Lancelot and Elaine

Lancelot and Elaine

Lancelot came to the family at Astolat in order to borrow a shield so that he could go to Arthur's tournament without being known. Elaine falls in love with him and becomes the guardian of his shield, taking it into the tower. She also gives him her colors to wear at the tournament, which he has never allowed of any maiden before because he cannor wear the colors of his true love - Arthur's Guinevere. Elaine fancies that he loves her too, and after he falls wounded in the tournament, she cares for him until he is out of danger. Lancelot realizes that he could love Elaine for all her sweetness and lack of duplicity, but is bound by honor (of a sort) to stay true to Guinevere. Elaine's father asks Lancelot to be dicourteous to Elaine to try and break her attachment, since the whole kingdom knows the true state of affairs at Camelot, but Elaine is as wilful in her affections as in other things and dies of a broken heart. Her bier is placed on a wagon, and then a barge and floated into Camelot, bearing in her hand a letter to Lancelot declaring her feelings again, and asking Guinever and her ladies to pray for her soul.

"...And the sick man forgot her simple blush

Would call her friend and sister, sweet Elaine,

Would listen for her coming and regret

Her parting step, and held her tenderly,

And loved her with all love except the love

Of man and woman when they love their best,

Closest and sweetest, and had died the death

In any knightly fashion for her sake...."

"...But when Sir Lancelot's deadly hurt was whole,

To Astolat returning rode the three.

There morn by morn, arraying her sweet self

In that wherein she deem'd she look'd her best,

She came before Sir Lancelot, for she thought

'If I be loved, these are my festal robes,

If not, the victim's flowers before he fall.'"

"And Lancelot ever prest upon the maid

That she should ask some goodly gift of him

For her own self or hers; 'and do not shun

To speak the wish most near to your true heart;

Such service have ye done me, that I make

My will of yours, and Prince and Lord am I

In mine own land, and what I will I can.'

Then like a ghost she lifted up her face,

But like a ghost without the power to speak.

And Lancelot saw that she withheld her wish,

And bode among them yet a little space

Till he should learn it; and one morn it chanced

He found her in among the garden yews,

And said, 'Delay no longer, speak your wish,

Seeing I go to-day:' then out she brake:

'Going? and we shall never see you more.

And I must die for want of one bold word.'

'Speak: that I live to hear,' he said, 'is yours.'"

"Then suddenly and passionately she spoke:

'I have gone mad. I love you: let me die.'

'Ah, sister,' answer'd Lancelot, 'what is this?'

And innocently extending her white arms,

'Your love,' she said, 'your love--to be your wife.'

And Lancelot answer'd, 'Had I chosen to wed,

I had been wedded earlier, sweet Elaine:

But now there never will be wife of mine.'"

"'No, no,' she cried, 'I care not to be wife,

But to be with you still, to see your face,

To serve you, and to follow you thro' the world.'

And Lancelot answer'd, 'Nay, the world, the world,

All ear and eye, with such a stupid heart

To interpret ear and eye, and such a tongue

To blare its own interpretation--nay,

Full ill then should I quit your brother's love,

And your good father's kindness.'"

"And she said,
'Not to be with you, not to see your face--

Alas for me then, my good days are done.'

'Nay, noble maid,' he answer'd, 'ten times nay!

This is not love: but love's first flash in youth,

Most common: yea, I know it of mine own self:

And you yourself will smile at your own self

Hereafter, when you yield your flower of life

To one more fitly yours, not thrice your age:

And then will I, for true you are and sweet

Beyond mine old belief in womanhood,

More specially should your good knight be poor,

Endow you with broad land and territory

Even to the half my realm beyond the seas,

So that would make you happy; furthermore,

Ev'n to the death, as tho' ye were my blood,

In all your quarrels will I be your knight.

This will I do, dear damsel, for your sake,

And more than this I cannot.' ..."

"...To whom the gentle sister made reply,

'Fret not yourself, dear brother, nor be wroth,

Seeing it is no more Sir Lancelot's fault

Not to love me, than it is mine to love

Him of all men who seems to me the highest.'..."

"... Then spake the lily maid of Astolat:

'Sweet father, all too faint and sick am I

For anger: these are slanders: never yet

Was noble man but made ignoble talk.

He makes no friend who never made a foe.

But now it is my glory to have loved

One peerless, without stain: so let me pass,

My father, howsoe'er I seem to you,

Not all unhappy, having loved God's best

And greatest, tho' my love had no return.'..."

Idylls of the King
Alfred Lord Tennyson
(Elaine and the Lady of Shalott are different versions of the same person. Which explains why Anne changes from the Funeral of Elaine to quoting The Lady of Shalott.)