§ B.--THE POEM OF CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES
By our previous considerations we have ascertained that after certain preliminary matters which are curious, but late in comparison and dubious, the Conte del Graal was opened in ample form by a master-singer of his period--that is to say, by Chrétien de Troyes. Now, if it be agreed that the Peredur and Syr Percyvelle are reflections of a lost primordial quest, it is desirable to note that they offer nothing concerning the feast of good things and the Bowl of Plenty. How, therefore, from the standpoint of scholarship, did this element, confessedly foreign thereto, in the beginning of things, come to be imported therein? There is no trace of it, as we have seen, in the long section of that great poem which is now set for our consideration, though it is supposed to have heralded and inaugurated everything which belongs to the seeking part of the Graal literature. It was not evidently from this source in folk-lore that Chrétien derived his knowledge of that mysterious object which he calls a Graal and from which was diffused so great a light, though nowhere in his long contribution does he term it the Holy Graal. It was carried by the maid who had charge of it in her two hands, from which it may follow either that it was a heavy object, as might be a large dish, or something exceedingly sacred--to be exalted with reverence--as it might be, an Eucharistic Chalice or a most holy Reliquary. That it was not certainly the first of these objects is made evident by the fact that a Dish was carried separately in the pageant at the Graal Castle. We know further from the brief description that it was a jewelled vessel:--
"Pières pressieuses avoit
El graal, de maintes manières,
Des plus rices et des plus cières
Qui el mont u en tière soient;
Tote autre pières pasoient
Celes dou grèal, sans dotance."
