ly supplied by the social
history of the time, and the fact is fully illustrated by the
romances. The authors of these compositions, from their tendency to
idealization, held up to their readers a higher view of virtue in every
respect than was practised in actual life, and in their writings,
conjugal infidelity is of constant occurrence. The fictitious
personages who indulge in licence are but dimly conscious of
wrong-doing, and almost the only evidence of a realization of their
fault is in the Quest of the Saint Greal, when Launcelot and other
noble knights acknowledge that the attainment of the sacred prize is
not for them as being "sinful men," and the quest is achieved by the
spotless Sir Galahad, who, impersonating the purifying influence of
Christianity, forms the most striking character conceived by the
fertile imagination of the Middle Ages. The virtue of constancy was far
more admired than that of chastity, and it is said of Guenever, whose
sin had brought such calamity upon the Round Table, that "as she was a
true lover, so she had a good end."

Launcelot and Tristram vie with one another in the deeds of chivalry
which they accomplish in honor of their ladies, and the intimacy which
exists between the two knights and their mistresses adds much to the
interest of the story. A fine touch in the loves of Tristram and Isould
is the introduction of Sir Palomides, a valiant knight, almost the
equal of Tristram in prowess, who loves Isould as passionately as his
successful rival, but finds no favor to reward a long career of
devotion. The passions of jealousy and hatred on the one hand, and
knightly courtesy and honor on the other, which alternately sway the
two warriors, and struggle for the mastery in their relations with each
other, form a touching picture, and show that the romancers could
occasionally rise above the description of conflicts to a study of the
heart and character of men.

That our lovers felt a deep and absorbing passion, there can be no
doubt. Sir Dynas, the Seneschal, tells the Queen la Belle Isould that
Sir Tristram is near: "Thenne for very pure joye la Beale Isould
swouned, & whan she myghte speke, she said, gentyl knyghte Seneschall
help that I myghte speke with him, outher my herte will braste." They
meet, and then "to telle the joyes that were between la Beale Isoud and
sire Tristram, there is no tongue can telle it, nor herte thinke it,
nor pen wryte it." When Tristram thought Isoud un