How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
‘And fear not, Enid, I should fall upon him,
Who love you, prince, with something of the love
Wherewith we love the heaven that chastens us.’
(“Geraint and Enid,” 786-788)
Edyrn, the knight whose defeat by Geraint has changed his life for the better, compares Geraint to God here. Edyrn says he loves Geraint just as he loves the chastening God, since both have forced him to amend his ways. Edyrn’s implication that we should love the people who try to make us better provides another reason Arthur’s knights should love him. So what gives? Why do they keep betraying their vows?
Quote #5
[…] For this full love of mine
Without the full heart back may merit well
Your term of overstrain’d. So used as I,
My daily wonder is, I love at all.
(“Merlin and Vivien,” 531-534)
Vivien’s implication that Merlin is undeserving of her love because he doesn’t return it makes her a foil to Elaine, who loves Lancelot unconditionally despite his inability to return her love. Vivien’s wonderment that she “love[s] at all” mirrors ours, since we know that she is motivated by hate rather than love.
Quote #6
The great and guilty love he bare the Queen,
In battle with the love he bare his lord,
Had marr’d his face, and mark’d it ere his time.
(“Lancelot and Elaine,” 244-246)
This passage presents the conflict within Lancelot as a battle between two loves: his love for Guinevere and his love for Arthur. It has marred not just his soul, but his face. This physical effect of his guilt mirrors the physical nature of the sin itself. There's a nifty literary trick for you.