soldier, whereas in the opinion of the later romancer the head of the pilgrim community ought to figure as a representative of Holy Church; accordingly, the personality of Joseph is divided, and the greater part of his activity now assigned to a son Josephe, who, as divinely ordained proto-bishop, is able to typify the clergy. In spite of this complex allegory, the writer is rather a novelist than a theologian, has at heart more the inditing of an agreeable story than the maintenance of a doctrinal thesis; his composition, as already remarked, is intended as an introduction to a body of fiction, in which the achiever of the quest was represented as Galahad. It seems reasonable to suppose that the long romance, occupying some eight hundred pages in the edition of Hucher, may have reached its present form only as the ultimate of several successive editions. The continuing invention of new episodes is attested by the manuscripts; one long addition has been printed by Hucher. Nevertheless, if the analysis here given be correct, it would appear to follow that the outlines of the story must have belonged to the tale as first devised.
A notice by a Cistercian chronicler, Helinandus, has been thought to furnish means for a determination of time. This writer mentions, under a date of about 717, that at this time a hermit in Britain was shown by an angel a wonderful vision concerning Joseph, a noble decurion, who took down from the cross the body of our Lord, and concerning the dish (catino illo vel paropside) in which the Lord supped with the disciples, and in which by the same hermit had been written a story termed gradale. Now, says the chronicler, in the French tongue gradalis or gradale signifies a dish (scutella) wide and somewhat deep, in which costly viands are commonly served in courses (gradatim), one morsel after another in various arrangement. In the vulgar speech it is also termed greal, as to the partaker grateful (grata), and acceptable as well by reason of the containing vessel, made of silver or other expensive material, as for the sake of the contents, namely, the manifold service of various meats. The history, as he says, he failed to find in Latin, but only in French, in which form it was possessed by certain nobles, but even thus not easy to be found complete.
It would seem self-evident that this notice refers to the present romance, with which it corresponds in virtue of date, the description of the Grail, and the mention of the work as introductory. As Helinandus ended his chronicles in 1204, it has been assumed that the composition took place at that time; but such ground appears unstable. The existing form of the prose tale seems to imply a later date; Gaston Paris tentatively suggests about 1240.
In the Nascien the functions of the holy vessel are similar to those which it performs in the poem of Robert. It is carried by
