by Beroul
One day a strange knight came to Mark’s court while Tristan was hunting in the forest. He played the rote before the king and Mark was so enchanted with his playing that he offered the knight any gift he chose. The knight chose Yseut and, since none of the Cornish barons dared fight in her defence, carried her off. As soon as Tristan learned of this he set out in pursuit and came up with the knight and Yseut at the water’s edge. Tristan began to play his harp and greatly pleased the knight, who asked Tristan to accompany him and to take Yseut on horseback out to the waiting vessel. Once Yseut was on Tristan’s horse they galloped back to court, where Tristan warned Mark to take better care of Yseut.
2
THE TRYST UNDER THE TREE
As Tristan and Yseut continued their illicit love they managed to deceive Mark but not the others at court. A group of barons hostile to Tristan, succeeded in arousing the king’s suspicions concerning the relationship between his wife and his nephew. Mark forbade Tristan to remain at court for a time, and his nephew took lodgings in the town. With the help of Brangain, however, Tristan contrived to go on seeing Yseut. In the orchard surrounding the castle at Tintagel there was a stream; Tristan used to climb into the orchard at night and stand near the spring from which the stream flowed. He used to cut twigs and throw them into the stream which carried them to where Yseut could see them. As soon as she saw them she would hasten to join her lover in the orchard. But their meetings were discovered: at the instigation of Tristan’s enemies a wicked dwarf, Frocin, found out by magic the secret of the lovers’ rendezvous. Mark was told and his suspicions immediately increased. The dwarf swore that he could demonstrate the lovers’ guilt and, acting on the dwarf’s advice, Mark climbed one night into the branches of a tree near the spring, meaning to eavesdrop on their conversation.
When Tristan came to the spring he was able, in the moonlight, to see a reflection of the king’s shadow. Yseut came into the orchard and also saw the king’s shadow, much to her surprise; but she took care
that she gave no sign of this. As she drew near to her lover, hear how she forestalled him:
‘Tristan, for God’s sake, it is very wrong of you to send for me at such a time!’ Then she pretended to weep. [‘If the king were ever to hear of this meeting, I am sure he would kill me.] For the sake of the Lord who created all things, never send for me again. I am sorry to say this, Tristan, but I am sure I should not dare to come. The king thinks that I have been wicked enough to love you. But before God I swear I have been loyal: may He scourge me if anyone has ever had my love except the man who had me as a maiden. There are villains in this kingdom – and it was for their sake that you once fought and killed Morholt – who are making the king believe, so it seems to me, that you and I love each other. But you have no desire for this; nor have I, by Almighty God, any mind for a love which turns to sin. I would rather be burned and have my ashes scattered to the winds any day of my life than love someone who was not my rightful lord. But, my God, he will not believe me! How little he thinks of me now. Solomon was right when he said a thief never likes the man who rescues him from the gallows. If the villains in this land [remembered how much they owe you, they would not talk of their suspicions about us, they would conceal them]. You had to endure great pain from the wound my uncle gave you in battle. I cured you: no wonder if you loved me for this! And they have told the king you love me wickedly. Let them go to heaven and God would turn his back on them! Tristan, take care never to send for me anywhere for anything; I should not dare to come. I have already stayed here too long, without a word of a lie. If the king ever knew of this he would have me torn to pieces; it would be a horrible mistake, but I know he would kill me. Tristan, I am sure the king does not realize that I have loved you for his sake; I loved you because we were related. I used to think that my mother dearly loved my father’s family, and she said that a wife who does not do so does not love her lord: I am certain this was right. I have loved you because of him and by doing this I have lost all his, good will.’
[‘Certainly, he has shown that he suspects us.] His men have made him believe their lies about us.’
‘Tristan, what do you mean? My lord the king is an honourable man: the idea that you and I have had wicked thoughts never came from him. But men can be led astray and made to forget good and do evil. This is what has happened to my lord. Tristan, I am going, I have stayed too long.’
‘For God’s sake, my lady! I asked you to come, and now that you are here I beg you to listen to what I have to say. I have always held you so dear.’
When he had heard his beloved speaking he knew that she had seen Mark. He thanked God for this, now that he was sure everything would go well.
‘Ah, Yseut, you are a noble, honourable and loyal daughter of a king! Several times I have asked to see you since your room was forbidden to me and I could not speak to you. My lady, I want to beg your mercy on this poor wretch living in sorrow and hardship. That the king should ever think ill of me on your account grieves me so much that I think I shall die. It is hard for me [to bear these thoughts. He is doing me a great injustice. Alas, if only he knew my mind, he would know the truth straight away and] he would not believe these slanderers and send me away. The wicked, sly Cornishmen are very pleased with this and they are laughing over it. It looks to me now as though they wanted Mark to have no one of his own lineage around him. His marriage has done me much harm. God, why is the king so foolish? I would let him hang me before I became your lover. He will not even let me clear myself. He is angry with me because of his evil counsellors; he is very wrong to believe them, he does not realize how they have deceived him. I can remember one occasion when they kept very quiet: it was when Morholt came here, and not a single one of them dared take up his arms. My uncle was very much afraid then and would rather have been dead than alive. For the honour of the king I armed myself; I did battle with Morholt and drove him away. My dear uncle ought not to believe the slanders that are told about me; it makes me deeply angry to think of it. Does he not think he is wronging me? For he certainly is, by God! My lady, go straight to the king and tell him to have a fire made: I will walk into it, and if a single thread of my tunic is burnt then he can burn the rest of me; for I know there is no one at his court who would do battle with me. My lady, does your great kindness not move you to pity? Speak well of me to my uncle. I came to him from over the seas, and I want to return honourably.’
‘Indeed, you are making a great mistake in asking me to tell him the truth and beg him to forgive you. I do not want to die yet nor ruin myself utterly! He thinks ill of you on my account: am I to talk to him about this? I should be very rash. I will not do it, Tristan, nor should you ask me to. I am quite alone in this land. On my account he has forbidden you to enter his chamber. It would be madness for me to talk about it and I shall not say a word. But I will tell you something I want you to know: if he could forget his anger and his ill will and pardon you, I should be very happy. But if he knew of this meeting I know it would be death for us. I am going. But I shall not be able to sleep. I am very much afraid that someone may have seen us coming here. If the king heard a word of our being together, I should not be surprised if he decided to have me burnt. My body is trembling with fear. I must go, I have been here far too long.’
Yseut turned to go, but Tristan called her back.
‘My lady, out of pity for his people, God took human form and was born of a virgin; out of pity for me, please advise me. I know you dare not remain here; but there is no one I can talk to except you, for I know the king hates me. All my weapons are pledged to him: let him give them back to me and I will take my leave, for I dare not stay. I know I am brave enough [for my service to be welcome] in any land I go to. I know there is no court in the world whose lord would not have me if I went there. I have been glad to serve the king, Yseut, and by my own head I tell you that before a year has passed he will wish for all the gold in the world that he had not thought of banishing me; and that is true. For God’s
sake, Yseut, think of me, discharge me from the debt I owe my host.’
‘By God, Tristan, I marvel that you can ask me to do this! You are trying to do me harm, your request is not fair to me. You know what suspicion is, whether or not it is well-founded. By the glorious God who made heaven and earth and us, if the king were to hear a word of your wanting to be released from your pledges, he would obviously think you were disloyal. I could certainly not take this risk. You must realize that I am truly not saying this out of selfishness.’
Then Yseut went away and Tristan bade her farewell, weeping. Tristan leaned on a block of grey marble (to support himself, I think) and poured out his grief alone:
‘God, fair St Evrol, I never thought to suffer such misfortune nor to leave in such poverty! I shall take neither weapons nor horse with me, nor any companion except Governal. God, nobody loves a man when he is out of favour! When I am in another land and I hear knights talking of war, I shall not dare to say a word. Now I have to suffer the hardships of fortune, which has caused me so much harm and brought me so much spite. My dear uncle, a man who mistrusts me with your wife does not know me; I never had any desire for such folly. [Whoever suspects me of such designs] knows very little of my heart.’
The king, who was up in the tree, had seen their meeting clearly and heard all that they said. The pity which filled him was so great that he could not for all the world hold back his tears; he was grief-stricken, and he began to hate the dwarf of Tintagel.
‘Alas,’ said the king, ‘now I have seen that the dwarf deceived me greatly in persuading me to climb into this tree. He could not have shamed me more. He told me lies about my nephew, and for that I shall hang him. He made me so angry that I hated my wife. I acted like a fool when I believed him. He shall have his deserts: I will deal with him more harshly than Constantine did with Segestes, whom he had castrated when he found him with his wife. She had been crowned in Rome and many knights were in her service. She was dear to him and he honoured her; then he treated her badly and regretted it bitterly afterwards.’
Tristan had left a little while before. The king climbed down from the tree, thinking in his heart that now he would believe his wife and not the barons, who were trying to make him believe things which he knew were untrue and which he had proved to be false. Now he would not rest until he had given the dwarf such a reward that he would utter no more treason; nor would he ever again suspect Tristan and Yseut, but allow them to use his chamber freely as they wished.
‘Now at last I know for certain. If what the dwarf told me had been true, their meeting would not have finished like this. If they loved each other wickedly, they had enough leisure here and I should have seen them kissing. But I heard them lamenting so much. I know now that they have no mind for it. Why did I believe such an outrageous accusation? That grieves me, and I repent of it; a man who believes everybody is a fool. I should have tried to find out the truth about these two before I had these wild suspicions. This has been a lucky evening for them! I have learned so much from their conversation that I shall never again be anxious about them. In the morning peace shall be made between Tristan and me, and he will have leave to be in my chamber at his pleasure. Now he will not depart in the morning as he intended.’
Hear now of the hunch-backed dwarf, Frocin. He was outside looking at the heavens, and he could see Orion and Venus. He knew the courses of the stars and he observed the planets. He knew what was to happen in the future: when he heard that a child was born, he could predict all the events of its life. The cunning dwarf had made every effort to deceive the man who was later to separate his soul from his body. He looked at the conjunction of the stars and his face flushed and swelled with rage, for he learned that the king was menacing him and would not rest until he had killed him. The dwarf soon lost his colour and went white; very quickly he took flight towards Wales. The king searched for the dwarf and was sorry that he could not be found.
Yseut went to her room. Brangain could see that she was pale and knew she had heard something that had upset her, for her colour had changed and her face was white. [Brangain asked her what was the matter] and Yseut replied:
‘Fair maid, I have good reason to be sad and anxious. Brangain, I will tell you everything. I do not know who wanted to betray us today, but King Mark was in the tree by the marble block; I saw his shadow in the spring. God let me speak first. Not a word was said of what I had gone there for, I assure you, but there was a great deal of lamenting and complaining. I reproached him for sending for me, and he in turn begged me to reconcile him to my lord, who was greatly mistaken about him on my account. And I told him he was very foolish to ask me and said I would never come again, nor would I talk to the king about it. I do not know what more I said – there was a lot of complaining! The king did not notice anything, nor did he see through what I said. I got myself out of a difficult situation.’
Brangain was very glad to hear this: ‘Yseut, my lady, God is always true. He has been very kind to us when he let you finish your conversation without doing anything else, so that the king saw nothing that cannot be easily explained. God has really worked a miracle for you. He is a true father, and he will not harm those who are loyal and good.’
Tristan also told Governal how he had behaved. Governal listened, and thanked God that Tristan had done no more with his beloved.
The king failed to find his dwarf (God, so much the worse for Tristan!). Mark then went to his room. Yseut was very frightened when she saw him.
‘Sire, for God’s sake, where have you come from? Why do you come alone?’
‘My queen, I have come to speak to you and to ask you something. Do not conceal anything from me, I want to know the truth.’
‘Sire, I have never lied to you. Even if I am to die now I shall tell you the whole truth, not a single word shall be false.’
‘My lady, have you seen my nephew?’
‘Sire, I will tell you the whole truth. You will not believe it, but I shall speak without deceit. I have seen your nephew and spoken to him; I met him under the pine tree. Now kill me for this, king, if you want to. Certainly I saw him. It is a great sorrow to me that you should think I love Tristan shamefully and deceitfully. I am so upset that I do not care if you make me come to a wretched end. My Lord, have pity on me now! I have told you the truth. Yet you will not believe me, instead you believe vain and foolish words. May my good faith acquit me! Tristan, your nephew, went to the pine tree over there in the garden and sent to ask me to go to him. He had nothing to say, but I could not show him too little respect since it is through him that I am your queen. Certainly, if it were not for those wretches who tell you of things that never were, I should willingly pay him honour. You are my lord, sire, and everyone knows he is your nephew; because of you I have loved him much, sire. But the wicked slanderers, who want to have him sent away from court, are making you believe lies. Now Tristan is going. May God make them ashamed of this! I spoke with your nephew last night; he lamented greatly because of his sorrow and asked me to reconcile him with you. I told him to go away and never to send for me again, for I should not come to him; nor would I ever speak to you about it. Sire, you will not believe any of this! That was all. Kill me if you want to, but it will be wrong. Because of this strife Tristan is leaving and I know he will cross the sea. He asked me to pay for his lodging. I did not want to pay anything on his behalf nor even speak to him for long. Sire, now I have told you the truth without fail. If I lie to you, cut off my head. You may be sure, sire, that I would gladly pay his debts if I dared; but I even hesitated to put four small coins in his purse on account of your gossiping household. He is going away poor, may God guide him! You are driving him out through a great error. He will never come back to this land if God is his true friend.’
The king well knew that she was speaking the truth, for he had heard all those words. He embraced her and kissed her a hundred times. She wept and he told her to be quiet: never again at any time would he mistrust them because of w
hat any slanderer said; they could come and go as they wished; Tristan’s goods were his and his were Tristan’s; never would he believe those Cornishmen again. Then the king told the queen how the wicked dwarf Frocin had warned him of their meeting and made him climb into the tree that evening to watch them.
‘Were you in the pine tree, then, sire?’
‘Yes, my lady, by St Martin! Nothing was said, however slight, that I did not hear. When I heard Tristan recall the battle which I made him fight, I felt such pity that I all but fell from the tree. I was overcome with grief when I heard you recount his suffering at sea from the wound the dragon gave him, 1 which you cured and you were very good to him; when he asked you to redeem his pledges, you did not want to acquit him. Nor did either of you try to approach the other. Up in the tree I felt such sympathy for you, I could only smile to myself.’
‘My Lord, I am very glad of this. Now you know with certainty, for that would have been a fine opportunity for us. If he loved me wickedly, you would have seen signs enough. On the contrary, by my faith, you saw that there was no hint of his coming up to kiss me or behave in an unseemly way. Surely, Tristan’s love for me is blameless. Sire, if you had not seen us just now you would certainly not have believed me.’
‘I would not, by God,’ said the king. ‘Brangain, God give you honour, go and find my nephew in his lodging. If he says one thing and another and will not come for you, say that it is I who am sending for him.’
‘Sire,’ said Brangain, ‘he hates me. God knows he is wrong, but he says that it is through me that he has quarrelled with you and he is eager to get rid of me. But I will go, for your sake he will refrain from touching me. Sire, reconcile me with him when he comes here.’ (Just listen to the deceitful woman! She spoke like a real swindler. She lied deliberately and complained about Tristan’s ill will.) ‘I am going for him, sire,’ said Brangain, ‘you will do me a good turn if you can restore me to his favour.’
