Gender and the Chivalric Community in Malory’s Morte d’Arthur Copyright 2003 by Dorsey Armstrong. This work is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No De- rivative Works 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. You are free to electronically copy, distribute, and transmit this work if you at- tribute authorship. However, all printing rights are reserved by the University Press of Florida (http://www.upf.com). Please contact UPF for information about how to obtain copies of the work for print distri- bution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they en- dorse you or your use of the work). For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the University Press of Florida. Nothing in this license impairs or re- stricts the author’s moral rights. Florida A&M University, Tallahassee Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers Florida International University, Miami Florida State University, Tallahassee University of Central Florida, Orlando University of Florida, Gainesville University of North Florida, Jacksonville University of South Florida, Tampa University of West Florida, Pensacola Gender and the Chivalric Community in Malory’s Morte d’Arthur o Dorsey Armstrong University Press of Florida Gainesville · Tallahassee · Tampa · Boca Raton Pensacola · Orlando · Miami · Jacksonville · Ft. Myers Copyright 2003 by Dorsey Armstrong Printed in the United States of America on recycled, acid-free paper All rights reserved 08 07 06 05 04 03 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Armstrong, Dorsey, 1970– Gender and the chivalric community in Malory’s Morte d’Arthur/Dorsey Armstrong p. cm. Includes bibiographical references and index. ISBN 0-8130-2686-5 (alk. paper) 1. Malory, Thomas, Sir, 15th cent. Morte d’Arthur. 2. Malory, Thomas, Sir, 15th cent.—Political and social views. 3. Literature and society—England—history—To 1500. 4. Arthurian romances—History and criticism. 5. Romances, English—History and criticism. 6. Knights and knighthood in literature. 7. Community in literature. 8. Sex roles in literature. 9. Chivalry in literature. I. Title. PR2045.A76 2003 823'.2—dc22 2003061694 The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the State University System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, Florida State University, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida. University Press of Florida 15 Northwest 15th Street Gainesville, FL 32611–2079 http://www.upf.com Contents o Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 1. Gender and the Chivalric Community: The Rise of Arthur’s Kingdom 27 2. Chivalric Performance: Malory’s Sir Lancelot 67 3. Forecast and Recall: Gareth and Tristram 110 4. Gender, Kinship, and Community: The Quest for the Holy Grail 144 5. Lancelot, Guenevere, and the Death of Arthur: The Decline and Fall of the Chivalric Community 173 Notes 213 Bibliography 249 Index 267 Acknowledgments o I would like to thank the following people for their help in making this book a reality: First and foremost, thanks go to David Aers whose support and encour- agement are the foundation upon which this project is built. He and Sarah Beckwith enthusiastically offered constructive advice and criticism from the very beginning, providing much appreciated guidance and intellectual stimulation. Monica Green and Reynolds Price also were conscientious and supportive readers of this project in the early stages, and I thank them for their thoughtful critiques. Seth Lerer went far beyond the call of duty as an undergraduate advisor, remaining a mentor and friend throughout my graduate school days and beyond; I am grateful for his insight and suggestions. Karen Cherewatuk and Laurie Finke were generous readers in the later stages of my work, and their suggestions and advice strength- ened, sharpened, and improved my argument. Amy Gorelick at the Uni- versity Press of Florida helped guide this book to publication; I deeply ap- preciate her hard work, support, and friendship. Friends and colleagues have helped make the long process of writing enjoyable, and I would like to thank the following for their unflagging enthusiasm and good cheer: Dee Abrahamse, Jeremy Adams, Libby Aze- vedo, Glenn Bach, Jean Blacker, Elyse Blankley, Susan Carlile, Tim Caron, Kate Crassons, Tyler Dilts, Maureen Ettinger, Frank Fata, Bill Fitzhenry, John Flaa and Amy Mendoza Flaa, Jo Goyne, Suzanne Greenberg, Liz Griff and John Hilgart, Chris Grooms, Mimi Hotchkiss, Cliff Jones and Erin Sul- livan, Lloyd Kermode, Eileen Klink, Lezlie Knox, Beth Lau, Paulino Lim, Katie Little, Rebekah Long, Jessica Moen, Michael Murphy, Julie Paulson, Doris Pintscher, Joe Potts, Sharon Robinson, Marty Shichtman, Christo- pher Snyder, Martine Van Elk, Fred Wegener, and of course, the incompa- rable Bonnie Wheeler. viii Acknowledgments I owe a special debt of gratitude to the Circulation and Interlibrary Loan staff at California State University, Long Beach, where much of this book was written. Dian Olsen, Gilbert Parra, Alex Rambo, and Leslie Swigart dealt with my many requests on a daily basis for several months and al- ways managed to be cheerful about it. Some parts of this book have previously appeared elsewhere, and I would like to thank those who have given their kind permission to reprint that material here. Portions of chapter 1 have been published as “Gender and the Chivalric Community: The Pentecostal Oath in Malory’s ‘Tale of King Arthur,’” Bibliographical Bulletin of the International Arthurian Society 51 (1999): 293–312, and “Malory’s Morgause,” in On Arthurian Women: Essays in Honor of Maureen Fries, edited by Bonnie Wheeler and Fiona Tolhurst (Dallas: Scriptorium Press, 2001), 149–60. A portion of chapter 2 has appeared in substantially different form as “Gender and Fear: Malory’s Lancelot and Knightly Identity,” in Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, 6: Fear and Its Representations in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, edited by Anne Scott and Cynthia Kosso (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2002), 255–73. Unless otherwise noted, all translations of the French Lancelot-Grail are copyright 1993–1996 from the five-volume Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation, edited by Norris Lacy. Reproduced by permis- sion of Routledge, Inc., part of The Taylor and Francis Group. I am grateful to my family for their continuous love and support: Charles and Susan Armstrong; Katherine Armstrong and Mark Hoch- stetler; Chuck Armstrong (the younger); Vivian Yunker; Paul and Jan Schneider; Martye Armstrong; Scott, Lora, and Sara Davis; Molly Whiles and Betsy LaFuze. Finally, an extra-large thanks to my husband, Ryan Schneider, whose love and patience made everything possible: this is for you. Introduction o This book examines the function of gender in Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, arguing that an understanding of the particular construction of gender in Malory’s text is critical to any attempt to engage with its narra- tive project. Like many other medieval romance texts, the Morte d’Arthur focuses on the masculine activity of chivalry—fighting, questing, ruling— while simultaneously revealing the chivalric enterprise as impossible without the presence of the feminine in a subjugated position. However, Malory’s text differs from other Arthurian and medieval romance litera- ture in the explicit legislation (as opposed to implicit coding) of chivalric values, most notably in the swearing of the Pentecostal Oath, an event unique to Malory’s text. This study examines how the institution of the Oath defines and sharpens specific ideals of masculine and feminine gen- der identities in the Arthurian community, arguing that a compulsion to fulfill these ideals drives the narrative of the Morte d’Arthur forward to its inevitable ending. While I generally agree with scholars who see the Morte d’Arthur as, at least in part, a comment on the strife and instability of fifteenth-century England, I feel also that the Morte is a text that does much more than simply reflect and engage the anxieties of the author’s time by turning nostalgically to a long-distant past for guidance and reas- surance. Malory’s text examines the very idea of chivalry by setting into motion the knightly enterprise and following it through to its ultimate conclusion. A sustained, book-length treatment of gender in the Morte d’Arthur is long overdue; while the works of other medieval authors—most notably Chaucer—have in recent years been subjected to rigorous and fruitful scrutiny by scholars with an interest in gender and feminist studies,1 the Morte d’Arthur has received comparatively cursory attention in this area. In part, this may be due to what some scholars view as Malory’s “de-femi- nization” of his source material. Terence McCarthy argues that Malory’s 2 Gender and the Chivalric Community in Malory’s Morte d’Arthur text is “essentially military” in spirit, and that while “in the French texts we will find long soliloquies and analyses of private feeling . their ab- sence from the Morte Darthur is of vital