Camelot

Glossary

The story of Camelot is based on the retelling of the Arthurian tales in  T. H. White’s The Once and Future King, a novel originally published in in four books, and then issued with all four parts in 1958.: 

1. The Sword in the Stone (1938) tells of Arthur’s childhood and youth (when he was known as Wart), being raised by his foster father, Sir Ector, and his foster brother, Sir Kay, and the magician Merlyn. Merlyn uses his magic to turn him into various animals as a means of teaching him some life lessons. Arthur then finds the sword Excalibur in a stone, with the legend that whoever can pull it from the stone shall be King of England.
2. The Queen of Air and Darkness (originally titled The Witch in the Wood, 1939) tells of Arthur’s early years as king and his seduction by his half-sister Morgause, by whom he begets Mordred. Through Merlyn’s guidance, Arthur conceives of the idea of the Round Table.
3. The Ill-Made Knight (1940) tells of the affair of Lancelot and Guinevere, and its effect on Arthur and Elaine (who loves Lancelot, but does not come into the musical).  About one quarter of this book deals with the quest for the Holy Grail.
4. The Candle in the Wind (1958) tells of the fall of Camelot.
5. The Book of Merlin, published separately (1971) after White’s death, tells of the final lessons Arthur learns before his death. Merlin allows him to see the world as some animals, and he comes to the conclusion that the main problem with the world is boundaries, which are artificial. Do away with boundaries, and all strife would disappear!

The title of White’s work is derived from the inscription that, according to Le Morte d’Arthur, was said to be written upon King Arthur’s tomb: Hic jacet Arthurus, rex quondam, rexque futurus—“Here lies Arthur, king once, and king to be” or “Here lies Arthur, the once and future king,” giving the title of White’s novel. (After his fall in battle, Arthur was said to be taken to the Isle of Avalon, to be healed of his wounds. This Avalon is usually identified with Glastonbury. The legend arose that Arthur would return to England in her time of greatest peril. Probably the two times of England’s greatest peril were at the end of the 8th century, when King Alfred the Great saved his kingdom from the Danish invaders, and 1940, with the Battle of Britain. (One might also suggest 1588, when the Spanish Armada came against England.)

The first known mention of Arthur in literature was in the Historia Brittonum, or The History of the Britons, a historical work first composed around 830. In it Arthur is not called king, but dux bellorum (Latin for “war leader”). Arthur is said to have been the victor in 12 battles, the last of which was the Battle of Mount Badon, in which Arthur is said to have killed 960 men single-handedly. The Annales Cambriae, or Annals of Wales, is a chronicle probably from the 10th century consisting of a series of years, from AD 445 to 977, some of which have events added. Two notable events are next to AD 516, which describes The Battle of Badon, and 537, which describes the Battle of Camlann, “in which Arthur and Mordred fell.” The Annals also mention Merlin.

The story of King Arthur first became popular in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), completed around 1138. This work included many familiar elements of the story, including Arthur’s father Uther Pendragon, the wizard Merlin, Arthur’s queen Guinevere, the sword Excalibur, his final battle against Mordred at Camlann, and his final rest in Avalon. The 12th-century French writer Chrétien de Troyes added Lancelot and the Holy Grail to the story, and began a tradition of Arthurian romance that was important in medieval literature. In these French stories, the narrative focus often shifts from King Arthur himself to other characters, such as various Knights of the Round Table. 

The development of the medieval Arthurian story culminated in Le Morte D’Arthur, Thomas Malory’s retelling of the entire legend in a single work in English in the late 15th century. Malory based his book–originally titled The Whole Book of King Arthur and of His Noble Knights of the Round Table–on various previous versions. Le Morte D’Arthur was one of the earliest printed books in England, published by William Caxton in 1485. Most later Arthurian works are derivative of Malory’s. Arthurian literature waned after the middle ages, but was revived in the 19th century, particularly with Tennyson’s Idylls of the King.

See also list of characters.

Act I, Scene 1

• Sir Thomas Malory is the author of Le Morte D’Arthur, one of the principal sources of Arthurian legend. The title was selected by the printer, William Caxton; Malory’s original title was The hoole booke of kyng Arthur & of his noble knyghtes of the rounde table. Malory’s work was the principal source of T. H. White’s The Once and Future King, which in turn was the principal source of Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot. Malory appears as a character in both The Once and Future King and in Camelot as Tom of Warwick.
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson is the author of the 19th century Arthurian poem “The Lady of Shalott” (1832) and the Arthurian romance Idylls of the King (1859).
• Bower has three meanings: (1) a leafy shelter or recess; arbor; (2) a rustic dwelling; cottage; (3) a lady’s boudoir in a medieval castle. 
• St Genevieve: The patron saint of Paris, St Genevieve lived in the 5th to 6th centuries. She was born in Nanterre, and she moved to Paris and dedicated herself to a Christian life. In 451 she led a “prayer marathon” that was said to have saved Paris by diverting Attila’s Huns away from the city. When the Merovingian Childeric I besieged the city in 464 and conquered it, she acted as an intermediary between the city and its conqueror, collecting food and persuading Childeric to release his prisoners. Her feast day is January 3. A new church to house her remains was begun in the reign of Louis XV, but was not completed when the French Revolution took it over, and rededicated it as the Pantheon.
• A knight, in the middle ages, was a mounted warrior. (The original Old English term cniht meant “servant” or “boy”, and had nothing to do with horsemanship. Eventually it came to mean a military follower of a king.) The word did not acquire the sense of mounted warrior until the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453). In chivalric romance it came to have the sense of an elite warrior sworn to uphold the values of faith, loyalty, courage, and honor. By the end of the war, heavy armor was obsolescent, and it became a social order, members putting “Sir” before their first name. The first order of knighthood in England was the Order of the Garter, founded by King Edward III around 1328. Other famous orders include the Knights Hospitallers (1099), Knights Templars (1118-1307), Teutonic Knights (1190-1525), Order of the Golden Fleece (Burgundy, 1430), Order of the Thistle (Scotland, 1687), and  the Order of the Bath (Great Britain, 1725). Today knighthood is still conferred, put is purely honorific, bestowed by a monarch usually for meritorious service.
• tilt: to rush or charge in a joust
• Kith and kin refers to one’s familiar surroundings and kindred. Originally kith meant “native land or home” and kin one’s relatives. So the alliterative phrase meant “country and kindred.”
• Excalibur is the name of Arthur’s famous magical sword. There are two stories of its origin. It is said to be the sword that the young Arthur pulled from the stone to be proclaimed king of Britain. But it is also said to be the sword that the Lady of the Lake gave to Arthur after he became king. 

Act I, Scene 2

• Nimue is the Lady of the Lake in Arthurian legend, and it was she that gave Arthur the sword Excalibur.

Act I, Scene 3

• Gothic in architecture refers to the style prevalent in the 13th and 14th centuries, featuring high vaulted ceilings supported by “flying” buttresses, which allowed for large windows.
• Chess was introduced to Europe in the 9th century. The movement of the men was not the same then as now, but was settled around the 16th century.
• Might makes right was a common notion in the Middle Ages, and was the basis for trial by combat, where two contestants in a dispute would fight, or have a champion fight for them. The contest would be blessed by a priest, and, presumably God would determine the outcome so that right would prevail. However, the 4th Lateran Council (1415), which defined the seven sacraments, and, a sacrament was understood that God would perform an action on human initiative. Since trial by combat (or ordeal) was not included, priests were no longer allowed to bless such trials, and they began to decline.
• The bobolink is a small New World blackbird. Its scientific name is Dolichonyx oryzivorus. It breeds in the northern United States and southern Canada, and winters in South America. It was unknown in Europe, at least in the Middle Ages.
• If Arthur were to rule a kingdom with no borders, his kingdom would include all Britain, meaning both England and Scotland. (In one version of the story, Arthur conquers much of western Europe; in order to have no borders he would have to continue conquering until he ruled all Europe, Asia, and Africa!) Although in most cases borders cannot be seen from the air, but there are important exceptions. Because of the street patterns, the border between the cities of Palos Verdes Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes can be discerned. The most dramatic borders can be seen on the map National Geographic published of the world at night: both boundaries between North Korea and South Korea, and between North Korea and China is pretty clear from the dramatic darkness of North Korea!
• Knights love battles. They adore charging in and whacking away. So says Guenevere. This was the kind of thinking that got the French in trouble in the Hundred Years War, especially at the battles of Crécy (1346), Poitiers (1356), and Agincourt (1415): the French knights were more concerned about personal glory in combat that they did not form a coherent fighting force, and were thus cut down by the English bowmen.
• Arthur chose a round table, presumably because his vassals were so vain that none would give place to another, but at a round table all would be equal.
• A herald was originally a messenger sent by a king or nobleman to carry proclamations. After the development of coats of arms, they wore a surcoat bearing the standard of their king or noble. Later, they came to be regulators of who could wear what coats of arms, and that is the sense used today. They are thus experts in the science of heraldry, the study of coats of arms.

Act I, Scene 4

• Mail is flexible armor made of interlinked rings or scales.
• Unwinceable is a word that Lancelot (or, rather, Lerner) may have invented. The word wince means to draw back or tense the body, as from pain or from a blow; to start; or to flinch
• Prometheus Unbound is the second of a (presumed) trilogy by the Greek poet Aeschylus. It is concerned with the torments of the Greek mythological figure Prometheus (Προμηθεύς) and his suffering at the hands of Zeus. It inspired the play of the same title by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Although most of the text is lost, it continues the story in Prometheus Bound, where Prometheus has been imprisoned by Zeus and his liver is consumed by an eagle every day, and then renewed. In Prometheus Unbound, Prometheus is freed. It is followed, presumably, by a third play, Prometheus the Fire-Bringer. According to the story, Prometheus, although a Titan, had not sided with the other Titans in the Titanomachy, the war between the Titans and Olympians. Zeus gave him the task of forming mankind out of clay. But Prometheus also brought fire to man, for which he was punished by Zeus.
• Eden (עֵדֶן, meaning “delight”), according to the Bible, was the original home of Adam and Eve. It was a paradise garden, which they were to tend, and were allowed to eat of any tree except one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because of their disobedience (Genesis 3), they were expelled from the garden.
• May 1 (often called May Day) was long considered the first day of Summer in England and Ireland. Maying is the celebration of May Day, usually by gathering flowers, dancing around a may pole, and crowning a may queen. In Northern temperate climates, flowers are in full bloom around this time. Since 1890, May 1 has been celebrated as International Workers’ Day, or Labor Day, a day of political demonstrations and celebrations organized by communists, anarchists, socialists, unionists, and other groups. The date was was chosen to commemorate the Haymarket Riot in Chicago in 1886, which actually came to a head on May 4. Because of the association of the day with communists and anarchists, which the labor movement in the United States wished to dissociate itself from, in the United States Labor Day is in September.

Act I, Scene 5

• A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defense.
• The word mollock is fairly obscure, but means to frolic, dance; play about; in modern British slang, it means to engage in sexual dalliance.
• He probably walked across the Channel. This is a reference to Christ walking on the Sea of Galilee: Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, and John 6:15-21.
• Then you may take me to the fair (song not included in our production)
• Gaul has always been divided into three parts. (In Latin: Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres.) So begins Caesar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Comments on the Gallic Wars). It is traditionally the first authentic text assigned to students of Latin.
• En brochette refers to food cooked, and sometimes served, on brochettes, or skewers. The French term generally applies to French cuisine, while other terms like shish kebab, satay, or souvlaki describe the same technique in other cuisines. Food served en brochette is generally grilled.
• Dust to dust is taken from the burial service:
  In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to Almighty God our brother N.; and we commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord bless him and keep him, the Lord make his face to shine upon him and be gracious unto him, the Lord lift up his countenance upon him and give him peace. Amen.

Act I, Scene 6

• In Great Britain, the Lord Chamberlain is the senior official of the royal household, and chief spokesman for the monarch in the House of Lords. The position was at times practically equivalent to prime minister. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England (1559-1603), Shakespeare was a member of the Lord Chamberlain’s men, a theater troupe, which, on the accession of King James I, became the King’s Men.

Act I, Scene 7

• The Sermon on the Mount (a reference by Sir Dinadan to Lancelot astride his horse) is the first of the five great discourses in the Gospel according to Matthew, found in chapters 5, 6, and 7.
• Pate is the crown of the head, or the skull.

Act II, Scene 1

• A closer translation of Lancelot’s song:
  Toujours j’ai fait le même vœux,
  Sur terre une déesse, au ciel un Dieu.
  Un homme désire pour être heureux
  Sur terre une déesse, au ciel un Dieu.
  
  I always made the same vows
  A goddess on earth, to God in heaven.
  A man wants to be happy,
  A goddess on earth, to God in heaven.
• The seven virtues are usually given as: Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Fortitude, Faith, Hope, and Charity (or Love). In contrast, the seven capital sins (often referred to, less accurately, as the seven deadly sins) are Pride, Envy, Wrath, Avarice, Sloth, Gluttony, and Lechery.
• Ennui is the French term for boredom. The English word annoy also derives from ennui, but in English ennui has come to mean a feeling of jadedness resulting from too much ease. The poet Charles Lloyd described it in his 1823 poem Stanzas to Ennui:
  THOU soul destroying fiend, I’ve heard
  It, by philosophers averred.
       That thou alone dost come,
  To visit with thy pale unrest
  The chambers of the human breast,
       Where too much happiness hath fixed its home.
• Beelzebub is a name from Hebrew (בעל זבוב) meaning “Lord of the Flies”. In the New Testament, it is Beelzeboul (Βεελζεβούλ), which probably means Lord of Heaven, and represented an ancient Semitic deity. The writers of the Bible probably changed it to Lord of the Flies in mockery. Mordred probably is identifying himself with some evil deity in referring to his Beelzebubble.

Act II, Scene 2

• A limerick is a kind of a witty, humorous, or nonsense poem especially one in five-line anapestic or amphibrachic meter with a strict rhyme scheme (AABBA), which is sometimes vulgar with humorous intent. The form can be found in England as of the early years of the 18th century. It was popularized by Edward Lear in the 19th century, although he did not use the term.
• Camilliard was Guenevere’s ancestral castle. (It is also spelled Cameliard.)
• Noblesse oblige means "obligation of the nobility", meaning to take care of the lower classes. In the song, oblige rhymes with besiege, which was the usual pronunciation before the 20th century.
• The doldrums refers to the area in the oceans around the equator where the northern and southern trade winds converge. Meteorologists refer to the area as the Intertropic Convergence Zone (ITCZ). It is an area of calm winds and thunderstorms, where sailing ships can become becalmed. Even today, sailing ships attempt to cross the zone as quickly as possible to avoid becoming becalmed. By extension, a person “in the doldrums” refers to someone who is listless, despondent, inactive, stagnant, and in a slump
• Columbine (from Latin columba “dove”) is a genus Aquilegia of about 60-70 species of perennial plants that are found in meadows, woodlands, and at higher altitudes throughout the Northern Hemisphere, known for the spurred petals of their flowers.
• A hornpipe is a kind of flute made of horn, frequently played by sailors. It also came to mean a type of dance in 2/4 time, a variation of the reel, but with a distinct rhythmic pattern.

Act II, Scene 3

• Chocolate was unknown in medieval Europe; it is made from the beans of a plant Theobroma cacao native to Mexico and Central and South America.

Act II, Scene 4

• Marzipan is a confection made primarily from sugar and almond meal. It is frequently molded into shapes of fruits and animals.

Act II, Scene 6

• Joyous Gard: Lancelot’s castle, according to Malory. In modern French it would be Garde Joyeux, which more or less means “Happy Care”. Gard is related to the English word guard, and also ward, which means “watch”. Thus, “happy watch” or “happy care”.

Act II, Scene 7

• A joust is a contest between two mounted and armed knights with lances. The object was to unhorse the other knight. Sometimes there were three contests, such as with lance, axe, and then sword. The original purpose of jousts was training for combat. But knights came to enjoy jousts for their own sake. A late occurrence of this was in 1559 after the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis between France and Spain. In a tournament to celebrate the peace, French King Henry II was killed by the splinter of a lance that entered his eye and pierced his brain. (The king had been warned about jousting by Nostradamus [1503-66]. The king’s death was partly responsible for the ending of jousting in France.) Eventually rules were developed for jousting, including a point scheme: 1 point for breaking a lance on the chest and between saddle and helmet; 2 points for breaking on the helmet and lance at the base; and 3 points for unhorsing an opponent or making him drop his lance.
• A tournament is a series of contests. In the middle ages, it usually featured jousts, but it might also involve archery contests. In the 14th century, French knights were more interested in tournaments than actual tactics, for which reason they usually lost to the English in the major set-piece battles of the Hundred Years War.

Act II, Scene 8

• Sergeant of Arms is a variation of “Sergeant-at-Arms”, which was originally an officer whose specific duty was to arrest those charged with treason. In the Middle Ages, treason was personal, having to do with loyalty to a king. Today, the Sergeant-at-Arms has the duty of maintaining order in a deliberative body, including expelling disorderly members or observers.

References:

• Many definitions are from Dictionary.com.
• Many references are from Wikipedia

• Last updated: 01/20/2013.
• For additions, suggestions, corrections, or comments on this glossary, please email me:  tf_mcq <at> yahoo.com.
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