Page:Studies on the legend of the Holy Grail.djvu/111

Rh introduces a different account. The angel is expounding to Josephe and Nasciens the marvels of the lance; to Josephe he says, "de cheste lance dont tu as este ferus; ne sera iamis ferus ke vns seus hom. Et chil sera rois, et descendra de ton lignaige, si serra li daerrains des boins. Chil en sera ferus parmi les cuisses ambedeus," and will not be healed till the Good Knight come, "et chil . . serra li daerrains hom del lignaige nascien. Et tout ausi com nasciens a este li premiers hom qui les meruelles du graal a veues; autresi sera chil li daerrains qui les verra. Car che dist li urais crucefis. 'Au premier home du precieus lignaige, et au daerrain, ai iou deuise à demonstrer mes meruelles.' Et si dist enchore après. 'Sour le premier et sour le daerrain de mes menistres nouuiaus qui sont enoint et sacre a mon plaisir, espanderai iou la venianche de la lanche auentureuse' (I, 216-17), i.e., the last of Josephe's line shall be the only man wounded by the lance, the last of Nasciens' line shall be the deliverer. But according to Galahad's genealogy, given above, it is not the last of Josephe's line (represented by his cousin Josue) who is the Wounded King, for Galahad himself is as much the last in descent from Josephe as from Nasciens, and even if we take the words to apply only to the direct male descendants of Josue, there is still a discrepancy, as not Pelles, but Pelleant, his father, is the "roi mehaigniés." If the Wounded King were really the last of Josephe's line, i.e., Pelles, Galahad would be his grandson, as Percival Perceval is to Brons. Taking the two versions D. and E. together, some idea may be gathered from them of the way in which the legend has grown, and of the shifts to which the later harmonisers were put in their attempts to reconcile divergent accounts. In the first draft of the Queste, Galahad has nothing to do with the Lame King, the latter remains Perceval's uncle, the very relationship obtaining in Chrestien. Galahad has supplanted Perceval, but has not stepped into the place entirely. The second draft of the Queste endeavours to remedy this by clumsily introducing the Lame King and his healing, missing in the first draft, into the great Grail scene at the end, an idea foreign