This makes sense when one considers that s****l adultery is rare in courtly romances,177 and when it does occur, it is not glorified; in fact, it is looked down upon.178 “Was it the poet’s intention to glorify courtly love, which was stronger than all injections of morality?” asks Bumke. “Or did he intend to take a stance of ironic aloofness from this kind of love?”179 We likely will never know the answer, but Chrétien’s handling of the subject of adultery shows how uncomfortable he was with the idea. As a poet, he would have known that such a storyline was not commonly accepted, yet he had to please his patroness, however reluctantly.
Another theory for the change in Guinevere’s demeanor takes the exact opposite argument, positing that Marie de Champagne “forced Chrétien to portray the q
