lover of God, and of God's spouse, Holy Church, may accomplish it. Perceval succeeds, save that a little crack still remains. The Fisher King embraces him and hails him as lord of his house.
Here the section which goes under the name of Gautier ends.
[A portion of Gautier's section of the Conte du Graal is found in the Berne MS., partly edited, partly summarised, by Rochat in his work, Ein unbekannter Percheval li Gallois (vide infra p. 101). This version offers some remarkable peculiarities. It has a short introduction of thirteen lines; then follows line 21,930 of Gautier in Potvin's text (Mons MS.). An incident follows, omitted in the Mons MS., but found in Montpellier and in Paris, 794: Perceval meets a huntsman who upbraids him for having been at the Fisher King's court, and failed to ask about Grail and bleeding lance. Then follow Incidents 6, 7 (8 is absent so far as one can judge from Rochat's summary), 9 to 13 (in which Perceval does not apparently send Garalas and his love to Arthur), and 14 to end, the following finish being then tacked on: The Fisher King is father to Alain le Gros, husband to Enigeus, sister to that Joseph who, when Christ's body was taken down from the Cross, had it from Pilate as a reward for his services. Joseph had the vessel prepared to catch in it the blood from the body; it was the same Jesus had made the Sacrament in on the Thursday before. The Fisher King dies on the third day and Perceval reigns in his stead.][1]
The Conte du Graal is continued by—
(c) Manessier.—(1) Perceval, full of joy, sits down to table; after the meal, lance, Grail, and a goodly silver dish pass before the royal table away into the next room. Perceval, sighing, asks concerning these objects and the maidens bearing them. (2) The King tells as follows: the lance is that wherewith Longis pierced God's side that day he hung on the Cross (Montpellier MS.: When Longis withdrew the spear the blood ran down to feet, so that Joseph of Barimacie turned black from sorrow, and he collected the blood in the holy vessel). On Perceval's asking further, the Grail is the vessel wherein the holy precious blood of our Lord was received. Then Perceval asks how it came thither; (3) Joseph brought it when he departed from the prison whence he was freed by Vespasian. He baptized forty of his friends, and wandered forth with them till they came to Sarras, where, as the tale tells, they found the King in the Temple of
- ↑ The existence of this fragment shows the necessity of collating all the MSS. of the Conte du Graal and the impossibility of arriving at definite conclusions respecting the growth of the work before this is done. The writer of this version evidently knew nothing of Queste or Grand St. Graal, whilst he had knowledge of Borron's poem, a fact the more remarkable since none of the other poets engaged upon the Conte du Graal knew of Borron, so far, at least, as can be gathered from printed sources. It is hopeless in the present state of knowledge to do more than map out approximately the leading sections of the work.
