| Didot-Perceval. | Chrestien | Gautier de Doulens. |
| Inc. | Inc. | Inc. |
7. Disregard of uncle's exhortations (slaying a knight), through thinking of damsel of the Chessboard.
|
12. In so far as a knight is slain, but before the meeting with the hermit.
| |
8. Meeting with Rosette and Le Beau Mauvais (the loathly damsel).
|
11. | |
9. Adventure at the Ford with Urbains.
|
9. Ford Amorous; entirely different adventure.
| |
10. The two children in the tree.
|
20. One child.
| |
11. First arrival at Grail Castle.
|
7. | |
12. Reproaches of the wayside damsel.
|
8. In so far as in both the hero is reproached by a wayside damsel.
|
|
13. Meeting with the damsel who had carried off the stag's head and hound, and second visit to Castle of the Chessboard.
|
13 and 18. Many adventures being intercalated.
| |
14. Period (7 years) of despair ended by the Good Friday incident.
|
15. | |
15. Tournament at Melianz de Lia. Merlin's reproaches.
|
13. But told of Gawain not of Perceval.
|
|
16. Second arrival at Grail Castle. Achievement of Quest.
|
22. |
The different sequence in the Didot-Perceval and Chrestien may be explained, as Birch-Hirschfeld explains it, by the freedom which Chrestien allowed himself in re-casting the work; but why should Gautier, who, ex hypothesi, simply took up from Chrestien's model such adventures as his predecessor had omitted, have acted in precisely the same way? If the theory were correct we should expect to find the non-Chrestien incidents of the Didot-Perceval brought together in at least fairly the same order in Gautier. A glance at the table shows that this is not the case. In one incident, moreover, the Didot-Perceval is obviously right and Gautier obviously wrong, namely, in his incident 12, where the slaying of the knight before the hero's meeting the hermit takes away all point from the incident. An absolutely decisive proof that that portion of the Conte du Graal which goes under Gautier's name (though it is by no means clear that all of it is of the same age or due to one man), cannot be based upon the Didot-Perceval as we now possess it, is afforded by the adventure of the Ford
