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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, perhaps the most perfectly wrought of all metheval English romances, has called forth a wealth of scholarly commentary, particularly in regard to the meaning of two of its allegorical symbols, the pentangle and me Green Knight. While the allegory of the former is explicitly clarified within the poem itself, that of me latter is left veiled and mysterious. It is possible, however, to relate me two symbols and to determine the allegorical significance of the Green Knight by a consideration of the notion of "perfection" from the standpoint of metheval moral theology. That is, both symbols serve to define perfection in terms of the virtues, the one as to their connection, and the other as to the perfect act of virtue.1
The notion of the connection of the virtues had a long metheval tradition. In the Summa Theologiae (1-2.65.1), St. Thomas Aquinas cites the opinions of Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory, and Cicero. He then begins his own analysis with a distinction between perfect and imperfect virtue, and it is only then that he explains how the virtues are "connected," such as with the necessary dispositions which determine the correct ends of action for the virtue of prudence, a virtue without which in turn there can be no true moral virtue "since it is proper to moral virtue to make a right choice, because it is an elective habit."2 It is in this sense of their being mutually interdependent for their perfection diat the virtues are connected: a virtue can still "stand" without being connected to the other virtues, but in that case it will be imperfect and go unpraised. Thus he says:
Moral virtue may be considered either as perfect or as imperfect. . . . But the perfect moral virtue is a habit that inclines us to do a good deed well; and if we take moral virtues in this way, we must say that they are connected, as nearly as all are agreed in saying. Some distinguish them ... by saying that discretion belongs to prudence, rectitude to justice, moderation to temperance, and strength of mind to fortitude In this way the reason for the connection is evident: for strength of mind is not commended as virtuous, if...