ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys the varied depictions of three famous pairs of lovers in medieval literature: Tristan and Yseut; Lancelot and Guenevere; and Cligés and Fénice. By examining authorial strategies in Béroul's Tristan, and Chrétien de Troyes’ Cligés and Le Chevalier de la Charrete, Janina P. Traxler demonstrates how cleverly managed visual and verbal deceptions exonerate the couples from public condemnation. Using different strategies, Béroul and Chrétien nurture our sympathies for the adulterous twosomes, making the reader an amused partner in a literary ménage-à-trois of narrator, characters, and reader. Conversely, reworkings such as the Burgundian Cligés, the Prose Lancelot, and the Prose Tristan demonstrate a completely different set of narrative priorities. Although the general plots are retained in these later works, crucial scenes and narratorial devices are changed significantly. In the Prose Tristan, the impulse to hide shifts to public acceptance of the lovers and even engenders antipathy for the court.
