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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Though the Green Knight describes his challenge before Arthur's court as ‘a Crystemas gomen’ (283), and though some scholars have responded to this and other references in the poem and treated it as an entertainment or as essentially about games, most modern studies of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight concentrate on the difficult questions of moral behaviour which the poem raises. Though it is certainly full of violent movement and physical action, though it sets forth a world of arresting concrete specificity and colourful variety, the poem's most crucial moment (if it can be said to have one) occurs in the early morning quiet of the hero's bed-chamber when Gawain accepts the green girdle and agrees to ‘lelly layne’ (1863) it from Bertilak. It is a point at which the hero makes a clear moral decision to drop his skilful verbal defence against the Lady's propositions and to allow himself to be acted upon: ‘he Jmlged with hir ‘repe …] ooled hir to speke … he granted … hym gafe with a goud wylle …] oe leude hym acordez’ (1859-63). Most scholars agree with Gawain's own subsequent judgment that his moral behaviour was, to a greater or lesser degree, ‘fawty and falce’ (2382); but how his moral faultiness is to be measured and assessed, and how in conceptual terms it is to be analysed and described, are more difficult questions.
1 All quotations and line references are from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, edd. Tolkien, J. R.R. and Gordon, E. V., rev. Norman Davis (2nd ed.; Oxford 1967).Google Scholar
2 For example Bowers, R. H., ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as Entertainment,’ Modern Language Quarterly 24 (1963) 333–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3 Cook, R. G., ‘The Play Element in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,’ Tulane Studies in English 13 (1963) 5–31, collects the references to ‘play’ in the poem. See also Muscatine, Charles, Poetry and Crisis in the Age of Chaucer (Notre Dame 1972) 61–68; Stevens, M., ‘Laughter and Game in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,’ Speculum 47 (1972) 65–78; and Wilson, Edward, The Gawain-Poet (Leiden 1976) 116–31.Google Scholar
4 See Bloomfield, Morton W., ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: An Appraisal, ’Publications of the Modern Language Association 76 (1961) 7–19, for a summary of various attitudes to the poem up to about 1960. For later assessments see particularly Burrow, J. A., A Reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (London 1965) 160–86; Benson, L. D., Art and Tradition in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (New Brunswick, N.J. 1965) 207–48; Spearing, A. C., The Gawain Poet: A Critical Study (Cambridge 1970) 219–36; Davenport, W. A., The Art of the Gawain-Poet (London 1978) 180–94.Google Scholar
5 A view probably best stated by Benson, L. D., op. cit. 209, ‘… the theme of fame more significantly than the bargains or the lace connects the beheading with the temptation and unifies the entire poem ….’ Google Scholar
6 See Solomon, Jan, ‘The Lesson of Sir Gawain,’ Papers of the Michigan Academy 48 (1963) 599–608. This is also the main emphasis in the interpretation of Howard, D. R., The Three Temptations: Medieval Man in Search of the World (Princeton 1966).Google Scholar
7 This is the aspect of the poem stressed by Kiteley, J. F., ‘The Knight Who Cared for His Life,’ Anglia 79 (1962) 131–37.Google Scholar
8 See Hills, David Farley, ‘Gawain's Fault in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,’ Review of English Studies 14 (1963) 123–31, and Burrow's, J. A. reply,‘ “Cupiditas” in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,’ ibid. 15 (1964) 56. Google Scholar
9 See particularly Lucas, P. J., ‘Gawain's Anti-Feminism,’ Notes and Queries 213 (1968) 324–25; and for a broader view Dove, Mary, ‘Gawain and the Blasme des Femmes Tradition,’ Medium Ævum 41 (1972) 20–26.Google Scholar
10 See Brewer, D. S., ‘Courtesy and the Gawain-Poet’ in Patterns of Love and Courtesy: Essays in Memory of C. S. Lewis, ed. Lawlor, John (London 1966) 54–85; and Spearing, A. C., op. cit. especially 198–206.Google Scholar
11 See Smithers, G. V., ‘What Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Is About,’ Medium Ævum 32 (1963) 171–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12 See particularly Burrow, J. A., A Reading 23ff., 42–51. This is probably the view of the poem which commends most general acceptance. For a criticism of it see Spearing, A. C., op. cit. 206ff.,Google Scholar
13 See The Canterbury Tales VI 277–99, where at least three ways of seeing The Physician's Tale are suggested. (All Chaucer references are to Robinson's, F. N. Works of Geoffrey Chaucer [2nd ed.; Oxford 1957].)Google Scholar
14 See the analysis by Howard, D. R., ‘Structure and Symmetry in Sir Gawain,’ Speculum 39 (1964) 425–53.Google Scholar
15 Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, trans. Trask, W. R. (Princeton 1953) 131.Google Scholar
16 For the significance of the device on Gawain's shield see Ackerman, R. W., ‘Gawain's Shield: Penitential Doctrine in Gawain and the Green Knight,’ Anglia 76 (1958) 254–65; Green, R. H., ‘Gawain's Shield and the Quest for Perfection,’ ELH:A Journal of English Literary History 29 (1962) 121–39; Morgan, Gerald, ‘The Significance of the Pentangle Symbolism in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,’ Modern Language Review 74 (1979) 769–90.Google Scholar
17 See Stokes, Myra and Scattergood, V. J., ‘Travelling in November,’ to appear in Medium Ævum. Google Scholar
18 For the ideas in this paragraph I am greatly indebted to Roy J. Pearcy's fine article ‘Chaucer's Franklin and the Literary Vavasour,’ The Chaucer Review 8 (1973) 32–59, though he does not number Bertilak among his ‘literary vavasours.’ Google Scholar
19 Compare Calogrenant's account of his adventures: … tornai mon chemin a destre par mi une forest espesse. Molt i ot voie felenesse, de ronces et d'espines plainne …. Cele part ving plus que le pas, vi la bretesche et le fossé tot an viron parfont et lé …. Chrétien's Yvain 178–81, 192–94 (quoted from Les Roman de Chrétien de Troyes: IV Le Chevalier au Lion [Yvain] , ed. Roques, Mario [Les Classiques français du moyen âge; Paris 1965]). Compare also the approach of King Lot and his sons to the house of Mynoras: ‘La maison au uauassor estoit moult bien fremee de foses grans & parfons tous plains deuwe. & apres ce estoit auirones de gros chesnes tous entiers & bien ioins. & li rubis estoit enuiron si grans de ronches & despines que nus ne quidast quil i eust nul abitacle …’ (Le Roman de Merlin , ed. Sommer, J. E. [London 1894] 368). Google Scholar
20 Compare Yvain, op. cit.: Je descendi de mon cheval et uns sergens le prenoit …. de moi desarmer fu adroite qu'ele le fist et bien et bel, et m'afubla d'un cort mantel vair d'escarlate peonace …. Del soper vos dirai briemant qu'il du del tot a ma devise ….' (222–23, 228–31, 250–51) and Le Roman de Merlin, op. cit.: ‘… & il descendent des cheuaus & furent lor cheual moult bien aaisiet de fain & dauaine car bien en estoit on aaisies laiens. & li ualles les maine en vne moult bele sale par terre por els desarmer. & li uauasseres & sa feme & lor iiij filg & ij filles quil auoient se leuerent & alumerent par laiens & mistrent de liaue a cofer si lauerent lor mains & lor uis & puis les essuent a toailles beles & blanches & lor aporte on a chascun j mantel au col. & li uauassors fist les tables metre & les napes desus & pain & vin a grant foison & venison fres & char salee dont il en auoit laiens asses …’ (p. 368).Google Scholar
21 Compare Le Roman de Merlin, op. cit.: ‘… & les ij filles au uauasor regarderent moult durement monsignor Gauaine & ses freres & moult sesmerueillent qui il peuent estre …’ (p. 368).Google Scholar
22 A Middle English Dictionary, edd. Kurath, H., Kuhn, S., Reidy, J. (Ann Arbor, Mich. 1956), suggests that ‘dalyaunce’ in this passage means ‘polite, leisurely, intimate conversation …’; but the sense ‘amorous talk or to do’ is well attested (see daliaunce n 1 and 3). The range of meaning for derne adj. 3 and 4 could extend from ‘private, confidential, intimate’ to ‘clandestine’ or ‘illicit.’ On this word see Donaldson, E. T., Speaking of Chaucer (London 1970) 19–20.Google Scholar
23 Compare, for example, the strictures in St. Celestine's Rules for Hermits: ‘… and yff he be seke or ellys travell fare thane may he lyge in his bed …’ (MS BL Sloane 1584 fol. 94r); ‘… and he shall faste bred and water evey ffryday nott withstandynge be cause of wacheynge in Ϸe nyght he may ete von kynd pottage or fode yf his febulnes aske ytt or requere yt …’ (MS BL Additional 34193 fol. 133v); or the following lines on the breaking of fasts from the Latin version ‘… nisi tribus ex causis, videlicet pro gravi infirmitate seu debilitate, quousque convaluerit, pro magno labore preterito seu futuro, si necessario indigeat …’ (MS Bodley Rawlinson C 72 fol. 168v). In more orthodox rules see Regula Sancti Benedicti 39 for example, where it is specified that extra food could be given to those who had endured hard manual labour.Google Scholar
24 Summa de vitiis et virtutibus tract. 5, cap. 1 (Antwerp 1597) 78-a.Google Scholar
25 See Wenzel, Siegfried, The Sin of Sloth: Acedia in Medieval Thought and Literature (Chapel Hill, N.C. 1960) 164–73, for a discussion of these schemes. For what follows I am much indebted to Wenzel's book.Google Scholar
26 Ed. Brandeis, A. (EETS os 115; London 1900) I 144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27 The Gouernaunce of Prynces , ed. Steele, R., Three Prose Versions of the Secreta Secretorum (EETS es 74; London 1898) 189.Google Scholar
28 Middle English Dictionary under ese n 1a, 1b.Google Scholar
29 See Wenzel, , op. cit. 89, 165–74.Google Scholar
30 Festial , ed. Erbe, T. (EETS es 96; London 1905) 67. Compare also the fifteenth-century sermon quoted by Owst, G. R.: ‘For this ye may understonde that hit ys the wylle of Gode that every man and woman schuld labour besyly. For yf Adam and Eve had ben occupyed wyth labour, the serpent had not overcum them: for ydulnesse ys the devylles dysser …’ (Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England [Cambridge 1933] 555).Google Scholar
31 The Poems of William of Shoreham ed. Konrath, M. (EETS es 86; London 1902) IV 361–76.Google Scholar
32 Gentilesse 10–11; The Canterbury Tales X 684 and VIII 1–7.Google Scholar
33 Quoted from The Macro Plays, ed. Eccles, Mark (EETS os 266; London 1969) 51.Google Scholar
34 Whiting, B. J. and H. W., Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases (Cambridge, Mass. 1968) I 6 for a massive collection of references.Google Scholar
35 See the treatment of this subject by Thiebaux, Marcelle, The Stag of Love: The Chase in Medieval Literature (Ithaca and London 1974) especially 71–78, to which I am much indebted for the material in this paragraph.Google Scholar
36 Ed. Blomqvist, A. (Karlshamn 1951) 228.Google Scholar
37 Edd. Baillie-Grohman, W. A. and F. (Edinburgh 1904) 4–5.Google Scholar
38 Op. cit. 104.Google Scholar
39 See Jacob's Well 104; The Book of Vices and Virtues, ed. Francis, W. V. (EETS os 217; London 1942) 26; and The Myrror for Lewed Men from MS BL Harley 45 fol. 51r: ‘… tendernesse of flesche as when a man may suffre no penaunce ne noght Ϸat may greue his flesche but all softnes and likyng. And suche one is Ϸe deueles bolster or his couche Ϸat he resteϷ him on …’ Google Scholar
40 Summa predicantium (Basel 1484) under Accidia. Compare also the strictures in Mirk's Festial (op. cit. 63) against ‘liyng yn Ϸe morow-tyde long yn bedde’; or the author of Jacob's Well (op. cit. 103) who warns against ‘slugnesse … whan Ϸou casteth Ϸe all to lyuen in reste & to slepe myche, to lyen long in Ϸi bed …' or Thomas Brinton's words against those who stay '… diu in lecto molliter ad quiescendum …’ (Sermons , ed. Devlin, Sister Mary Aquinas [Camden Society series 3 vols. 85–6; London 1954] I 107).Google Scholar
41 Op. cit. X 705–6.Google Scholar
42 Op. cit. tract. 5 cap. 1 (p. 77ab). For other instances of the sun as an antitype of sloth see Gobius, Johannes, Scala celi (Lübeck 1476) fol. 5v, and Memoriale credencium from MS BL Harley 535 fol. 47v. Google Scholar
43 Handlynge Synne, ed. Furnivall, F. J. (EETS os 119, 123; London 1901–03).Google Scholar
44 Op. cit. 105. Compare also Mirk's Festial, op. cit. 63, where it is said that one part of sloth consists ‘… in rawtyng, in reuelyng, and playes of vanyte …,’ and so forth.Google Scholar
45 Op. cit. 105. Compare The Book of Vices and Virtues (op. cit. 27) and The Myrror for Lewed Men (op. cit. fol. 51v). The term pusillanimitas is from Peraldus, op. cit. Google Scholar
46 Ed. Morris, R. (EETS os 68; London 1874–92) V 1555.Google Scholar
47 The Latin term is from Peraldus (op. cit.) the Middle English from Jacob's Well (op. cit. 108).Google Scholar
48 Wenzel, , op. cit. 144 for this quotation. The same question occurs, for example, in Henry of Suso's Summa super titulis decretalium 5.38 (Lyons 1517) fol. 497v. See also The Points of Religion Propperly to be Known by Priests from MS BL Cotton Vespasian A xxv fol. 51r ‘… has Ϸou ought bene slaw in payng of Ϸi dettys ….’ Google Scholar
49 MS BL Harley 535 fol. 48r .Google Scholar
50 Langland is referred to in the edition of Kane, George and Talbot Donaldson, E., Piers Plowman: The B Version (London 1975).Google Scholar
51 Quoted by Wenzel, , op. cit. 139.Google Scholar
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53 See Burow, , A Reading 127–49, for a statement of what has come to be the most generally accepted view. For a cogent criticism, however, see Field, P. J. C., ‘A Rereading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,’ Studies in Philology 67 (1971) 255–69, where the argument is made that Gawain's sin is venial.Google Scholar
54 Op. cit. 5v .Google Scholar
55 Op. cit. under Accidia. See also Berchorius, Petrus (Pierre Bersuire), Dictionarius (Nuremberg 1517) fol. 30r, where armour is specified. Compare also the moral implications of rustiness adduced by the Netmaker (Labor) in The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, ed. Furnivall, F. J. (EETS es 77, 83, 92; London 1899–1904) lines 11424–50. For the idea that idleness is the canker of the mind and the rust of the wit see Smith, Charles G., Spenser's Proverb Lore (Cambridge, Mass. 1970) 154–55.Google Scholar
56 The Homilies of St John Chrysostom … on the Acts of the Apostles (Library of the Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church; Oxford 1852) II 489.Google Scholar
57 See Burrow, , A Reading 119–22.Google Scholar
58 Pointed out by Robertson, D. W. Jr., ‘Why the Devil Wears Green,’ Modern Language Notes 69 (1954) 470–72.Google Scholar
59 The Oxford English Dictionary edd. Murray, J. A. H., Bradley, H., Craigie, W. A., and Onions, C. T. (Oxford 1884–1928) under loyalty n 1.Google Scholar
60 Ibid., under truth n 2a.Google Scholar
61 Jacob's Well, op. cit. 108.Google Scholar
62 Middle English Dictionary under couardise n 2.Google Scholar
63 The Lay Folk's Catechism, lines 1352–6, 1363–8, edd. Simmons, T. F. and Nolloth, H. E. (EETS os 118; London 1901) 93. See also Dunning, T. P., Piers Plowman: An Interpretation of the A Text, rev. and ed. Dolan, T. P. (Oxford 1980) 60–61. For further evidence of the failure to make restitution of wrongfully obtained property as a type of sloth see Wenzel, , op. cit. 144–47.Google Scholar
64 Middle English Dictionary under feintise n 2 (b).Google Scholar
65 Edd. England, G. and Pollard, A. W. (EETS es 71; London 1897).Google Scholar
66 Jacob's Well (op. cit. 112). Compare also The Book of Vices and Virtues (op. cit. 29) on the man who ‘… hateϷ hymself and desireϷ his owne deeϷ.’ Google Scholar
67 On this see especially Burrow, , A Reading 149–50.Google Scholar
68 Compare Yvain, where the vavassour asks Calogrenant to return by way of his house to let him know how the adventure has gone: Aprés me repria que gié par son ostel m'an revenisse au guerredon et au servise … (260–62) Google Scholar
69 Oxford English Dictionary under sadly adv. 3 and 8.Google Scholar
70 See Engelhardt, George J., ‘The Predicament of Gawain,’ Modern Language Quarterly 16 (1955) 218–25, for an early statement of this view.Google Scholar
71 Germ. 15.1.Google Scholar
72 Ed. Arnold, Ivor (SATF; Paris 1938–50) II 252.Google Scholar
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79 See Lucas, , op. cit. 147–49, and Bornstein, , op. cit. 150–51.Google Scholar
80 3.37, ed. Willard, Charity C. (The Hague 1958) 174. Aristotle is quoted from Latini, Brunetto, Livres dou trésor 2.1.19 and 2.2.44.Google Scholar
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82 The words are those of Charles Muscatine, Poetry and Crisis 40.Google Scholar
* This article is based on a paper read at the Ninth Meeting of the British Branch of the International Arthurian Society in Edinburgh, June 1980.Google Scholar
