e of my love, and I die, ami, of grief because I could
not come in time.' Then she lay herself beside him, embraced him,... and
in that same moment yielded up her spirit."

The reader will note almost at once the similarity of this tale to one
famous in Greek legend, that of Theseus and the Minotaur; and there are
several details, necessarily omitted in the summary we have given, which
tend to make this similarity still more marked. But the matter in which
we are more interested is the character of the heroine. One might remark
that there are certain features in la Belle Iseut not very unlike those
of Andromeda, so readily consoled by Dionysius. The lady Iseut is a
typical heroine of the romances, and as such we may comment upon those
of her characteristics which seem most noteworthy.

The love motive of the romance is, to begin with, as strong as the
motive of pure adventure; it is, indeed, the love story which serves as
the thread to bind the whole together. This shows a marked change in the
importance of women in the eyes of those who wrote to please the world.
But the relations of the heroine to the hero are most amazing. Not only
is Iseut very forward, more than ready to confess her love and to give
full response to that of Tristan, but she is all this with the full
consciousness that she is doing wrong. The poet, realizing that the
moral of his story might be brought in question, the love potion: being
under the spell of enchantment the lovers are not responsible.

Whether we shall acquit the lovers at the bar of romantic justice or
not, we cannot forget that their entire story is based upon guilty
passion, which seems to have a peculiar fascination for the romancer: it
is the same, to cite but one example out of the many that could be
adduced, in the story of Lancelot and Guinever, with the episode of
Elaine. To be sure, in both cases we have mentioned, the highest honor
is denied the hero: it is not for the guilty Tristan, false to his
knightly oath, nor yet for the chivalrous but guilty Lancelot to win the
Holy Grail; and we are not teft in doubt, we are told that only the pure
in life could win that honor. And then for Iseut, though she is fair and
much beloved, there is a pathetic end, an end that brings no crowning
happiness, no reward; but punishment.

One trait in the character of Iseut is disconcerting to those who
cherish romantic ideals: her cruelty. We could forgive her the love for
Tristan, and we