knights of the Round Table were too much occupied with secular
pursuits, and who found no greater encomium to pass upon Sir Galahad,
than to call him a "maid." But the idea of the Christian knighthood
setting out to seek the Holy Cup was "marvellous and adventurous," and
so well suited to please the mediæval mind that we find this quest
introduced into several of the romances of chivalry, and it appears,
though in an incomplete form, in the "Morte d'Arthur." The adventures
met with by the knighthood are much the same as when they were pursuing
a less lofty object. Sir Galahad occupies the intervals between his
serious occupations with rolling his father Sir Launcelot and other
noble knights into the dust in the usual unsaintly fashion. The
supernatural element is stronger perhaps in the story of the Saint
Gréal than in any other romance, and the monkish inspiration of the
work is everywhere manifest. When Sir Galahad rescues the inmates of
the Castle of Maidens by overthrowing their oppressors, the romancer
points out that the Castle of Maidens "betokeneth the good souls that
were in prison before the incarnation of Jesu Christ." It is here also
that we learn that "Sir Launcelot is come but of the eighth degree from
our Lord Jesu Christ, and Sir Galahad is of the ninth degree from our
Lord Jesu Christ; therefore I dare say that they may be the greatest
gentlemen of the world."

When we have read of the "byrth, lyf and actes of Kyng Arthur, of his
noble knyghtes of the rounde table, theyr mervayllous enquests and
aduentures, th' achyeuyng of the sangréal," we come to the "dolorous
deth and departyng out of this world of them." It is indeed a "pytous
hystory." Long drawn out as the romance is, serious tax though it
sometimes be on the reader's patience, the author succeeds in making us
so familiar with all his heroes, in inspiring us with so deep and
active a sympathy with them, that it is with a real sadness that we