ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the bouts of love-madness suffered by Tristram and Lancelot in order to explore what happens when a knight's lovesickness goes untreated. Emotional disturbances such as anxiety and melancholia could also occur, and, in extreme cases, lovesickness could devolve into the complete loss of sanity. This complete loss of sanity is what differentiates love-madness from lovesickness. Tristram's figurative residence outside of reason and civilization in madness is made material when King Mark exiles him from the court and from Isode. Like Tristram, Lancelot enters into his madness after falling into a "sowne" caused by what he perceives to be the betrayal of his lady. Most drastically, Lancelot's love-madness for Guenevere results in his death. Her formal rejection of him after Arthur's death effectively removes Lancelot from institutionalized knighthood; he again retreats to the wilderness, this time opting to begin a monastic life.
