Textual Variation and the Description of Affective States in the Manuscript Tradition of Chrétien's Romances

A peculiar aspect of manuscript variation in the textual tradition of Chrétien’s romances concerns the description of affective states which define the emotional responses of characters to natural or social circumstances in which they are immersed. The fact that the textual tradition presents peculiar readings of different manuscripts in respect to emotion-related circumstances shows that medieval scribes are likely to have interfered with the emotional tone of specific episodes according to their own understandings of the reason why characters might act as they do. Presented data suggest that they had an active understanding and involvement in Chrétien’s empirical realism which revolves around the truth of what characters actually felt, and what the readers felt and keep feeling with them.