used as a sleeping-chamber (vol. iii. p. 291). This more fantastic account may seem to suggest the labor of a different hand.
In the romance of Pellesvaus, above mentioned, it is stated that the Grail is susceptible of five different transmutations of shape, one being the eucharistic chalice; it served as the first cup used in the dominions of Arthur. The mention may be thought to indicate that the writer of the Pellesvaus was acquainted with inconsistent representations of the holy vessel, in one of which it figured as a cup of the sacrament; and certainly the manner of notice seems indicative of a later period of composition than that of the Grand St. Graal.
AGRAVAIN.
The long Lancelot romance consists of several distinct editions, reciting respectively the youth of the hero, his advent at court, and the incipiency of his passion for the queen (Galehaut), his rescue of Guinevere from the mysterious land to which she has been taken by a ravisher (Chevalier de la Charrette), the quarrel of Lancelot with the queen, and his madness (Agravain), the quest of the Holy Grail (Queste), and the fall of the kingdom of Arthur (Mort Artus). The third and fourth of these divisions are connected as preface and sequel of a single story.
Although repeatedly included among early productions of the printing-press, the Lancelot has not as yet been critically edited from the manuscripts; in particular the Agravain is accessible only through a very brief abstract of P. Paris, and through the version of Sir Thomas Malory, in the twelfth and thirteenth books of his Morte Darthur, including only selected portions of the narrative. The variations of Malory from the usual French text of the romance have been pointed out by H. O. Sommer in his edition of the English writer.
As already remarked, the Agravain supplies an introduction to the story of the Queste. In the course of adventures, Lancelot arrives at Corbenic, the castle of Pelles, the maimed Fisher King; in order to fulfil an oracle, without Lancelot's intention, a meeting is arranged between him and Elaine, daughter of Pelles; the fruit of this encounter is Galahad, who is reared in Corbenic, and there seen as a babe by Bohor, in the course of a visit to the castle. Bohor passes a night of trial in the Palais Adventureus; being wounded, he is left in the hall, and there visited and healed by the Grail, which enters through the windows, preceded by a censer-bearer (a flying serpent or dove, according to different versions), and carried by a (supernatural) white-robed maiden, not clearly discernible. Bohor afterwards comes to the door of the chamber in which is kept the vessel, and sees it standing on a silver table, while a person habited as bishop (presumably Josephe) says mass before it. The appear-
