and that they two are like the hazel branch with
the encircling honeysuckle, the which, as long as they are
intertwined, thrive, but as soon as they are separated, both perish.
Says Tristan, "Sweet Love, so is it with us--nor you without me, nor I
without you."

But besides this conception of love which Marie had simply found
awaiting expression, when we turn to examine the stories somewhat in
detail, we find legend and poetry, Eastern magic and Christian
symbolism, mingled with strange ingenuity. Whence came all these
divers threads which Marie has so dexterously interwoven? It is very
difficult to tell whether we are wholly in a world of romance,
accepted by her without question, or whether she had some
understanding of the divers matters she touches upon, and shaped them
into a new form to suit new hearers. The answer to this question seems
to depend on whether Marie recounted the lays from hearsay, or whether
they had been already written down, and were merely retold by her, she
colouring them with the atmosphere of her time, which was charged with
strange incongruities of religion and magic. To this we can give no
certain answer, since Marie herself gives no hint, and only tells us
that the ancient Bretons made the lays. But whatever may have been her
contribution, Christian or otherwise, to the original matter she
worked upon, we cannot help feeling that we have before us the remains
of some primitive mythology overlaid and interpenetrated with Eastern
lore, especially that of India, which, in the Middle Ages, was spread
broadcast in the West. This Indian thought, itself borrowed in a
measure from Egypt, had also been tempered by the Hellenism which,
after the conquests of Alexander the Great in Asia, had filtered
through India, and had on the way become tinged with its colour and
its mystery. It was from the matter of these Indian stories that so
much was learnt, for whilst, in the West, the national epic and the
chivalrous romance had been alone considered worthy of record, in the
Indian stories all social conditions were revealed, and poets thus
learnt little by little to observe and portray the manners and
sentiments of the people generally, changing social conditions also
acting in the same direction. All such influences must be taken into
consideration in studying mediaeval literature generally, but
particularly the occult element in Oriental thought which presents
such difficulties to the less meditative