little better than nonsense. The idea to be conveyed is, that the mystery of the Grail, in other words the secret of a holy life, consists in the reception, through ecstatic vision, of the self-incarnating Redeemer, a privilege accorded solely to participants in the office of the mass, and only to such of these as are able to lead a religious, that is to say, an ascetic life; so long as this conception is set forth, the author is quite indifferent to the consistency of details.
The Agravain recites the manner in which Galahad was born, and how he came to be a resident of an abbey near Camelot. The Queste presupposes such history, and cannot therefore be regarded as an independent composition, but only as another volume of an elaborate novel. That the productions are not entirely consistent shows that they were not produced at one time by one hand.
That the same remark applies to other portions of the Lancelot story is proven by the introduction of Bohor as one of the questers, he being chaste, albeit no virgin knight; such mention has relation to a chapter of the Lancelot story reciting a corresponding adventure of Bohor.
With relation to the Grand St. Graal, or Nascien romance, the case is similar. It has been shown that the final and principal chapter of the Queste seems to be modelled on the former story. So also the abstract given of the history of the converts Mordrain, Nascien, and Celidoine refers to the earlier romance, in which, as already observed, the motive is allegorical. The same is true of the introduction of the ship of Solomon, which in the Grand St. Graal has a function as serving to transport the actors, as well as to typify the delivering church; in the Queste, the vessel appears to be dragged in merely for the purpose of decoration.
On the other hand, even although the Nascien story may have been earlier than the existing form of the Queste, and served as a model for the latter, yet it seems clear that it must have been composed to serve as preface for a tale of the quest in which the achiever was a son of Lancelot; furthermore, the relation as now preserved has been edited in such manner as to bring it into accord with the extant version of the Queste.
The conclusion must be, that the several works mentioned form a body of romance, every part of which has been edited and reëdited with reference to every other. In this task have been engaged many hands, the resulting stories never being brought to absolute uniformity; various stages in the development may be conjecturally indicated, but it seems very improbable that complete apprehension will ever be attained; one might as well turn a telescope on a mirage as expect by methods of minute scholarship to solve such a problem. On general principles, it may be presumed that the reputation of
