XV: Of Compromises in Glathion explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Love and Marriage

  Jurgen's secret affair with Guenevere contrasts with her arranged marriage to King Arthur, highlighting the tension between personal desire and social obligation.

• Self-Deception and Identity

  Jurgen revels in his dual role as Duke of Logreus and secret lover, but his self-congratulation masks his misery and moral unease about the affair.

• Illusion vs. Reality

  The nighttime intimacy and daytime formality create a stark contrast between the hidden reality of their relationship and the public facade of propriety.

Characters to notice

• Jurgen

  As Duke of Logreus, he conducts a secret nightly affair with Guenevere, delighting in his own cleverness and the secrecy, yet grows troubled by her lack of remorse and his own misery over her impending marriage.

• Dame Guenevere

  She meets Jurgen at night in the Hall of Judgment, revealing a curious and knowledgeable side she hides by day, but shows little contrition for their secret meetings, treating them almost as a matter of course.

• King Gogyrvan

  Gogyrvan sits nodding and blinking in his brightest raiment during the tournament, and Jurgen abhors him for neglecting his duties as a father by allowing Guenevere's marriage.

• Merlin Ambrosius

  He arrives in Glathion with a great retinue aboard a ship with saffron sails to fetch Guenevere to London for her marriage to King Arthur.

• Queen Anaïtis

  She accompanies Merlin Ambrosius as the Lady of the Lake, arriving with a great retinue to escort Guenevere to London.

Key passages

• “The tale records that it was not a great while before, in simple justice to Guenevere, Duke Jurgen had afforded her the advantage of frank conversation in actual privacy.”

  Soon after, Jurgen arranged a private meeting with Guenevere to speak openly, believing it was only fair to her.

  Sets up the secret nightly meetings in the Hall of Judgment.

• “For conventions have to be regarded, of course. Thus the time of a princess is not her own, and at any hour of day all sorts of people are apt to request an audience just when some most improving conversation is progressing famously: but the Hall of Judgment stood vacant and unguarded at night.”

  Because a princess's schedule is always busy with visitors during the day, the empty Hall of Judgment at night offered a private place for their conversations.

  Explains the practical reason for choosing the Hall of Judgment for their meetings.

• “Jurgen wondered at the way of these women even as his arms went about her in the gloom. He remembered always the feel of that warm and slender and yielding body, naked under the thin fabric of the shift, as his arms first went about her: of all their moments together that last breathless minute before either of them had spoken stayed in his memory as the most perfect.”

  Jurgen was amazed by women's behavior as he embraced Guenevere in the dark; the sensation of her warm, slender body through her thin nightgown was the most perfect moment he ever remembered.

  Highlights Jurgen's sensual memory of their first physical encounter.

• “Jurgen came to these encounters well primed with wine, and in consequence, as he quite comprehended, talked like an angel, without confining himself exclusively to celestial topics.”

  Jurgen arrived at their meetings drunk on wine, which made him speak brilliantly, though not always about heavenly matters.

  Shows Jurgen's self-awareness and use of wine to enhance his conversation.

• “And Guenevere, he found, talked infinitely better at night. It was not altogether the wine which made him think that, either: the girl displayed a side she veiled in the day time.”

  Jurgen discovered that Guenevere was much more talkative and open at night, revealing a hidden side of her personality.

  Contrasts Guenevere's daytime and nighttime behavior.

• “A girl, far less a princess, is not supposed to know more than agrees with a man’s notion of maidenly ignorance, she contended.”

  Guenevere argued that a girl, especially a princess, is expected to know only what men consider proper for a maiden to know.

  Reveals Guenevere's awareness of societal constraints on women's knowledge.