How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #7
‘Came ye on none but phantoms in your quest,
No man, no woman?’ Then Sir Percivale:
‘All men, to one so bound by such a vow,
And women were as phantoms.’
(“The Holy Grail,” 561-565)
Sir Percivale describes the way in which a vow like the one he took, to search for a spiritual vision, makes the earthly world fade away into “phantoms.” To Percivale, the vision for which he longs seems more real than the world through which he actually walks.
Quote #8
There came on Arthur sleeping, Gawain kill’d
In Lancelot’s war, the ghost of Gawain blown
Along a wandering wind, and past his ear
Went shrilling: ‘Hollow, hollow all delight!
Hail, King! to-morrow thou shalt pass away.
Farewell! there is an isle of rest for thee.
And I am blown along a wandering wind,
And hollow, hollow, hollow all delight!’
(“Passing of Arthur,” 29-37)
Gawain’s ghost appears to Arthur to tell him that he is about to die. Gawain contrasts his own unrest—how he is “blown along a wandering wind”—with the “isle of rest” that awaits Arthur. That Gawain’s ghost now wanders between this world and the next reflects the recklessness with which he lived. He lived only in pursuit of empty sensual delights, but those delights are now hollow for him as he is denied the rest that awaits Arthur.
Quote #9
[…] And even on Arthur fell
Confusion, since he saw not whom he fought.
For friend and foe were shadows in the mist,
And friend slew friend not knowing whom he slew;
And some had visions out of golden youth,
And some beheld the faces of old ghosts
Look in upon the battle.
(“Passing of Arthur,” 98-103)
Arthur’s battle against Mordred occurs in a thick fog that causes the knights to mistake friends for foes, symbolizing the sad truth that in this battle, in which some of Arthur’s own knights fight with Mordred against him, friend is foe. The “faces of old ghosts” and visions that the knights see as they fight are like their life passing before their eyes before them, marking this battle as the one that ends not just the knights’ lives but their whole society.