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Troylus in love

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2013

Translated by
Nigel Bryant
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Summary

If ever a chivalric romance asserted the inspirational effects of women – and of love itself – upon a knight, it is Perceforest. All people, the author makes plain, should be subjects of the lord Love, and if they've yet to pay him homage they have no meaningful place in the world. And if we're not inspired by our commitment to that mighty lord, how much, the author asks, are we ever likely to achieve? This idea is explored wittily – but with no lack of serious intent – when the great knight Lyonnel du Glat, who has been achieving extraordinary feats for the love of his beloved Blanchete, meets a former companion while on his way to a tournament.

Lyonnel was overjoyed to meet Troylus again, and he told him he'd been well rewarded for everything he'd endured in his adventures with the lions, the serpent and the giant. He would undertake any challenge, he said, no matter how much suffering was involved, ‘to earn half the reward I've had for this!’

‘Then your prize, sir,’ said Troylus, ‘has been rich indeed! Is the prize in gold? Or in castles or cities?’

‘What do you mean, sir?’ Lyonnel replied. ‘You think you can compare my reward to gold or cities? If you were as rich as Alexander ever was and you offered to bequeath me all your wealth in exchange for my reward I wouldn't accept – no, I wouldn't exchange it for all the Earth!’

Type
Chapter
Information
A Perceforest Reader
Selected Episodes from Perceforest: The Prehistory of Arthur's Britain
 , pp. 39 - 42
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2012

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