How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
‘But the sweet vision of the Holy Grail
Drove me from all vainglories, rivalries,
And earthly heats that spring and sparkle out
Among us in the jousts, while women watch
Who wins, who falls; and waste the spiritual strength
Within us, better offer’d up to Heaven.’
(“The Holy Grail,” 30-36)
Percivale explains to a monk why he left the Round Table for a monastery. He believes that a man has only enough “spiritual strength” for either a life in the world or one devoted to God. Later in this idyll, Arthur will call this belief into question.
Quote #5
‘O thou, my love, whose love is one with mine,
I, maiden, round thee, maiden, bind my belt.
Go forth, for thou shalt see what I have seen,
And break thro’ all, till one will crown thee king
Far in the spiritual city:’ and as she spake
She sent the deathless passion in her eyes
Thro’ him, and made him hers, and laid her mind
On him, and he believed in her belief.
(“The Holy Grail,” 158-165)
Arthur speaks frequently of the power of a woman’s love to inspire the best in the knight who experiences it. This passage takes that idea and spiritualizes it. Here the nun who first receives the vision of the Holy Grail makes Galahad her figurative “lover” and inspires him to believe in “her belief.” Instead of an earthly kingdom, Galahad will win a spiritual one, thanks to his chaste possession by this nun.
Quote #6
‘And out of those to whom the vision came
My greatest hardly will believe he saw.
Another hath beheld it afar off,
And, leaving human wrongs to right themselves,
Cares but to pass into the silent life.
And one hath had the vision face to face
And now his chair desires him here in vain,
However they may crown him otherwhere.
(“The Holy Grail,” 891-898)
Although he does not doubt the truth of what his knights were after, Arthur questions the utility of the quest for the Holy Grail. Because of it, deeds of chivalry were left undone. Now that it is over, those who have achieved it either doubt what they saw or have chosen to retire from the world. For a man like Arthur, who tries to transform his beliefs into action, these kinds of responses make no sense.