“Indeed, sir, it’s hard to believe you would be true to me when you left this other lady who is more beautiful and noble than I. It’s good for me that you’ve told me all this, because if I had not known the truth, I would have been quick to grant you my love, which would have been foolish, because no sooner will you have your way with me than you’ll leave me as you did her. I’d have been cruelly deceived.”
“All your protestations are worthless,” said Guerrehet. “You must do what I want, because we’re all alone and far from people.”
“What?” she said, “would you force yourself on me?”
“No,” he replied, “but I beg you to give in gracefully.”
“And if I agree, what would happen?”
“I’d make love to you,” he said.
“Then I wouldn’t make love to you,” said Guerrehet.
“So,” she asked, “It all depends on what I want?”
“What you’ve said is true,” he answered.
“Now tell me,” she continued, “is there any woman in this world whom you could love, if you thought she hated and despised you?”
“And would you want to consort with her as a man with woman, out of some lust for beauty, so long as she hated you?”
"So help me God, no,” he replied. “I could never love her at all as long as she hated me.”
“Then I swear to you,” she said, “that you will not love me, because I hate and despise you for having been unfaithful in love to her who loved you more than herself. And everyone who hears of it will esteem you less for it, as soon as they learn that you make it a habit to deceive the ladies and maidens of foreign lands. I know just as you sought my love now, you’ll seek another woman’s tomorrow, if you find one, and indeed I don’t know any worse treason than to deceive a woman with sweet talk, for she is easily conquered. It seems to me that in behaving in this way you are pursuing shame more than honor.”
— from Lancelot Part V, chapter 142, William W. Kibler translation
