How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Page)
Quote #7
'Alas, poor wretch, why were you give youth? You are here in the wood like a slave, you can find few people to serve you [. . .] I ought to have around me in my rooms the damsels of the kingdom and the daughters of the free vassals, and I should be arranging good marriages for them with noblemen. (11.97)
The things Yseut regrets are slightly different from Tristan's: she misses having servants and ladies-in-waiting. Life is tough! Like Tristan, though, she also regrets the obligations she can no longer fulfill as part of her social role, like arranging the marriages of her ladies.
Quote #8
'God,' said Tristan, 'what sorrow it is to part! How unhappy is the man who loses his beloved! But it must be done to make up for all the suffering you have endured on my account; you need suffer no longer.'
Tristan sees his return of Yseut as his way of making restitution for the things Yseut has lost because of him. For her suffering in the woods, he offers his suffering at their separation. In this, Tristan is truly unselfish in his love for Yseut, raising the possibility that his potion-induced possession of her was actually selfish.
Quote #9
'Why does love assail me? Why wound me? God, what should I do? [For it seems to me that I have already suffered greatly because of my love.] [...]Because of her I am in great agitation at every moment of the night and day. When I do not see her I nearly go out of my mind.' (18.153)
The description of love as a wound, disease, or madness, is typical figurative language to describe love in French courtly poetry of this time period. It emphasizes the effect of love on the lover's body and mind. Tristan's love-induced madness inspires him to put on the disguise of a fool or madman. In this way, his exterior costume matches what he feels inside.