black & Decker ad or something -- and the guy's sitting out in the waiting room and you hear this Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr and stuff. And he's like shaking and stuff. Finally this, like, repairman comes walking out, holding a Black & Decker drill or something. Pretty -- pretty scary and amusing if you're my age. Like, "No, please." On page 522 they review Mordred's parentage, again setting this material right. And if you haven't read this well -- and again, this gets back -- not to make an analogy to the Harry Potter books, but since I just read 'em all fairly recently -- if you read 'em all in one sitting you're thinking, "I just read this," but it was two books ago. The idea you're gonna forget material. And so since there was a time lapse between these coming out but then they were put together, he's repeating some of this lest you forgot because it's important to what happens. And so if you need reminding, if you need

7 LLT 180 Lecture 13 7 remembering, read at the bottom of page 522 through the end of that chapter on 523, and it regurgitates a lot of material that we've had. One of the things, though, we also get a comment here when we look at Mordred. Mordred, because of the influence of his mother, is kind of a person out of space and out of time. He doesn't really fit. He doesn't fit in Arthur's civilization. He's part of another world. And so what he brings, while living in England, is not what everybody else is used to or their perception of things. We have the other three brothers showing up and we have this division. Mordred starts in and Gawaine doesn't want to have anything to do with this. And so we see Gawaine in a more noble light. His position has been really, you know, to a large extent, supplanted by Lancelot and Lancelot's power and grandeur. And now, all of a sudden, we're gonna see more of Gawaine. And obviously, as this becomes reality, Gawaine is gonna take on a more and more significant role. And so as we see him unfold here, we see him really siding with Gareth, to a large extent. Really not liking Mordred much at all and thinking that Agravaine is just a pain. Just a pain. But finally they're brothers. Remember, loyalty has some value but he also thinks he's the head of the family and he doesn't want them to do it. He even says that he will forbid it. On the top of 526, Mordred states his intent. And to show a little bit about the nature of Mordred, we read about line 8 on 526, "Nobody talks about anything except this so-called Holy Grail. Agravaine and I have decided to go to Arthur now, in full court, and ask about the Queen and Lancelot to his face."

8 LLT 180 Tape #13 8 And so when he so, you know, casually dismisses the whole talk of the Holy Grail, we see that he is not about ideals. He's not about quests. He's after something very different. And all he's really about is revenge, having them just do for his family. And Gawaine, while he's talked early on about family above everything, seems to be more of a pragmatic politician at this point. Agravaine -- idiot that he is -- threatens Gawaine. Not a good move. And the brothers have a very standard relationship. In other words, how they interact doesn't change. It's always the same. And Agravaine kind of, by his action of throwing a sword, sets Gawaine off. And Gawaine goes after him and basically he'd kill him if he had a chance. Mordred, little sneak scuz that he is, pulls a dagger and he's gonna go around and stab Gawaine in the back. Gareth does what? Gareth tries to intercede, Gareth the peacemaker, by grabbing the dagger. So we have this whole thing which they -- you know, my inclination when I was reading this was, at some time in the early 1800s it was common practice in some continental courts for entertainment, to represent famous paintings. So as part of the entertainment, people would dress up and come and pose, so you'd say, "Oh, that's such-and-such by Gauguin." And this whole thing is very pictorial. It's almost more like a stage direction and drama. And I was thinking this as I read it, and then actually White, over on 528, says this was like a tableau -- which it is. Arthur enters and Arthur's looking older. He's looking older than his years. And so we're gonna -- again, as White is wont to do, we're gonna change from chapter to chapter from one type of action to another. And there's a lot of fill in the material I read

9 LLT 180 Lecture 13 9 and asked you to read today. I mean, I go pages without really marking down much of anything. And it's one of those things I know that's hard when you're reading. Because if you're tired and you read two or three pages, then all of a sudden you go, "Uhhh! What have I been reading?" You're just kind of zoned out and you're thinking about your date next weekend, what you're gonna ask for for Christmas -- or your non-date next weekend. Anyway, Lancelot and Guenever are just sitting -- they're being good children -- are just sitting here, and they talk a little bit about what love is and how love is depicted in medieval material. They're not what you traditionally see on MTV but maybe Methusala TV -- or MMTV, Methusala Music TV. These are older people. And so he says, "they neither chose them by the passing standards of the flesh alone, nor abandoned it lightly when the bruckle things began to fail." What we do is, we get some images of England and we first get this image -- again, we remember all this. We just read it. We read it this semester, right? But people who haven't read the stuff in awhile or are just picking this book up, being the first book they read of White, are told how England was. And some of this stuff, you wonder if it's true. They talk about they cut off a dog's toe so it can't hunt. Any runners -- anyone run to work out? Okay. Your big toe or your second toe longer? This is trivia for today. This won't even get you any money on the game show. But people whose big toe is longer, it's easier for them to run. I don't know why, but I read this thing. I never thought about what my toes were like. But I run and I never had any running related injuries, and my big toe is longer. But it must have something to do

10 LLT 180 Tape #13 10 with balance and stuff? You wouldn't think with shoes on it would count. Well, anyway. Does anybody know if you cut a dog's toe off? Kind of like mitten kittens. My mother calls 'em mitten kittens. I had a mitten kitten. It had like -- basically, you know, those extra paws. I had a cat, she was huge. She was nuts. But she had like a total extra paw on each of her feet. Man, you talk about a mess in the litter box -- you know, fill up the whole room with litter, you know. Kicking and stuff. I'm sure you could cut off that. Who suffered, though? Who suffered in this time? And this gets back to what Merlyn was learning in teaching Arthur. It's the common people who really suffered. People at the top of the food chain were fine. And so we really go through -- the middle of page or not the middle, really -- the bottom of 531, about how things were. And then we pick up on the bottom of 531 with how things are. And notice the words we start using in contrast. This England is safe. What else is it? It's merry. And so immediately -- well, maybe not immediately, if you read this 34 times like I have -- what comes to mind is, who is merry? Who had joie de vivre? Who had joy of life. The geese, okay? Where was it the opposite? The ants. And so if we start thinking about it, okay, the old world was maybe more like the ant world and the new world is more like the world with geese. It's the Age of Individualism. And again, in the geese world, it was an age of individualism, all right? It was a group of individuals. And we have gusto -- not a word you hear every day. And they talk about how even castles are named. They talk about crafts, they talk about learning, he talks about people themselves.

11 LLT 180 Lecture He talks about the Catholic church in here -- we're on and it's kind of a weird piece of information. I don't know. It's like he's trying to get some of this stuff out of me or I don't know what. What's Arthur? What's Arthur? This is what's important. What is Arthur, on 534? What does Arthur represent? We read at the top, It was the age of fullness, the age of wading into everything up to the neck. Perhaps Arthur imposed this idea on Christendom, because of the richness of his own schooling under Merlyn. For the King, or at least this is how Malory interprets him, was the patron saint of chivalry. The chivalry, though, that he was creed. Remember, Merlyn said there was chivalry under Uther but what is it? So he refashions chivalry to make it into something noble. Let's skip on here. Go down a couple of more lines. Arthur was the heart's king of a chivalry which had reached its flower perhaps two hundred years before our antiquarian author [that is, referring to Malory who wrote in the 1400s] began to work. He was the badge of everything [so this is what's important, the badge of everything] that was good in the Middle Ages. So everything that's good gets glued onto his badge. He holds it up in our historical view. And he had made these things himself. He made these things himself. Referred to as the champion of civilization, how learning's important, science is important, and the view from the window is delightful. So we start off with this ugly view

12 LLT 180 Tape #13 12 and this really whole chapter we know. We could've skipped this. But it kind of retells us some things. And kind of back to Reese's question before, sometimes we're reticent to totally skip it because White will squeeze something new in, a piece of information that we didn't know necessarily. It isn't necessarily critical but it's helpful to know. Here we just talk about life. He starts off on some silly stuff. He talks about hair styles, something I like to read about since I don't have one. Not really funny, but -- you know, you can deal with this stuff, though. What is it, 10, 12 years ago when they first came out with Rogaine? And I had a lot more hair then. And some of my students said, "You know" -- the brave ones -- said, "You know, you ever try using this?" And I said, you know, "Well, the real problem with Rogaine is, they haven't done any long-term studies on it." And I said, "What if you use this stuff and it really works for you, and all of a sudden you're 60, and one day you're standing in front of the mirror and you're combing your full head of hair, and you go, 'Oh, shit. The top of my head just came off with my comb.' I guess this does have a negative long-term effect.'" So I decided, "Nahh," you know. I don't want to particularly test on myself. There are a lot worse things that could be wrong. Anyway, we see diversity. Really, I go on several pages here unless somebody has something they see significant up to the very last page of the chapter. I saw it as just kind of an overview. I don't know if he was trying to make his book longer like Chrétien does later because he was contracted to produce a book of so many pages and he had to make it that long. But on 539, the end of the chapter, one of the things -- and he's referring back to

13 LLT 180 Lecture a little bit later views of this age. There's a lot of decency here and there's even a period called the Truce of God because people are basically oggin you along. And then as he's wont to do he asks the good question or the excellent question -- which I wrote in my book, "is an excellent question. Discuss." I feel like, you know, you're on Saturday Night Live. "Discuss among yourselves." Even if they were foolish enough to believe that the earth was the center of the universe, do we not ourselves believe that man is the fine flower of creation? If it takes a million years for a fish to become a reptile, has man in our few hundred altered out of recognition? In other words, are we -- are we really different in any true sense, in, you know, an intrinsic sense on what our desires are, what our feelings are, what our reactions are from people in Arthurian times? And, you know, it seems like a pretty simplistic answer. As we skip into the next chapter, though, this has been a cycle. This has been a cycle. So if we restarted with chaos, we started with, you know, the period that Luther's left us, and we've come around -- it's almost like, you know, if we're over here now or if we'd gotten to this point in the time of Arthur's range -- reign, what's gonna happen through the demise? We're gonna end up back where we are. And so things go cyclicly. They go in cycles. And it says in the next chapter -- sometimes if you blink and miss a word, words are important. It's one of the advantages of reading something more than once. Chapter 4, on the bottom of 539, "Lancelot and Guenever looked over the sundown of chivalry." So where are we going? You know, we have the fine flowering and so we're starting back. So where are

14 LLT 180 Tape #13 14 we gonna end up? We're gonna end up back at chaos and that's gonna be the point of having someone remember -- you know, remember what Arthur stood for or are we at least receding into chaos? Where at some point in this part of the cycle, where to get out of it we're gonna have to call up someone to represent the idea. So it's back kind of the song of the late '60s or early '70s of times they are a-changing, but they ain't changing for the better this time, in people's view. They're changing for the worse. Lancelot now is nice ugly, it can be said. He's nice ugly. His ugliness has kind of become tempered with age. It says here on the top of 540, Like the bull-dog, which is one of the most betrayed of dogs, Lancelot had grown a face which people could trust. So at least he's not just -- what are you ugly? Whatever ugly is, that's what he was. They're happy. Again, they have a more mature relationship, not as much fighting. He wants to see Gwen. And Lancelot's view of things is pretty much shared by other people, you know. Arthur's not gonna catch us unless he's made to. So the only thing that's gonna bring about a disaster is Mordred's actions. Otherwise, he's willing to live and let live. We read on 541, about 15 lines up, "Arthur knows all about us [Lancelot says to Guenever]. Merlyn warned him in so many words, and Morgan le Fay sent him two broad hints, and then there was the trouble with Sir Meliagrance. But he doesn't want to have things upset. He would never catch us unless he was made to." Which is what's gonna happen. Gwen doesn't like deceiving Arthur and don't think they should try to be together

15 LLT 180 Lecture in any way to affront him. She doesn't want to force his hand. And she's very insightful. She sees the possible bad results for civilization. Arthur has inadvertently come in, leaves, comes back. And he's there to tell her -- he came evidently to tell Guenever about this old business, what was being asked before. And since Lancelot's there, he'll tell 'em both. And this is some important stuff in explaining exactly why Mordred feels even more so the way he does than we might've thought. So we now really get the whole story, some of this which we knew, that --- him being born too early, that -- you know, him being spirited away and then coming back. And, of course, Lancelot says, on the top of 547, "and lived happily ever afterward, and that was the end of that." Well, he's not gonna live happily ever after and that's not the end of that. In other words, that, like they say, only happens in fairy tales. He explains his innocence, that he fell in love with his half sister who he didn't know was his half sister, and again, in the movie Excaliber, she evidently uses some kind of enchantment on him and we know she uses the spancel in the book, kind of a gross image. But anyway, he again is innocent -- as guys generally think they are, but they've just been hoodwinked into some position that they don't like. So anyway, he fell in love with Morgause and he had a baby. They're both surprised. And for us -- you know, they didn't know this. So evidently Mordred -- his family knows this, but this all has been hushed up in court. People generally -- at least, the general population doesn't know it. Lancelot is very apologetic for Arthur saying, "Awww, you know, she was a witch. After all, her own son killed her when she was 70. She was still out there, running after

16 LLT 180 Tape #13 16 young boys. You know, she was just a strange thing." Arthur, to give us a little time perspective, says, "Well, you know, at the time I was 19 and I was getting all this advice -- you know, they're making horrible prophecies" [on page 548]. And so he gave out a proclamation. And we read that on 548, about 15 lines from the bottom: "I let them make a proclamation that all the children born at a certain time were to be put in a big ship and floated out to sea. I wanted to destroy Mordred for his own sake, and I didn't know where he would be born. "Yes, the ship was floated off, and Mordred was on it, and it was wrecked on an island. Most of the poor babies were drowned--but God saved Mordred, and sent him back to shame me afterwards." Lancelot, again apologetic for Arthur, saying, "Well, you know, you were too young to know better." But Quinn's question is the key question here. Why're you telling us this now? What is our need to know? What? What? And it's because Arthur, you know, knows Mordred, bears a grudge against him, and thinks he'll do anything to get at him. And he again knows the truth. He knows the truth about Lancelot and Guenever. And so he feels in his mind that this is something that he might use. Arthur has a certain -- you know, he's kind of sorry of Mordred. He understands Mordred, to a certain extent. I think one of the things he sees -- and sometimes, maybe, you know, you've seen this in friends, where, you know, you have a friend who doesn't get along with her mother or a friend who doesn't get along with her father. And

17 LLT 180 Lecture you look at 'em and you think, "Gosh," you know, "they're a lot like their father. They're a lot like their mother." And I think what you see oftentimes in families is that a parent who doesn't like certain things in themselves, and those things are manifest characteristics of the child, it kind of hacks 'em off. It's like, "Hey," you know. "I took that bad quality and took control of it. Why can't you do the same?" And so he sees some parts of Mordred which are parts of him, but unfortunately, you know, the parts he controls are the main characteristics in Mordred. And Mordred's not a happy camper. Because again, you have an enormous society based on physical prowess, among other things, and Mordred doesn't have much. He's weak, he's disformed, and so obviously people would first look at him and think he's inferior. And not think, you know, "Well, this must be the son of Arthur." He does say, though, and very prophetically, about 8 lines from the bottom of 549, "He is almost sure to get me killed in the end." Arthur, in trying to clarify for these two, for Lancelot and Gwen, is that he's king and what he stands for is the law. So if he gets put in a bind as king, he represents civilization. He represents law and so he can't favor them. He has to be the objective enforcer of the law of the kingdom. And Mordred could try anything. He says -- oh, about 15 lines up on 550 from the bottom, "Mordred is an unhappy young man, and I am afraid he might try any means of giving me an upset." Remember, you know, he has kind of a wishy-washy claim. But if Arthur's dead, Mordred could be King of England. So he has an interest maybe in pursuing this for his own interests. Lancelot says, you know, "Oh, I'll just kill him. I'll kill him myself." This is

18 LLT 180 Tape #13 18 important because this comes up -- this has ramifications later. Arthur says, "Well, you know, he is my son, you know, and I forbid you to do that." I forbid you. So that's why later, when there's an attack on Lancelot, Mordred survives to bring about the downfall to Arthur. So this is kind of a turning point in a sense. Books all have turning points, oftentimes a lot of turning points, and this is certainly a significant if minor one. So Arthur goes back towards the law and law -- the law is his last effort against Might. So Right for the sake of Right. But when he gets to the law room, the justice room, the Gawaines -- so now they're not referring to them as the Orkney faction anymore; they refer to them here as the Gawaine family -- are waiting for him and they are quarreling -- which is, of course, their standard mode of operation. They're still arguing about whether anything should be said about this and Gawaine reminds Mordred and Agravaine that Lancelot has saved us all at one time or another. And we just repeat here what's been told before, that Mordred doesn't give a rip about Lancelot. His concern is Arthur. With Agravaine it's just the opposite. Mordred, in trying to justify what he does, wraps himself in the cloak of justice. "Well, you know, I'm doing this for a nobler, higher reason. I'm doing it for justice. I'm not really doing this for myself." Gawaine, just like Gwen -- everybody's saying this. Gwen said, you know, if this happens it's gonna be the end of civilization. In other words, we're gonna go back into chaos. We're gonna go back into these lawless, barbarous times. Gawaine says it, too. So it's like everybody who has more experience gets this. He says in the middle of 555, just before the break there in the page,

19 LLT 180 Lecture "It is a trouble [this is Gawaine talking]," he said, drawing the old language of knighthood round him like a cloak, "that will eye destroy the flower of chivalry in all the world: a mischief to our noble fellowship: and all by cause of two unhappy knights." So Guenever has said this and now Gawaine has said it. And this is good folk material. In folk material, oftentimes what you really want people to know, you repeat several times saying, "Hey, dummy. Did you hear this the first time? This is really, really important. We want you to hear this." How about Agravaine? You know, Agravaine becomes kind of a spokesman here at the end of the chapter. At this point, he's kind of ready to let it go. You know, he's kind of intimidated by Arthur after the G brothers leave, and just Mordred and Agravaine. He's kind of -- you know, Arthur says sit down and he sits down. Mordred's defiant but Agravaine -- "Ah, you know, maybe we should just let this go." But finally Mordred just blurts it out, on 556. He says, about 15 lines down, Mordred, glaring at his father with blazing eyes, announced without preamble: "We came to tell you what every person in this court has always known. Queen Guenever is Sir Lancelot's mistress openly." Arthur reminds them that that accusation has been made before and tells Mordred what he must be getting tired of hearing: that he's young and ignorant. Which pretty much means inexperienced or lacking perspective. On 557, "You are still very young, Mordred. You have yet to learn that nearly all the ways of giving justice are unfair." Agravaine -- so Arthur still has in his mind that these guys are kind of -- you

20 LLT 180 Tape #13 20 know, remember. They're from an area that's ferocious and stuff, murderous. And so he thinks they're thinking about combat. Like, "We're gonna get Lancelot. We're gonna challenge Guenever again and we'll be in combat." And they say, "No, no, no. We don't want any part of it. We don't want any piece of Lancelot. We know he'll kick our butt. What we're really interested in -- you know, we're wondering about this new stuff you call law, the law you're using. You know, what if an accusation is made and found to be true? We'd like to pursue it in your court, these law courts." So Arthur is really faked out, because it never entered Arthur's mind that they would try to use his new justice system. He didn't think they were that clever. And so Arthur says, "Okay, but I hope you guys, who are fairly ignorant, realize the implications of this." On the bottom of page 558: "Should you establish your case, the man who saved you both from Sir Turquine" -- he's this super evil knight in the book about Lancelot. And at one point, he takes the knights captive. And when Lancelot rescues Gawaine he is -- you know, it sounds like a fraternity initiation or something. He had like 60 naked knights that he beat with a blunt sword, you know. Weird stuff. I guess they don't do that in fraternities anymore -- well, not officially. "Should you establish your case, the man who saved you both from Sir Turquine [the weird guy] will have his head cut off, and my wife whom I love very much, will have to be burned alive, for treason. Should you fail to establish your case [and these are the consequences for them], I must warn you that I should banish you, Mordred, which would deprive you of all hope of succession, such as it is,

21 LLT 180 Lecture while I should condemn Agravaine to the stake in his turn, because by making the accusation, he would himself have committed treason." So they kind of end with a discussion about how much Arthur will participate in trying to entrap his wife or not, and he finally agrees to go on with his normal plans, which is to hit the road hunting. And Arthur -- lest you wonder where Arthur comes down in all this, whether he helps them for success or something, he says -- I think the last paragraph in Chapter 5, a great paragraph: "But if I may speak for a moment, Mordred and Agravaine, as a private person, the only hope I now have left is that Lancelot will kill you both and all the witnesses--a feat which, I am proud to say, has never been beyond my Lancelot's power. And I may add this also, as a minister of Justice, that if you fail for one moment in establishing this monstrous accusation, I shall pursue you both remorselessly, with all the rigor of the laws which you yourselves have set in motion." Not a bad place to break. Next time will be another film op. Try to be on time. We're gonna start on time because we need every minute of time to get through it. And so then for the time after that, read about half of what's left.