How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #7
‘Ah, then, false hunter and false harper, thou
Who brakest thro’ the scruple of my bond,
Calling me thy white hind, and saying to me
That Guinevere had sinn’d against the highest,
And I—misyoked with such a want of man—
That I could hardly sin against the lowest.’
(“The Last Tournament,” 563-568)
Here Isolt explains how Tristram convinced her to betray her marriage vow to Mark by telling her about Guinevere’s affair with Lancelot, demonstrating the way that Guinevere’s infidelity has spread like a canker throughout the whole kingdom. If Guinevere can betray a man as pure as Arthur, goes Tristram’s thinking, then it’s hardly a betrayal at all with a man like Mark.
Quote #8
[…] But then their vows
First mainly thro’ that sullying of our Queen—
began to gall the knighthood, asking whence
had Arthur right to bind them to himself?
(“The Last Tournament,” 676-679)
Guinevere’s faithlessness caused the knights to question Arthur’s authority. Perhaps, in a deeply patriarchal Victorian sense, his inability to wield authority over his wife undermined him in the eyes of his men, causing them to look for further evidence of his lack of authority.
Quote #9
Then spake the King: ‘My house hath been my doom.
But call not thou this traitor of my house
Who hath but dwelt beneath one roof with me.
My house are rather they who sware my vows,
Yea, even while they brake them, own’d me king.’
(“The Passing of Arthur,” 154-158)
Bedivere’s characterization of Mordred as “the traitor of thine house” (meaning, “the traitor of your own flesh and blood”), prompts Arthur to define his house as everyone who swore allegiance to him. By implication, their betrayal is just as bad, or no different than, the betrayal of a family member.