Properties and Effect of the Grail.
In Chrestien these seem to be of a purely physical nature; the Grail is borne uncovered through the hall at every meal (4,470-79), it feeds the Fisher King's father—
D'une seule oiste li sains horn
Quant en ce Greal li aporte
Sa vie sostient et conforte
Tant sainte cose est li Graaus. (7,796-99)
the most direct testimony in Chrestien to its sacred nature. In Gautier, likewise, the physical properties are insisted upon in the following passages:—
Lors vit parmi la sale aler
La rice Gréail ki servoit
Et mist le pain a grant esploit. (20,114-16)
Moult mangièrent à grant loisir;
Adonques véissiés servir
Le Gréail moult honestement. (20,142-43)
but in verses 28,078-81 a remarkable spiritual effect is attributed to it—
Car li diables ne deçoit
Nul homme ki le jor le voie,
Ne ne le met en male voie
Por faire pécié creminal.
In A IIA, Pseudo-Gautier, the physical side alone is insisted upon—
Et de quanqu'il lor ert mestiers
Les fornissoit à tel plenté
Com s'il n'eust néant cousté; (12-14)
Et li Graaux par tot aloit
Et pain et vin par tot portoit
Et autres mès a grant planté. (171-74)
Manessier makes no special reference to the properties of the Grail.
In the B versions it is the spiritual power of the Grail which is dwelt upon. Christ's words to Joseph have already been quoted (supra, p. 71), and the use which the latter puts the Grail to, and which is specially indicated to Joseph by the Holy Ghost, is in
