IV - Sleeping Knights and ‘Such Maner of Sorow-Makynge’: Affect, Ethics and Unconsciousness in Malory’s Morte Darthur

Summary

In Malory’s Morte Darthur, both sleep and swooning sometimes mark uncomfortable emotional states. For instance, when Guenevere reproaches Launcelot for sleeping with Elaine (a second time), the narrator reports that Launcelot:

toke suche an hartely sorow at her wordys that he felle downe to the floure in a sowne. … And whan sir Launcelot awooke oute of hys swoghe, he lepte oute at a bay-wyndow into a gardyne, … and so he ranne furth he knew nat whothir, and was as wylde woode as ever was man.

Here, although conscious (if crazed) perambulation is the more prolonged outcome, Launcelot’s overwhelming sorrow has its more immediate manifestation in unconsciousness, in the form of a swoon. Moreover, like swooning, sleeping can also be the result of strong emotion: in the Tristram section, Launcelot reads the letter in which King Mark slanders Launcelot and Guenevere: ‘And when he wyste the entente of the letter he was so wrothe that he layde hym downe on his bed to slepe’ (617.25–7). When characters get so angry that they fall asleep, or so sad that they swoon, unconsciousness serves as a form of making emotion recognizable, of externalizing the authenticity of affect. To give just one further example for the moment, when Guenevere is put into her coffin and Launcelot swoons, a hermit construes the swoon as an indication of unbearable emotion:

And whan she was put in th’erth syr Launcelot swouned, and laye longe stylle, whyle the hermyte came and awaked hym, and sayd,

‘Ye be to blame, for ye dysplese God with suche maner of sorow-makyng.’

‘Truly,’ sayd syr Launcelot, ‘I trust I do not dysplese God, for He knoweth myn entente: for my sorow was not, nor is not, for ony rejoysyng of synne, but my sorow may never have ende.’ (1256.21–5)

Launcelot hastens to inform the hermit that his sorrow is not for the loss of his relationship with Guenevere, which would be sinful, but rather for the loss of Arthur and Guenevere together, which is a sign of Launcelot’s proper, undying loyalty to his sovereign. However, the hermit’s diegetic reading of Launcelot’s swoon as a sign of strong emotional response still holds; hermits are, after all, usually good at interpreting.