Note 90 — Chapter V

Professor Foerster's attempt to base an argument on the source of Cligés cannot for a moment be accepted, cf. Introduction, Charrette, cxxxviii. We only know that the source was a book; but what that book contained, no one can say. We can never argue from the unknown to the known. We do not know much of Chrétien's sources for the other poems, but the grounds for an investigation do exist in the above instances, they do not in Cligés. We must find out how Chrétien dealt with Erec, Yvain, and Perceval before we are in a position to offer the slightest hypothesis as to his treatment of Cligés. The fact that Mark of Rome gives a short summary of the story is interesting, but so brief a résumé is of little critical value. It is certainly not a book, therefore cannot possibly be identical with Chrétien's source.