The love affair between Guinevere, King Arthur’s queen, and Sir Lancelot, his best knight, was doomed from the start. In Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, where did the lovers’ final meeting take place?
A) At Arthur’s death-bed B) In a convent ü C) In Guinevere’s bed-chamber D) In the castle of King Lot of Cornwall
Interestingly, Malory does not allow us to be quite certain that Lancelot’s relationship with Guinevere ever reached the point of adultery — although Lancelot’s fellow knights aren’t in much doubt. At any rate, Lancelot is discovered visiting the queen’s bed-chamber. Obvious conclusions are drawn, whereupon he escapes; she is arrested for “treason” and sentenced to burn. Lancelot rides to the rescue before that can happen, however. After the great civil war in which Arthur is slain, Guinevere retires to a convent, and lives out her days there as a nun. After visiting her there one last time — and leaving without so much as a kiss — Lancelot goes her one better and becomes a hermit.
