MS Huntington Library: Yonge Letters
My dear Madam,
My father, who procured the Post Office Order, has been at Winchester today and spoke to the post master who undertook to write to Bishop Auckland. I suppose he is an inattentive man, for he made a like mistake a year ago, in sending a wrong name. I had written yours on a piece of paper, so I thought he could not have managed to make another blunder. However I hope it will now be rectified. If the money is not paid you at the application at Bishop Auckland, perhaps you had better send me the order again. I wrote for the order in the name of Elizabeth Roberts as you signed it.
The Saint greal is I believe, or rather was supposed to be, the Chalice used at the first communion. Its name is explained to come from Gradual, the chant sung as the Priest went up the steps (gradus) of the Altar. It and the lance used by Longinus the Centurion in piercing the Side, were brought to England by St Joseph of Arimathea. In the Morte d’Arthur these holy relics are lost, and now and then appear to favored knights, in a stream of light brighter than sunbeams. Once they so appeared to the assembly of the Round table and all the knights bound themselves to the quest. None could succeed whose heart and body were not pure. Sir Lancelot’s most beautiful and allegorical adventure must be known to you in the notes to Marmion. Sir Galahad is the only one who fulfils all the conditions, he with his friends, Sir Percevall and Sir Bors, both excellent knights, withstand every trial and temptation, and at length while he kneels in a chapel, the sweet music, the delicious colours, and soft pure light are around him, the venerable man with white hair, St Joseph, comes in, and the Sangreal and Lance are borne in by maidens. The Knights communicate from it, and Sir Galahad is offered any boon he desires. The choice is not made then, but immediately afterwards some of the people rescued by Sir Galahad give him a kingdom. Then it appears that the boon he asked was admission into heaven, the Sangreal comes to him once more, he dies in peace and joy, sending a message to his father Lancelot which converts him and he enters a hermitage. ‘Since that time, the holy Sangreal has not been seen on earth.’
This is to the best of my recollection the outline of the Legend in the Morte d’Arthur, very beautiful but mixed up with much that is unreadable. The chapters in the Packet1 were offered me as a way of putting before people the good part without that which is objectionable. I think they ought to have been more condensed in this early part. This has been a very long story, and I have not thanked you for your last Saints, which form a very pretty chapter, only I think it a pity not to mention what St Augustine’s at Canterbury now is. It is beautiful to think of the Australian Bishop being buried at Canterbury, & the Esquimaux scholar at his Grave2
This has been a long letter, but you set me off on subjects where I do not easily stop
Yours sincerely
C M Yonge