Social Disorder and Discontent in Thomas Chestre's Sir Launfal

partnership is introduced in the text as a remedy for an ailing society, a society where the
old order has been corrupted by the adulterous and idolatrous phenomenon of courtly
love, a corruption whose self-serving ideals represent a new world order concerned with
mendacious love and material concerns. Chestre is searching for a world of truth,
integrity and honest love, a world that for him existed before the influence of corruptive
courtly love. Launfal represents this ideal world, while the notoriously adulterous
Guinevere personifies the praetorian passions that throw that world into disorder.
There have been few new assessments of Sir Launfal in recent years, and many
readings of Chestre’s text continue to centre on the thesis, firmly established in the mid
1960s, of Launfal as a solitary figure who does not fit in. B. K. Martin (1966) sees him as
the typical isolated hero of the folktale, while Daryl Lane (1973) laments his deplorable
treatment at Arthur’s court. Launfal’s position in society is indeed crucial to the
understanding of the text, but for different reasons from those that have been previously
proposed. Even a cursory reading of the text should indicate to us that our hero is not in
fact the mistreated wretch he is often made out to be, and that his ‘otherness’ has been
greatly exaggerated. At Arthur’s court in Carlisle Launfal is made king’s steward “for his
largesse and his bounté” (line 31). i There is nothing to indicate that he is in any way
mistreated or neglected; in fact, he holds this position for ten years. There is a marked
difference here in comparison with Marie’s lai, where the hero is sorely neglected by the
king. Launfal is very much a part of his community and is loved and respected.
It is the arrival of Guinevere and her neglect of Launfal that upsets his utopian
existence. Here Chestre deviates from his primary source, Sir Landevale, in order to
include the motif of the vengeful queen of ‘Graelent’ and, as Peter Lucas (1970) has
pointed out, he places the whole burden of responsibility for the action in the tale on
Guinevere’s shoulders. It is she who is the discordant element in Sir Launfal, and we can
relate this to a number of Arthurian legends where her affair with Lancelot brings about
the fall of Camelot. Her arrival marks the beginning of the decline in Launfal’s
relationship with his community, or rather, the decline of the established status quo, and
his discomfort with her presence may be seen as an omen of what is to befall his perfect
society. As steward, Launfal represents law and order, and Guinevere’s neglect of him at
the wedding feast may be seen as her dismissal of the rules and structure of the principles
for which he stands. Their mutual dislike of each other is immediate, and expressly stated
by Chestre (lines 44, 71). Theirs is a struggle between an established society, a ‘golden
age’ of British history, and a new order — or disorder — which threatens that ideal. It is
the newcomer at court, not the established community, who provides the impetus for
Launfal’s self-imposed exile.
That his exile is indeed self-imposed should not be overlooked. He is not driven
from the court and we learn that he will in fact be sorely missed by everyone, including
the king. At the news of his imminent departure Arthur urges him to take “greet
spending” (line 81), sends his own nephews as travelling companions, and anticipates his