Note 1 — From ‘Tristan,’ Book 16, lines 11711-11844: The fateful love-potion.1

Tristan, a young embodiment of all knightly virtues, has been sent to Ireland to win the hand of the peerless Isold for his old uncle Marke, King of Cornwall. He succeeds in his mission. On the voyage to Cornwall, however, it befalls by accident that he partakes with Isold of a philter prepared by her mother and intended for her and King Marke.

2. Tristan had slain Morold, a kinsman of Isold’s, wherefore she had tried, with small success, to ‘hate’ him.

3. Having become justly suspicious of his wife’s fidelity, King Marke requires her to prove her innocence by the ordeal of the hot iron. She complies—in a way.