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D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
NEW YORK CHICAGO
ALFRED TENNYSON.
TWENTIETH CENTURY TEXT-BOOKS
TENNYSON'S
IDYLLS OF THE KING
THE COMING OF ARTHUR ■ GARETH AND
LYNETTE • LANCELOT AND ELAINE
THE PASSING OF ARTHUR
EDITED
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
JOSEPH YILLIERS DENNEY
PROFESSOR IN THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
NEW YORK CHICAGO
191 I
3**
Copyright, 1911, by
D. AFFLETON AND COMPANY
©CIA28991G
*x-
PREFACE
Appreciation of Tennyson's "Idylls of the King*'
begins with an understanding of the significance, eth-
ical and aesthetic, of "The Coming of Arthur" and "The
Passing of Arthur." In relation to these two, the inter-
vening Idylls are as specific instances to general truth.
The "Coming" and the "Passing" not only annotate
each other; they annotate the series of Idylls. In this
edition, therefore, the introductory matter and the notes
give especial attention to the " Coming " as furnish-
ing, with the " Passing," the key to the intent of the
whole.
The editor hopes that the division of each Idyll into
sections, as suggested in the notes, will prove serviceable
in keeping the theme of the series in clear view. Such
aesthetic values as are not easily apprehended by first
readers have been pointed out in the notes ; but these, as
well as the other notes that deal with history and mat-
ters of fact, may be neglected by the initiated.
Constant reference has been made to Malory not only
that the beauty of Tennyson 's workmanship may be made
apparent, but also that an abiding interest may be
aroused in mediaeval story.
June 1, 1911.
v
CONTENTS
PAGE
A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY ix
INTRODUCTION
I. Alfred Tennyson xi
II. The Growth of the "Idylls of the King" . . xxi
III. Sources of the Idylls xxii
IV. The Arthur Story xxiii
V. The Meaning of the Idylls xxv
VI. The Idylls as a "Poem of the Year and the Soul" . xxx
VII. The Verse of the Idylls xxxi
IDYLLS OF THE KING
The Coming of Arthur 1
Gareth and Lynette 18
Lancelot and Elaine 66
The Passing of Arthur Ill
NOTES 127
vii
A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY
Biographical :
Tennyson, Lord Hallam: Alfred, Lord Tennyson, A Me-
moir. Macmillan.
Lyall, Sir A.: Life of Tennyson. (English Men of Letters
Series.) Macmillan.
Sources and Source-treatments:
Baring-Gould: Curious Myths of the Middle Ages.
Croker: Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ire-
land.
Guerber: Stories from the Wagner Operas.
Guest, Lady Charlotte: Mabinogion. Macmillan.
Macallum, M. W.: Tennyson's Idylls of the King and Ar-
thurian Story from the Sixteenth Century. Macmillan.
Malory, Sir Thomas: Lc Morte DJ Arthur. Macmillan.
Maynadier, H. : The Arthur of the English Poets. Hough-
ton Mifflin Co.
Newell, William W.: King Arthur and the Table Round.
(Tales chiefly after the Old French of Chrestien de
Troves.) Houghton Mifflin Co.
Rhys, J.: The Arthurian Legend. Clarendon Press.
Six Old English Chronicles. (Bohn Library.) Macmillan.
General Critiques of Tennyson:
Brooke, S.: Tennyson, His Art and Relation to Modern
Life. Ibister.
Dixon, W. M.: A Tennyson Primer. Dodd, Mead & Co.
Gwynn, S. : Tennyson, A Critical Study. Blackie.
ix
x A BRIEF BIBLIOGKAPHY
Hillis, N. D. : Great Books as Life-Teachers, pp. 153-177.
Morley, H.: English Writers, iii, 6.
Smyser, Wm. Emory: Tennyson. (Modern Poets and Chris-
tian Teaching Series.) Eaton & Mains.
Stedman, E. C: Victorian Poets. Houghton Mifflin Co.
Tainsh, E. C: A Study of the Works of Tennyson. Mac-
millan.
Van Dyke, H. : Poems of Tennyson. Ginn & Co.
Van Dyke, H.: The Poetry of Tennyson. Charles Scrib-
ner's Sons.
The Idylls:
Alford, H.: Allegory of the Idylls. (Contemporary Review,
Jan. 1870.)
Davidson, H. A.: The Study of the Idylls. (Cambridge,
Mass.)
Elsdale, H. : Studies in the Idylls. Kegan Paul.
Jones, Richard. : The Growth of the Idylls of the King. Lip-
pincott.
Littledale, H. : Essays on Tennyson's Idylls of the King.
Macmillan.
Pallen, C. B. : Meaning of the Idylls of the King. American
Book Co.
Patmore, C. : The Idylls of the King. (Edinburgh Review,
July, 1859.)
Other English Poetical Treatments of Arthurian Story :
Arnold, Matthew: Tristram and Iseult.
Bulwer-Lytton: King Arthur.
Hawker, Stephen : The Quest of the Sangreal.
Hovey, Richard: The Quest of Merlin; The Marriage of
Guinevere; The Birth of Galahad; Taliesin.
Morris, William: A Defence of Guinevere; King Arthur's
Tomb; Sir Galahad; A Christian Mystery; The Chapel
in Lyonesse.
Swinburne, Algernon: Tristram of Lyonesse; The Tale
of Balan.
INTRODUCTION
I. ALFRED TENNYSON
Alfred Tennyson was born August 6, 1809, at Som-
ersby, a small village in Lincolnshire, England. He was
the fourth of twelve children. His father was rector of
the parish, and the home was a home of refinement and
good taste. There were plenty of books and music, and
there were games both indoor and out, including jousts
and tourneys and play of knightly adventures, such as
imaginative children enjoy, who hear and read and tell
and enact good stories. There was also a quiet, safe, and
beautiful countryside in which growing children might
range at will. The Tennyson boys are described by a
neighbor as "running about from one place to another,
known to everybody, and with ways of their own; they
all wrote verses, they never had any pocket-money, they
took long walks at night-time, and they were decidedly
exclusive." Alfred's intimate knowledge and love of
nature began with the early years at Somersby, and
his love of the sea with visits to the coast, whither the
family went each summer. "You see in his verses,"
wrote Carry le, years afterwards, to Emerson, "that he
is a native of 'moated granges,' and green, fat pastures,
not of mountains and their torrents and storms."
The rector was a good comrade to his sons, as well as
their principal teacher. With a little help from the
school at Louth, he prepared them for Trinity College,
xii INTRODUCTION
Cambridge, which Charles and Alfred entered in 1828.
The preceding year they had published anonymously
' ' Poems of Two Brothers, ' ' a volume which showed that
they had imitated to some purpose their boyhood favor-
ites, Thomson, Scott, and Byron. At Cambridge, in
1829, Alfred won the Chancellor's gold medal with the
poem "Timbuctoo." Though not a brilliant student,
Alfred was well-read in the Greek and Latin literatures,
and in English poetry as well, admiring Milton espe-
cially. He was also interested in history, and in some of
the sciences.
He enjoyed abundant health and physical vigor, often
surpassing his companions in feats of strength. One
day, it is said, he picked up a pony and carried it bodily
across the lawn, much to the astonishment of the on-
lookers. In the game of hurling crowbars he was easily
first. He is described in his Cambridge days as " six
feet high, broad-chested, strong-limbed; his face Shake-
sperian, with deep eyelids; his forehead ample, crowned
with dark wavy hair, his hands the admiration of sculp-
tors— long fingers with square tips, soft as a child's,
but of great size and strength." With all his bodily
power, however, he combined gentleness of manner and
a fastidious delicacy of nature which appears everywhere
in his writings.
Tennyson was shy and reserved by nature; he found
it hard to meet new people ; and he preferred a few tried
and true friends to many acquaintances. The limited
circle of his student friends at Cambridge included sev-
eral who afterwards became famous — Merivale, the his-
torian of Rome; Archbishop Trench; Alford, Dean of
Canterbury ; and, best friend of all, Arthur Hallam, son
of the historian.
There was a small group of Cambridge men, includ-
INTKODUCTION xiii
ing Tennyson's friends and Tennyson himself, who were
called "The Apostles." They devoted themselves to
two enthusiasms: the cause of political liberty, and the
cause of pure religion. These causes absorbed the de-
votion of the best youth everywhere in Europe at that
time. It was the spirit of the age. Every ardent boy
of true ambition felt the call to serve his day by writing
and working and fighting for better things in politics
and religion. Tennyson had come to know the earlier
impulse of this high enthusiasm in the poetry of his
favorites, Coleridge and Keats.
Naturally, the volume of "Poems, chiefly Lyrical,"
which Tennyson published in 1830, though not con-
sciously imitative, showed the influence of Coleridge
and Keats. Naturally, too, in the summer of 1830,
Tennyson and his closest friend, Arthur Hallam, de-
cided to travel in the Pyrenees, taking with them funds
collected in England for the help of the revolutionists
in Spain. The enterprise was romantic and adventur-
ous and even dangerous. "We are glad that Tennyson
succeeded in delivering the funds safely. The most
important result for us of today, however, is that on
this journey Tennyson produced some of the most beau-
tiful lines of "Oenone," and years afterwards was led
by recollection to write the reminiscent lines, "In the
Valley of Cauteretz."
Tennyson left Cambridge, without a degree, in Feb-
ruary, 1831, owing to the ill-health of his father, who
died a few weeks later. The family remained at Som-
ersby six years longer, Tennyson employing himself in
reading and study, and in revising his poems. In 1832
Tennyson published a second volume (dated 1833) con-
taining some of his most characteristic and most admired
pieces, among them "The Lady of Shalott," "The
xiv INTRODUCTION
Lotos-Eaters," "The Miller's Daughter," and "The
Palace of Art." His Cambridge friends already be-
lieved him destined to greatness in poetry, and received
the volume with acclaim; but the reviewers, and the
public generally, remained untouched. Indeed, the crit-
icisms were in the main so unfavorable, that Tennyson
published no further volume until 1842. Here was a
long wait. Think what it meant to him!
In the interval, he studied regularly, added German
and Italian to his languages, read widely in the classics,
in history, and in poetry, and undertook several of the
sciences. During these years of work and waiting, his
interest in nature continued to grow, and he began to
feel a deeper and wider interest, an interest in life and
its problems, and in social questions; consequently his
quest of beauty became more comprehensive and mean-
ingful. Profound personal sorrow came to him with
the death, in 1833, of his nearest friend, Arthur Hal-
lam, who was engaged to Tennyson's sister, Emily. Out
of this experience he wrote "In Memoriam," which was
not finally completed and published until 1850. Tenny-
son's discouragements and perplexities in these years
were manifold. The greatest was the seeming hopeless-
ness of his love for Emily Sellwood, the sister of Charles
Tennyson's wife. Lack of sufficient income and of as-
sured prospects of worldly success seemed to forbid all
thoughts of marriage. He kept steadily at work, how-
ever, increasing his mastery of the art to which his life
was now devoted.
Recognition as a poet of high order came finally in
1842, when he published his "Poems," in two volumes,
about one-half of the contents being new work, the re-
mainder the revision of his earlier efforts. The ' ' Poems ' '
showed great variety of metrical structure, as well as
INTRODUCTION xv
of subjects. It was evident that his poetic power was
maturing, though his greatest works were still to come.
Among the new poems in the 1842 volumes were ' ' Morte
d 'Arthur," "Ulysses," "Gotfiva," "Break, Break,
Break," and "Locksley Hall."
We get a glimpse of the then young and rising poet
in a letter written by Carlyle, a lifelong friend, to
Emerson in 1844:
"Tennyson is now in Town, and means to come and
see me. Of this latter result I shall be very glad. Al-
fred is one of the few British or Foreign Figures (a
not increasing number I think!) who are and remain
beautiful to me ; — a true human soul, or some approx-
imation thereto, to whom your own soul can say, Broth-
er ! — However, I doubt he will not come ; he often skips
me, in these brief visits to Town; skips everybody in-
deed, being a man solitary and sad, as certain men are,
dwelling in an element of gloom, — carrying a bit of
Chaos about him, in short, which he is manufacturing
into Cosmos ! — He had his breeding at Cambridge, as if
for the Law or Church ; being master of a small annuity
on his Father's decease, he preferred clubbing with his
Mother and some Sisters, to live unpromoted and write
poems. In this way he lives still, now here, now there ;
the family always within reach of London, never in it;
he himself making rare and brief visits, lodging in some
old comrade's rooms. I think he must be under forty,
not much under it. One of the finest looking men in
the world. A great shock of rough dusty-dark hair;
bright, laughing, hazel eyes; massive aquiline face, most
massive yet most delicate; of sallow-brown complexion,
almost Indian-looking; clothes cynically loose, free-and-
easy; smokes infinite tobacco. His voice is musical me-
tallic,— fit for loud laughter and piercing wail, and all
xvi INTRODUCTION
that may lie between; speech and speculation free and
plenteous: I do not meet, in these lat'^ decades, such
company over a pipe ! — We shall see what he will grow
to."
In 1845 Tennyson was granted a pension of £200,
which put him beyond the need of immediate financial
worry. In 1847 came "The Princess," a medley, con-
taining some of his best lyrics, and also evincing his
interest in one of the subjects that people were then
thinking about, — the sphere of woman. Shakespeare has
dealt with the same theme in "Love's Labour's Lost,"
and Henry James satirizes it in "The Bostonians."
In 1848 Tennyson visited the King Arthur country,
and spent a day with the strange and solitary Vicar of
Morwenstow, the Reverend R. S. Hawker, who had for
many years studied the antiquities and the legends of
Cornwall, and whose parish included the ruins of Tin-
tagel. Hawker was a poet of Arthurian legend too, and
has left an interesting account of the day with Tenny-
son:—
"I found my guest, at his entrance, a tall, swarthy,
Spanish-looking man, with an eye like a sword. He sate
down and we conversed. I at once found myself with
no common mind. All poetry in particular he seemed
to use like household words. — We then talked about
Cornwall and King Arthur, my themes, and I quoted
Tennyson's fine account of the restoration of Excalibur
to the Lake. — We talked of the sea, which he and I
equally adore. But as he told me, strange to say, Words-
worth cannot bear its face. — Then seated on the brow of
the cliff, with Dundagel full in sight, he revealed to me
the purpose of his journey to the West. — I lent him
books and manuscripts about King Arthur, which he
carried off, and which I perhaps shall never see again.
INTKODUCTION xvii
Then evening fell. He arose to go, and I agreed to
drive him on his way. He demanded a pipe, and pro-
duced a package of very common shag. By great good
luck my sexton had about him his own short black
dudheen, which accordingly the minstrel filled and fired.
— We shook farewell at Coombe. — ' This, ' said Tennyson,
'has indeed been a day to be remembered.' — The bard
is a handsome, well-formed man and tall, more like a
Spaniard than an Englishman — black, long elflocks all
round his face, 'mid which his eyes not only shine but
glare ; his garments loose and full, such as bard beseems,
and over all a large dark Spanish cloak. He speaks the
languages both old and new, and has manifestly a most
biblioihec memory. — His voice is very deep, tuneful, and
slow — an organ, not a breath. His temper, which I
tried, seemed very calm — his spirits very low. When
I quoted 'My Way of Life' and again '0 never more
on me,' he said they too were his haunting words."
The year 1850 is memorable in Tennyson's life. In
that year he published "In Memoriam, " on which he
had been engaged for a long time. It is considered
by many to be the most deeply satisfying of his longer
poems, both in its thought and in its music. "In Me-
moriam" confirmed the high estimate which had been
put upon his poetical power, and fixed his place as
one of the great English poets. In 1850, also, he mar-
ried Emily Sellwood. "The peace of God," he said,
"came into my life before the altar, nvhen I wedded
her." On their wedding journey, the poet and his wife
visited the King Arthur country in Wales, including
Glastonbury, where, according to one legend, King Ar-
thur lies buried, in one of the island valleys of Avilion
"set in apple blossoms."
In 1850, also, Tennyson was appointed Poet Laureate,
xviii INTRODUCTION
following the death of Wordsworth. His life of privacy
made him somewhat reluctant to accept the honor. "I
have no passion for courts," he said. On the advice
of his friends, however, he yielded to the wishes of the
Queen, who, with the Prince, had appreciated deeply
"In Memoriam," and he enjoyed the favor as well as
the simple, genuine friendship of the Queen during the
remainder of his life.
From 1850 onward, the record of the poet's life is a
record of unbroken achievement in his art. ' ' The Charge
of the Light Brigade" was published in 1854; "Maud
and other Poems" in 1855; four "Idylls of the King"
in 1859; "Enoch Arden" in 1864; "The Holy Grail,
and other Poems" in 1869; "The Last Tournament" in
1871; and "Gareth and Lynette" in 1872. At the age
of sixty-four Tennyson essayed the drama, publishing
the play "Queen Mary" (1875), which with "Harold"
(1877) and "Beckett" (1884) forms his "historical
trilogy": "Harold" representing the conflict between
Dane, Saxon, and Norman; "Becket," the conflict be-
tween the throne and the Church; "Queen Mary," the
conflict between the individual and established institu-
tions. The plays together reproduce the three steps by
which Tennyson thought England has come to its mod-
ern condition, and they indicate the elements that must
be reckoned with in solving modern social and political
problems. "The Foresters," "The Cup," and "The
Falcon" are other dramas of Tennyson's.
For three years after their marriage the Tennysons
lived at Twickenham. Then they established their per-
manent home at Farringford, on the Isle of Wight.
They made it a beautiful estate, and thither followed
the friendships of a lifetime. The poet divided his
time, after 1870, between Farringford and a summer
INTRODUCTION xix
home at Aldworth in Surrey ; but a house in London,
which he took for a time, he occupied very little. Far-
ringford was his real home. He had a horror of being
lionized and overrun by celebrity hunters; yet, even in
retirement at Farringford, it was difficult to escape the
curious. He once complained to the Queen that he could
no longer endure the tourists who came to the Isle of
Wight to stare at him. The Queen, so the story goes,
remarked ironically that she did not suffer much from
that grievance, but Tennyson replied, "No, madam, and
no more should I, if I could clap a sentinel wherever I
liked." As a matter of fact, his family and servants
were obliged to guard him very closely from unwelcome
visitors. Yet he loved to have at Farringford those
whom he knew well, and the list of his friends included
all contemporary Englishmen of distinction. Browning,
Carlyle, Thackeray, Ruskin, Huxley, Henry Irving,
Gladstone, Prince Albert, and many others. Distin-
guished foreigners sought him out, — Garibaldi the Ital-
ian patriot, Emerson, and Charles Sumner. Sumner
bored him by a long discourse on American affairs;
Tennyson interrupted at the first opportunity to inquire
if his guest had read "The Princess." "It is one of
my favorite poems," answered Sumner, whereupon Ten-
nyson handed him the book and asked him to read.
Sumner began; but very soon Tennyson took the book
in order to show how a certain passage should be ren-
dered, and then continued the reading himself, in his
characteristic chant, until the American Senator became
very, very weary. On and on went Tennyson, reading
in high-pitched tone — on to the very end of the long
poem; and the friends of Sumner remarked that the
visit was never repeated. The two men were well-
matched in egotism of a kind that often accompanies
xx INTRODUCTION
greatness. Tennyson undoubtedly had a very high opin-
ion of his own poetry, but he was generous also in praise
of the work of other poets.
Honors as well as friendships crowded the last half
of the poet's life. Oxford conferred on him the degree
of D.C.L. He was invited to assume the Lord Rector-
ship of Glasgow University, but declined. He was of-
fered a baronetcy by the Queen, but wrote in reply,
"I had rather we should remain plain Mr. and Mrs.,
and that, if it were possible, the title should first be
assumed by our son." According to English custom,
this could not be. Finally, in his seventy-fifth year,
after much persuading, he reluctantly accepted a peer-
age, saying to his son, ' ' For my own part I shall regret
my simple name all my life." His acceptance of the
peerage gave great pleasure to the Queen and to the
Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone. It was understood by
all as the expression of the desire of the throne to
honor letters, in the person of the greatest representa-
tive of letters then living. When he took his seat in
the House of Lords, he declined to ally himself with
either of the great parties. He voted in favor of the
extension of the franchise, but the tone of his later
poetry indicates a decided increase of the conservative
tendency in his thinking.
Tennyson died, October 6, 1892, full of honors and
greatly beloved. In his eighty-first year he had written
" Crossing the Bar"; and this touching and beautiful
poem, which declares his faith and hope, fittingly stands
by his own request at the end of the authorized edition
of his poems.
INTRODUCTION
II. THE GROWTH OF THE IDYLLS OF THE KING
The permanent order of the Idylls is as follows : —
Dedication (1862)
The Coming of Arthur (1869)
The Round Table—
Gareth and Lynette (1872)
The Marriage of Geraint (1857) f originally pub-
•-n • , -i -rn • i /-jo^rrN "^ lished as one
Geraint and Enid (1857) ^ Idyll.
Balin and Balan (1885)
Merlin and Vivien (1857)
Lancelot and Elaine (1859)
The Holy Grail (1869)
Pelleas and Etarre (1869)
The Last Tournament (1871)
Guinevere (1859)
The Passing of Arthur* (1869)
To the Queen (1873)
The dates given in parentheses are significant. They
show that, during the greater part of his life, the poet's
imagination was drawn to the Arthurian legends, which
he had read as a boy in Malory's book. There is a
stretch of fifty years and more between the Morte d' Ar-
thur (1834) and the publication of the last of the Idylls
(1885), and their permanent arrangement in the series
of twelve books (1889), as we now have them.
It is not likely that from the very first the poet had
in mind a complete series that should constitute an epic
of Arthur. But that design had come to him before
the publication of Morte d' Arthur in 1842; for, in the
* Incorporating, almost without change, Morte oV Arthur, which
was written in 1834.
xxii INTRODUCTION
introduction, the poet represents it as a fragment of a
long epic, the rest of which he had thrown into the
fire as being "nothing worth." The 1842 volume also
contained the poems Sir Galahad and Sir Lancelot and
Queen Guinevere. The Lady of Shalott, a lyrical treat-
ment of the same material that enters into the Idyll of
Lancelot and Elaine (1859), had appeared in 1832, and
was the first product of his interest in Arthurian story.
III. SOURCES OF THE IDYLLS
The chief source from which Tennyson drew the mate-
rial for most of the Idylls was the Morte d' Arthur of
Sir Thomas Malory, printed in 1485 by Caxton, the first
English printer, — a book that should be familiar to every
reader of Tennyson 's ' ' Idylls of the King. ' ' The mate-
rial for the Idyll of Geraint and Enid he drew from
Lady Charlotte Guest's Mabinogion (1838), a transla-
tion into English of some of the old Welsh legends con-
tained in the Bed Book of Hergerst.
Little is known of Malory (whose name is also spelled
Malory e and Maleor) except that he was a knight, and
as a young man served in France with Richard Beau-
champ, Earl of Warwick, who for his chivalric ideals
was given the romantic title "Father of Courtesy."
Malory's book is a compilation and condensation of a
great mass of legends about King Arthur and the Round
Table Knights, — legends which had been sung and re-
cited for many generations in the courts of princes and
the castles of nobles all over Europe. But Malory's
book is more than a compilation and condensation.
Malory was a poet in spirit, and changed many of -the
old legends, in order to satisfy his sense for good story-
telling, and to make the legends harmonize with the
INTRODUCTION xxiii
ideals of his own day, that "noble men may see and
learn the noble acts of chivalry, the gentle and virtu-
ous deeds that some knights used in those days by which
they came to honour, and how they that were vicious
were punished and oft put to shame and rebuke." *
Tennyson for the very same reasons changed, in im-
portant particulars, the stories as he found them in
Malory's book and elsewhere.
According to the Preface which Caxton wrote for Sir
Thomas Malory's book, Malory found the stories that
make up his Morte d' Arthur in "certain books of
French." Among these the chief was, no doubt, Geof-
frey of Monmouth's Historia Begum Brittanice, first
written in Latin in 1136, and made into a French ver-
sion, about the year 1155, by Wace, a Jersey poet, un-
der the title Roman de Brut. There was also a French
Roman de Merlin, and there was La Quest e del Saint
Graal, that Malory used, especially in the first four
books of his Morte d' Arthur. Tennyson, of course, also
knew and used these and other books.
IV. THE ARTHUR STORY
Probably there was a real Arthur, a leader of the
Christian Britons against the pagan Saxons and other
invading tribes, in the late fifth and early sixth century
after Christ. He was able to withstand them for a long
time, but in the end the Saxons conquered, and drove
the Britons into Wales and Brittany, where legends
about Arthur and his exploits grew up, and Arthur
soon became a myth. He is first mentioned by Nennius,
in the Historia Britonnum (Latin, 850 a.d.), some 250
* Caxton's Preface to Malory's Morte aV Arthur.
xxiv INTRODUCTION
years after the time of his activity, and before the ideals
of chivalry had become dominant. In Geoffrey of Mon-
mouth '& Historia Regum Brittanice (1136), Arthur has
grown in importance. He is represented as a parallel
to Charlemagne, in the role of a world conqueror, who
first subdues Rome, exacts tribute from Rome, and is
crowned by the Pope. There is a set of legends for
Charlemagne that match strangely the legends of Ar-
thur. The longing seems to have been universal in
Europe, at the time, for a head of a Christian empire
who should rule the whole world in righteousness. When
the age of chivalry had come, it was natural that the
stories of Arthur should multiply and should take on
Christian elements that had not been prominent in them
before. Wace (1155), in his Roman de Brut, first added
the conception of the Christian Round Table to the
Arthur story.
And because fellowship in the Round Table would add
glory to the tale of any knight, legends of Tristram and
of other knights, independent before, were now united
with the Arthur legends. About 1196 Walter Map (or
Mapes), an archdeacon of Oxford, spiritualized Arthur-
ian story by connecting Arthur with the legend of the
Holy Grail. He attributed to King Arthur the same
high function as we attribute to our Savior, — the func-
tion of a spiritual emperor. Layamon, about 1205, wrote
the new and enlarged Arthur story, as told by Wace,
into the English of his day under the title Brut. The
Lancelot story, at first independent of Arthurian legend,
was told by Chrestien de Troyes, and the story of Par-
sifal and the Holy Grail by Wolfram von Eschenbach.
These stories, in England, France, and Germany, embod-
ied the common ideas of Christian chivalry. From many
of these legends and stories, Malory drew a picture of
INTKODUCTION xxv
King Arthur that satisfied the longing of Malory's age
for the beautiful and the just in government and soci-
ety; and Tennyson in his turn found the ideal Arthur
adaptable to nineteenth century conceptions of beauty
and justice and righteousness.
V. THE MEANING OF THE IDYLLS
In his Epilogue To the Queen, Tennyson hints at the
meaning that runs through the series of "Idylls of the
King. ' ' The work is, he says,
"an old imperfect tale,
New-old, and shadowing sense at war with soul.'7
By "new-old" he means that he will re-tell these old
stories as a nineteenth-century poet, and with the best
ideals of his own age in full view ; that, while retaining
the mediaeval imagery, he will adapt the legends to the
feelings and sentiments of his own generation. He will
make them significant and meaningful to people of his
own time. The war of sense against soul is eternal;
but it has many special phases, and each generation has
to engage in the old conflict under new conditions.
Some call the conflict of Sense against Soul the war of
body against spirit ; others, the war of the actual against
the ideal; others, the war of the possible against the
desirable; others, the war of the imperfect against the
perfect ; others, the war of inclination against conscience ;
others still, the war of evil against good. In whatever
way it may be phrased, it is a war of what we know
to be lower against what we know to be higher. The
conflict is in each individual life as it was in Lancelot's;
it is likewise in each generation, in the history of each
nation, and in the epochs of human advancement. In
xxvi INTRODUCTION
each of these latter, the conflict appears in the struggle
for better laws and customs, for purer institutions in
church, state, school, family. As Mrs. Ritchie, daughter
of Thackeray and friend of Tennyson, says, "the Idylls
mean the history, not of one man, or of one gener-
ation, but of a whole cycle, of the faith of a nation
failing and falling away into darkness. It is the
dream of man coming into practical life and ruined by
one sin."
But Tennyson speaks of his story as merely "shadow-
ing" the war of sense against soul. He does not wish
us to be ready with a moral judgment at every turn of
the page. We are to read each Idyll for the beauty
of the story, for the imagery in which the story is told,
and for the music of the verse. And keeping our minds
open to all suggestions of spiritual truth and beauty
that come unbidden and unsought, we are not to hold
to our interpretation as the only one intended by the
poet. From the very same lines different readers will
take different hints, hints of the beautiful and courage-
ous in conduct, or of the superior and chivalric in man-
ners, or of the loyal and true in statesmanship, or of
the admirable in imperfect human nature under trying
conditions. Each may find something to fulfill his own
theory of what is best in life. Tennyson insists only
that each reader believe in the permanence of the beau-
tiful and the true in human nature, and in the ever-
lasting value of ideal integrity as Arthur embodied it,
which in defeat is still victorious. "When asked once
whether the three queens who accompanied Arthur on
his last voyage were Faith, Hope, and Charity, he an-
swered, "They mean that, and they do not. They are
three of the noblest of women. They are also the three
Graces, but they are much more. I hate to be tied down
INTRODUCTION xxvii
to say, 'this means that,' because the thought within the
image is much more than any one interpretation."
In the first Idyll, The Coming of Arthur, is pictured
the beginning of a spiritual epoch, and the attitude
of the world toward the bringer of a new ideal that is
hard for humanity to realize in life and conduct. Al-
though Arthur is finally crowned, it is only after fierce
war with the banded rulers of various realms of igno-
rance and sin. Even among his own people there are
serious doubts of the authenticity of his high commis-
sion. But he is accepted, crowned, and acclaimed king,
forms the fellowship of militant Christian knights whom
he binds to the service of the ideal by strong vows, and
having made the beautiful but less spiritually minded,
yet more human, Guinevere his Queen, opens his reign
with the glory of high achievement about him, and with
the promise of realizing heaven upon the earth.
In the last Idyll, The Passing of Arthur, is pictured
in gloom the close of the epoch. The ideal has not been
established in the world. The knights have fallen away
for the most part, and the forces of righteousness are
engaged in a great struggle with the forces of evil. In
the course of this wild conflict, hidden by thick mists,
the two hosts destroy each other ; Arthur is desperately
wounded, but slays the chief traitor, Modred; and no
loyal knight remains except Belvidere. To the eye of
sense, through which Bedivere looks, the ideal seems to
have failed utterly in this world. To the eye of soul
through which the wounded Arthur looks with faith,
the divine plan is clearer: a new order of things will
take the place of the old, which has served its time;
and, in the new order, the same Ideal for which Arthur
fought will return to men's hearts, to renew at better
advantage the conflict with evil. It is given to no one
xxviii INTKODUCTION
epoch to realize in completeness the reign of righteous-
ness, though it is the duty of each to strive toward it.
Frail humanity is gifted with the power to see the
ideal, but is not adapted to reach it completely in any
one epoch. The complete victory is ever postponed from
age to age. The glory is in the heroic nature of the
conflict for the right at all times.
The first Idyll and the last, then, are complementary.
The intervening Idylls show various phases of the con-
flict. They answer the question, "How did it happen
that the battle for the right in Arthur's epoch appar-
ently failed?" They show a promising kingdom grad-
ually brought to ruin, and the best efforts of an almost
divine King slowly but surely foiled, by the insidious
working of one sin, — the sin of Guinevere and Lancelot.
In the second Idyll, Gareth and Lynette, however,
the court is still pure, and all is youth and faith and
high resolve and noble achievement. Arthur's knights
keep their vows loyally. Gareth, on the small scale of
individual achievement, carries out the great purposes
of the King both in redressing wrongs, and in revealing
to his fellows, and to the class-conscious Lynette, a truer
ideal of life. A few more Gareths, and the golden age
would have been realized.
In the Marriage of Geraint, and in Geraint and Enid,
appears the first effect of the Queen's sin upon the
court. A whisper of the Queen's unfaithfulness breeds
in Geraint unjust suspicion of his own wife, "Enid the
Fair," "Enid the Good," bringing unhappiness and
unnecessary suffering to both, and causing Geraint to
neglect his knightly duties to his princedom and to the
king. In Balin and Balan, the death of the two brothers
is the result of their loss of faith in the purity of the
Queen. Indications of coming degeneracy in the realm
INTRODUCTION xxix
accompany the spread of the evil rumors. In Merlin
and Vivien, the story tells how Mage Merlin, who typi-
fies science or intellect, and who up to this time has used
his splendid powers in the service of the Ideal as em-
bodied in Arthur, is led away from that service to evil,
and to helpless inanity, by the wily Vivien, whose sin
is Guinevere's, in a lower and wickeder form.
The Idylls that follow continue to bring out the same
meaning with greater vividness. In Lancelot and Elaine,
the innocent Elaine suffers the wreck of her hopes and
death itself because of a guilt in others, of which she
knows naught. Lancelot himself suffers terrible remorse
for this unintended result of his great and guilty pas-
sion for the Queen, a passion that "had marred his
face and marked it ere his time." Though he might
have loved Elaine, loyalty to his false tie rendered him
powerless to save her.
A strange but inevitable effect upon religion is seen
in the next Idyll, The Holy Grail. As faith is under-
mined by the spread of impurity through society, re-
ligion becomes superstition. It no longer means service
to the world to the end of practical good; it comes to
mean the search for new and vague sensations, for vis-
ions and for far-off glimpses of the strange and the
miraculous. Arthur, with the true vision, stays at home
and does his kingly duty ; the knights ' ' follow wander-
ing fires," and forget their practical duties.
In Pelleas and Etarre, the prevalent evil has become
open crime. The trusting and loyal Pelleas is embit-
tered by the faithlessness of Etarre and the deceit of
Gawain. Pelleas is maddened when told by the pure
Percivale that the sin through which he suffers is wide-
spread in the realm, and is the result of the great ex-
ample set at court by Lancelot and Guinevere. The
xxx INTRODUCTION
latter see that the day of doom for them is approach-
ing. In The Last Tournament, "The Tournament of
the Dead Innocence," there is open ridicule and scorn
for the vows of Arthur; the glory of the Round Table
has departed; society is given over to evil, Sense tri-
umphs over Soul. Only one is left to declare the faith
in the Ideal, and that one is Dagonet, the court fool.
The Idyll closes with a murder. In Guinevere, the
storm has broken; the sin of the court is published to
the world ; the court itself is broken up ; the Round
Table fellowship is no more, there is civil war, and the
realm is on the verge of destruction. The destruction
is completed in the final tragedy of the last great battle
of the West, about which we are told in The Passing
of Arthur. So the epoch closes in gloom, and with the
temporary defeat of the King's divine purposes; but
Arthur does not die. The Ideal which he embodied
cannot perish. He passes to a land of healing for a
time, and will return to make a more glorious realm
in the earth.
VI. THE IDYLLS AS A "POEM OP THE YEAR AND THE SOUL"
The Idylls are twelve in number. Because they are
represented as running through a complete year, and
because their background in natural scenery is nicely
adjusted by the poet to the successive moods of the soul
depicted in the series, they have been called "a poem
of the year and the soul." Thus in The Coming of
Arthur we learn that Arthur was born on the night of
the new year ; and his marriage takes place ' ' among the
flowers in May" —
' ' Far shone the fields of May thro ' open door ;
The sacred altar blossom 'd white with May."
INTRODUCTION xxxi
In Gareth and Lynette, Gareth leaves home on a Spring
morning when
"The birds made
Melody on branch, and melody in mid air.
The damp hill-slopes were quicken 'd into green,
And the live green had kindled into flowers,
For it was past the time of Easterday."
In the next seven Idylls the season is summer; we pass
from the mowing season in Geraint to the blossom-dust
and thunder-storm of Merlin and Vivien, and the "full-
summer" of Lancelot and Elaine. There are late sum-
mer storms in The Holy Grail, and the vision of the
Grail appears on a summer night. In Pelleas and
Etarrcit is the end of summer and early autumn, with
the sun beating "like a strong man," and with autumn
roses and a mellow moon. The Last Tournament men-
tions yellowing woods, withered leaf, and "autumn-drip-
ping gloom"; and Guinevere, the creeping mists of early
winter. In The Passing of Arthur we have reached the
depth of winter, with rolling mists, frozen hills, and
ice-incrusted rocks. At the very end "the new sun rose
bringing the new year."
VII. THE VERSE OF THE IDYLLS
The form in which the Idylls are written is blank
verse : that is, each line consists of five iambic feet, and
the lines do not rhyme. An iambic foot is composed of
two syllables, the stress or accent falling upon the sec-
ond. There is usually a slight pause somewhere in the
line, called the ca\sural pause. Thus the first line of
The Coming of Arthur, divided into feet, accented, and
with the caesural pause indicated by a double line, is
as follows :
xxxii INTRODUCTION
r r t tt
Leod|ogran || the King | of Cam | el iard (yard)
This is the normal line for iambic pentameter. But the
beauty of blank verse, as written by great poets like
Tennyson, consists in the numerous and varied slight
deviations from the normal and the regular, which the
poet makes within the line. The small liberties overcome
the monotony which a series of lines precisely alike
would produce. They retard or quicken the movement,
according to the action or the thought. They subtly
conform idiomatic phraseology to the music within the
line, and sentence-structure to the harmony which ap-
pears on a larger scale in a series of lines.
Tennyson himself once said, "The English public
thinks that blank verse is the easiest thing in the world
to write, mere prose cut up into five-foot lines: whereas
it is one of the most difficult. In a blank verse line you
can have from three up to eight beats; — the varying of
the beats, of the construction of the feet, of the empha-
sis, of the extra-metrical syllables, and of the pauses,
helps to make the greatness of blank verse."
The following passage from The Coming of Arthur
shows how the position of the csesural pause is changed
from line to line :
Leodogran || the King of Cameliard,
Had one fair daughter || and none other child;
And she was fairest of all flesh on earth,
Guinevere || and in her his one delight.
For many a petty king || ere Arthur came
Ruled in this isle || and ever waging war
Each upon other || wasted all the land.
In the first and the fourth lines, the caesura is at the
close of the second foot; the early pause here having
INTRODUCTION xxxiii
the effect of throwing emphasis on the proper name,
and of giving importance to the character. In the sec-
ond line, the ca?sura is in the middle of the third foot.
In the third line there is no pronounced pause at all.
In the fifth line, the caesura is at the close of the third
foot; in the sixth line, at the close of the second foot;
and in the seventh line, at the middle of the third foot.
In the following, it is in the middle of the very first
foot in one line, and in the middle of the fourth foot
in the other:
Stay || till the cloud that settles round his birth
Hath lifted but 'a little. || Stay, sweet son.
In the following it is in the middle of the last foot —
How can ye keep me tether 'd to you — Shame.
In the following, instead of the caesural pause there are
two secondary pauses, at the commas —
Lot's wife, the Queen of Orkney, Bellicent.
Variety is also secured by using both end-stopt and run-
on lines. When there is a pause at the end of a line,
it is said to be end-stopt. When there is none, the line
is said to "run on," or is called a run-on line. In the
following, all the lines excepting the first and the last
but one, are run-on lines:
"But Arthur, looking downward as he pass'd,
Felt the light of her eyes into his life
Smite on the sudden, yet rode on, and pitch 'd
His tents beside the forest. Then he clrave
The heathen; after, slew the beast, and fell'd
The forest, letting in the sun, and made
Broad pathways for the hunter and the knight,
And so return 'd. "
2
xxxiv INTRODUCTION
In the normal foot, the accents fall upon the even
syllables, but often the odd syllable of a foot will re-
ceive the accent instead, as in the first line below; some-
times both syllables will demand an accent; sometimes
both refuse it, as in the second line below :
/ r / t f
Guine |vere and | in her | his one | delight.
/ / t t /
And she | was fair | est of | all flesh | on earth.
Occasionally a foot has three syllables, but the time
required to read such a foot does not vary perceptibly
from that required by the normal foot. Thus the last
foot in each of the following lines:
Travail j and throes | and ag|onies |of the life
To speak | no slan | der, no | nor list | en to it,
The following lines have six accents instead of the usual
five:
A star |shot: "Lo,"|said Gar |eth, "the|foe falls."
/ it tt i
Broke the | strong lance | and roll 'd | his ene | my down.
The following line has but four accents and the move-
ment is thus hastened as the sense requires :
i t r f
Fled like | a glit|tering riv|ulet to | the tarn.
All of the variations pointed out above have the effect
of making the music conform more nearly to the image,
and to the thought within the image; but seldom does
any one of the variations work alone to produce an
effect. Many other traits assist these variations to make
the beauty of Tennyson's verse. For instance, in the
INTRODUCTION xxxv
line last quoted the combinations of short vowels with
the liquids (1 and r) effect with the numerous unac-
cented syllables a hastening of the motion; and in the
following, which is perfectly imitative of galloping, we
note that long vowels, which would delay, are entirely
absent :
/ / r r r
The sound | of many | a heavily galloping hoof.
OF THE KlftCft
THE COMING OF ARTHUR
Leodogran, the King of Cameliard,
Had one fair daughter, and none other child
And she was fairest of all flesh on earth,
Guinevere, and in her his one delight.
For many a petty king ere Arthur came
Ruled in this isle, and ever waging war
Each upon other, wasted all the land;
And still from time to time the heathen host
Swarm 'd overseas, and harried what was left.
And so there grew great tracts of wilderness,
Wherein the beast was ever more and more,
But man was less and less, till Arthur came. •
For first Aurelius lived and fought and died,
And after him King Uther fought and died,
But either fail'd to make the kingdom one.
And after these King Arthur for a space,
And thro' the puissance of his Table Round,
Drew all their petty princedoms under him,
Their king and head, and made a realm, and reign 'd.
10
And thus the land of Cameliard was waste,
Thick with wet woods, and many a beast therein,
And none or few to scare or chase the beast ;
So that wild dog, and wolf and boar and bear
Came night and day, and rooted in the fields,
1
20
2 IDYLLS OF THE KING
And wallow 'd in the gardens of the King.
And ever and anon the wolf would steal
The children and devour, but now and then,
Her own brood lost or dead, lent her fierce teat
To human sucklings ; and the children, housed
30 In her foul den, there at their meat would growl,
And mock their foster-mother on four feet,
Till, straighten 'd, they grew up to wolflike men,
Worse than the wolves. And King Leodogran
Groan 'd for the Roman legions here again,
And Caesar's eagle: then his brother king,
Urien, assail'd him: last a heathen horde,
Reddening the sun with smoke and earth with blood,
And on the spike that split the mother 's heart
Spitting the child, brake on him, till, amazed,
40 He knew not whither he should turn for aid.
But — for he heard of Arthur newly crown 'd,
Tho' not without an uproar made by those
Who cried, 'He is not Uther's son' — the King
Sent to him, saying, ' Arise, and help us thou !
For here between the man and beast we die.'
And Arthur yet had done no deed of arms,
But heard the call, and came : and Guinevere
Stood by the castle walls to watch him pass;
But since he neither wore on helm or shield
50 The golden symbol of his kinglihood,
But rode a simple knight among his knights,
And many of these in richer arms than he,
She saw him not, or mark'd not, if she saw,
One among many, tho' his face was bare.
35. Csesar's eagle: the Roman military standard bearing
the image of an eagle.
THE COMING OF AETHUR 3
But Arthur, looking downward as he past,
Felt the light of her eyes into his life
Smite on the sudden, yet rode on, and pitch 'd
His tents beside the forest. Then he drave
The heathen; after, slew the beast, and fell'd
The forest, letting in the sun, and made 60
Broad pathways for the hunter and the knight
And so return 'd.
For while he linger 'd there,
A doubt that ever smoulder 'd in the hearts
Of those great Lords and Barons of his realm
Flash 'd forth and into war : for most of these
Colleaguing with a score of petty kings,
Made head against him, crying, 'Who is he
That he should rule us ? who hath proven him
King Uther's son? for lo! we look at him,
And find nor face nor bearing, limbs nor voice, 70
Are like to those of Uther whom we knew.
This is the son of Gorloi's, not the King;
This is the son of Anton, not the King. '
And Arthur, passing thence to battle, felt
Travail, and throes and agonies of the life,
Desiring to be join'd with Guinevere;
And thinking as he rode, 'Her father said
That there between the man and beast they die.
Shall I not lift her from this land of beasts
Up to my throne, and side by side with me? 80
What happiness to reign a lonely king,
Vext — 0 ye stars that shudder over me,
0 earth that soundest hollow under me,
58. drave the heathen: Arthur's first war with the Saxon
invaders of Britain.
4 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Vext with waste dreams 1 for saving I be join'd
To her that is the fairest under heaven,
I seem as nothing in the mighty world,
And cannot will my will, nor work my work
Wholly, nor make myself in mine own realm
Victor and lord. But were I join'd with her,
90 Then might we live together as one life,
And reigning with one will in everything
Have power on this dark land to lighten it,
And power on this dead world to make it live. '
Thereafter — as he speaks who tells the tale —
When Arthur reach 'd a field-of -battle bright
With pitch 'd pavilions of his foe, the world
Was all so clear about him, that he saw
The smallest rock far on the faintest hill,
And even in high day the morning star.
100 So when the King had set his banner broad,
At once from either side, with trumpet-blast,
And shouts, and clarions shrilling unto blood,
The long-lanced battle let their horses run.
And now the Barons and the kings prevail'd,
And now the King, as here and there that war
Went swaying ; but the Powers who walk the world
Made lightnings and great thunders over him,
And dazed all eyes, till Arthur by main might,
And mightier of his hands with every blow,
110 And leading all his knighthood threw the kings
Carados, Urien, Cradlemont of Wales,
Claudius, and Clariance of Northumberland,
The King Brandagoras of Latangor,
With Anguisant of Erin, Morganore,
103. battle: in the old cliivalric sense of "cavalry."
THE COMING OF ARTHUR 5
And Lot of Orkney. Then, before a voice
As dreadful as the shout of one who sees
To one who sins, and deems himself alone
And all the world asleep, the}^ swerved and brake
Flying, and Arthur call'd to stay the brands
That hack'cl among the flyers, 'Ho! they yield!' 120
So like a painted battle the war stood
Silenced, the living quiet as the dead,
And in the heart of Arthur joy was lord.
He laugh 'd upon his warrior whom he loved
And honour 'd most. ' Thou dost not doubt me King,
So well thine arm hath wrought for me to-da}^.'
'Sir and my liege,' he cried, 'the fire of God
Descends upon thee in the battle-field :
I know thee for my King!' Whereat the two,
For each had warded either in the fight, 130
Sware on the field of death a deathless love.
And Arthur said, 'Man's word is God in man:
Let chance what will, I trust thee to the death. '
Then quickly from the foughten field he sent
Ulfius, and Brastias, and Bedivere,
His new-made knights, to King Leodogran,
Saying, 'If I in aught have served thee well,
Give me thy daughter Guinevere to wife.'
Whom when he heard, Leodogran in heart
Debating — 'How should I that am a king, 140
However much he holp me at my need,
115. Lot of Orkney. The Orkney islands are north of Scot-
land.
124. his warrior, etc.: Lancelot; Cf. 447.
129. " I know thee for my King." Lancelot's allegiance
springs from inner intuitive conviction.
6 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Give my one daughter saving to a king,
And a king's son?' — lifted his voice, and called
A hoary man, his chamberlain, to whom
He trusted all things, and of him required
His counsel : ' Knowest thou aught of Arthur 's birth ? '
Then spake the hoary chamberlain and said,
'Sir King, there be but two old men that know:
And each is twice as old as I; and one
150 Is Merlin, the wise man that ever served
King Uther thro' his magic art; and one
Is Merlin's master (so they call him) Bleys,
Who taught him magic; but the scholar ran
Before the master, and so far, that Bleys
Laid magic by, and sat him down, and wrote
All things and whatsoever Merlin did
In one great annal-book, where after-years
Will learn the secret of our Arthur's birth.'
To whom the King Leodogran replied,
160 '0 friend, had I been holpen half as well
By this King Arthur as by thee to-day,
Then beast and man had had their share of me :
But summon here before us yet once more
Ulfius, and Brastias, and Beclivere.'
Then, when they came before him, the King said,
'I have seen the cuckoo chased by lesser fowl,
And reason in the chase : but wherefore now
Do these your lords stir up the heat of war,
Some calling Arthur born of Gorlois,
170 Others of Anton? Tell me, ye yourselves,
Hold ye this Arthur for King Uther 's son ? '
160-162. The meaning is that the Chamberlain's information
is without value.
THE COMING OF ARTHUR 7
And Ulfius and Brastias answer 'd, 'Ay.'
Then Bedivere, the first of all his knights
Knighted by Arthur at his crowning, spake —
For bold in heart and act and word was he,
Whenever slander breathed against the King —
1 Sir, there be many rumours on this head :
For there be those who hate him in their hearts,
Call him baseborn, and since his ways are sweet,
And theirs are bestial, hold him less than man : ISO
And there be those who deem him more than man :
And dream he dropt from heaven : but my belief
In all this matter — so ye care to learn —
Sir, for ye know that in King Uther's time
The prince and warrior Gorloi's, he that held
Tintagil castle by the Cornish sea,
Was wedded with a winsome wife, Ygerne:
And daughters had she borne him, — one whereof,
Lot's wife, the Queen of Orkney, Bellicent,
Hath ever like a loyal sister cleaved 190
To Arthur, — but a son she had not borne.
And Uther cast upon her eyes of love :
But she, a stainless wife to Gorloi's,
So loathed the bright dishonour of his love,
That Gorloi's and King Uther went to war:
And overthrown was Gorloi's and slain.
Then Uther in his wrath and heat besieged
Ygerne within Tintagil, where her men,
Seeing the mighty swarm about their walls,
Left her and fled, and Uther enter 'd in, 200
And there was none to call to but himself.
So, compass 'd by the power of the King,
Enforced she was to wed him in her tears,
And with a shameful swiftness: afterward,
Not many moons, King Uther died himself,
8 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Moaning and wailing for an heir to rule
After him, lest the realm should go to wrack.
And that same night, the night of the new year,
By reason of the bitterness and grief
210 That vext his mother, and all before his time
Was Arthur born, and all as soon as born
Deliver 'd at a secret postern-gate
To Merlin, to be holden far apart
Until his hour should come; because the lords
Of that fierce day were as the lords of this,
Wild beasts, and surely would have torn the child
Piecemeal among them, had they known ; for each
But sought to rule for his own self and hand,
And many hated Uther for the sake
220 Of Gorloi's. Wherefore Merlin took the child,
And gave him to Sir Anton, an old knight
And ancient friend of Uther; and his wife
Nursed the young prince, and rear'd him with her
own;
And no man knew. And ever since the lords
Have foughten like wild beasts among themselves,
So that the realm has gone to wrack ; but now,
This year, when Merlin (for his hour had come)
Brought Arthur forth, and set him in the hall,
Proclaiming, "Here is Uther 's heir, your king,"
230 A hundred voices cried, ' ' Away with him !
No king of ours ! a son of Gorloi's he,
Or else the child of Anton, and no king,
Or else baseborn. ' ' Yet Merlin thro ' his craft,
And while the people clamour 'd for a king,
Had Arthur crown 'd; but after, the great lords
Banded, and so brake out in open war. '
Then while the King debated with himself
If Arthur were the child of shamefulness
THE COMING OF ARTHUR 9
Or born the son of Gorloi's, after death,
Or Uther's son, and born before his time, 240
Or whether there were truth in anything
Said by these three, there came to Cameliard,
With Gawain and young Modred, her two sons,
Lot's wife, the Queen of Orkney, Bellicent;
Whom as he could, not as he would, the King
Made feast for, saying, as they sat at meat,
'A doubtful throne is ice on summer seas.
Ye come from Arthur's court. Victor his men
Report him ! Yea, but ye — think ye this king —
So many those that hate him, and so strong, 250
So few his knights, however brave they be —
Hath body enow to hold his foemen down?'
' 0 King, ' she cried, ' and I will tell thee : few,
Few, but all brave, all of one mind with him ;
For I was near him when the savage yells
Of Uther's peerage died, and Arthur sat
Crowned on the dais, and his warriors cried,
"Be thou the king, and we will work thy will
Who love thee." Then the King in low deep tones,
And simple words of great authority, 260
Bound them by so strait vows to his own self,
That when they rose, knighted from kneeling, some
Were pale as at the passing of a ghost,
Some flush 'd, and others dazed, as one who wakes
Half -blinded at the coming of a light.
'But when he spake and cheer 'd his Table Round
With large, divine, and comfortable words,
Beyond my tongue to tell thee — I beheld
255. Savage yells. Cf. 230-236.
267. comfortable: able to comfort.
10 IDYLLS OF THE KING
From eye to eye thro' all their Order flash
270 A momentary likeness of the King:
And ere it left their faces, thro' the cross
And those around it and the Crucified,
Down from the casement over Arthur, smote
Flame-colour, vert and azure, in three rays,
One falling upon each of three fair queens,
Who stood in silence near his throne, the friends
Of Arthur, gazing on him, tall, with bright "
Sweet faees, who will help him at his need.
'And there I saw mage Merlin, whose vast wit
280 And hundred winters are but as the hands
Of loyal vassals toiling for their liege.
'And near him stood the Lady of the Lake,
Who knows a subtler magic than his own —
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful.
She gave the King his huge cross-hilted sword,
Whereby to drive the heathen out : a mist
Of incense curl'd about her, and her face
Wellnigh was hidden in the minster gloom;
But there was heard among the holy hymns
290 A voice as of the waters, for she dwells
Down in a deep ; calm, whatsoever storms
May shake the world, and when the surface rolls,
Hath power to walk the waters like our Lord.
'There likewise I beheld Excalibur
Before him at his crowning borne, the sword
That rose from out the bosom of the lake,
And Arthur row'd across and took it — rich
With jewels, elfin Urim, on the hilt,
298. elfin Urim: precious stones with mj-sterious power of
enchantment.
THE COMING OF ARTHUR H
Bewildering heart and eye — the blade so bright
That men are blinded by it — on one side, 300
Graven in the oldest tongue of all this world,
"Take me," but turn the blade and ye shall see,
And written in the speech ye speak yourself,
"Cast me away!" And sad was Arthur's face
Taking it, but old Merlin counselled him,
' ' Take thou and strike ! the time to cast away
Is yet far-off." So this great brand the king
Took, and by this will beat his foemen down.'
Thereat Leodogran rejoiced, but thought
To sift his doubtings to the last, and ask'd, 310
Fixing full eyes of question on her face,
'The swallow and the swift are near akin,
But thou art closer to this noble prince,
Being his own dear sister;' and she said,
* Daughter of Gorlois and Ygerne am I;'
'And therefore Arthur's sister?' ask'd the King.
She answer 'd, 'These be secret things,' and sign'd
To those two sons to pass, and let them be.
And Gawain went, and breaking into song
Sprang out, and follow 'd by his flying hair 320
Ran like a colt, and leapt at all he saw:
But Modred laid his ear beside the doors,
And there half -heard; the same that afterward
Struck for the throne, and striking found his doom.
And then the Queen made answer, 'What know I?
For dark my mother was in eyes and hair,
And dark in hair and eyes am I ; and dark
Was Gorlois, yea and dark was Uther too,
Wellnigh to blackness; but this King is fair
Beyond the race of Britons and of men. 330
Moreover, always in my mind I hear
12 IDYLLS OF THE KING
A cry from out the dawning of my life,
A mother weeping, and I hear her say,
"0 that. ye had some brother, pretty one,
To guard thee on the rough ways of the world. ' ' '
' Ay, ' said the King, ' and hear ye such a cry ?
But when did Arthur chance upon thee first?'
' 0 King ! ' she cried, ' and I will tell thee true :
He found me first when yet a little maid:
Beaten had I been for a little fault
Whereof I was not guilty; and out I ran
And flung myself down on a bank of heath,
And hated this fair world and all therein,
And wept, and wish'd that % I were dead; and he—
I know not whether of himself he came,
Or brought by Merlin, who, they say, can walk
Unseen at pleasure — he was at my side,
And spake sweet words, and comforted my heart,
And dried my tears, being a child with me.
And many a time he came, and evermore
As I grew greater grew with me; and sad
At times he seem'd, and sad with him was I,
Stern too at times, and then I loved him not,
But sweet again, and then I loved him well.
And now of late I see him less and less,
But those first days had golden hours for me,
For then I surely thought he would be king.
'But let me tell thee now another tale:
For Bleys, our Merlin's master, as they say,
i Died but of late, and sent his cry to me,
To hear him speak before he left his life.
Shrunk like a fairy changeling lay the mage;
And when I enter 'd told me that himself
THE COMING OF ARTHUR 13
And Merlin ever served about the King,
Uther, before he died ; and on the night
When Uther in Tintagil past away
Moaning and wailing for an heir, the two
Left the still King, and passing forth to breathe,
Then from the castle gateway by the chasm
Descending thro' the dismal night — a night 370
In which the bounds of heaven and earth were lost —
Beheld, so high upon the dreary deeps
It seem'd in heaven, a ship, the shape thereof
A dragon wing'd, and all from stem to stern
Bright with a shining people on the decks,
And gone as soon as seen. And then the two
Dropt to the cove, and watch 'd the great sea fall,
Wave after wave, each mightier than the last,
Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep
And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged 380
Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame :
And down the wave and in the flame was borne
A naked babe, and rode to Merlin's feet,
Who stoopt and caught the babe, and cried "The
King!
Here is an heir for Uther!" And the fringe
Of that great breaker, sweeping up the strand,
Lash'd at the wizard as he spake the word,
And all at once all round him rose in fire,
So that the child and he were clothed in fire.
And presently thereafter follow 'd calm, 390
Free sky and stars: "And this same child," he said,
"Is he who reigns ; nor could I part in peace
Till this were told." And saying this the seer
Went thro' the strait and dreadful pass of death,
Nor ever to 'be question 'd any more
394. dreadful: full of things awaking dread.
14 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Save on the further side; but when I met
Merlin, and ask'd him if these things were truth —
The shining dragon and the naked child
Descending in the glory of the seas —
400 He laugh 'd as is his wont, and answer 'd me
In riddling triplets of old time, and said:
' ' ' Rain, rain, and sun ! a rainbow in the sky !
A young man will be wiser by and by ;
An old man's wit may wander ere he die.
Rain, rain, and sun ! a rainbow on the lea !
And truth is this to me, and that to thee;
And truth or clothed or naked let it be.
Rain, sun, and rain ! and the free blossom blows
Sun, rain, and sun ! and where is he who knows ?
410 From the great deep to the great deep he goes. ' '
'So Merlin riddling anger 'd me; but thou
Fear not to give this King thine only child,
Guinevere: so great bards of him will sing
Hereafter; and dark sayings from of old
Ranging and ringing thro' the minds of men,
And echo'd by old folk beside their fires
For comfort after their wage-work is done,
Speak of the King ; and Merlin in our time .
Hath spoken also, not in jest, and sworn
420 Tho' men may wound him that he will not die,
But pass, again to come ; and then or now
Utterly smite the heathen underfoot,
Till these and all men hail him for their king/
She spake and King Leodogran rejoiced,
But musing 'Shall I answer yea or nay?'
Doubted, and drowsed, nodded and slept, and saw,
Dreaming, a slope of land that ever grew,
THE COMING OF AETHUE 15
Field after field, up to a height, the peak
Haze-hidden, and thereon a phantom king,
Now looming, and now lost; and on the slope 430
The sword rose, the hind fell, the herd was driven,
Fire glimpsed ; and all the land from roof and rick,
In drifts of smoke before a rolling wind,
Stream 'd to the peak, and mingled with the haze
And made it thicker; while the phantom king
Sent out at times a voice; and here or there
Stood one who pointed toward the voice, the rest
Slew on and burnt, crying, 'No king of ours,
No son of Uther, and no king of ours ; '
Till with a wink his dream was changed, the haze 440
Descended, and the solid earth became
As nothing, but the King stood out in heaven,
Crown 'd. And Leodogran awoke, and sent
Ulfius, and Brastias and Bedivere,
Back to the court of Arthur answering yea.
Then Arthur charged his warrior whom he loved
And honour 'd most, Sir Lancelot, to ride forth
And bring the Queen; — and watch 'd him from the
gates :
And Lancelot past away among the flowers,
(For then was latter April) and return 'd 450
Among the flowers, in May, with Guinevere.
To whom arrived, by Dubric the high saint,
Chief of the church in Britain, and before
The stateliest of her altar-shrines, the King
That morn was married, while in stainless white,
The fair beginners of a nobler time,
And glorying in their vows and him, his knights
Stood round him, and rejoicing in his joy.
Far shone the fields of May thro' open door,
The sacred altar blossom 'd white with May, 460
16 IDYLLS OF THE KING
The Sun of May descended on their King,
They gazed on all earth's beauty in their Queen,
Roll'd incense, and there past along the hymns
A voice as of the waters, while the two
Sware at the shrine of Christ a deathless love :
And Arthur said, 'Behold, thy doom is mine.
Let chance what will, I love thee to the death ! '
To whom the Queen replied with drooping eyes,
'King and my lord, I love thee to the death!'
470 And holy Dubric spread his hands and spake,
'Reign ye, and live and love> and make the world
Other, and may thy Queen be one with thee,
And all this Order of thy Table Round
Fulfil the boundless purpose of their King!'
So Dubric said; but when they left the shrine
Great Lords from Rome before the portal stood,
In scornful stillness gazing as they past;
Then while they paced a city all on fire
With sun and cloth of gold, the trumpets blew,
480 And Arthur's knighthood sang before the King: —
1 Blow trumpet, for the world is white with May ;
Blow trumpet, the long night hath roll 'd away !
Blow thro' the living world — "Let the King reign."
'Shall Rome or Heathen rule in Arthur's realm?
Flash brand and lance, fall battleaxe upon helm,
Fall battleaxe, and flash brand ! Let the King reign.
'Strike for the King and live! his knights have
heard
That God hath told the King a secret word.
Fall battleaxe and flash brand ! Let the King reign,.
488. secret word: a revelation from heaven to Arthur's heart,
giving sanction to his high purpose.
THE COMING OF AETHUK 17
'Blow trumpet! he will lift us from the dust. 490
Blow trumpet ! live the strength and die the lust !
Clang battleaxe, and clash brand ! Let the King
reign.
'Strike for the King and die! and if thou diest,
The King is King, and ever wills the highest.
Clang battleaxe, and clash brand ! Let the King
reign.
' Blow, for our Sun is mighty in his May !
Blow, for our Sun is mightier day by day !
Clang battleaxe, and clash brand! Let the King
reign.
■ ' The King will follow Christ, and we the King
In whom high God hath breathed a secret thing. 500
Fall battleaxe, and flash brand ! Let the King reign. '
So sang the knighthood, moving to their hall.
There at the banquet those great Lords from Rome,
The slowly-fading mistress of the world,
Strode in, and claim 'd their tribute as of yore.
But Arthur spake, 'Behold, for these have sworn
To wage my wars, and worship me their King;
The old order changeth, yielding place to new;
And we that fight for our fair father Christ,
Seeing that ye be grown too weak and old 510
To drive the heathen from your Roman wall,
No tribute will Ave pay : ' so those great lords
Drew back in wrath, and Arthur strove with Rome.
And Arthur and his knighthood for a space
Were all one will, and thro' that strength the King
Drew in the petty princedoms under him,
Fought, and in twelve great battles overcame
The heathen hordes, and made a realm and reign 'd.
GARETH AND LYNETTE
The last tall son of Lot and Bellicent,
And tallest, Gareth, in a showerful spring
Stared at the spate. A slender-shafted Pine
Lost footing, fell, and so was whirl'd away.
' How he went down,' said Gareth, 'as a false knight
Or evil king before my lance if lance
Were mine to use — O senseless cataract,
Bearing all down in thy precipitancy —
And yet thou art but swollen with cold snows
10 And mine is living blood : thou dost His will,
The Maker's, and not knowest, and I that know,
Have strength and wit, in my good mother's hall
Linger with vacillating obedience,
Prison 'd, and kept and coax'd and whistled to —
Since the good mother holds me still a child !
Good mother is bad mother unto me !
A worse were better; yet no worse would I.
Heaven yield her for it, but in me put force
To weary her ears with one continuous prayer,
20 Until she let me fly discaged to sweep
In ever-highering eagle-circles up
To the great Sun of Glory, and thence swoop
Down upon all things base, and dash them dead,
A knight of Arthur, working out his will,
To cleanse the world. Why, Gawain, when he came
With Modred hither in the summer-time,
18. yield: reward or bless.
18
GARETH AND LYNETTE 19
Ask'd me. to tilt with him, the proven knight.
Modred for want of worthier was the judge.
Then I so shook him in the saddle, he said,
1 ' Thou hast half prevail 'd against me, ' ' said so — he — 30
Tho' Modred biting his thin lips was mute,
For he is alway sullen: what care IV
And Gareth went, and hovering round her chair
Ask'd, 'Mother, tho' ye count me still the child,
Sweet mother, do ye love the child?' She laugh 'd,
' Thou art but a wild-goose to question it. '
'Then, mother, and ye love the child,' he said,
'Being a goose and rather tame than wild,
Hear the child's story.' 'Yea, my well-beloved,
An 'twere but of the goose and golden eggs. ' 40
And Gareth answer 'd her with kindling eyes,
'Nay, nay, good mother, but this egg of mine
Was finer gold than any goose can lay;
For this an Eagle, a royal Eagle, laid
Almost beyond eye-reach, on such a palm
As glitters gilded in thy Book of Hours.
And there was ever haunting round the palm
A lusty youth, but poor, who often saw
The splendour sparkling from aloft, and thought
"An I could climb and lay my hand upon it, 50
Then were I wealthier than a leash of kings."
But ever when he reach 'd a hand to climb,
One that had loved him from his childhood, caught
And stay'd him, "Climb not lest1 thou break thy
neck,
I charge thee by my love, ' ' and so the boy,
46. Book of Hours: prayer-book with marginal adornments
and pictures.
50. an: "if" in Middle English.
20 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Sweet mother, neither clomb, nor brake his neck,
And brake his very heart in pining for it,
And past away.'
To whom the mother said,
' True love, sweet son, had risk'd himself and climb 'd,
60 And handed down the golden treasure to him.'
And Gareth answer 'd her with kindling eyes,
'Gold? said I gold? — ay then, why he, or she,
Or whosoe'er it was, or half the world
Had ventured — had the thing I spake of been
Mere gold — but this was all of that true steel,
Whereof they forged the brand Excalibur,
And lightnings play'd about it in the storm,
And all the little fowl were flurried at it,
And there were cries and clashings in the nest,
70 That sent him from his senses : let me go. '
Then Bellicent bemoan 'd herself and said,
'Hast thou no pity upon my loneliness?
Lo, where thy father Lot beside the hearth
Lies like a log, and all but smoulder 'd out !
For ever since when traitor to the King
He fought against him in the Barons' war,
And Arthur gave him back his territory,
His age hath slowly droopt, and now lies there
A yet-warm corpse, and yet unburiable,
80 No more ; nor sees, nor hears, nor speaks, nor knows.
And both thy brethren are in Arthur's hall,
Albeit neither loved with that full love
I feel for thee, nor worthy such a love:
Stay therefore thou ; red berries charm the bird,
And thee, mine innocent, the jousts, the wars,
Who never knewest finger-ache, nor pang
GAKETH AND LYNETTE 21
Of wrench 'd or broken limb — an often chance
In those brain-stunning shocks, and tourney-falls,
Frights to my heart ; but stay : follow the deer
By these tall firs and our fast-falling burns; 90
So make thy manhood mightier day by day;
Sweet is the chase : and I will seek thee out
Some comfortable bride and fair, to grace
Thy climbing life, and cherjsh my prone year,
Till falling into Lot's forgetfulness
I know not thee, myself, nor anything.
Stay, my best son ! ye are yet more boy than man.'
Then Gareth, 'An ye hold me yet for child,
Hear yet once more the story of the child.
For, mother, there was once a King, like ours. 100
The prince his heir, when tall and marriageable,
Ask'd for a bride; and thereupon the King
Set two before him. One was fair, strong, arm'd —
But to be won by force — and many men
Desired her; one, good lack, no man desired.
And these were the conditions of the King :
That save he won the first by force, he needs
Must wed that other, whom no man desired,
A red-faced bride who knew herself so vile,
That evermore she long'd to hide herself, 110
Nor fronted man or woman, eye to eye —
Yea — some she cleaved to, but they died of her.
And one — they call 'd her Fame ; and one, — 0 mother,
How can ye keep me tether 'd to you — Shame.
Man am I grown, a man's work must I do.
Follow the deer? follow the Christ, the King,
Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King —
Else, wherefore born?'
94. prone: declining.
22 IDYLLS OE THE KING
To whom the mother said,
' Sweet son, for there be many who deem him not,
120 Or will not deem him, wholly proven King —
Albeit in mine own heart I knew him King,
When I was frequent with him in my youth,
And heard him Kingly speak, and doubted him
No more than he, himself ; but felt him mine,
Of closest kin to me : yet — wilt thou leave
Thine easeful biding here, and risk thine all,
Life, limbs, for one that is not proven King?
Stay, till the cloud that settles round his birth
Hath lifted but a little. Stay, sweet son.'
130 And Gareth answer 'd quickly, 'Not an hour,
So that ye yield me — I will walk thro' fire,
Mother, to gain it — your full leave to go.
Not proven, who swept the dust of ruin'd Rome
From off the threshold of the realm, and crush 'd
The Idolaters, and made the people free?
Who should be King save him who makes us free ?
So when the Queen, who long had sought in vain
To break him from the intent to which he grew,
Found her son's will unwaveringly one,
140 She answer 'd craftily, 'Will ye walk thro' fire?
Who walks thro' fire will hardly heed the smoke.
Ay, go then, an ye must: only one proof,
Before thou ask the King to make thee knight,
Of thine obedience and thy love to me,
Thy mother, — I demand.'
And Gareth cried,
'A hard one, or a hundred, so I go.
Nay — quick ! the proof to prove me to the quick ! '
GAKETH AND LYNETTE 23
But slowly spake the mother looking at him,
'Prince, thou shalt go disguised to Arthur's hall,
And hire thyself to serve for meats and drinks 150
Among the scullions and the kitchen-knaves,
And those that hand the dish across the bar.
Nor shalt thou tell thy name to any one.
And thou shalt serve a twelvemonth and a day/
For so the Queen believed that when her son
Beheld his only way to glory lead
Low down thro' villain kitchen-vassalage,
Her own true Gareth was too princely-proud
To pass thereby ; so should he rest with her,
Closed in her castle from the sound of arms. 160
Silent awhile was Gareth, then replied,
'The thrall in person may be free in soul,
And I shall see the jousts. Thy son am I,
And since thou art my mother, must obey.
I therefore yield me freely to thy will;
For hence will I, disguised, and hire myself
To serve with scullions and with kitchen-knaves;
Nor tell my name to any — no, not the King. '
Gareth awhile linger 'd. The mother's eye
Full of the wistful fear that he would go, 170
And turning toward him wheresoe'er he turn'd,
Perplext his outward purpose, till an hour,
When waken 'd by the wind which with full voice
Swept bellowing thro' the darkness on to dawn,
He rose, and out of slumber calling two
That still had tended on him from his birth,
Before the wakeful mother heard him, went.
157, villain: in its original feudal meaning, servile,
24 IDYLLS OF THE KING
The three were clad like tillers of the soil.
Southward they set their faces. The birds made
180 Melody on branch, and melody in mid air.
The damp hill-slopes were quicken 'd into green,
And the live green had kindled into flowers,
For it was past the time of Easterday.
So, when their feet were planted on the plain
That broaden 'd toward the base of Camelot,
Far off they saw the silver-misty morn
Rolling her smoke about the Royal mount,
That rose between the forest and the field.
At times the summit of the high city flash 'd ;
190 At times the spires and turrets half-way down
Prick 'd thro ' the mist ; at times the great gate shone
Only, that open'd on the field below:
Anon, the whole fair city had disappear 'd.
Then those who went with Gareth were amazed,
One crying, 'Let us go no further, lord.
Here is a city of Enchanters, built
By fairy Kings.' The second echo'd him,
'Lord, we have heard from our wise man at home
To Northward, that this King is not the King,
200 But only changeling out of Fairyland,
Who drave the heathen hence by sorcery
And Merlin's glamour.' Then the first again,
'Lord, there is no such city anywhere,
But all a vision.'
185. Camelot: Arthur's capital, located in Hampshire at or
near Winchester; or at Cserleon-on-Usk in Monmouthshire, Wales;
or in the parish of Queen Camel in Somersetshire.
199. To Northward. The Orkneys are north of Scotland,
GARETH AND LYNETTE 25
Gareth answer 'd them
With laughter, swearing he had glamour enow
In his own blood, his princedom, youth and hopes,
To plunge old Merlin in the Arabian sea;
So push'd them all unwilling toward the gate.
And there was no gate like it under heaven.
For barefoot on the keystone, which was lined 210
And rippled like an ever-fleeting wave,
The Lady of the Lake stood : all her dress
Wept from her sides as water flowing away ;
But like the cross her great and goodly arms
Stretch 'd under all the cornice and upheld:
And drops of water fell from either hand ;
And down from one a sword was hung, from one
A censer, either worn with wind and storm;
And o 'er her breast floated the sacred fish ;
And in the space to left of her, and right, 220
Were Arthur's wars in weird devices done,
New things and old co-twisted, as if Time
Were nothing, so inveterately, that men
Were giddy gazing there; and over all
High on the top were those three Queens, the friends
Of Arthur, who should help him at his need.
Then those with Gareth for so long a space
Stared at the figures, that at last it seem'd
The dragon-boughts and elvish emblemings
Began to move, seethe, twine and curl: they call'd 230
To Gareth, 'Lord, the gateway is alive.'
219. the sacred fish. The fish was adopted by the early
church as its symbol, because the Greek word for fish ('IXOT'S),
is made up of the initial letters of the name and titles of Christ:
'IrjtroCs Xpiarhs 0eoy Tibs *2,uni,p, Jesus Christ, God's Son, Saviour.
26 IDYLLS OF THE KIXG
And Garetli likewise on them fixt his eyes
So long, that ev'n to him they seem'd to move.
Out of the city a blast of music peal'd.
Back from the gate started the three, to whom
From out thereunder came an ancient man,
Long-bearded, saying, 'Who be ye, my sons?'
Then Gareth, 'We be tillers of the soil,
7 m 7
Who leaving share in furrow come to see
240 The glories of our King : but these, my men,
(Your city moved so weirdly in the mist)
Doubt if the King be King at all, or come
From Fairyland; and whether this be built
By magic, and by fairy Kings and Queens;
Or whether there be any city at all,
Or all a vision : and this music now
Hath scared them both, but tell thou these the truth. '
Then that old Seer made answer playing on him
And saying, ' Son, I have seen the good ship sail
250 Keel upward, and mast downward, in the heavens.
And solid turrets topsy-turvy in air:
And here is truth; but an it please thee not,
Take thou the truth as thou hast told it me.
For truly as thou sayest, a Fairy King
And Fairy Queens have built the city, son ;
They came from out a sacred mountain-cleft
Toward the sunrise, each with harp in hand,
And built it to the music of their harps.
And, as thou sayest, it is enchanted, son,
260 For there is nothing in it as it seems
Saving the King; tho' some there be that hold
236. an ancient man: Merlin.
250. Keel upward, etc. : a mirage.
GAKETH AND LYNETTE 27
The King a shadow, and the city real :
Yet take thou heed of him, for, so thou pass
Beneath this archway, then wilt thou become
A thrall to his enchantments, for the King
Will bind thee by such vows, as is a shame
A man should not be bound by, yet the which
No man can keep ; but, so thou dread to swear,
Pass not beneath this gateway, but abide
Without, among the cattle of the field. 270
For an ye heard a music, like enow
They are building still, seeing the city is built
To music, therefore never built at all,
And therefore built for ever.'
Gareth spake,
Anger 'd, 'Old Master, reverence thine own beard
That looks as white as utter truth, and seems
Wellnigh as long as thou art statured tall!
Why mockest thou the stranger that hath been
To thee fair-spoken?'
But the Seer replied,
'Know ye not then the Riddling of the Bards? 280
"Confusion, and illusion, and relation,
Elusion, and occasion, and evasion"?
I mock thee not but as thou mockest me,
And all that see thee, for thou art not who
Thou seemest, but I know thee who thou art.
And now thou goest up to mock the King,
Who cannot brook the shadow of any lie.'
Unmockingly the mocker ending here
Turn'd to the right, and past along the plain;
275. Anger'd. Gareth fails to understand the allegory;
thinks the old man is quibbling and mocking.
28 IDYLLS OF THE KING
290 Whom Gareth looking after said, 'My men,
Our one white lie sits like a little ghost
Here on the threshold of our enterprise.
Let love be blamed for it, not she, nor I :
Well, we will make amends/
With all good cheer
He spake and laugh 'd, then enter 'd with his twain
Camelot, a city of shadowy palaces
And stately, rich in emblem and the work
Of ancient kings who did their days in stone;
Which Merlin's hand, the Mage at Arthur's court,
300 Knowing all arts, had touch 'd, and everywhere
At Arthur's ordinance, tipt with lessening peak
And pinnacle, and had made it spire to heaven.
And ever and anon a knight would pass
Outward, or inward to the hall: his arms
Clash 'd ; and the sound was good to Gareth 's ear.
And out of bower and casement shyly glanced
Eyes of pure women, wholesome stars of love;
And all about a healthful people stept
As in the presence of a gracious king.
310 Then into hall Gareth ascending heard
A voice, the voice of Arthur, and beheld
Far over heads in that long-vaulted hall
The splendour of the presence of the King
Thron 'd, and delivering doom — and look 'd no more —
But felt his young heart hammering in his ears,
And thought, 'For this half-shadow of a lie
The truthful King will doom me when I speak. '
Yet pressing on, tho' all in fear to find
298. did their days: carved their deeds.
314. doom: royal justice.
GARETH AND LYNETTE 29
Sir Gawain or Sir Modred, saw nor one
Nor other, but in all the listening eyes 320
Of those tall knights, that ranged about the throne,
Clear honour shining like the dewy star
Of dawn, and faith in their great King, with pure
Affection, and the light of victory,
And glory gain'd, and evermore to gain.
Then came a widow crying to the King,
<A boon, Sir King! Thy father, Uther, reft
From my dear lord a field with violence:
For howsoe'er at first he proffer 'd gold,
Yet, for the field was pleasant in our eyes, 330
We yielded not; and then he reft us of it
Perforce, and left us neither gold nor field.'
Said Arthur, ' Whether would ye ? gold or field ? '
To whom the woman weeping, 'Nay, my lord,
The field was pleasant in my husband's eye.'
And Arthur, 'Have thy pleasant field again,
And thrice the gold for Uther 's use thereof,
According to the years. No boon is here,
But justice, so thy say be proven true.
Accursed, who from the wrongs his father did 340
Would shape himself a right!'
And while she past,
Came yet another widow crying to him,
' A boon, Sir King ! Thine enemy, King, am I.
With thine own hand thou slewest my dear lord,
A knight of Uther in the Barons' war,
When Lot and many another rose and fought
Against thee, saying thou wert basely born.
I held with these, and loathe to ask thee aught.
3
30 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Yet lo ! my husband 's brother had my son
350 Thrall 'd in his castle, and hath starved him dead ;
And standeth seized of that inheritance
Which thou that slewest the sire hast left the son.
So tho' I scarce can ask it thee for hate,
Grant me some knight to do the battle for me,
Kill the foul thief, and wreak me for my son.'
Then strode a good knight forward, crying to him,
'A boon, Sir King! I am her kinsman, I.
Give me to right her wrong, and slay the man.'
Then came Sir Kay, the seneschal, and cried,
360 'A boon, Sir King! ev'n that thou grant her none,
This railer, that hath mock'd thee in full hall —
None ; or the wholesome boon of gyve and gag. '
But Arthur, ' We sit King, to help the wrong 'd
Thro' all our realm. The woman loves her lord.
Peace to thee, woman, with thy loves and hates !
The kings of old had doom'd thee to the flames,
Aurelius Emrys would have scourged thee dead,
And Uther slit thy tongue : but get thee hence —
Lest that rough humour of the kings of old
370 Return upon me ! Thou that art her kin,
Go likewise ; lay him low and slay him not,
But bring him here, that I may judge the right,
According to the justice of the King:
Then, be he guilty, by that deathless King
Who lived and died for men, the man shall die. '
Then came in hall the messenger of Mark,
A name of evil savour in the land,
351. seized of: possessed of.
355. wreak me: avenge me.
GARETH AND LYNETTE 31
The Cornish king. In either hand he bore
What dazzled all, and shone far-off as shines
A field of charlock in the sudden sun 380
Between two showers, a cloth of palest gold,
Which down he laid before the throne, and knelt,
Delivering, that his lord, the vassal king,
Was ev'n upon his way to Camelot;
For having heard that Arthur of his grace
Had made his goodly cousin, Tristram, knight,
And, for himself was of the greater state,
Being a king, he trusted his liege-lord
Would yield him this large honour all the more;
So pray'd him well to accept this cloth of gold, 390
In token of true heart and fealty.
Then Arthur cried to rend the cloth, to rend
In pieces, and so cast it on the hearth.
An oak-tree smoulder 'd there. ' The goodly knight !
What! shall the shield of Mark stand among
these 1
For, midway down the side of that long hall
A stately pile, — whereof along the front,
Some blazon 'd, some but carven, and some blank,
There ran a treble range of stony shields, —
Rose, and high-arching overbrow'd the hearth. 400
And under every shield a knight was named:
For this was Arthur's custom in his hall;
When some good knight had done one noble deed,
His arms were carven only ; but if twain
His arms were blazon 'd also; but if none,
The shield was blank and bare without a sign
Saving the name beneath; and Gareth saw
The shield of Gawain blazon 'd rich and bright,
And Modred's blank as death; and Arthur cried
To rend the cloth and cast it on the hearth. 410
32 IDYLLS OF THE KING
'More like are we to reave him of his crown
Than make him knight because men call him king.
The kings we found, ye know we stay 'd their hands
From war among themselves, but left them kings ;
Of whom were any bounteous, merciful,
Truth-speaking, brave, good livers, them we enroll 'd
Among us, and they sit within our hall.
But Mark hath tarnish 'd the great name of king,
As Mark would sully the low state of churl :
420 And, seeing he hath sent us cloth of gold,
Return, and meet, and hold him from our eyes,
Lest we should lap him up in cloth of lead,
Silenced for ever — craven — a man of plots,
Crafts, poisonous counsels, wayside ambushings —
No fault of thine : let Kay the seneschal
Look to thy wants, and send thee satisfied —
Accursed, who strikes nor lets the hand be seen ! '
And many another suppliant crying came
With noise of ravage wrought by beast and man,
430 And evermore a knight would ride away.
Last, Gareth leaning both hands heavily
Down on the shoulders of the twain, his men,
Approach 'd between them toward the King, and
ask'd,
1 A boon, Sir King (his voice was all ashamed),
For see ye not how weak and hungerworn
I seem — leaning on these? grant me to serve
For meat and drink among thy kitchen-knaves
A twelvemonth and a day, nor seek my name.
Hereafter I will fight/
To him the King,
440 'A goodly youth and worth a goodlier boon!
GAKETH AND LYNETTE 33
But so thou wilt no goodlier, then must Kay,
The master of the meats and drinks, be thine. '
He rose and past ; then Kay, a man of mien
Wan-sallow as the plant that feels itself
Root-bitten by white lichen,
'Lo ye now!
This fellow hath broken from some Abbey, where,
God wot, he had not beef and brewis enow,
However that might chance ! but an he work,
Like any pigeon will I cram his crop,
And sleeker shall he shine than any hog/ 450
Then Lancelot standing near, 'Sir Seneschal,
Sleuth-hound thou knowest, and gray, and all the
hounds;
A horse thou knowest, a man thou dost not know :
Broad brows and fair, a fluent hair and fine,
High nose, a nostril large and fine, and hands
Large, fair and fine ! — Some young lad 's mystery —
But, or from sheepcot or king's hall, the boy
Is noble-naturecl. Treat him with all grace,
Lest he should come to shame thy judging of him. '
Then Kay, 'What murmurest thou of mystery? 460
Think ye this fellow will poison the King 's dish ?
Nay, for he spake too fool-like: mystery!
Tut, an the lad were noble, he had ask'd
For horse and armour : fair and fine, forsooth !
Sir Fine-face, Sir Fair-hands? but see thou to it
That thine own fineness, Lancelot, some fine day
Undo thee not — and leave my man to me.'
So Gareth all for glory underwent
The sooty yoke of kitchen-vassalage ;
34 EDYLLS OF THE KD
470 with young lads his portion by the door.
And couch VI at night with grimy kitehen-kna -
And Lancelot ever spake him pleasantly.
But Kay. tl. s schal, who loved him not.
Would hustle and harry him, and labour him
Beyond his comrade of the hearth, and -
To turn the broach, draw water, or he~
grosser tasks: and Gareth bow'd himself
With all obedience to the Ring, and wrought
All kind of service with a noble e -
That graced the lowliest act in doin_
I when the thralls had talk among then -
And one would praise the love that linkt the King
I Lancelot — how the King had saved his life
In battle twice, and Lancelot once the King \ —
For Lancelot was the first in Tournament.
But Arthur mightiest on the battle-field —
reth was glad. Or if some other told.
How once the wandering forester at dawn.
7 ver the blue tarns and ha:
On -Z: ::"s highest found the Kins
aked babe, of whom the Pr - ike,
*He passes to the Isle Avilion,
Hr passes and is heal'd and cannot die' —
: eth was glad. But if their talk were foul,
Then would he whistle rapid as any lark.
Or carol some old roundelay, and so loud
That first they moek'd. but. after, reverenced him.
rrth telling some prodigious tale
: knights, who sliced a red life-bubbling way
Thr ds of twisted dragon, held
All in a gap-mouth "d circle his good m
g or sitting round him, idle hands,
-nowdon. the highest mountain in Br
::eth axd lyxette
Charm *d: til- Su lesehaL would c
Blustering upon them, like a sudden wind
Among dead leaves, and drive them all apart.
Or when the thralls had sport among the
- here were any trial of ms
ards in easting bar
counted -d if there chanced a joosl
So that Sir Kay nodded him leav^ t _
;ld hurry thither, and when he saw the knights
Clash like the coming and retirin.
the 8] r spri] _ nd good horse reel, the I
iialf beyond himself for ecs"
§ for a month he wrought among the thra.
But in the weeks that follow "d. the good Queen.
utant : : rd she made him swear,
And saddening in her childless eastl
rn the in-crescent and d nt moon.
Arms for her son, and loosed him from L
This. Gareth hearing from a squire of L :
With whom he u-
n both were children, and in lonely ham "^
Would scratch a ragged oval on the sand.
And each at either dash from either end —
Shame never made girl redder than Gareth j
auglTd: he sprang il : the smoke, at on
I leap from Satan's i t 1 s knee —
Th«7- si none other's — nay. th K _ —
- end into the city:" whereon he sought
The Kins: alone, and found, and told him alL
Queen: Bellieent.
7 : : - S :,::,z si hell to heaven ;
from K ■ . ( a : I hur.
36 IDYLLS OF THE KING
'I have stagger 'cl thy strong Gawain in a tilt
For pastime ; yea, he said it : joust can I.
Make me thy knight — in secret! let my name
Be hidd'n, and give me the first quest, I spring
Like name from ashes.'
Here the King's calm eye
Fell on, and check 'd, and made him flush, and bow
Lowly, to kiss his hand, who answer 'd him,
' Son, the good mother let me know thee here,
540 And sent her wish that I would yield thee thine.
Make thee my knight ? my knights are sworn to vows
Of utter hardihood, utter gentleness,
And, loving, utter faithfulness in love,
And uttermost obedience to the King.'
Then Gareth, lightly springing from his knees,
'My King, for hardihood I can promise thee.
For uttermost obedience make demand
Of whom ye gave me to, the Seneschal,
No mellow master of the meats and drinks !
550 And as for love, God wot, I love not yet,
But love I shall, God willing.'
And the King —
'Make thee my knight in secret? yea, but he,
Our noblest brother, and our truest man,
And one with me in all, he needs must know. '
'Let Lancelot know, my King, let Lancelot know,
Thy noblest and thy truest ! '
And the King —
' But wherefore would ye men should wonder at you ?
Nay, rather for the sake of me, their King,
And the deed's sake my knighthood do the deed,
Than to be noised of.'
GARETH AND LYNETTE 37
Merrily Gareth ask'd, 560
I Have I not earn 'd my cake in baking of it ?
Let be my name until I make my name !
My deeds will speak : it is but for a day. '
So with a kindly hand on Gareth 's arm
Smiled the great King, and half-unwillingly
Loving his lusty youthhood yielded to him.
Then after summoning Lancelot privily,
I I have given him the first quest : he is not proven.
Look therefore when he calls for this in hall,
Thou get to horse and follow him far away. 570
Cover the lions on thy shield, and see
Far as thou may est, he be nor ta'en nor slain.'
Then that same day there past into the hall
A damsel of high lineage, and a brow
May-blossom, and a cheek of apple-blossom,
Hawk-eyes ; and lightly was her slender nose
Tip-tilted like the petal of a flower;
She into hall past with her page and cried,
'0 King, for thou hast driven the foe without,
See to the foe within! bridge, ford, beset 580
By bandits, everyone that owns a tower
The Lord for half a league. Why sit ye there?
Rest would I not, Sir King, an I were king,
Till ev 'n the lonest hold were all as free
From cursed bloodshed, as thine altar-cloth
From that best blood it is a sin to spill. '
'Comfort thyself,' said Arthur, 'I nor mine
Rest: so my knighthood keep the vows they swore,
The wastest moorland of our realm shall be
Safe, damsel, as the centre of this hall. 590
What is thy name ? thy need ? '
38 IDYLLS OF THE KING
'My name?' she said —
'Lynette my name; noble; my need, a knight
To combat for my sister, Lyonors,
A lady of high lineage, of great lands,
And comely, yea, and comelier than myself.
She lives in Castle Perilous : a river
Runs in three loops about her living place;
And o'er it are three passings, and three knights
Defend the passings, brethren, and a fourth
600 And of that four the mightiest, holds her stayed
In her own castle, and so besieges her
To break her will, and make her wed with him :
And but delays his purport till thou send
To do the battle with him, thy chief man
Sir Lancelot whom he trusts to overthrow,
Then wed, with glory : but she will not wed
Save whom she loveth, or a holy life.
Now therefore have I come for Lancelot.'
Then Arthur mindful of Sir Gareth ask'd,
610 'Damsel, ye know this Order lives to crush
All wrongers of the Realm. But say, these four,
Who be they ? What the fashion of the men ? '
'They be of foolish fashion, 0 Sir King,
The fashion of that old knight-errantry
Who ride abroad, and do but what they will ;
Courteous or bestial from the moment, such
As have nor law nor king ; and three of these
Proud in their fantasy call themselves the Day,
Morning-Star, and Noon-Sun, and Evening-Star,
610. This Order: the Round Table.
614. That old knight-errantry: lawless knights ante-dating
Arthur, and not acknowledging him as leader.
616. from the moment: i. e., from the impulse of the moment.
GAEETH AND LYNETTE 39
Being strong fools; and never a whit more wise 620
The fourth, who always ricleth arm'd in black,
A huge man-beast of boundless savagery.
He names himself the Night and oftener Death,
And wears a helmet mounted with a skull,
And bears a skeleton figured on his arms,
To show that who may slay or scape the three,
Slain by himself, shall enter endless night.
And all these four be fools, but mighty men,
And therefore am I come for Lancelot. '
Hereat Sir Gareth call'd from where he rose, 630
A head with kindling eyes above the throng,
'A boon, Sir King — this quest!' then — for he mark 'd
Kay near him groaning like a wounded bull —
'Yea, King, thou knowest thy kitchen knave am I,
And mighty thro' thy meats and drinks am I,
And I can topple over a hundred such.
Thy promise, King,' and Arthur glancing at him,
Brought down a momentary brow. ' Rough, sudden,
And pardonable, worthy to be knight —
Go therefore,' and all hearers were amazed. 640
But on the damsel's forehead shame, pride, wrath
Slew the May-white : she lifted either arm,
'Fie on thee, King! I ask'd for thy chief knight,
And thou hast given me but a kitchen-knave.'
Then ere a man in hall could stay her, turnxl,
Fled down the lane of access to the King.
Took horse, descended the slope street, and past
The weird white gate, and paused without, beside
The field of tourney, murmuring ' kitchen-knave. '
Now two great entries open'd from the hall, 650
At one end one, that gave upon a range
40 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Of level pavement where the King would pace
At sunrise, gazing over plain and wood;
And down from this a lordly stairway sloped
Till lost in blowing trees and tops of towers;
And out by this main doorway past the King.
But one was counter to the hearth, and rose
High that the highest-crested helm could ride
Therethro ' nor graze : and by this entry fled
660 The damsel in her wrath, and on to this
Sir Gareth strode, and saw without the door
King Arthur's gift, the worth of half a town,
A warhorse of the best, and near it stood
The two that out of north had follow 'd him :
This bare a maiden shield, a casque; that held
The horse, the spear ; whereat Sir Gareth loosed
A cloak that dropt from collar-bone to heel,
A cloth of roughest web, and cast it down,
And from it like a fuel-smother 'd fire,
670 That lookt half -dead, brake bright, and flash 'd as
those
Dull-coated things, that making slide apart
Their dusk wing-cases, all beneath there burns
A Jewell 'd harness, ere they pass and fly.
So Gareth ere he parted flash 'd in arms.
Then as he donn'd the helm, and took the shield
And mounted horse and graspt a spear, of grain
Storm-strengthen 'd on a windy site, and tipt
With trenchant steel, around him slowly prest
The people, while from out of kitchen came
680 The thralls in throng, and seeing who had work'd
Lustier than any, and whom they could but love,
Mounted in arms, threw up their caps and cried,
' God bless the King, and all his fellowship ! '
671. Dull-coated things: beetles.
GAKETH AND LYNETTE 41
And on thro' lanes of shouting Gareth rode
Down the slope street, and past without the gate.
So Gareth past with joy ; but as the cur
Pluckt from the cur he fights with, ere his cause
Be cool'd by fighting, follows, being named,
His owner, but remembers all, and growls
Remembering, so Sir Kay beside the door 690
Mutter 'd in scorn of Gareth whom he used
To harry and hustle.
'Bound upon a quest
"With horse and arms — the King hath past his time —
My scullion knave! Thralls to your work again,
For an your fire be low ye kindle mine !
Will there be dawn in West and eve in East 1
Begone ! — my knave ! — belike and like enow
Some old head-blow not heeded in his youth
So shook his wits they wander in his prime —
Crazed ! How the villain lifted up his voice, 700
Nor shamed to bawl himself a kitchen-knave.
Tut : he was tame and meek enow with me,
Till peacock 'd up with Lancelot's noticing.
Well — I will after my loud knave, and learn
Whether he know me for his master yet.
Out of the smoke he came, and so my lance
Hold, by God's grace, he shall into the mire —
Thence, if the King awaken from his craze,
Into the smoke again.'
But Lancelot said,
'Kay, wherefore wilt thou go against the King, 710
For that did never he whereon ye rail,
But ever meekly served the King in thee ?
Abide : take counsel ; for this lad is great
And lusty, and knowing both of lance and sword.'
42 IDYLLS OF THE KING
' Tut, tell not me, ' said Kay, ' ye are overfine
To mar stout knaves with foolish courtesies : '
Then mounted, on thro' silent faces rode
Down the slope city, and out beyond the gate.
But by the field of tourney lingering yet
720 Mutter 'd the damsel, 'Wherefore did the King
Scorn me? for, were Sir Lancelot lackt, at least
He might have yielded to me one of those
Who tilt for lady's love and glory here,
Rather than — O sweet heaven ! 0 fie upon him —
His kitchen-knave.'
To whom Sir Gareth drew
(And there were none but few goodlier than he)
Shining in arms, 'Damsel, the quest is mine.
Lead, and I follow.' She thereat, as one
That smells a foul-flesh 'd agaric in the holt,
730 And deems it carrion of some woodland thing,
Or shrew, or weasel, nipt her slender nose
With petulant thumb and finger, shrilling, ' Hence !
Avoid, thou smellest all of kitchen-grease.
And look who comes behind,' for there was Kay.
'Knowest thou not me? thy master? I am Kay.
We lack thee by the hearth. '
And Gareth to him,
' Master no more ! too well I know thee, ay —
The most ungentle knight in Arthur's hall.'
'Have at thee then,' said Kay: they shock 'd, and
Kay
740 Fell shoulder-slipt, and Gareth cried again,
'Lead, and I follow,' and fast away she fled.
733. avoid: to make void— i. e., rid the place of yourself.
GARETH AND LYNETTE 43
But after sod and shingle ceased to fly
Behind her, and the heart of her good horse
Was nigh to burst with violence of the beat,
Perforce she stay'd, and overtaken spoke.
'What doest thou, scullion, in my fellowship?
Deem 'st thou that I accept thee aught the more
Or love thee better, that by some device
Full cowardly, or by mere unhappiness,
Thou hast overthrown and slain thy master — thou ! — 750
Dish-washer and broach-turner, loon ! — to me
Thou smellest all of kitchen as before.'
. 'Damsel,' Sir Gareth answer 'd gently, 'say
Whate'er ye will, but whatsoe'er ye say,
I leave not till I finish this fair quest,
Or die therefore.'
'Ay, wilt thou finish it?
Sweet lord, how like a noble knight he talks !
The listening rogue hath caught the manner of it.
But, knave, anon thou shalt be met with, knave,
And then by such a one that thou for all 760
The kitchen brewis that was ever supt
Shalt not once dare to look him in the face. '
'I shall assay,' said Gareth with a smile
That madden 'd her, and away she flash 'd again
Down the long avenues of a boundless wood,
And Gareth following was again beknaved.
' Sir Kitchen-knave, I have miss 'd the only way
Where Arthur's men are set along the wood;
The wood is nigh as full of thieves as leaves:
766. beknaved: called knave; used in the Old English sense
to mean ' a boy servant ' or ' menial.'
44 IDYLLS OF THE KING
770 If both be slain, I am rid of thee ; but yet,
Sir Scullion, canst thou use that spit of thine?
Fight, an thou canst : I have miss 'd the only way. '
So till the dusk that follow 'd evensong
Kode on the two, reviler and reviled ;
Then after one long slope was mounted, saw,
Bowl-shaped, thro ' tops of many thousand pines
A gloomy-gladed hollow slowly sink
To westward — in the deeps whereof a mere,
Kound as the red eye of an Eagle-owl,
780 Under the half -dead sunset glared ; and shouts
Ascended, and there brake a serving man
Flying from out of the black wood, and crying,
' They have bound my lord to cast him in the mere. '
Then Gareth, 'Bound am I to right the wrong 'd,
But straitlier bound am I to bide with thee. '
And when the damsel spake contemptuously,
'Lead, and I follow,' Gareth cried again,
'Follow, I lead!' so down among the pines
He plunged; and there, blackshadow 'd nigh the
mere,
790 And mid-thigh-deep in bulrushes and reed,
Saw six tall men hailing a seventh along,
A stone about his neck to drown him in it.
Three with good blows he quieted, but three
Fled thro ' the pines ; and Gareth loosed the stone
From off his neck, then in the mere beside
Tumbled it; oilily bubbled up the mere.
Last, Gareth loosed his bonds and on free feet
Set him, a stalwart Baron, Arthur's friend.
'Well that ye came, or else these caitiff rogues
800 Had wreak 'd themselves on me ; good cause is theirs
To hate me, for my wont hath ever been
GARETH AND LYNETTE 45
To catch my thief, and then like vermin here
Drown him, and with a stone about his neck ;
And under this wan water many of them
Lie rotting, but at night let go the stone,
And rise, and flickering in a grimly light
Dance on the mere. Good now, ye have saved a life
Worth somewhat as the cleanser of this wood.
And fain would I reward thee worshipfully.
What guerdon will yeV
Gareth sharply spake, 810
'None! for the deed's sake have I done the deed,
In uttermost obedience to the King.
But wilt thou yield this damsel harbourage?'
Whereat the Baron saying, 'I well believe
You be of Arthur's Table,' a light laugh
Broke from Lynette, 'Ay, truly of a truth,
And in a sort, being Arthur's kitchen-knave! —
But deem not I accept thee aught the more,
Scullion, for running sharply with thy spit
Down on a rout of craven foresters. 820
A thresher with his flail had scatter 'd them.
Nay — for thou smellest of the kitchen still.
But an this lord will yield us harbourage, well.'
So she spake. A league beyond the wood,
All in a full-fair manor and a rich,
His towers where that day a feast had been
Held in high hall, and many a viand left,
And many a costly cate, received the three.
And there they placed a peacock in his pride
Before the damsel, and the Baron set 830
Gareth beside her, but at once she rose.
11. For the deed's sake. Cf. 558-560 ante.
46 IDYLLS OF THE KING
'Meseems, that here is much discourtesy,
Setting this knave, Lord Baron, at my side.
Hear me — this morn I stood in Arthur's hall,
And pray'd the King would grant me Lancelot
To fight the brotherhood of Day and Night —
The last a monster unsubduable
Of any save of him for whom I call'd —
Suddenly bawls this frontless kitchen-knave,
840 "The quest is mine; thy kitchen-knave am I,
And mighty thro' thy meats and drinks am I."
Then Arthur all at once gone mad replies,
' ' Go therefore, ' ' and so gives the quest to him —
Him — here — a villain fitter to stick swine
Than ride abroad redressing woman's wrong,
Or sit beside a noble gentlewoman.'
Then half-ashamed and part-amazed, the lord
Now look'd at one and now at other, left
The damsel by the peacock in his pride,
850 And, seating Gareth at another board,
Sat down beside him, ate and then began.
' Friend, whether thou be kitchen-knave, or not,
Or whether it be the maiden 's fantasy,
And whether she be mad, or else the King,
Or both or neither, or thyself be mad,
I ask not : but thou strikest a strong stroke,
For strong thou art and goodly therewithal,
And saver of my life; and therefore now,
For here be mighty men to joust with, weigh
860 Whether thou wilt not with thy damsel back
To crave again Sir Lancelot of the King.
Thy pardon ; I but speak for thine avail,
The saver of my life.'
GARETH AND LYNETTE 47
And Gareth said,
'Full pardon, but I follow up the quest,
Despite of Day and Night and Death and Hell.'
So when, next morn, the lord whose life he saved
Had, some brief space, convey 'd them on their way
And left them with God-speed, Sir Gareth spake,
'Lead, and I follow.' Haughtily she replied,
' I fly no more : I allow thee for an hour. 870
Lion and stoat have isled together, knave,
In time of flood. Nay, furthermore, methinks
Some ruth is mine for thee. Back wilt thou, fool?
For hard by here is one will overthrow
And slay thee: then will I to court again,
And shame the King for only yielding me
My champion from the ashes of his hearth. '
To whom Sir Gareth • answer 'd courteously,
' Say thou thy say, and I will do my deed.
Allow me for mine hour, and thou wilt find 880
My fortunes all as fair as hers who lay
Among the ashes and wedded the King's son/
Then to the shore of one of those long loops
Wherethro' the serpent river coil'd, they came.
Rough-thicketed were the banks and steep; the
stream
Full, narrow ; this a bridge of single arc
Took at a leap ; and on the further side
Arose a silk pavilion, gay with gold
In streaks and rays, and all Lent-lily in hue,
Save that the dome was purple, and above, 890
881. As hers who lay: Cinderella.
889. Lent-lily: the daffodil blossoming in Lent.
48 IDYLLS OF TLIE KING
Crimson, a slender banneret fluttering.
And therebefore the lawless warrior paced
Unarm 'd, and calling, 'Damsel, is this he,
The champion thou hast brought from Arthur's
hall?
For whom we let thee pass. ' ' Nay, nay, ' she said,
'Sir Morning-Star. The King in utter scorn
Of thee and thy much folly hath sent thee here
His kitchen-knave : and look thou to thyself :
See that he fall not on thee suddenly,
900 And slay thee unarm 'd : he is not knight but knave. '
Then at his call, ' 0 daughters of the Dawn,
And servants of the Morning-Star, approach,
Arm me,' from out of the silken curtainfolds
Bare-footed and bare-headed three fair girls
In gilt and rosy raiment came : their feet
In dewy grasses glisten 'd; and the hair
All over glanced with dewdrop or with gem
Like sparkles in the stone Avanturine.
These arm'd him in blue arms, and gave a shield
910 Blue also, and thereon the morning star.
And Gareth silent gazed upon the knight,
Who stood a moment, ere his horse was brought,
Glorying; and in the stream beneath him, shone
Immingled with Heaven's azure waveringly,
The gay pavilion and the naked feet,
His arms, the rosy raiment, and the star.
Then she that watch 'd him, 'Wherefore stare ye
so?
Thou shakest in thy fear : there yet is time :
908. Avanturine: spelled usually aventurine, a translucent
quartz spangled with scales of yellow mica.
GARETH AND LYNETTE 49
Flee down the valley before he get to horse.
Who will cry shame ? Thou art not knight but 920
knave. '
Said Gareth, 'Damsel, whether knave or knight,
Far liefer had I fight a score of times
Then hear thee so missay me and revile.
Fair words were best for him who fights for thee ;
But truly foul are better, for they send
That strength of anger thro' mine arms, I know
That I shall overthrow him.'
And he that bore
The star, when mounted, cried from o'er the bridge,
'A kitchen-knave, and sent in scorn of me!
Such fight not I, but answer scorn with scorn. 930
For this were shame to do him further wrong
Than set him on his feet, and take his horse
And arms, and so return him to the King.
Come, therefore, leave thy lady lightly, knave.
Avoid : for it beseemeth not a knave
To ride with such a lady.'
'Dog, thou liest.
I spring from loftier lineage than thine own.'
He spake; and all at fiery speed the two
Shock 'd on the central bridge, and either spear
Bent but not brake, and either knight at once, 940
Hurl'd as a stone from out of a catapult
Beyond his horse's crupper and the bridge,
Fell, as if dead ; but quickly rose and drew,
And Gareth lash'd so fiercely with his brand
He drave his enemy backward down the bridge,
The damsel crying, 'Well-stricken, kitchen-knave!'
Till Gareth 's shield was cloven; but one stroke
Laid him that clove it grovelling on the ground.
50 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Then cried the fall'n, 'Take not my life: I yield.'
950 And Gareth, 'So this damsel ask it of me
Good — I accord it easily as a grace.'
She reddening, 'Insolent scullion: I of thee?
I bound to thee for any favour ask'd!'
'Then shall he die.' And Gareth there unlaced
His helmet as to slay him, but she shriek 'd,
'Be not so hardy, scullion, as to slay
One nobler than thyself.' 'Damsel, thy charge
Is an abounding pleasure to me. Knight,
Thy life is thine at her command. Arise
960 And quickly pass to Arthur's hall, and say
His kitchen-knave hath sent thee. See thou crave
His pardon for thy breaking of his laws.
Myself, when I return, will plead for thee.
Thy shield is mine — farewell; and, damsel, thou,
Lead, and I follow.'
And fast away she fled.
Then when he came upon her, spake, 'Methought,
Knave, when I watch 'd thee striking on the bridge
The savour of thy kitchen came upon me
A little f aintlier : but the wind hath changed :
970 I scent it twenty-fold.' And then she sang,
' "0 morning star (not that tall felon there
Whom thou by sorcery or unhappiness
Or some device, hast foully overthrown),
"O morning star that smilest in the blue,
O star, my morning dream hath proven true,
Smile sweetly, thou! my love hath smiled on me."
'But thou begone, take counsel, and away,
For hard by here is one that guards a ford —
The second brother in their fool's parable —
980 Will pay thee all thy wages, and to boot.
Care not for shame : thou art not knight but knave. '
GARETH AND LYNETTE 51
To whom Sir Gareth answer 'd laughingly,
'Parables? Hear a parable of the knave.
When I was kitchen-knave among the rest
Fierce was the hearth, and one of my co-mates
Own 'd a rough dog, to whom he cast his coat,
"Guard it," and there was none to meddle with it.
And such a coat art thou, and thee the King
Gave me to guard, and such a dog am I,
To worry, and not to flee — and — knight or knave — 990
The knave that doth thee service as full knight
Is all as good, meseems, as any knight
Toward thy sister's freeing.'
'Ay, Sir Knave!
Ay, knave, because thorfc strikest as a knight,
Being but knave, I hate thee all the more.'
'Fair damsel, you should worship me the more,
That, being but knave, I throw thine enemies.'
'Ay, ay, ' she said, 'but thou shalt meet thy match. '
So when they touch 'd the second river-loop,
Huge on a huge red horse, and all in mail 1000
Burnish 'd to blinding, shone the Noonday Sun
Beyond a raging shallow. As if the flower,
That blows a globe of after arrowlets,
Ten thousand- fold had grown, flash 'd the fierce
shield,
All sun ; and Gareth 's eyes had flying blots
Before them when he turn'd from watching him.
He from beyond the roaring shallow roar'd,
'What doest thou, brother, in my marches here?'
1008. Brother. Gareth carries the shield of Morning-star, and
is mistaken by Noon-Sun.
52 IDYLLS OF THE KING
And she athwart the shallow shrill 'd again,
1010 'Here is a kitchen-knave from Arthur's hall
Hath overthrown thy brother, and hath his arms.'
' Ugh ! ' cried the Sun, and vizoring up a red
And cipher face of rounded foolishness,
Push'd horse across the foamings of the ford,
Whom Gareth met midstream: no room was there
For lance or tourney-skill: four strokes they struck
With sword, and these were mighty; the new knight
Had fear he might be shamed ; but as the Sun
Heaved up a ponderous arm to strike the fifth,
1020 The hoof of his horse slipt in the stream, the stream
Descended, and the Sun was wash'd away.
Then Gareth laid his lance athwart the ford ;
So drew him home ; but he that fought no more,
As being all bone-batter 'd on the rock,
Yielded ; and Gareth sent him to the King.
' Myself when I return will plead for thee. '
'Lead, and I follow/ Quietly she led.
'Hath not the good wind, damsel, changed again V
'Nay, not a point: nor art thou victor here.
1030 There lies a ridge of slate across the ford;
His horse thereon stumbled — ay, for I saw it.
' "O Sun" (not this strong fool whom thou, Sir
Knave,
Hast overthrown thro' mere unhappiness),
' ' O Sun, that wakenest all to bliss or pain,
O moon, that layest all to sleep again,
Shine sweetly: twice my love hath smiled on me."
'What knowest thou of lovesong or of love?
Nay, nay, God wot, so thou wert nobly born,
Thou hast a pleasant presence. Yea, perchance, —
GARETH AND LYNETTE 53
' "O dewy flowers that open to the sun, 1040
0 dewy flowers that close when day is done,
Blow sweetly: twice my love hath smiled on me."
'What knowest thou of flowers, except, belike,
To garnish meats with? hath not our good King
Who lent me thee, the flower of kitchendom,
A foolish love for flowers ? what stick ye round
The pasty % wherewithal deck the boar 's head ?
Flowers ? nay, the boar hath rosemaries and bay.
* "0 birds, that warble to the morning sky,
O birds that warble as the day goes by, 1050
Sing swee-tly : twice my love hath smiled on me. ' '
'What knowest thou of birds, lark, mavis, merle,
Linnet? what dream ye when they utter forth
May-music growing with the growing light,
Their sweet sun-worship ¥ these be for the snare
(So runs thy fancy), these be for the spit,
Larding and basting. See thou have not now
Larded thy last, except thou turn and fly.
There stands the third fool of their allegory. '
For there beyond a bridge of treble bow, 1060
All in a rose-red from the west, and all
Naked it seem'd, and glowing in the broad
Deep-dimpled current underneath, the knight,
That named himself the Star of Evening, stood.
And Gareth, 'Wherefore waits the madman there
Naked in open dayshine?' 'Nay,' she cried,
'Not naked, only wrapt in harden 'd skins
That fit him like his own ; and so ye cleave
His armour off him, these will turn the blade.'
54 IDYLLS OF THE KING
1070 Then the third brother shouted o 'er the bridge,
'0 brother-star, why shine ye here so low?
Thy ward is higher up : but have ye slain
The damsel's champion?' and the damsel cried,
'No star of thine, but shot from Arthur's heaven
With all disaster unto thine and thee !
For both thy younger brethren have gone down
Before this youth ; and so wilt thou, Sir Star ;
Art thou not old ? '
* Old, damsel, old and hard,
Old, with the might and breath of twenty boys.'
1080 Said Gareth, 'Old, and over-bold in brag!
But that same strength which threw the Morning
Star
Can throw the Evening.'
Then that other blew
A hard and deadly note upon the horn.
'Approach and arm me!' With slow steps from out
An old storm-beaten, russet, many-stain 'd
Pavilion, forth a grizzled damsel came,
And arm'd him in old arms, and brought a helm
With but a drying evergreen for crest,
And gave a shield whereon the Star of Even
1090 Half -tarnish 'd and half-bright, his emblem, shone.
But when it glitter 'd o'er the saddle-bow,
They madly hurl'd together on the bridge;
And Gareth overthrew him, lighted, drew,
There met him drawn, and overthrew him again,
But up like fire he started : and as oft
As Gareth brought him grovelling on his knees,
So many a time he vaulted up again ;
Till Gareth panted hard, and his great heart,
GAKETH AND LYKETTE 55
Foredooming all his trouble was in vain,
Labour 'd within him, for he seem'd as one 1100
That all in later, sadder age begins
To war against ill uses of a life,
But these from all his life arise, and cry,
'Thou hast made us lords, and canst not put us
clown ! '
He half despairs; so Gareth seem'd to strike
Vainly, the damsel clamouring all the while,
'Well done, knave-knight, well stricken,
O good knight-knave —
0 knave, as noble as any of all the knights —
Shame me not, shame me not. I have prophesied —
Strike, thou art worthy of the Table Round — 11 10
His arms are old, he trusts the harden 'd skin —
Strike — strike — the wind will never change again.'
And Gareth hearing ever stronglier smote,
And hew'd great pieces of his armour off him,
But lash'd in vain against the harden 'd skin,
And could not wholly bring him under, more
Than loud Southwesterns, rolling ridge on ridge,
The buoy that rides at sea, and dips and springs
For ever : till at length Sir Gareth 's brand
Clash 'd his, and brake it utterly to the hilt. 1120
'I have thee now;' but forth that other sprang,
And, all unknightlike, writhed his wiry arms
Around him, till he felt, despite his mail,
Strangled, but straining ev'n his uttermost
Cast, and so hurl 'd him headlong 0 'er the bridge
Down to the river, sink or swim, and cried,
'Lead, and I follow.'
But the damsel said,
' I lead no longer ; ride thou at my side ;
Thou art the kingliest of all kitchen-knaves.
56 IDYLLS OF THE KING
1130 ' "O trefoil, sparkling on the rainy plain,
0 rainbow with three colours after rain,
Shine sweetly : thrice my love hath smiled on me. ' '
' Sir, — and, good faith, I fain had added — Knight,
But that I heard thee call thyself a knave, —
Shamed am I that I so rebuked, reviled,
Missaid thee ; noble I am ; and thought the King
Scorn 'd me and mine ; and now thy pardon, friend,
For thou hast ever answer 'd courteously,
And wholly bold thou art, and meek withal
1140 As any of Arthur's best, but, being knave,
Hast mazed my wit : I marvel what thou art. '
'Damsel,' he said, 'you be not all to blame,
Saving that you mistrusted our good King
Would handle scorn, or yield you, asking, one
Not fit to cope your quest. You said your say ;
Mine answer was my deed. Good sooth ! I hold
He scarce is knight, yea but half -man, nor meet
To fight for gentle damsel, he, who lets
His heart be stirr'd with any foolish heat
1150 At any gentle damsel's waywardness.
Shamed ! care not ! thy foul sayings fought for me :
And seeing now thy words are fair, methinks
There rides no knight, not Lancelot, his great self,
Hath force to quell me.'
Nigh upon that hour
When the lone hern forgets his melancholy,
Lets down his other leg, and stretching, dreams
Of goodly supper in the distant pool,
Then turn'd the noble damsel smiling at him,
And told him of a cavern hard at hand,
1160 Where bread and baken meats and good red wine
GARETH AND LYNETTE 57
Of Southland, which the Lady Lyonors
Had sent her coming champion, waited him.
Anon they past a narrow comb wherein
Were slabs of rock with figures, knights on horse
Sculptured, and deckt in slowly-waning hues.
' Sir Knave, my knight, a hermit once was here,
Whose holy hand hath fashion 'd on the rock
The war of Time against the soul of man.
And yon four fools have suck'd their allegory
From these damp walls, and taken but the form. 1170
Know ye not these?' and Gareth lookt and read —
In letters like to those the vexillary
Hath left crag-carven o'er the streaming Gelt —
'Phosphorus,' then 'Meridies, — 'Hesperus' —
'Nox' — 'Mors/ beneath five figures, armed men,
Slab after slab, their faces forward all,
And running down the Soul, a Shape that fled
With broken wings, torn raiment and loose hair,
For help and shelter to the hermit's cave.
'Follow the faces, and we find it. Look, 1180
Who comes behind!'
For one — delay 'd at first
Thro' helping back the dislocated Kay
To Camelot, then by what thereafter chanced,
The damsel's headlong error thro' the wood —
Sir Lancelot, having swum the river-loops —
His blue shield-lions cover 'd — softly drew
1172. The letters are like those carved on a cliff near the
river Gelt, in Cumberland, probably by a Roman standard-bearer.
1174. Phosphorus: Morning-star.
Meridies: Noonday.
Hesperus: Evening-star.
1175. Nox: Night.
Mors: Death.
58 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Behind the twain, and when he saw the star
Gleam, on Sir Gareth 's turning to him, cried,
' Stay, felon knight, I avenge me for my friend. '
1190 And Gareth crying prick 'd against the cry;
But when they closed — in a moment — at one touch
Of that skill 'd spear, the wonder of the world —
Went sliding down so easily, and fell,
That when he found the grass within his hands
Lie laugh 'd; the laughter jarr'd upon Lynette:
Harshly she ask'd him, 'Shamed and overthrown,
And tumbled back into the kitchen-knave,
Why laugh ye ? that ye blew your boast in vain ? '
'Nay, noble damsel, but that I, the son
1200 Of old King Lot and good Queen Bellicent,
And victor of the bridges and the ford,
And knight of Arthur, here lie thrown by whom
I know not, all thro' mere unhappiness —
Device and sorcery and unhappiness —
Out, sword; we are thrown!' And Lancelot an-
swer'd 'Prince,
O Gareth — thro' the mere unhappiness
Of one who came to help thee, not to harm,
Lancelot, and all as glad to find thee whole,
As on the day when Arthur knighted him. '
1210 Then Gareth, 'Thou — Lancelot! — thine the hand
That threw me ? And some chance to mar the boast
Thy brethren of thee make — which could not
chance —
Had sent thee down before a lesser spear,
Shamed had I been, and sad — 0 Lancelot — thou!'
1187. star. Gareth still carries the shield of Morning-star.
Cf. 1008.
1190. prick'd: in the familiar Middle English sense, "rode
hard."
GAEETH AND LYNETTE 59
Whereat the maiden, petulant, 'Lancelot,
Why came ye not, when call'd? and wherefore now
Come ye, not call'd? I gloried in my knave,
Who being still rebuked, would answer still
Courteous as any knight — but now, if knight,
The marvel dies, and leaves me fool'd and tricked, 1220
And only wondering wherefore play 'd upon :
And doubtful whether I and mine be scorn 'd.
Where should be truth if not in Arthur's hall,
In Arthur's presence? Knight, knave, prince and
fool,
I hate thee and for ever.'
And Lancelot said,
'Blessed be thou, Sir Gareth! knight art thou
To the King's best wish. 0 damsel, be you wise
To call him shamed, who is but overthrown ?
Thrown have I been, nor once, but many a time.
Victor from vanquish 'd issues at the last, 1230
And overthrower from being overthrown.
With sword we have not striven; and thy good
horse
And thou are weary; yet not less I felt
Thy manhood thro ' that wearied lance of thine.
Well hast thou done ; for all the stream is freed,
And thou hast wreak 'd his justice on his foes,
And when reviled, hast answer 'd graciously,
And makest merry when overthrown. Prince,
Knight,
Hail, Knight and Prince, and of our Table Round ! '
And then when turning to Lynette he told 1240
The tale of Gareth, petulantly she said,
'Ay well — ay well — for worse than being fool'd
Of others, is to fool one's self. A cave,
Sir Lancelot, is hard by, with meats and drinks
60 IDYLLS OF THE KING
And forage for the horse, and flint for fire.
But all about it flies a honeysuckle.
Seek, till we find.' And when they sought and
found,
Sir Gareth drank and ate, and all his life
Past into sleep ; on whom the maiden gazed.
1250 'Sound sleep be thine! sound cause to sleep hast
thou.
Wake lusty ! Seem I not as tender to him
As any mother ? Ay, but such a one
As all day long hath rated at her child,
And vext his day, but blesses him asleep —
Good lord, how sweetly smells the honeysuckle
In the hush'd night, as if the world were one
Of utter peace, and love, and gentleness!
O Lancelot, Lancelot' — and she clapt her hands —
'Full merry am I to find my goodly knave
1260 Is knight and noble. See now, sworn have I,
Else yon black felon had not let me pass,
To bring thee back to do the battle with him.
Thus an thou goest, he will fight thee first ;
Who doubts thee victor ? so will my knight-knave
Miss the full flower of this accomplishment.'
Said Lancelot, ' Peradventure he, you name,
May know my shield. Let Gareth, an he will,
Change his for mine, and take my charger, fresh,
Not to be spurr'd, loving the battle as well
1270 As he that rides him.' 'Lancelot-like,' she said,
'Courteous in this, Lord Lancelot, as in all.'
And Gareth, wakening, fiercely clutch 'd the
shield ;
' Ramp ye lance-splintering lions, on whom all spears
Are rotten sticks ! ye seem agape to roar !
GARETH AND LYNETTE 61
Yea, ramp and roar at leaving of your lord! —
Care not, good beasts, so well I care for you.
0 noble Lancelot, from my hold on these
Streams virtue — fire — thro' one that will not shame
Even the shadow of Lancelot under shield.
Hence: let us go.'
Silent the silent field 1280
They traversed. Arthur's harp tho' summer-wan,
In counter motion to the clouds, allured
The glance of Gareth dreaming on his liege.
A star shot • ' Lo, ' said Gareth, ' the foe falls ! '
An owl whoopt : ' Hark the victor pealing there ! '
Suddenly she that rode upon his left
Clung to the shield that Lancelot lent him, crying,
' Yield, yield him this again : 'tis he must fight :
1 curse the tongue that all thro' yesterday
Reviled thee, and hath wrought on Lancelot now 1290
To lend thee horse and shield: wonders ye have
done ;
Miracles ye cannot : here is glory enow
In having flung the three: I see thee maim'd,
Mangled : I swear thou canst not fling the fourth. '
'And wherefore, damsel? tell me all ye know.
You cannot scare me; nor rough face, or voice,
Brute bulk of limb, or boundless savagery
Appall me from the quest.'
'Nay, Prince,' she cried,
'God wot, I never look'd upon the face,
Seeing he never rides abroad by day ; 1300
But watch 'd him have I like a phantom pass
Chilling the night : nor have I heard the voice.
Always he made his mouthpiece of a page
4
62 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Who came and went, and still reported him
As closing in himself the strength of ten,
And when his anger tare him, massacring
Man, woman, lad and girl — yea, the soft babe!
Some hold that he hath swallow 'd infant flesh,
Monster! 0 Prince, I went for Lancelot first,
1310 The quest is Lancelot's: give him back the shield. '
Said Gareth laughing, 'An he fight for this,
Belike he wins it as the better man :
Thus — and not else!'
But Lancelot on him urged
All the devisings of their chivalry
When one might meet a mightier than himself ;
How best to manage horse, lance, sword and shield,
And so fill up the gap where force might fail.
With skill and fineness. Instant were his words.
Then Gareth, ' Here be rules. I know but one —
1320 To dash against mine enemy and to win.
Yet have I watch 'd thee victor in the joust,
And seen thy way.' 'Heaven help thee,' sigh'd
Lynette.
Then for a space, and under cloud that grew
To thunder-gloom palling all stars, they rode
In converse till she made her palfrey halt,
Lifted an arm, and softly whisper 'd, 'There.'
And all the three were silent seeing, pitch 'd
Beside the Castle Perilous on flat field,
A huge pavilion like a mountain peak
1318. Instant: in its direct meaning, "standing firm on" —
e., urgent.
GAEETH AND LYNETTE 63
Sunder the glooming crimson on the marge, 1330
Black, with black banner, and a long black horn
Beside it hanging; which Sir Gareth graspt,
And so, before the two could hinder him,
Sent all his heart and breath thro' all the horn.
Echo 'd the walls ; a light twinkled ; anon
Came lights and lights, and once again he blew;
Whereon were hollow tramplings up and down
And muffled voices heard, and shadows past;
Till high above him, circled with her maids,
The Lady Lyonors at a window stood, 1340
Beautiful among lights, and waving to him
White hands, and courtesy! but when the Prince
Three times had blown — after long hush — at last —
The huge pavilion slowly yielded up,
Thro' those black foldings, that which housed
therein.
High on a nightblack horse, in nightblack arms,
With white breast-bone, and barren ribs of Death,
And crown 'd with fleshless laughter — some ten
steps —
In the half-light — thro' the dim dawn — advanced
The monster, and then paused, and spake no word. 1350
But Gareth spake and all indignantly,
'Fool, for thou hast, men say, the strength of ten,
Canst thou not trust the limbs thy God hath given,
But must, to make the terror of thee more,
'Trick thyself out in ghastly imageries
Of that which Life hath done with, and the clod,
Less dull than thou, will hide with mantling flowers
As if for pity ? ' But he spake no word ;
Which set the horror higher : a maiden swoon 'd ;
1348. fleshless laughter: a grinning skull.
64 IDYLLS OF THE KING
1360 The Lady Lyonors wrung her hands and wept,
As doom'd to be the bride of Night and Death;
Sir Gareth 's head prickled beneath his helm;
And ev'n Sir Lancelot thro' his warm blood felt
Ice strike, and all that mark'd him were aghast.
At once Sir Lancelot's charger fiercely neigh 'd,
And Death's dark war-horse bounded forward with
him.
Then those that did not blink the terror, saw
That Death was cast to ground, and slowly rose.
But with one stroke Sir Gareth split the skull.
1370 Half fell to right and half to left and lay.
Then with a stronger buffet he clove the helm
As throughly as the skull; and out from this
Issued the bright face of a blooming boy
Fresh as a flower new-born, and crying, 'Knight,
Slay me not: my three brethren bade me do it,
To make a horror all about the house,
And stay the world from Lady Lyonors.
They never dream 'd the passes would be past.'
Answer 'd Sir Gareth graciously to one
1380 Not many a moon his younger, 'My fair child,
What madness made thee challenge the chief knight
Of Arthur's hall?' 'Fair Sir, they bade me do it.
They hate the King, and Lancelot, the King's
friend,
They hoped to slay him somewhere on the stream,
They never dream 'd the passes could be past.'
Then sprang the happier day from underground;
And Lady Lyonors and her house, with dance
And revel and song, made merry over Death,
As being after all their foolish fears
GARETH AND LYNETTE 65
And horrors only proven a blooming boy. 1390
So large mirth lived and Gareth won the quest.
And he that told the tale in older times
Says that Sir Gareth wedded Lyonors,
But he, that told it later, says Lynette.
1392. he: Malory.
1394. he: Tennyson.
LANCELOT AND ELAINE
Elaine the fair, Elaine the lovable,
Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat,
High in her chamber up a tower to the east
Guarded the sacred shield of Lancelot ;
Which first she placed where morning's earliest ray
Might strike it, and awake her with the gleam ;
Then fearing rust or soilure fashion 'd for it
A case of silk, and braided thereupon
All the devices blazon 'd on the shield
10 In their own tinct, and added, of her wit,
A border fantasy of branch and flower,
And yellow-throated nestling in the nest.
Nor rested thus content, but day by day,
Leaving her household and good father, climb 'd
That eastern tower, and entering barr'd her door,
Stript off the case, and read the naked shield,
Now guess 'd a hidden meaning in his arms,
Now made a pretty history to herself
Of every dint a sword had beaten in it,
20 And every scratch a lance had made upon it,
Conjecturing when and where : this cut is fresh ;
That ten years back; this dealt him at Caerlyle;
That at Caerleon; this at Camelot:
And ah God's mercy, what a stroke was there!
And here a thrust that might have kill 'd, but God
Broke the strong lance, and roll'd his enemy down,
And saved him : so she lived in fantasy.
66
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 67
How came the lily maid by that good shield
Of Lancelot, she that knew not ev'n his name?
He left it with her, when he rode to tilt 30
For the great diamond in the diamond jousts,
Which Arthur had ordain 'd, and by that name
Had named them, since a diamond was the prize.
For Arthur, long before they crown 'd him King,
Roving the trackless realms of Lyonesse,
Had found a glen, gray boulder and black tarn.
A horror lived about the tarn, and clave
Like its own mists to all the mountain side :
For here two brothers, one a king, had met
And fought together ; but their names were lost ; 40
And each had slain his brother at a blow;
And down they fell and made the glen abhorr 'd :
And there they lay till all their bones were bleach 'd,
And lichen 'd into colour with the crags:
And he, that once was king, had on a crown
Of diamonds, one in front, and four aside.
And Arthur came, and labouring up the pass,
All in a misty moonshine, unawares
Had trodden that crown 'd skeleton, and the skull
Brake from the nape, and from the skull the crown 50
Roll'd into light, and turning on its rims
Fled like a glittering rivulet to the tarn :
And down the shingly scaur he plunged, and caught,
And set it on his head, and in his heart
Heard murmurs, 'Lo, thou likewise shalt be King.*
Thereafter, when a King, he had the gems
Pluck 'd from the crown, and show'd them to his
knights,
Saying, 'These jewels, whereupon I chanced
Divinely, are the kingdom's, not the King's —
68 IDYLLS OF THE KING
60 For public use : henceforward let there be,
Once every year, a joust for one of these :
For so by nine years' proof we needs must learn
Which is our mightiest, and ourselves shall grow
In use of arms and manhood, till we drive
The heathen, who, some say, shall rule the land
Llereaf ter, which God hinder. ' Thus he spoke : '
And eight years past, eight jousts had been, and
still
Had Lancelot won the diamond of the year,
With purpose to present them to the Queen,
70 When all were won ; but meaning all at once
To snare her royal fancy with a boon
Worth half her realm, had never spoken word.
Now for the central diamond and the last
And largest, Arthur, holding then his court
Hard on the river nigh the place which now
Is this world's hugest, let proclaim a joust
At Camelot, and when the time drew nigh
Spake (for she had been sick) to Guinevere,
'Are you so sick, my Queen, you cannot move
80 To these fair jousts?' 'Yea, lord,' she said, 'ye
know it.'
'Then will ye miss,' he answer 'd, 'the great deeds
Of Lancelot, and his prowess in the lists,
A sight ye love to look on. ' And the Queen
Lifted her eyes, and they dwelt languidly
On Lancelot, where he stood beside the King.
He thinking that he read her meaning there,
' Stay with me, I am sick ; my love is more
Than many diamonds, ' yielded ; and a heart
Love-loyal to the least wish of the Queen
76. this world's hugest: London.
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 69
(However much he yearn 'd to make complete 90
The tale of diamonds for his destined boon)
Urged him to speak against the truth, and say,
'Sir King, mine ancient wound is hardly whole,
And lets me from the saddle ; ' and the King
Glanced -first at him, then her, and went his way.
No sooner gone than suddenly she began :
' To blame, my lord Sir Lancelot, much to blame !
"Why go ye not to these fair jousts? the knights
Are half of them our enemies, and the crowd
Will murmur, "Lo the shameless ones, who take 100
Their pastime now the trustful King is gone!"
Then Lancelot vext at having lied in vain :
'Are ye so wise? ye were not once so wise,
My Queen, that summer, when ye loved me first.
Then of the crowd ye took no more account
Than of the myriad cricket of the mead,
When its own voice clings to each blade of grass,
And every voice is nothing. As to knights,
Them surely can I silence with all ease.
But now my loyal worship is allow 'd 110
Of all men : many a bard, without offence,
Has link'd our names together in his lay,
Lancelot, the flower of bravery, Guinevere,
The pearl of beauty : and our knights at feast
Have pledged us in this union, while the King
Would listen smiling. How then? is there more?
Has Arthur spoken aught? or would yourself,
Now weary of my service and devoir,
Henceforth be truer to your faultless lord ? '
She broke into a little scornful laugh: 120
'Arthur, my lord, Arthur, the faultless King,
That passionate perfection, my good lord —
70 IDYLLS OF THE KING
But who can gaze upon the Sun in heaven?
He never spake word of reproach to me,
He never had a glimpse of mine untruth,
He cares not for me: only here to-day
There gleam 'd a vague suspicion in his eyes:
Some meddling rogue has tamper 'd with him — else
Rapt in this fancy of his Table Round,
130 And swearing men to vows impossible,
To make them like himself : but, friend, to me
He is all fault who hath no fault at all :
For who loves me must have a touch of earth ;
The low sun makes the colour: I am yours,
Not Arthur's, as ye know, save by the bond.
And therefore hear my words: go to the jousts:
The tii.y-trumpeting gnat can break our dream
When sweetest; and the vermin voices here
May buzz so loud — we scorn them, but they sting.'
140 Then answer 'd Lancelot, tl\e chief of knights:
'And with what face, after my pretext made,
Shall I appear, O Queen, at Camelot, I
Before a King who honours his own word,
As if it were his God's?'
'Yea,' said the Queen,
'A moral child without the craft to rule,
Else had he not lost me : but listen to me,
If I must find you wit : we hear it said
That men go down before your spear at a touch,
But knowing you are Lancelot; your great name,
150 This conquers: hide it therefore; go unknown:
Win ! by this kiss you will : and our true King
Will then allow your pretext, 0 my knight,
As all for glory; for to speak him true,
Ye know right well, how meek soe'er he seem,
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 71
No keener hunter after glory breathes.
He loves it in his knights more than himself:
They prove to him his work : win and return. '
Then got Sir Lancelot suddenly to horse,
Wroth at himself. Not willing to be known,
He left the barren-beaten thoroughfare, 160
Chose the green path that show'd the rarer foot,
And there among the solitary downs,
Full often lost in fancy, lost his way;
Till as he traced a f aintly-shadow 'd track,
That all in loops and links among the dales
Ran to the Castle of Astolat, he saw
Fired from the west, far on a hill, the towers.
Thither he made, and blew the gateway horn.
Then came an old, dumb, myriad-wrinkled man,
Who let him into lodging and disarm 'd. 170
And Lancelot marvell'd at the wordless man;
And issuing found the Lord of Astolat
With two strong sons, Sir Torre and Sir Lavaine,
Moving to meet him in the castle court;
And close behind them stept the lily maid
Elaine, his daughter: mother of the house
There was not: some light jest among them rose
With laughter dying down as the great knight
Approach 'd them : then the Lord of Astolat :
'Whence comest thou, my guest, and by what name 180
Livest between the lips? for by thy state
And presence I might guess thee chief of those,
After the King, who eat in Arthur 's halls.
Him have I seen : the rest, his Table Round,
Known as they are, to me they are unknown. '
Then answer 'd Lancelot, the chief of knights :
'Known am I, and of Arthur's hall, and known,
What I by mere mischance have brought, my shield.
72 IDYLLS OF THE KING
But since I go to joust as one unknown
190 At Camelot for the diamond, ask me not,
Hereafter ye shall know me — and the shield —
I pray you lend me one, if such you have,
Blank, or at least with some device not mine.'
Then said the Lord of Astolat, 'Here is Torre's
Hurt in his first tilt was my son, Sir Torre.
And so, God wot, his shield is blank enough.
His ye can have.' Then added plain Sir Torre,
'Yea, since I cannot use it, ye may have it.'
Here laugh 'd the father saying, 'Fie, Sir Churl,
200 Is that an answer for a noble knight?
Allow him! but Lavaine, my younger here,
He is so full of lustihood, he will ride,
Joust for it, and win, and bring it in an hour,
And set it in this damsel's golden hair,
To make her thrice as wilful as before.'
'Nay, father, nay, good father, shame me not
Before this noble knight,' said young Lavaine,
' For nothing. Surely I but play 'd on Torre :
He seem^l so sullen, vext he could not go :
210 A jest, no more ! for, knight, the maiden dreamt
That^some one put this diamond in her hand,
And thai it was too slippery to be held,
And slipt and fell into some pool or stream,
The castle-well, belike; and then I said
That if I went and if I fought and won it
(But all was jest and joke among ourselves)
Then must she keep it safelier. All was jest.
But, father, give me leave, an if he will,
To ride to Camelot with this noble knight:
220 Win shall I not, but do my best to win:
Young as I am, yet would I do my best. '
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 73
'So ye will grace me,' answer 'd Lancelot,
Smiling a moment, 'with your fellowship
O'er these waste downs whereon I lost myself,
Then were I glad of you as guide and friend :
And you shall win this diamond, — as I hear
It is a fair large diamond, — if ye may,
And yield it to this maiden, if ye will. '
'A fair large diamond,' added plain Sir Torre,
'Such be for queens, and not for simple maids.' 230
Then she, who held her eyes upon the ground,
Elaine, and heard her name so tost about,
Flush 'd slightly at the slight disparagement
Before the stranger knight, who, looking at her,
Full courtly, yet not falsely, thus return 'd:
' If what is fair be but for what is fair,
And only queens are to be counted so,
Rash were my judgment then, who deem this maid
Might wear as fair a jewel as is on earth,
Not violating the bond of like to like.' 240
He spoke and ceased: the lily maid Elaine,
Won by the mellow voice before she look'd,
Lifted her eyes, and read his lineaments.
The great and guilty love he bare the Queen,
In battle with the love he bare his lord,
Llad marr'd his face, and mark'd it ere his time.
Another sinning on such heights with one,
The flower of all the west and all the world,
Had been the sleeker for it : but in him
His mood was often like a fiend, and rose 250
And drove him into wastes and solitudes
For agony, who was yet a living soul.
Marr'd as he was, he seem'd the goodliest man
That ever among ladies ate in hall,
And noblest, when she lifted up her eyes.
] 74 IDYLLS OF THE KING
However marr'd, of more than twice her years,
Seam'd with an ancient swordcut on the cheek,
And bruised and bronzed, she lifted up her eyes
And loved him, with that love which was her doom.
260 Then the great knight, the darling of the court,
Loved of the loveliest, into that rude hall
Stept with all grace, and not with half disdain
Hid under grace, as in a smaller time,
But kindly man moving among his kind :
Whom they with meats and vintage of their best
And talk and minstrel melody entertain 'd.
And much they ask'd of court and Table Round,
And ever well and readily answer 'd he:
But Lancelot, when they glanced at Guinevere,
270 Suddenly speaking of the wordless man,
Heard from the Baron that, ten years before,
The heathen caught and reft him of his tongue.
' He learnt and warn'd me of their fierce design
Against my house, and him they caught and maim 'd ;
But I, my sons, and little daughter fled
From bonds or death, and dwelt among the woods
By the great river in a boatman's hut.
Dull days were those, till our good Arthur broke
The Pagan yet once more on Badon hill.'
280 ' O there, great lord, doubtless, ' Lavaine said, rapt
By all the sweet and sudden passion of youth
Toward greatness in its elder, ' you have fought.
0 tell us — for we live apart — you know
Of Arthur's glorious wars.' And Lancelot spoke
And answer 'd him at full, as having been
269. glanced at: referred to.
270. suddenly speaking: i. e., changing the subject.
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 75
With Arthur in the fight which all day long
Rang by the white mouth of the violent Glem ;
And in the four loud battles by the shore
Of Duglas; that on Bassa; then the war
That thunder 'd in and out the gloomy skirts 290
Of Celidon the forest; and again
By castle Gurnion, where the glorious King
Had on his cuirass worn our Lady's Head,
Carv'd of one emerald centr'd in a sun
Of silver rays, that lighten 'd as he breathed;
And at Caerleon had he help'd his lord,
When the strong neighings of the wild white
Llorse
Set every gilded parapet shuddering ;
And up in Agned-Cathregonion too,
And down the waste sand-shores of Trath Treroit, 300
Where many a heathen fell ; ' and on the mount
Of Badon I myself beheld the King
Charge at the head of all his Table Round,
And all his legions crying Christ and him,
And break them ; and I saw him, after, stand
High on a heap of slain, from spur to plume
Red as the rising sun with heathen blood,
And seeing me, with a great voice he cried,
' ' They are broken, they are broken ! ' ' for the King,
However mild he seems at home, nor cares . 310
For triumph in our mimic wars, the jousts —
For if his own knight cast him down, he laughs
Saying, his knights are better men than he —
297. wild white Horse: The banner of the Saxons bore the
figure of a white horse; that of the Britons, the figure of a
dragon.
304. Christ and him: i. e., their battle cry was "Christ and
Arthur ! "
76 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Yet in this heathen war the fire of God
Fills him : I never saw his like : there lives
No greater leader.'
While he utter 'd this,
Low to her own heart said the lily maid,
'Save your great self, fair lord;' and when he fell
From talk of war to traits of pleasantry —
320 Being mirthful he, but in a stately kind —
She still took note that when the living smile
Died from his lips, across him came a cloud
Of melancholy severe, from which again,
Whenever in her hovering to and fro
The lily maid had striven to make him cheer,
There brake a sudden-beaming tenderness
Of manners and of nature: and she thought
That all was nature, all, perchance, for her.
And all night long his face before her lived,
330 As when a painter, poring on a face,
Divinely thro' all hindrance finds the man
Behind it, and so paints him that his face,
The shape and colour of a mind and life,
Lives for his children, ever at its best
And fullest ; so the face before her lived,
Dark-splendid, speaking in the silence, full
Of noble things, and held her from her sleep.
Till rathe she rose, half -cheated in the thought
She needs must bid farewell to sweet Lavaine.
340 First as in fear, step after step, she stole
Down the long tower-stairs, hesitating:
Anon, she heard Sir Lancelot cry in the court,
' This shield, my friend, where is it ? ' and Lavaine
Past inward, as she came from out the tower.
338. rathe: early.
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 77
There to his proud horse Lancelot turn'd, and
smooth 'd
The glossy shoulder, humming to himself.
Half-envious of the flattering hand, she drew
Nearer and stood. He look'd, and more amazed
Than if seven men had set upon him, saw
The maiden standing in the dewy light. 350
He had not dream 'd she was so beautiful.
Then came on him a sort of sacred fear,
For silent, tho' he greeted her, she stood
Rapt on his face as if it were a God's.
Suddenly flash 'd on her a wild desire,
That he should wear her favour at the tilt.
She braved a riotous heart in asking for it.
'Fair lord, whose name I know not — noble it is,
I well believe, the noblest — will you wear
My favour at this tourney ? ' ' Nay, ' said he, 360
'Fair lady, since I never yet have worn
Favour of any lady in the lists.
Such is my wont, as those, who know me, know. '
'Yea, so,' she answer 'd; 'then in wearing mine
Needs must be lesser likelihood, noble lord,
That those who know should know you.' And he
turn 'd
Her counsel up and down within his mind,
And found it true, and answer 'd, 'True, my child.
Well, I will wTear it : fetch it out to me :
What is it ? ' and she told him ' A red sleeve 370
Broider'd with pearls,' and brought it: then he
bound
Her token on his helmet, with a smile
Saying, 'I never yet have done so much
For any maiden living, ' and the blood
Sprang to her face and fill'd her with delight;
But left her all the paler, when Lavaine
78 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Returning brought the yet-unblazon 'd shield,
His brother's; which he gave to Lancelot,
Who parted with his own to fair Elaine :
380 'Do me this grace, my child, to have my shield
In keeping till I come.' 'A grace to me,'
She answer 'd, 'twice to-day. I am your squire!'
Whereat Lavaine said, laughing, 'Lily maid,
For fear our people call you lily maid
In earnest, let me bring your colour back;
Once, twice, and thrice : now get you hence to bed : '
So kiss'd her, and Sir Lancelot his own hand,
And thus they moved away : she stay 'd a minute,
Then made a sudden step to the gate, and there —
390 Her bright hair blown about the serious face
Yet rosy-kindled with her brother's kiss —
Paused by the gateway, standing near the shield
In silence, while she watch 'd their arms far-off
Sparkle, until they dipt below the downs.
Then to her tower she climb 'd, and took the shield,
There kept it, and so lived in fantasy.
Meanwhile the new companions past away
Far o'er the long backs of the bushless downs,
To where Sir Lancelot knew there lived a knight
400 Not far from Camelot, now for forty years
A hermit, who had pray'd, labour 'd and pray'd,
And ever labouring had scoop 'd himself
In the white rock a chapel and a hall
On massive columns, like a shorecliff cave,
And cells and chambers: all were fair and dry;
The green light from the meadows underneath
Struck up and lived along the milky roofs;
And in the meadows tremulous aspen-trees
And poplars made a noise of falling showers.
410 And thither wending there that night they bode.
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 79
But when the next day broke from underground,
And shot red fire and shadows thro' the cave,
They rose, heard mass, broke fast, and rode away:
Then Lancelot saying, ' Hear, but hold my name
Hidden, you ride with Lancelot of the Lake.'
Abash 'd Lavaine, whose instant reverence,
Dearer to true young hearts than their own praise,
But left him leave to stammer, 'Is it indeed?'
And after muttering 'The great Lancelot,'
At last he got his breath and answer 'd, 'One, 420
One have I seen — that other, our liege lord,
The dread Pendragon, Britain's King of kings,
Of whom the people talk mysteriously,
He will be there — then were I stricken blind
That minute, I might say that I had seen. '
So spake Lavaine, and when they reach 'd the
lists
By Camelot in the meadow, let his eyes
Run thro ' the peopled gallery which half round
Lay like a rainbow fall 'n upon the grass,
Until they found the clear-faced King, who sat 430
Robed in red samite, easily to be known,
Since to his crown the golden dragon clung,
And down his robe the dragon writhed in gold,
And from the carven-work behind him crept
Two dragons gilded, sloping down to make
Arms for his chair, while all the rest of them
Thro' knots and loops and folds innumerable
Fled ever thro' the woodwork, till they found
The new design wherein they lost themselves,
Yet with all ease, so tender was the work: 440
423. mysteriously: referring to the stories of Arthur's birth
and death.
80 IDYLLS OF THE KING
And, in the costly canopy o'er him set,
Blazed the last diamond of the nameless king.
Then Lancelot answer 'd young Lavaine and said,
' Me you call great : mine is the firmer seat,
The truer lance : but there is many a youth
Now crescent, who will come to all I am
And overcome it; and in. me there dwells
No greatness, save it be some far-off touch
Of greatness to know well I am not great:
450 There is the man.' And Lavaine gaped upon him
As on a thing miraculous, and anon
The trumpets blew; and then did either side,
They that assail'd, and they that held the lists,
Set lance in rest, strike spur, suddenly move,
Meet in the midst, and there so furiously
Shock, that a man far-off might well perceive,
If any man that day were left afield,
The hard earth shake, and a low thunder of arms,
And Lancelot bode a little, till he saw
460 Which were the weaker; then he hurl'd into it
Against the stronger: little need to speak
Of Lancelot in his glory ! King, duke, earl,
Count, baron — whom he smote, he overthrew.
But in the field were Lancelot's kith and kin,
Ranged with the Table Round that held the lists,
Strong men, and wrathful that a stranger knight
Should do and almost overdo the deeds
Of Lancelot ; and one said to the other, ' Lo !
What is he ? I do not mean the force alone —
470 The grace and versatility of the man!
442. nameless king. Cf. 39-56.
450. the man: Arthur.
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 81
Is it not Lancelot?' 'When has Lancelot worn
Favour of any lady in the lists?
Not such his wont, as we, that know him, know.'
' How then ? who then ? ' a fury seized them all,
A fiery family passion for the name
Of Lancelot, and a glory one with theirs.
They couch 'd their spears and prick 'd their steeds,
and thus,
Their plumes driv'n backward by the wind they
made
In moving, all together down upon him
Bare, as a wild wave in the wide North sea, 480
Green-glimmering toward the summit, bears, with
all
Its stormy crests that smoke against the skies,
Down on a bark, and overbears the bark,
And him that helms it, so they overbore
Sir Lancelot and his charger, and a spear
Down-glancing lamed the charger, and a spear
Prick 'd sharply his own cuirass, and the head
Pierced thro' his side, and there snapt, and re-
main'd.
Then Sir Lavaine did well and worshipf ully ;
He bore a knight of old repute to the earth, 490
And brought his horse to Lancelot where he lay.
He up the side, sweating with agony, got,
But thought to do while he might yet endure,
And being lustily holpen by the rest,
His party, — tho' it seem'd half -miracle
To those he fought with, — drave his kith and kin,
And all the Table Round that held the lists,
Back to the barrier; then the trumpets blew
Proclaiming his the prize, who wore the sleeve
Of scarlet, and the pearls ; and all the knights, 500
82 IDYLLS OF THE KING
His party, cried, 'Advance and take thy prize
The diamond; 'but he answer 'd, ' Diamond me
No diamonds! for God's love, a little air!
Prize me no prizes, for my prize is death !
4 Hence will I, and I charge you, follow me not.'
He spoke, and vanish 'd suddenly from the field
With young Lavaine into the poplar grove.
There from his charger down he slid, and sat,
Gasping to Sir Lavaine, ' Draw the lance-head : '
510 'Ah my sweet lord Sir Lancelot,' said Lavaine
'I dread me, if I draw it, you will die.'
But he, ' I die already with it : draw —
Draw,' — and Lavaine drew, and Sir Lancelot gave
A marvellous great shriek and ghastly groan,
And half his blood burst forth, and down he sank
For the pure pain, and wholly swoon 'd away.
Then came the hermit out and bare him in,
There stanch 'd his wound; and there, in daily
doubt
Whether to live or die, for many a week
520 Hid from the wide world's rumour by the grove
Of poplars with their noise of falling showers,
And ever-tremulous aspen-trees, he lay.
But on that day when Lancelot fled the lists,
His party, knights of utmost North and West,
Lords of waste marches, kings of desolate isles,
Came round their great Pendragon, saying to him,
'Lo, Sire, our knight, thro' whom we won the day,
Hath gone sore wounded, and hath left his prize
Untaken, crying that his prize is death.'
530 'Heaven hinder,' said the King, 'that such an one,
So great a knight as we have seen to-day —
He seem'd to me another Lancelot —
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 83
Yea, twenty times I thought him Lancelot —
He must not pass uneared for. Wherefore, rise,
0 Gawain, and ride forth and find the knight.
Wounded and wearied needs must he be near.
1 charge that you get at once to horse.
And, knights and kings, there breathes not one of
you
Will deem this prize of ours is rashly given :
His prowess was too wondrous. We will do him 540
No customary honour : since the knight
Came not to us, of us to claim the prize,
Ourselves will send it after. Rise and take
This diamond, and deliver it, and return,
And bring us where he is, and how he fares,
And cease not from your quest until ye find.'
So saying, from the carven flower above,
To which it made a restless heart, he took,
And gave, the diamond : then from where he sat
At Arthur's right, with smiling face arose, 550
With smiling face and frowning heart, a Prince
In the mid might and flourish of his May,
Gawain, surnamed The Courteous, fair and strong,
And after Lancelot, Tristram, and Geraint
And Gareth, a good knight, but therewithal
Sir Modred's brother, and the child of Lot,
Nor often loyal to his word, and now
Wroth that the King's command to sally forth
In quest of whom he knew not, made him leave
The banquet, and concourse of knights and kings. 560
545. And bring us where he is: bring us (tidings of) where
he is, etc.
555. a good knight: in apposition with Gawain, two lines
before.
84 IDYLLS OF THE KING
So all in wrath he got to horse and went ;
While Arthur to the banquet, dark in mood,
Past, thinking, 'Is it Lancelot who hath come
Despite the wound he spake of, all for gain
Of glory, and hath added wound to wound,
And ridd'n away to die?' So fear'd the King,
And, after two days' tarriance there, return 'd.
Then when he saw the Queen, embracing ask'd,
'Love, are you yet so sick?' 'Nay, lord,' she said.
570 ' And where is Lancelot ? ' Then the Queen amazed,
'Was he not with you? won he not your prize?'
'Nay, but one like him.' 'Why that like was he.'
And when the King demanded how she knew,
Said, 'Lord, no sooner had ye parted from us,
Than Lancelot told me of a common talk
That men went down before his spear at a touch,
But knowing he was Lancelot ; his great name
Conquer 'd; and therefore would he hide his name
From all men, ev'n the King, and to this end
580 Had made the pretext of a hindering wound,
That he might joust unknown of all, and learn
If his old prowess were in aught decay 'd;
And added, "Our true Arthur, when he learns
Will well allow my pretext, as for gain
Of purer glory." '
Then replied the King:
'Far lovelier in our Lancelot had it been,
In lieu of idly dallying with the truth,
To have trusted me as he hath trusted thee.
Surely his King and most familiar friend
590 Might well have kept his secret. True, indeed,
Albeit I know my knights fantastical,
So fine a fear in our large Lancelot
Must needs have moved my laughter: now remains
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 85
But little cause for laughter : his own kin —
111 news, my Queen, for all who love him, this ! —
His kith and kin, not knowing, set upon him;
So that he went sore wounded from the field:
Yet good news too : for goodly hopes are mine
That Lancelot is no more a lonely heart.
He wore, against his wont, upon his helm 600
A sleeve of scarlet, broider'd with great pearls,
Some gentle maiden's gift.'
'Yea, lord,' she said,
'Thy hopes are mine,' and saying that, she choked,
And sharply turn'd about to hide her face,
Past to her chamber, and there flung herself
Down on the great King's couch, and writhed upon
it,
And clench 'd her fingers till they bit the palm,
And shriek 'd out 'Traitor' to the unhearing wall,
Then flash 'd into wild tears, and rose again,
And moved about her palace, proud and pale. 610
Gawain the while thro' all the region round
Rode with his diamond, wearied of the quest,
Touch 'd at all points, except the poplar grove,
And came at last, tho' late, to Astolat:
Whom glittering in enamell'd arms the maid
Glanced at, and cried, 'What news from Camelot,
lord ?
What of the knight with the red sleeve?' 'He won.'
'I knew it,' she said. 'But parted from the jousts
Hurt in the side,' whereat she caught her breath;
Thro' her own side she felt the sharp lance go; 620
Thereon she smote her hand : wellnigh she swoon 'd :
And, while he gazed wonderingly at her, came
The Lord of Astolat out, to whom the Prince
86 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Reported who he was, and on what quest
Sent, that he bore the prize and could not find
The victor, but had ridd'n a random round
To seek him, and had wearied of the search.
To whom the Lord of Astolat, 'Bide with us,
And ride no more at random, noble Prince !
630 Here was the knight, and here he left a shield;
This will he send or come for : furthermore
Our son is with him ; we shall hear anon,
Needs must we hear. ' To this the courteous Prince
Accorded with his wonted courtesy,
Courtesy with a touch of traitor in it,
And stay'd; and cast his eyes on fair Elaine:
"Where could be found face daintier ? then her shape
From forehead down to foot, perfect — again
From foot to forehead exquisitely turn 'd :
640 'Well— if I bide, lo! this wild flower for me!'
And oft they met among the garden yews,
And there he set himself to play upon her
With sallying wit; free flashes from a height
Above her, graces of the court, and songs,
Sighs, and slow. smiles, and golden eloquence
And amorous adulation, till the maid
RebelFd against it, saying to him, 'Prince,
0 loyal nephew of our noble King,
Why ask you not to see the shield he left,
650 Whence you might learn his name? Why slight
your King,
And lose the quest he sent you on, and prove
No surer than our falcon yesterday,
Who lost the hern we slipt her at, and went
To all the winds?' 'Nay, by mine head/ said he,
'I lose it, as we lose the lark in heaven,
0 damsel, in the light of your blue eyes ;
But an ye will it let me see the shield. '
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 87
And when the shield was brought, and Gawain saw
Sir Lancelot's azure lions, crown 'd with gold,
Ramp in the field, he smote his thigh, and mock'd: 660
' Right was the King ! our Lancelot ! that true man ! '
'And right was I,' she answer 'd merrily, 'I,
Who dream 'd my knight the greatest knight of all. '
'And if / dream 'd,' said Gawain, 'that you love
This greatest knight, your pardon ! lo, ye know it !
Speak therefore : shall I waste myself in vain ? '
Full simple was her answer, 'What know I?
My brethren have been all my fellowship;
And I, when often they have talk'd of love,
Wish'd it had been my mother, for they talk'd, 670
Meseem'd, of what they knew not; so myself —
I know not if I know what true love is,
But if I know, then, if I love not him,
I know there is none other I can love/
'Yea, by God's death,' said he, 'ye love him well,
But would not, knew ye what all others know,
And whom he loves.' 'So be it,' cried Elaine,
And lifted her fair face and moved away :
But he pursued her, calling, 'Stay a little!
One golden minute's grace! he wore your sleeve: 680
Would he break faith with one I may not name ?
Must our true man change like a leaf at last!
Nay — like enow : why then, far be it from me
To cross our mighty Lancelot in his loves !
And, damsel, for I deem you know full well
Where your great knight is hidden, let me leave
My quest with you ; the diamond also : here !
For if you love, it will be sweet to give it ;
And if he love, it will be sweet to have it
From your own hand; and whether he love or not, 690
A diamond is a diamond. Fare you well
A thousand times! — a thousand times farewell!
88 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Yet, if he love, and his love hold, we two
May meet at court hereafter : there, I think,
So ye will learn the courtesies of the court,
We two shall know each other.'
Then he gave,
And slightly kiss'd the hand to which he gave,
The diamond, and all wearied of the quest
Leapt on his horse, and carolling as he went
700 A true-love ballad, lightly rode away.
Thence to the court he past ; there told the King
What the King knew, 'Sir Lancelot is the knight.'
And added, 'Sir, my liege, so much I learnt;
But fail'd to find him, tho' I rode all round
The region : but I lighted on the maid
Whose sleeve he wore ; she loves him ; and to her,
Deeming our courtesy is the truest law,
I gave the diamond : she will render it ;
For by mine head she knows his hiding-place. '
710 The seldom-frowning King frown 'd, and replied,
' Too courteous truly ! ye shall go no more
On quest of mine, seeing that ye forget
Obedience is the courtesy due to kings.'
He spake and parted. Wroth, but all in awe,
For twenty strokes of the blood, without a word,
Linger 'd that other, staring after him ;
Then shook his hair, strode off, and buzz'd abroad
About the maid of Astolat, and her love.
All ears were prick 'd at once, all tongues were
loosed :
710. frowned: because Gawain had not prosecuted the quest
until he had found Lancelot.
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 89
'The maid of Astolat loves Sir Lancelot, 720
Sir Lancelot loves the maid of Astolat.'
Some read the King's face, some the Queen's, and
all
Had marvel what the maid might be, but most
Predoom'd her as unworthy. One old dame
Came suddenly on the Queen with the sharp news.
She, that had heard the noise of it before,
But sorrowing Lancelot should have stoop 'd so low,
Marr'd her friend's aim with pale tranquillity.
So ran the tale like fire about the court,
Fire in dry stubble a nine-days' wonder flared: 730
Till ev'n the knights at banquet twice or thrice
Forgot to drink to Lancelot and the Queen,
And pledging Lancelot and the lily maid
Smiled at each other, while the Queen, who sat
With lips severely placid, felt the knot
Climb in her throat, and with her feet unseen
Crush 'd the wild passion out against the floor
Beneath the banquet, where the meats became
As wormwood, and she hated all who pledged.
But far away the maid in Astolat, . 740
Her guiltless rival, she that ever kept
The one-day-seen Sir Lancelot in her heart,
Crept to her father, while he mused alone,
Sat on his knee, stroked his gray face and said,
' Father, you call me wilful, and the fault
Is yours who let me have my will, and now,
Sweet father, will you let me lose my wits?'
'Nay,' said he, 'surely.' 'Wherefore, let me hence,'
She answer 'd, 'and find out our dear Lavaine.'
* Ye will not lose your wits for dear Lavaine : 750
Bide,' answer 'd he: 'we needs must hear anon
Of him, and of that other.' 'Ay,' she said,
90 IDYLLS OF THE KING
' And of that other, for I needs must hence
And find that other, wheresoe'er he be,
And with mine own hand give his diamond to him,
Lest I be found as faithless in the quest
As yon proud Prince who left the quest to me.
Sweet father, I behold him in my dreams
Gaunt as it were the skeleton of himself,
760 Death-pale, for lack of gentle maiden's aid.
The gentler-born the maiden, the more bound,
My father, to be sweet and serviceable
To noble knights in sickness, as ye know
When these have worn their tokens: let me hence
I pray you/ Then her father nodding said,
'Ay, ay, the diamond: wit ye well, my child,
Right fain were I to learn this knight were whole,
Being our greatest : yea, and you must give it —
And sure I think this fruit is hung too high
770 For any mouth to gape for save a queen's —
Nay, I mean nothing : so then, get you gone,
Being so very wilful you must go.'
Lightly, her suit allowed, she slipt away,
And while she made her ready for her ride,
Her father's latest word humm'd in her ear,
'Being so very wilful you must go,'
And changed itself and echo'd in her heart,
'Being so very wilful you must die.'
But she was happy enough and shook it off,
780 As we shake off the bee that buzzes at us;
And in her heart she answer 'd it and said,
'What matter, so I help him back to life?'
Then far away with good Sir Torre for guide
Rode o'er the long backs of the bushless downs
To Camelot, and before the city-gates
Came on her brother with a happy face
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 91
Making a roan horse caper and curvet
For pleasure all about a field of flowers:
Whom when she saw, 'Lavaine,' she cried, 'Lavaine,
How fares my lord Sir Lancelot V He amazed, 790
* Torre and Elaine! why here? Sir Lancelot!
How know ye my lord's name is Lancelot?'
But when the maid had told him all her tale,
Then turn'd Sir Torre, and being- in his moods
Left them, and under the strange-statued gate,
Where Arthur's wars were render 'd mystically,
Past up the still rich city to his kin,
His own far blood, which dwelt at Camelot;
And her, Lavaine across the poplar grove
Led to the caves : there first she saw the casque 800
Of Lancelot on the wall : her scarlet sleeve,
Tho' carved and cut, and half the pearls away,
Stream 'd from it still ; and in her heart she laugh 'd,
Because he had not loosed it from his helm,
But meant once more perchance to tourney in it.
And when they gain'd the cell wherein he slept,
His battle-writhen arms and mighty hands
Lay naked on the wolfskin, and a dream
Of dragging down his enemy made them move.
Then she that saw him lying unsleek, unshorn, 810
Gaunt as it were the skeleton of himself,
Utter 'd a little tender dolorous cry.
The sound not wonted in a place so still
Woke the sick knight, and while he roll'd his eyes
Yet blank from sleep, she started to him, saying,
- Your prize the diamond sent you by the King:'
His eyes glisten 'd : she fancied ' Is it for me ? '
And when the maid had told him all the tale
Of King and Prince, the diamond sent, the quest
Assign 'd to her not worthy of it, she knelt 820
Full lowly by the corners of his bed,
92 IDYLLS OF THE KING
And laid the diamond in his open hand.
Her face was near, and as we kiss the child
That does the task assign 'd, he kiss'd her face.
At once she slipt like water to the floor.
'Alas,' he said, 'your ride hath wearied you.
Rest must you have.' 'No rest for me,' she said;
'Nay, for near you, fair lord, I am at rest.'
What might she mean by that? his large black eyes,
830 Yet larger thro' his leanness, dwelt upon her,
Till all her heart's sad secret blazed itself
In the heart's colours on her simple face;
And Lancelot look'd and was perplext in mind,
And being weak in body said no more ;
But did not love the colour; woman's love,
Save one, he not regarded, and so turn'd
Sighing, and feign 'd a sleep until he slept.
Then rose Elaine and glided thro' the fields,
And past beneath the weirdly-sculptured gates
840 Far up the dim rich city to her kin;
There bode the night : but woke with dawn, and past
Down thro' the dim rich city to the fields,
Thence to the cave : so day by day she past
In either twilight ghost-like to and fro
Gliding, and every day she tended him.
And likewise many a night: and Lancelot
Would, tho ' he call 'cl his wound a little hurt
Whereof he should be quickly whole, at times
Brain-feverous in his heat and agony, seem
850 Uncourteous, even he: but the meek maid
Sweetly forbore him ever, being to him
Meeker than any child to a rough nurse,
Milder than any mother to a sick child,
And never woman yet, since man's first fall,
Did kindlier unto man, but her deep love
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 93
Upbore her ; till the hermit, skill 'd in all
The simples and the science of that time,
Told him that her fine care had saved his life.
And the sick man forgot her simple blush,
Would call her friend and sister, sweet Elaine, 860
Would listen for her coming and regret
Her parting step, and held her tenderly,
And loved her with all love except the love
Of man and woman when they love their best,
Closest and sweetest, and had died the death
In any knighty fashion for her sake.
And peradventure had he seen her first
She might have made this and that other world
Another world for the sick man ; but now
The shackles of an old love straiten 'd him, 870
His honour rooted in dishonour stood,
And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.
Yet the great knight in his mid-sickness made
Pull many a holy vow and pure resolve.
These, as but born of sickness, could not live:
For when the blood ran lustier in him again,
Full often the bright image of one face,
Making a treacherous quiet in his heart,
Dispersed his resolution like a cloud.
Then if the maiden, while that ghostly grace 880
Beam'd on his fancy, spoke, he answer 'd not,
Or short and coldly, and she knew right well
What the rough sickness meant, but what this meant
She knew not, and the sorrow dimm'd her sight,
And drave her ere her time across the fields
Far into the rich city, where alone
She murmur 'd, ' Vain, in vain : it cannot be.
He will not love me ; how then % must I die ? '
Then as a little helpless innocent bird,
5
94 IDYLLS OF THE KING
890 That has but one plain passage of few notes,
Will sing the simple passage o'er and o'er
For all an April morning, till the ear
Wearies to hear it, so the simple maid
Went half the night repeating, 'Must I die?'
And now to right she turn'd, and now to left,
And found no ease in turning or in rest ;
And 'Him or death,' she mutter 'd, 'death or him,'
Again and like a burthen, 'Him or death.'
But when Sir Lancelot's deadly hurt was whole,
900 To Astolat returning rode the three.
There morn by morn, arraying her sweet self
In that wherein she deem'd she look'd her best,
She came before Sir Lancelot, for she thought
'If I be loved, these are my festal robes,
If not, the victim's flowers before he fall.'
And Lancelot ever prest upon the maid
That she should ask some goodly gift of him
For her own self or hers ; ' and do not shun
To speak the wish most near to your true heart ;
910 Such service have ye done me, that I make
My will of yours, and Prince and Lord am I
In mine own land, and what I will I can. '
Then like a ghost she lifted up her face,
But like a ghost without the power to speak.
And Lancelot saw that she withheld her wish,
And bode among them yet a little space
Till he should learn it; and one morn it chanced
He found her in among the garden yews,
And said, 'Delay no longer, speak your wish,
905. the victim's flowers. In Greek sacrifices the head of the
animal doomed to die was wreathed with flowers.
912. mine own land. Lancelot's realm was in Brittany "be-
yond the seas." Cf. 953.
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 95
Seeing I go to-clay : ' then out she brake : 920
'Going? and we shall never see you more.
And I must die for want of one bold word. '
'Speak: that I live to hear/ he said, 'is yours.'
Then suddenly and passionately she spoke :
' I have gone mad. I love you : let me die. '
'Ah, sister,' answer 'd Lancelot, 'what is this?'
And innocently extending her white arms,
'Your love,' she said, 'your love — to be your wife.'
And Lancelot answer 'd, 'Had I chosen to wed,
I had been wedded earlier, sweet Elaine : 930
But now there never will be wife of mine.'
' No, no, ' she cried, ' I care not to be wife,
But to be with you still, to see your face,
To serve you, and to follow you thro' the world.'
And Lancelot answer 'd, 'Nay, the world, the world,
All ear and eye, with such a stupid heart
To interpret ear and eye, and such a tongue
To blare its own interpretation — nay,
Full ill then should I quit your brother's love,
And your good father's kindness.' And she said, 940
'Not to be with you, not to see your face —
Alas for me then, my good days are done.'
' Nay, noble maid, ' he answer 'd, ' ten times nay !
This is not love : but love 's first flash in youth,
Most common: yea, I know it of mine own self:
And you yourself will smile at your own self
Hereafter, when you yield your flower of life
To one more fitly yours, not thrice your age :
And then will I, for true you are and sweet
Beyond mine old belief in womanhood, 950
923. that I live to hear is yours: i. e., it is owing to your
care that I am alive.
939. Quit: requite.
96 IDYLLS OF THE KING
More specially should your good knight be poor,
Endow you with broad land and territory
Even to the half my realm beyond the seas,
So that would make you happy: furthermore,
Ev'n to the death, as tho' ye were my blood,
In all your quarrels will I be your knight.
This will I do, dear damsel, for your sake,
And more than this I cannot.'
While he spoke
She neither blush 'd nor shook, but deathly-pale
960 Stood grasping what was nearest, then replied :
'Of all this will I nothing;' and so fell,
And thus they bore her swooning to her tower.
Then spake, to whom thro' those black walls of
yew
Their talk had pierced, her father: 'Ay, a flash,
I fear me, that will strike my blossom dead.
Too courteous are ye, fair Lord Lancelot.
I pray you, use some rough discourtesy
To blunt or break her passion.'
Lancelot said,
'That were against me: what I can I will;'
970 And there that day remain 'd, and toward even
Sent for his shield: full meekly rose the maid,
Stript off the case, and gave the naked shield ;
Then, when she heard his horse upon the stones,
Unclasping flung the casement back, and look'd
Down on his helm,, from which her sleeve had gone.
And Lancelot knew the little clinking sound ;
964. flash. The father repeats Lancelot's word (944) in
another meaning.
976. clinking sound: made by the opening of the window.
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 97
And she by tact of love was well aware
That Lancelot knew that she was looking at him.
And yet he glanced not up, nor waved his hand,
Nor bade farewell, but sadly rode away. 980
This was the one discourtesy that he used.
So in her tower alone the maiden sat :
His very shield was gone; only the case,
Her own poor work, her empty labour, left.
But still she heard him, still his picture form'd
And grew between her and the pictured wall.
Then came her father, saying in low tones,
'Have comfort,' whom she greeted quietly.
Then came her brethren saying, 'Peace to thee,
Sweet sister,' whom she answer 'd with all calm. 990
But when they left her to herself again,
Death, like a friend's voice from a distant field
Approaching thro' the darkness, call'd; the owls
Wailing had power upon her, and she mixt
Her fancies with the sallow-rifted glooms
Of evening, and the moanings of the wind.
And in those days she made a little song,
And call'd her song 'The Song of Love and Death,'
And sang it : sweetly could she make and sing.
' Sw^et is true love tho ' given in vain, in vain ; 1000
And sweet is death who puts an end to pain :
I know not which is sweeter, no, not I.
'Love, art thou sweet? then bitter death must be:
Love, thou art bitter; sweet is death to me.
0 Love, if death be sweeter, let me die.
'Sweet love, that seems not made to fade away,
Sweet death, that seems to make us loveless clay,
1 know not which is sweeter, no, not I.
98 IDYLLS OF THE KING
'I fain would follow love, if that could be;
1010 I needs must follow death, who calls for me ;
Call and I follow, I follow ! let me die. '
High with the last line scaled her voice, and this,
All in a fiery dawning wild with wind
That shook her tower, the brothers heard, and
thought
With shuddering, 'Hark the Phantom of the house
That ever shrieks before a death,' and call'd
The father, and all three in hurry and fear
Kan to her, and lo ! the blood-red light of dawn
Flared on her face, she shrilling, 'Let me die!'
1020 And when we dwell upon a word we know,
Repeating, till the word we know so well
Becomes a wonder, and we know not why,
So dwelt the father on her face, and thought
'Is this Elaine?' till back the maiden fell,
Then gave a languid hand to each, and lay,
Speaking a still good-morrow with her eyes.
At last she said, 'Sweet brothers, yesternight
I seem'd a curious little maid again,
As happy as when we dwelt among the woods,
1030 And when ye used to take me with the flood
Up the great river in the boatman's boat.
Only ye would not pass beyond the cape
That has the poplar on it: there ye fixt
Your limit, oft returning with the tide.
And yet I cried because ye would not pass
Beyond it, and far up the shining flood
Until we found the palace of the King.
And yet ye would not; but this night I dream 'd
That I was all alone upon the flood,
1040 And then I said, ' ' Now shall I have my will : ' '
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 99
And there I woke, but still the wish remain 'd.
So let me hence that I may pass at last
Beyond the poplar and far up the flood,
Until I find the palace of the King.
There will I enter in among them all,
And no man there will dare to mock at me ;
But there the fine Gawain will wonder at me,
And there the great Sir Lancelot muse at me;
Gawain, who bade a thousand farewells to me,
Lancelot, who coldly went, nor bade me one : 1050
And there the King will know me and my love,
And there the Queen herself will pity me,
And all the gentle court will welcome me,
And after my long voyage I shall rest ! '
'Peace,' said her father, '0 my child, ye seem
Light-headed, for what force is yours to go
So far, being sick? and wherefore would ye look
On this proud fellow again, who scorns us all?'
Then the rough Torre began to heave and move,
And bluster into stormy sobs and say, 1060
' I never loved him : an I meet with him,
I care not howsoever great he be,
Then will I strike at him and strike him down,
Give me good fortune, I will strike him dead,
For this discomfort he hath done the house. '
To whom the gentle sister made reply,
'Fret not yourself, dear brother, nor be wroth,
Seeing it is no more Sir Lancelot's fault
Not to love me, than it is mine to love
Him of all men who seems to me the highest. ' 1070
' Highest?' the father answer 'd, echoing 'highest?'
(He meant to break the passion in her) 'nay,
100 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Daughter, I know not what you call the highest ■
But this I know, for all the people know it,
He loves the Queen, and in an open shame ;
And she returns his love in open shame;
If this be high, what is it to be low ? '
Then spake the lily maid of Astolat :
'Sweet father, all too faint and sick am I
1080 For anger: these are slanders: never yet
Was noble man but made ignoble talk.
He makes no friend who never made a foe.
But now it is my glory to have loved
One peerless, without stain : so let me pass,
My father, howsoe'er I seem to you,
Not all unhappy, having loved God's best
And greatest, tho' my love had no return:
Yet, seeing you desire your child to live,
Thanks, but you work against your own desire;
1090 For if I could believe the things you say
I should but die the sooner; wherefore cease,
Sweet father, and bid call the ghostly man
Hither, and let me shrive me clean, and die. '
So when the ghostly man had come and gone,
She with a face, bright as for sin forgiven,
Besought Lavaine to write as she devised
A letter, word for word; and when he ask'd
' Is it for Lancelot, is it for my dear lord ?
Then will I bear it gladly ; ' she replied,
1100 'For Lancelot and the Queen and all the world,
But I myself must bear it.' Then he wrote
The letter she devised; which being writ
And folded, 'O sweet father, tender and true,
1092. the ghostly man: the priest.
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 101
Deny me not,' she said — 'ye never yet
Denied my fancies — this, however strange,
My latest : lay the letter in my hand
A little ere I die, and close the hand
Upon it ; I shall guard it even in death.
And when the heat is gone from out my heart,
Then take the little bed on which I died 1110
For Lancelot's love, and deck it like the Queen's
For richness, and me also like the Queen
In all I have of rich, and lay me on it.
And let there be prepared a chariot-bier
To take me to the river, and a barge
Be ready on the river, clothed in black.
I go in state to court, to meet the Queen.
There surely I shall speak for mine own self,
And none of you can speak for me so well.
And therefore let our dumb old man alone 1120
Go with me, he can steer and row, and he
Will guide me to that palace, to the doors.'
She ceased : her father promised ; whereupon
She grew so cheerful that they deem'd her death
Was rather in the fantasy than the blood.
But ten slow mornings past, and on the eleventh
Her father laid the letter in her hand,
And closed the hand upon it, and she died.
So that day there was dole in Astolat.
But when the next sun brake from under- 1130
ground,
Then, those two brethren slowly with bent brows,
Accompanying, the sad chariot-bier
Past like a shadow thro ' the field, that shone
Full-summer, to that stream whereon the barge,
Pall'd all its length in blackest samite, lay.
102 IDYLLS OF THE KING
There sat the lifelong creature of the house,
Loyal, the dumb old servitor, on deck,
Winking his eyes, and twisted all his face.
So those two brethren from the chariot took
1140 And on the black decks laid her in her bed,
Set in her hand a lily, o'er her hung
The silken case with braided blazonings,
And kiss'd her quiet brows, and saying to her
'Sister, farewell for ever,' and again
'Farewell, sweet sister,' parted all in tears.
Then rose the dumb old servitor, and the dead,
Oar'd by the dumb, went upward with the flood-
In her right hand the lily, in her left
The letter — all her bright hair streaming down —
1150 And all the coverlid was cloth of gold
Drawn to her waist, and she herself in white
All but her face, and that clear-featured face
Was lovely, for she did not seem as dead,
But fast asleep, and lay as tho ' she smiled.
That day Sir Lancelot at the palace craved
Audience of Guinevere, to give at last
The price of half a realm, his costly gift,
Hard-won and hardly won with bruise and blow,
With deaths of others, and almost his own,
1160 The nine-years-fought-f or diamonds : for he saw
One of her house, and sent him to the Queen
Bearing his wish, whereto the Queen agreed
With such and so unmoved a majesty
She might have seem'd her statue, but that he,
Low-clrooping till he well nigh kiss 'd her feet
1136. creature: dependent.
1147. the flood: the tide.
1160. diamonds: in grammatical apposition with gift, 1157.
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 103
For loyal awe, saw with a sidelong eye
The shadow of some piece of pointed lace,
In the Queen's shadow, vibrate on the walls,
And parted, laughing in his courtly heart.
All in an oriel on the summer side, 1170
Vine-clad, of Arthur's palace toward the stream,
They met, and Lancelot kneeling utter 'd, ' Queen,
Lady, my liege, in whom I have my joy,
Take, what I had not won except for you,
These jewels, and make me happy, making them
An armlet for the roundest arm on earth,
Or necklace for a neck to which the swan's
Is tawnier than her cygnet 's : these are words :
Your beauty is your beauty, and I sin
In speaking, yet 0 grant my worship of it 1180
Words, as we grant grief tears. Such sin in words
Perchance, we both can pardon : but, my Queen,
I hear of rumours flying thro' your court.
Our bond, as not the bond of man and wife,
Should have in it an absoluter trust
To make up that defect: let rumours be:
When did not rumours fly? these, as I trust
That you trust me in your own nobleness,
I may not well believe that you believe.'
While thus he spoke, half -turn 'd away, the Queen 1190
Brake from the vast oriel-embowering vine
Leaf after leaf, and tore, and cast them off,
Till all the place whereon she stood was green;
Then, when he ceased, in one cold passive hand
Received at once and laid aside the gems
There on a table near her, and replied:
1170. oriel: a projecting window.
1180. grant — words: i. e., allow me to speak.
104 IDYLLS OF THE KING
'It may be, I am quicker of belief
Than you believe me, Lancelot of the Lake.
Our bond is not the bond of man and wife.
1200 This good is in it, whatsoe'er of ill,
It can be broken easier. I for you
This many a year have done despite and wrong
To one whom ever in my heart of hearts
I did acknowledge nobler. What are these?
Diamonds for me ! they had been thrice their worth
Being your gift, had you not lost your own.
To loyal hearts the value of all gifts
Must vary as the giver's. Not for me!
For her ! for your new fancy. Only this
1210 Grant me, I pray you : have your joys apart.
I doubt not that however changed, you keep
So much of what is graceful : and myself
Would shun to break those bounds of courtesy
In which as Arthur's Queen I move and rule:
So cannot speak my mind. k An end to this !
A strange one! yet I take it with Amen.
So pray you, add my diamonds to her pearls;
Deck her with these; tell her she shines me down:
An armlet for an arm to which the Queen 's
1220 Is haggard, or a necklace for a neck
O as much fairer — as a faith once fair
Was richer than these diamonds — hers not mine —
Nay, by the mother of our Lord himself,
Or hers or mine, mine now to 'work my will —
She shall not have them.'
Saying which she seized,
And, thro' the casement standing wide for heat,
Flung them, and down they flash 'd, and smote the
stream.
Then from the smitten surface flash 'd, as it were,
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 105
Diamonds to meet them, and they past away.
Then while Sir Lancelot leant, in half disdain 1230
At love, life, all things, on the window ledge,
Close underneath his eyes, and right across
Where these had fallen, slowly past the barge
Whereon the lily maid of Astolat
Lay smiling, like a star in blackest night.
But the wild Queen, who saw not, burst away
To weep and wail in secret; and the barge,
On to the palace-doorway sliding, paused.
There two stood arm'd, and kept the door; to whom,
All up the marble stair, tier over tier, 1240
Were added mouths that gaped, and eyes that ask'd
' What is it 1 ' but that oarsman 's haggard face,
As hard and still as is the face that men
Shape to their fancy's eye from broken rocks
On some cliff-side, appall'd them, and they said,
'He is enchanted, cannot speak — and she,
Look how she sleeps — the Fairy Queen, so fair!
Yea, but how pale! what are they? flesh and blood?
Or come to take the King to Fairyland?
For some do hold our Arthur cannot die, 1250
But that he passes into Fairyland.'
While thus they babbled of the King, the King
Came girt with knights: then turn'd the tongueless
man
From the half -face to the full eye, and rose
And pointed to the damsel, and the doors.
So Arthur bade the meek Sir Percivale
And pure Sir Galahad to uplift the maid;
And reverently they bore her into hall.
1254. From the half-face to the full eye: he turned squarely,
from profile to full face.
106 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Then came the fine Gawain and wonder 'd at her
1260 And Lancelot later came and mused at her,
And last the Queen herself, and pitied her:
But Arthur spied the letter in her hand,
Stoopt, took, brake seal, and read it; this was all:
'Most noble lord, Sir Lancelot of the Lake,
I, sometime call'd the maid of Astolat,
Come, for you left me taking no farewell,
Hither, to take my last farewell of you.
I loved you, and my love had no return,
And therefore my true love has been my death.
1270 And therefore to our Lady Guinevere,
And to all other ladies, I make moan :
Pray for my soul, and yield me burial.
Pray for my soul thou too, Sir Lancelot,
As thou art a knight peerless.'
Thus he read;
And ever in the reading, lords and dames
Wept, looking often from his face who read
To hers which lay so silent, and at times,
So touch 'd were they, half -thinking that her lips,
Who had devised the letter, moved again.
1280 Then freely spoke Sir Lancelot to them all :
'My lord liege Arthur, and all ye that hear,
Know that for this most gentle maiden's death
Right heavy am I ; for good she was and true,
But loved me with a love beyond all love
In women, whomsoever I have known.
Yet to be loved makes not to love again ;
Not at my years, however it hold in youth.
I swear by truth and knighthood that I gave
No cause, not willingly, for such a love :
1283. heavy: in Middle English, "weighted with sorrow.
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 107
To this I call my friends in testimony, 1290
Her brethren, and her father, who himself
Besought me to be plain and blunt, and use,
To break her passion, some discourtesy
Against my nature : what I could, I did.
I left her and I bade her no farewell ;
Tho', had I dreamt the damsel would have died,
I might have put my wits to some rough use,
And help 'd her from herself. '
Then said the Queen
(Sea was her wrath, yet working after storm),
1 Ye might at least have done her so much grace, 1300
Fair lord, as would have help 'd her from her death. '
He raised his head, their eyes met and hers fell,
He adding, 'Queen, she would not be content
Save that I wedded her, which could not be.
Then might she follow me thro' the world, she
ask 'd ;
It could not be. I told her that her love
Was but the flash of youth, would darken down
To rise hereafter in a stiller flame
Toward one more worthy of her — then would I,
More specially were he, she wedded, poor, 1310
Estate them with large land and territory
In mine own realm beyond the narrow seas,
To keep them in all joyance : more than this
I could not ; this she would not, and she died. '
He pausing, Arthur answer 'd, '0 my knight,
It will be to thy worship, as my knight,
And mine, as head of all our Table Round,
To see that she be buried worshipfully.,
So toward that shrine which then in all the realm
Was richest, Arthur leading, slowly went 1320
108 IDYLLS OF THE KING
The marshall'd Order of their Table Round,
And Lancelot sad beyond his wont, to see
The maiden buried, not as one unknown,
Nor meanly, but with gorgeous obsequies,
And mass, and rolling music, like a queen.
And when the knights had laid her comely head
Low in the dust of half-forgotten kings,
Then Arthur spake among them, 'Let her tomb
Be costly, and her image thereupon,
1330 And let the shield of Lancelot at her feet
Be carven, and her lily in her hand.
And let the story of her dolorous voyage
For all true hearts be blazon 'd on her tomb
In letters gold and azure ! ' which was wrought
Thereafter ; but when now the lords and dames
And people, from the high door streaming, brake
Disorderly, as homeward each, the Queen,
Who mark'd Sir Lancelot where he moved apart,
Drew near, and sigh'd in passing, 'Lancelot,
1340 Forgive me; mine was jealousy in love.'
He answer 'd with his eyes upon the ground,
' That is love 's curse ; pass on, my Queen, forgiven. '
But Arthur, who beheld his cloudy brows,
Approach 'd him, and with full affection said,
'Lancelot, my Lancelot, thou in whom I have
Most joy and most affiance, for I know
"What thou hast been in battle by my side,
And many a time have watch 'd thee at the tilt
Strike down the lusty and long-practised knight,
1350 And let the younger and unskill'd go by
To win his honour and to make his name,
And loved thy courtesies and thee, a man
1334. gold and azure: Lancelot's colors.
LANCELOT AND ELAINE 109
Made to be loved; but now I would to God,
Seeing the homeless trouble in thine eyes,
Thou couldst have loved this maiden, shaped, it
seems,
By God for thee alone, and from her face,
If one may judge the living by the dead,
Delicately pure and marvellously fair,
Who might have brought thee, now a lonely man
Wifeless and heirless, noble issue, sons 1360
Born to the glory of thy name and fame,
My knight, the great Sir Lancelot of the Lake. '
Then answer 'd Lancelot, 'Fair she was, my King,
Pure, as you ever wish your knights to be.
To doubt her fairness were to want an eye,
To doubt her pureness were to want a heart —
Yea, to be loved, if what is worthy love
Could bind him, but free love will not be bound.'
1 Free love, so bound, were freest, ' said the King.
1 Let love be free ; free love is for the best : 1370
And, after heaven, on our dull side of death,
What should be best, if not so pure a love
Clothed in so pure a loveliness 1 yet thee
She fail'd to bind, tho' being, as I think,
Unbound as yet, and gentle, as I know.'
And Lancelot answer 'd nothing, but he went,
And at the inrunning of a little brook
Sat by the river in a cove, and watch 'd
The high reed wave, and lifted up his eyes
And saw the barge that brought her moving down, 1380
Far-off, a blot upon the stream, and said
Low in himself, 'Ah, simple heart and sweet,
Ye loved me, damsel, surely with a love
Far tenderer than my Queen 's. Pray for thy soul ?
110 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Ay, that will I. Farewell too — now at last —
Farewell, fair lily. "Jealousy in love?"
Not rather dead love's harsh heir, jealous pride?
Queen, if I grant the jealousy as of love,
May not your crescent fear for name and fame
1390 Speak, as it waxes, of a love that wanes?
Why did the King dwell on my name to me ?
Mine own name shames me, seeming a reproach,
Lancelot, whom the Lady of the Lake
Caught from his mother's arms — the wondrous one
Who passes thro ' the vision of the night —
She chanted snatches of mysterious hymns
Heard on the winding waters, eve and morn
She kiss 'd me saying, ' ' Thou art fair, my child,
As a king 's son, ' ' and often in her arms
1400 She bare me, pacing on the dusky mere.
Would she had drown 'd me in it, where'er it be!
For what am I ? what profits me my name
Of greatest knight? I fought for it, and have it:
Pleasure to have it, none; to lose it, pain;
Now grown a part of me: but what use in it?
To make men worse by making my sin known ?
Or sin seem less, the sinner seeming great?
Alas for Arthur's greatest knight, a man
Not after Arthur 's heart ! I needs must break
1410 These bonds that so defame me : not without
She wills it : would I, if she will 'd it ? nay,
Who knows ? but if I would not, then may God,
I pray him, send a sudden Angel down
To seize me by the hair and bear me far,
And fling me deep in that forgotten mere,
Among the tumbled fragments of the hills. '
So groan 'd Sir Lancelot in remorseful pain,
Not knowing he should die a holy man.
THE PASSING OF ARTHUR
That story which the bold Sir Bedivere,
First made and latest left of all the knights,
Told, when the man was no more than a voice
In the white winter of his age, to those
With whom he dwelt, new faces, other minds.
For on their march to westward, Bedivere,
Who slowly paced among the slumbering host,
Heard in his tent the moanings of the King :
' I found Him in the shining of the stars,
I mark'd Him in the flowering of His fields, 10
But in His ways with men I find Him not.
I waged His wars, and now I pass and die.
0 me ! for why is all around us here
As if some lesser god had made the world,
But had not force to shape it as he would,
Till the High God behold it from beyond,
And enter it, and make it beautiful?
Or else as if the world were wholly fair,
But that these eyes of men are dense and dim,
And have not power to see it as it is: 20
Perchance, because we see not to the close ; —
5. other minds: a new generation. Cf. 397.
6. westward: according to Malory, towards Salisbury; ac-
cording to Geoffrey of Monmouth, towards the river Cambula in
Cornwall.
Ill
112 IDYLLS OF THE KING
For I, being simple, thought to work His will,
And have but stricken with the sword in vain;
And all whereon I lean'd in wife and friend
Is traitor to my peace, and all my realm
Reels back into the beast, and is no more.
My God, thou hast forgotten me in my death :
Nay — God my Christ — I pass but shall not die. '
Then, ere that last weird battle in the west,
30 There came on Arthur sleeping, Gawain kill 'd
In Lancelot's war, the ghost of Gawain blown
Along a wandering wind, and past his ear
Went shrilling, 'Hollow, hollow all delight!
Hail, King! to-morrow thou shalt pass away.
Farewell! there is an isle of rest for thee.
And I am blown along a wandering wind,
And hollow, hollow, hollow all delight."
And fainter onward, like wild birds that change
Their season in the night and wail their way
40 From cloud to cloud, down the long wind the dream
Shrill 'd ; but in going mingled with dim cries
Far in the moonlit haze among the hills,
As of some lonely city sack'd by night,
When all is lost, and wife and child with wail
Pass to new lords; and Arthur woke and call'd,
'Who spake? A dream. 0 light upon the wind,
Thine, Gawain, was the voice — are these dim cries
Thine? or doth all that haunts the waste and wild
Mourn, knowing it will go along with meV
50 This heard the bold Sir Bedivere and spake:
'0 me, my King, let pass whatever will,
24. wife and friend: Guinevere and Lancelot.
26. the beast: savagery and sin.
29. battle. Cf. note to 6.
THE PASSING OF AETHUK 113
Elves, and the harmless glamour of the field;
But in their stead thy name and glory cling
To all high places like a golden cloud
For ever : but as yet thou shalt not pass.
Light was Gawain in life, and light in death
Is Gawain, for the ghost is as the man ;
And care not thou for dreams from him, but rise —
I hear the steps of Modred in the west,
And with him many of thy people, and knights CO
Once thine, whom thou hast loved, but grosser grown
Than heathen, spitting at their vows and thee.
Right well in heart they know thee for the King.
Arise, go forth and conquer as of old. '
Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere :
'Far other is this battle in the west
Whereto we move, than when we strove in youth,
And brake the petty kings, and fought with Rome,
Or thrust the heathen from the Roman wall,
And shook him thro' the north. Ill doom is mine 70
To war against my people and my knights.
The king who fights his people fights himself.
And they my knights, who loved me once, the stroke
That strikes them dead is as my death to me.
Yet let us hence, and find or feel a way
Thro ' this blind haze, which ever since I saw
One lying in the dust at Almesbury,
Hath folded in the passes of the world. '
Then rose the King and moved his host by night,
And ever push'd Sir Modred, league by league, 80
Back to the sunset bound of Lyonesse —
A land of old upheaven from the abyss
By fire, to sink into the abyss again;
Where fragments of forgotten peoples dwelt,
114 IDYLLS OF THE KING
And the long mountains ended in a coast
Of ever-shifting sand, and far away
The phantom circle of a moaning sea.
There the pursuer could pursue no more,
And he that fled no further fly the King;
90 And there, that day when the great light of heaven
Burn'd at his lowest in the rolling year,
On the waste sand by the waste sea they closed.
Nor ever yet had Arthur fought a fight
Like this last, dim, weird battle of the west.
A deathwhite mist slept over sand and sea :
Whereof the chill, to him who breathed it, drew
Down with his blood, till all his heart was cold
With formless fear; and ev'n on Arthur fell
Confusion, since he saw not whom he fought.
100 For friend and foe were shadows in the mist,
And friend slew friend not knowing whom he sleto ;
And some had visions out of golden youth,
And some beheld the faces of old ghosts
Look in upon the battle; and in the mist
Was many a noble deed, many a base,
And chance and craft and strength in single fights,
And ever and anon with host to host
Shocks, and the splintering spear, the hard mail
hewn,
Shield-breakings, and the clash of brands, the crash
110 Of battleaxes on shatter 'd helms, and shrieks
After the Christ, of those who falling down
Look'd up for heaven, and only saw the mist;
And shouts of heathen and the traitor knights,
Oaths, insult, filth, and monstrous blasphemies,
Sweat, writhings, anguish, labouring of the lungs
87. phantom circle: dim sea-horizon.
91. lowest: the season is approximately midwinter.
THE PASSING OF ARTHUR 115
In that close mist, and cryings for the light,
Moans of the dying, and voices of the dead.
Last, as by some one deathbed after wail
Of suffering, silence follows, or thro' death
Or deathlike swoon, thus over all that shore, 120
Save for some whisper of the seething seas,
A dead hush fell ; but when the dolorous day
Grew drearier toward twilight falling, came
A bitter wind, clear from the North, and blew
The mist aside, and with that wind the tide
Rose, and the pale King glanced across the field
Of battle : but no man was moving there ;
Nor any cry of Christian heard thereon,
Nor yet of heathen; only the wan wave
Brake in among dead faces, to and fro 130
Swaying the helpless hands, and up and down
Tumbling the hollow helmets of the fallen,
And shiver 'd brands that once had fought with
Rome,
And rolling far along the gloomy shores
The voice of days of old and days to be.
Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere,
And whiter than the mist that all day long
Had held the field of battle was the King :
'Hearest thou this great voice that shakes the
world,
And wastes the narrow realm whereon we move, 140
And beats upon the faces of the dead,
My dead, as tho' they had not died for me? —
O Bedivere, for on my heart hath fall'n
139. voice: the roar of the ocean.
116 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Confusion, till I know not what I am,
Nor whence I am, nor whether I be King,
Behold, I seem but King among the dead/
Then spake the bold Sir Bedivere: 'My King,
King everywhere! and so the dead have kings,
There also will I worship thee as King.
150 Yet still thy life is whole, and still I live
Who love thee ; but who hates thee, he that brought
The heathen back among us, yonder stands,
Modred unharm'd, the traitor of thine house.'
Then spake the King: 'My house hath been my
doom.
But call not thou this traitor of my house
Who hath but dwelt beneath one roof with me.
My house are rather they who sware my vows,
Yea, even while they brake them, own'd me King.
And well for thee, saying in my dark hour,
160 When all the purport of my throne hath fail'd,
That quick or dead thou holdest me for King.
King am I, whatsoever be their cry;
And one last act of kinghood shalt thou see
Yet, ere I pass. ' And uttering this the King
Made at the man : then Modred smote his liege
Hard on that helm which many a heathen sword
Had beaten "thin; while Arthur at one blow,
Striking the last stroke with Excalibur,
Slew him, and all but slain himself, he fell.
170 So all day long the noise of battle roll'd
Among the mountains by the winter sea;
Until King Arthur's Table, man by man,
Had fall'n in Lyon esse about their lord,
King Arthur. Then, because his wound was deep,
THE PASSING OF ARTHUR 117
The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him,
And bore him to a chapel nigh the field,
A broken chancel with a broken cross,
That stood on a dark strait of barren land :
On one side lay the Ocean, and on one
Lay a great water, and the moon was full. 180
Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:
'The sequel of to-day unsolders all
The goodliest fellowship of famous knights
Whereof this world holds record. Such a sleep
They sleep — the men I loved. I think that we
Shall never more, at any future time,
Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds,
Walking about the gardens and the halls
Of Camelot, as in the days that were.
I perish by this people which I made, — 190
Tho' Merlin sware that I should come again
To rule once more ; but, let what will be, be,
I am so deeply smitten thro' the helm
That without help I cannot last till morn.
Thou therefore take my brand Excalibur,
Which was my pride : for thou rememberest how
In those old days, one summer noon, an arm
Rose up from out the bosom of the lake,
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
Holding the sword — and how I row 'd across 200
And took it, and have worn it, like a king;
And, wheresoever I am sung or told
In aftertime, this also shall be known:
But now delay not: take Excalibur,
And fling him far into the middle mere :
Watch what thou seest, and lightly bring me word/
206. lightly: on light foot; swiftly.
118 IDYLLS OF THE KING
To him replied the bold Sir Bedivere :
'It is not meet, Sir King, to leave thee thus,
Aidless, alone, and smitten thro' the helm —
210 A little thing may harm a wounded man ;
Yet I thy hest will all perform at full,
Watch what I see, and lightly bring thee word. '
So saying, from the ruin'd shrine he stept,
And in the moon athwart the place of tombs,
Where lay the mighty bones of ancient men,
Old knights, and over them the sea-wind sang
Shrill, chill, with flakes of foam. He, stepping
down
By zigzag paths, and juts of pointed rock,
Came on the shining levels of the lake.
220 There drew he forth the brand Excalibur,
And o'er him, drawing it, the winter moon,
Brightening the skirts of a long cloud, ran forth
And sparkled keen with frost against the hilt :
For all the haft twinkled with diamond sparks,
Myriads of topaz-lights, and jacinth-work
Of subtlest jewellery. He gazed so long
That both his eyes were dazzled as he stood,
This way and that dividing the swift mind,
In act to throw : but at the last it seem 'd
230 Better to leave Excalibur conceal 'd
There in the many-knotted waterflags,
That whistled stiff and dry about the marge.
So strode he back slow to the wounded King.
Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere :
' Hast thou perform 'd my mission which I gave ?
What is it thou hast seen ? or what hast heard ? '
228. dividing the swift mind: i. e., in doubt.
THE PASSING OF ARTHUR 119
And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:
'I heard the ripple washing in the reeds,
And the wild water lapping on the crag.'
To whom replied King Arthur, faint and pale : 240
'Thou hast betray 'd thy nature and thy name,
Not rendering true answer, as beseem 'd
Thy fealty, nor like a noble knight:
For surer sign had follow 'd, either hand,
Or voice, or else a motion of the mere.
This is a shameful thing for men to lie.
Yet now, I charge thee, quickly go again,
As thou art lief and dear, and do the thing
I bade thee, watch, and lightly bring me word. '
Then went Sir Bedivere the second time 250
Across the ridge, and paced beside the mere,
Counting the dewy pebbles, fix'd in thought;
But when he saw the wonder of the hilt,
How curiously and strangely chased, he smote
His palms together, and he cried aloud:
'And if indeed I cast the brand away,
Surely a precious thing, one worthy note,
Should thus be lost for ever from the earth,
Which might have pleased the eyes of many men.
What good should follow this, if this were done? 260
What harm, undone? Deep harm to disobey,
Seeing obedience is the bond of rule.
Were it well to obey then, if a king demand
An act unprofitable, against himself?
The King is sick, and knows not what he does.
What record, or what relic of my lord
Should be to aftertime, but empty breath
And rumors of a doubt? But were this kept,
120 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Stored in some treasure-house of mighty kings,
270 Some one might show it at a joust of arms,
Saying, "King Arthur's sword, Excalibur,
Wrought by the lonely maiden of the Lake.
Nine years she wrought it, sitting in the deeps
Upon the hidden bases of the hills."
So might some old man speak in the aftertime
To all the people, winning reverence.
But now much honour and much fame were lost.'
So spake he, clouded with his own conceit,
And hid Excalibur the second time,
280 And so strode back slow to the wounded King.
Then spoke King Arthur, breathing heavily :
'What is it thou hast seen? or what hast heard?'
And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere :
'I heard the water lapping on the crag,
And the long ripple washing in the reeds.'
To whom replied King Arthur, much in wrath:
'Ah, miserable and unkind, untrue,
Unknightly, traitor-hearted! Woe is me!
Authority forgets a dying king,
290 Laid widow 'd of the power in his eye
That bow'd the will. I see thee what thou art,
For thou, the latest-left of all my knights,
In whom should meet the offices of all,
Thou wouldst betray me for the precious hilt;
Either from lust of gold, or like a girl
Valuing the giddy pleasure of the eyes.
Yet, for a man may fail in duty twice,
And the third time may prosper, get thee hence:
278. conceit: in its sense of conception; thought.
THE PASSING OF ARTHUR 121
But, if thou spare to fling Excalibur,
I will arise and slay thee with my hands.' 300
Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran,
And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged
Among the bulrush beds, and clutch 'd the sword,
And strongly wheel'd and threw it. The great
brand
Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon,
And flashing round and round, and whirl'd in an
arch,
Shot like a streamer of the northern morn,
Seen where the moving isles of winter shock
By night, with noises of the Northern Sea.
So flash 'd and fell the brand Excalibur: 310
But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
And caught him by the hilt, and brandish 'd him
Three times, and drew him under in the mere.
And lightly went the other to the King.
Then spoke King Arthur, drawing thicker breath :
' Now see I by thine eyes that this is done.
Speak out: what is it thou hast heard, or seen?'
And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere :
'Sir King, I closed mine eyelids, lest the gems 320
Should blind my purpose, for I never saw,
Nor shall see, here or elsewhere, till I die,
Not tho' I live three lives of mortal men,
So great a miracle as yonder hilt.
Then with both hands I flung him, wheeling him;
But when I look'd again, behold an arm,
307. streamer: Aurora Borealis.
308. moving isles of winter: icebergs.
122 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
That caught him by the hilt, and brandish 'd him
Three times, and drew him under in the mere.'
330 And answer made King Arthur, breathing hard :
' My end draws nigh ; 'tis time that I were gone.
Make broad thy shoulders to receive my weight,
And bear me to the margin; yet I fear
My wound hath taken cold, and I shall die.'
So saying, from the pavement he half rose,
Slowly, with pain, reclining on his arm,
And looking wistfully with wide blue eyes
As in a picture. Him Sir Bedivere
Remorsefully regarded thro' his tears,
340 And would have spoken, but he found not words ;
Then took with care, and kneeling on one knee,
O'er both his shoulders drew the languid hands,
And rising bore him thro' the place of tombs.
But, as he walk'd, King Arthur panted hard,
Like one that feels a nightmare on his bed
When all the house is mute. So sigh'd the King,
Muttering and murmuring at his ear, ' Quick, quick !
I fear it is too late, and I shall die.'
But the other swiftly strode from ridge to ridge,
350 Clothed with his breath, and looking, as he walk'd,
Larger than human on the frozen hills.
He heard the deep behind him, and a cry
Before. His own thought drove him like a goad.
Dry clash 'd his harness in the icy caves
And barren chasms, and all to left and right
The bare black cliff clang 'd round him, as he based
350. clothed with his breath: i. e., with frosty mist from his
breathing.
THE PASSING OF ARTHUK 123
His feet on juts of slippery crag that rang
Sharp-smitten with the dint of armed heels —
And on a sudden, lo! the level lake,
And the long glories of the winter moon. 360
Then saw they how there hove a dusky barge,
Dark as a funeral scarf from stem to stern,
Beneath them ; and descending they were ware
That all the decks were dense with stately forms,
Black-stoled, black-hooded, like a dream — by these
Three Queens with crowns of gold : and from them
rose
A cry that shiver 'd to the tingling stars,
And, as it were one voice, an agony
Of lamentation, like a wind that shrills
All night in a waste land, where no one comes, 370
Or hath come, since the making of the world.
Then murmur 'd Arthur, 'Place me in the barge/
So to the barge they came. There those three
Queens
Put forth their hands, and took the King, and wept.
But she, that rose the tallest of them all
And fairest, laid his head upon her lap,
And loosed the shatter M casque, and chafed his
hands,
And call'd him by his name, complaining loud,
And dropping bitter tears against a brow
Striped with dark blood : for all his face was white 380
And colourless, and like the wither 'd moon
Smote by the fresh beam of the springing east;
And all his greaves and cuisses dash 'd with drops
Of onset; and the light and lustrous curls —
That made his forehead like a rising sun
High from the dais-throne — were parch 'd with dust ;
124 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Or clotted into points and hanging loose,
Mix'd with the knightly growth that fringed his
lips.
So like a shatter 'd column lay the King;
390 Not like that Arthur who, with lance in rest,
From spur to plume a star of tournament,
Shot thro' the lists at Camelot, and charged
Before the eyes of ladies and of kings. *
Then loudly cried the bold Sir Bedivere:
' Ah ! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go ?
Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes ?
For now I see the true old times are dead,
When every morning brought a noble chance,
And every chance brought out a noble knight.
400 Such times have been not since the light that led
The holy Elders with the gift of myrrh.
But now the whole Round Table is dissolved
Which was an image of the mighty world,
And I, the last, go forth companionless,
And the days darken round me, and the years,
Among new men, strange faces, other minds. '
And slowly answer 'd Arthur from the barge:
'The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils himself in many ways,
410 Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me?
I have lived my life, and that which I have done
May He within himself make pure! but thou,
If thou shouldst never see my face again,
Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by
prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy
voice
THE PASSING OF ARTHUR 125
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer 420
Both for themselves and those who call them friend ?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.
But now farewell. I am going a long way
With these thou seest — if indeed I go
(For all my mind is clouded with a doubt) —
To the island-valley of Avilion ;
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow.
Nor ever wind blows loudly ; but it lies
Deep-meadow 'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns 430
And bowery hollows crown 'd with summer sea,
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound. '
So said he, and the barge with oar and sail
Moved from the brink, like some full-breasted swan
That, fluting a wild carol ere her death,
Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood
With swarthy webs. Long stood Sir Bedivere
Revolving many memories, till the hull
Look'd one black dot against the verge of dawn,
And on the mere the wailing died away. 440
But when that moan had past for evermore,
The stillness of the dead world's winter dawn
Amazed him, and he groan 'd, 'The King is gone.'
And therewithal came on him the weird rhyme,
' From the great deep to the great deep he goes. '
430. orchard lawns. The word " Avilion " means " isle of
apples."
6
126 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Whereat he slowly turn'd and slowly clomb
The last hard footstep of that iron crag ;
Thence mark'd the black hull moving yet, and cried,
'He passes to be King among the dead,
450 And after healing of his grievous wound
He comes again ; but — if he come no more —
0 me, be yon dark Queens in yon black boat,
Who shriek 'd and wail'd, the three whereat we
gazed
On that high day, when, clothed with living light,
They stood before his throne in silence, friends
Of Arthur, who should help him at his need ? '
Then from the dawn it seem'd there came, but
faint
As from beyond the limit of the world,
Like the last echo born of a great cry,
460 Sounds, as if some fair city were one voice
Around a king returning from his wars.
Thereat once more he moved about, and clomb
Ev'n to the highest he could climb, and saw,
Straining his eyes beneath an arch of hand,
Or thought he saw, the speck that bare the King,
Down that long water opening on the deep
Somewhere far off, pass on and on, and go
From less to less and vanish into light.
And the new sun rose bringing the new year.
NOTES
THE COMING OF ABTHUR
Section I (lines 1-60)
This section indicates the condition of Britain just before
Arthur's coming.
1. Leodogran: one of the petty British kings referred to in
lines 5-8; mentioned by Malory I, 16. The location of Cameliard
(pronounced Cam-el-yard) is in dispute. The traditional view lo-
cates it in Wales; a later view locates it in Scotland (Skene:
Four Ancient Books of Wales I, 51-58). Malory (i. 15-16)
speaks of it as a six days' journey from Bedegraine, one of the
castles of Sherwood Forest, which would favor the northern
location.
5. ere Arthur came: Arthur is assigned to the late fifth and
early sixth centuries. His coming is in troublous times, about
a century after the Romans had abandoned Britain, when numer-
ous petty sovereigns were trying to establish their warring rule.
It was about half a century after the first coming of the heathen
Saxon host, 449 a.d.
13. Aurelius: of Roman descent. According to Nennius
(chapter iv), he disputed the rule of the chief of the Welsh
sovereigns, who was at the time also beset by the Scots, the
Irish, and the Picts, wilder British tribes. It was for the
purpose of helping to repel these that the Saxon " sea-wolves,"
"heathen," were invited to land, in 449 a.d. (Green: A Short
History of the English People, 44). Aurelius is called "Aurelius
Emrys " in Gareth and Lynette. He ruled, under the Emperor
Honorius, in Britain, Gaul, and Spain.
14. King Uther: Arthur's predecessor. According to Malory
(I, 1-4, 19) Uther was Arthur's father; but Tennyson prefers to
leave Arthur's birth a mystery.
127
128 IDYLLS OF THE KING
1G. for a space: a hint of the ultimate failure of Arthur.
17. Table Round: According to Malory (III, 1-4, 15; IV,
4-5; XIII, 4) Merlin had made a table, round like the world
( as thought of in Malory's time ) , for King Uther, to accom-
modate 150 knights. According to Lay anion's Brut (lines
22,873-22,943 ) , the table was made round because the knights
had formerly fought so fiercely for first place at table that many
were wounded and some slain. Uther gave the table to Leodogran,
who in turn gave it to Arthur as a wedding present, together
with the hundred good knights whom Leodogran had found worthy
to sit about it. Arthur in time completes the full tale of worthy
knights. One seat, however, " Siege Perilous," is left vacant
until the perfectly pure knight, the one destined to achieve the
Grail, shall come. He proves to be Sir Galahad. Tennyson pur-
posely omits these stories and makes Arthur the founder of an
Order of the Round Table, a Christian fellowship
" That was to be, for love of God and men
And noble deeds, the flower of all the world."
— Merlin and Vivien, 480.
Tennyson makes Arthur declare
" But I was first of all the kings who drew
The knighthood-errant of the realm and all
The realms together under me their Head,
In that fair Order of my Table Round,
A glorious company, the flower of men,
To serve as model for the mighty world,
And be the fair beginning of a time."
— Guinevere, 457-463.
20-40. Of course this passage may be understood literally.
It well describes actual conditions in Britain after the Romans
left. But it may also be understood to symbolize the reign of
moral evil in a world, or an individual heart, that is without
good ideals. As Hazlitt remarked, " The allegory won't bite,"
and one who wishes to may resist seeing it, and may look only
for pictures and music. «
34. Roman legions: The legions were withdrawn from Britain
in the year 401. The Emperor Honorius released the Britons
from allegiance to Rome in 410. The chiefs of Britain, in 440,
NOTES 129
joined in a piteous letter to Rome, begging that the legions might
return to defend them from the wild tribes of the north : " To
iEtius, consul for the third time — the groans of the Britons."
Rome complied, and saved the country; but it was a last effort.
From that date Rome left Britain to shift for itself.
36. Urien: a famous king of the north Britons (the land of
Gore) whose brother, Llew, according to Welsh genealogies, mar-
ried Anna, a sister of Arthur, thus uniting the kings of north
Britain with Arthur. According to Malory (I, 2) Urien married
Arthur's sister, Morgan le Fay, a wicked enchantress, who later
sought both Arthur's and Urien's life (II, 12). Urien joined in
the Baron's war upon Arthur, but finally (IV, 4) became a
knight of the Round Table.
Section II (lines 62-73; 94-133)
This section describes the Barons' war, in which Arthur sub-
dued the petty sovereigns of Britain who had united against his
overlordship. (Malory I, 10-15; II, 10-11). The victory was
not lasting.
72-73. Gorlois, Anton: Cf. lines 169, 170, 185-193, 196, 220,
221.
95. field-of-battle bright: This battle is in contrast with the
last dim-weird battle of the West, described in The Passing of
Arthur, lines 94-138.
110. The kings: Malory (I, 10) names eleven kings, includ-
ing Idres of Cornwall and Nentres of Garlot.
111. Carados: of Scotland (Malory XIX, 12).
112. Claudias: of France (Malory XI, 6).
133. I trust thee to the death: Lancelot's subsequent guilty
relations with Arthur's queen make these words highly sig-
nificant.
Section III (lines 134-445)
This section gives the stories of Arthur's birth. (Malory I,
1, 2, 3, 19.)
First (lines 140-160) : amid the confused babel of public
opinion, the hoary chamberlain futilely refers the whole question
to an inaccessible authority. Second (lines 180-236) : the loyal
130 IDYLLS OF THE KING
but unimaginative Bevidere gives a plain matter-of-fact version,
untouched by mystery. Third (lines 253-424) : Bellicent's ac-
count emphasizes the very elements of the story that are insig-
nificant to practical-minded Bedivere — the spirituality of Arthur,
the divine influences emanating from him and surrounding him,
the wonders attending his birth and coronation, and her own
intuition of his divinity. Finally (lines 425-445) : Leodogran's
dream, wholly removed from the world of matter of fact and
wholly in the world of shadows, is entirely convincing to him.
Leodogran receives belief and a pure faith in Arthur by tran-
scending ordinary demonstrable proofs.
150. Merlin: The great magician of King Arthur is intellect
in the service of the highest spiritual ideals. He protects Arthur's
childhood and youth, procures his coronation, is his best coun-
selor, makes his armor, prophesies and works miracles for him,
builds his haven, ships, halls, and palaces, making them " spire
to heaven." Cf. Merlin and Vivien, 165, 672; The Holy Grail,
225; Gareth and Lynctte, 302; The Coming of Arthur, 280.
152. Bleys: a holy hermit who had taught Merlin, and who,
when old, wrote at Merlin's dictation the account of Arthur's
battles.
172. "Ay": Monosyllabic answers were characteristic of
Ulfius and Brastias (Malory I, 12), blunt fighting men of un-
thinking loyalty. Their " ay " seems to them to be sufficient
answer. They had served Arthur's predecessor, Uther, and had
been Arthur's bodyguard in the dangerous days before his corona-
tion. (Malory I, 4.)
173. Bedivere: Tennyson mentions Bedivere only in the
Coming of Arthur and the Passing of Arthur. In Malory,
Bedivere fights for Arthur in several battles, and after Arthur's
passing, finds Arthur's grave, attends Lancelot to a hermitage,
and himself ends his days as a hojy hermit.
186. Tintagil: The site of Tintagil is still pointed out on the
Cornish coast.
They found a naked child upon the sands
Of dark Tintagil by the Cornish sea;
And that was Arthur.
—Guinevere, 291-293.
208. The New Year: Arthur brings in a new era.
NOTES 131
261. strait vows: In Guinevere, 464-474, Arthur gives the
substance of the vows which he required of each of his knights:
" I made them lay their hands in mine and swear
To reverence the King as if he were
Their conscience, and their conscience as their King,
To break the heathen and uphold the Christ,
To ride abroad redressing human wrongs,
To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it,
To honor his own word as if his God's,
To lead sweet lives in purest chastity,
To love one maiden only, cleave to her,
And worship her by years of noble deeds,
Until they won her."
The vows were " strait " because hard for a knight of that,
or any other, age to fulfill. Yet they exalted those who took them.
270. A momentary likeness, etc.: In the Holy Grail, 25-
27, Ambrosius, the monk, says of the Knights of the Round Table,
in the degenerate days long afterward,
" For good ye are and bad, and like to coins,
Some true, some light, but every one of you
Stamp'd with the image of the King."
275. three fair queens: According to Malory (XXI, 6), one
was Arthur's sister, Queen Morgan le Fay; one, the Queen of
Northgales; one, Queen of the Waste Lands. Tennyson leaves
them nameless and mysterious. They have been thought to sym-
bolize Faith, Hope and Love, but it is better to leave them vague
and shadowy influences for good.
279. Merlin. See note to 150.
"... The most famous man of all those times
Merlin, who knew the range of all their arts,
Had built the king his havens, ships, and halls,
Was also Bard and knew the starry heavens;
The people call'd him Wizard."
— Merlin and Vivien, 164-168.
282. Lady of the Lake: Cf. Garcth and Lynette, 212; Lan-
celot and Elaine, 1393-1401; The Passing of Arthur, 271-274,
132 IDYLLS OF THE KING
310-314. She is thought to symbolize religion, since she fur-
nishes Arthur his sword of justice, takes it back again at his
death (Passing of Arthur, 325-329), and receives Arthur at his
passing. She " knows a subtler magic " than Merlin's, since
religion is subtler or profounder than philosophy and science.
294. Excalibur: According to Geoffrey of Monmouth and
Lay anion, Excalibur, the sword of justice, was wrought in Avilion
by the Lady of the Lake (The Passing of Arthur, 271). It was
enchanted. " For while ye have the scabbard upon you, ye shall
lose no blood, be ye never so sore wounded " ( Malory I, 23 ) .
With it Arthur accomplishd wonders in his battles. The sign
that Arthur is the destined King is that he alone can draw a
huge sword (possibly Excalibur) from a great stone into which
it is fixed. (Malory I, 3, 5.)
298. elfin Urim: Cf. Exodus, XXVIII, 30; XXXIX, 8-14;
Leviticus, VIII, 8.
302. "Take me": Excalibur offers itself to the man of des-
tiny who will fight for the ideal in the world. Such a man had
always been wanted ; the words are " graven in the oldest tongue."
304. "Cast me away": in the speech of Arthur's time, to
indicate that Arthur must finally fail to establish the ideal in
this world. Cf. The Passing of Arthur, 181-206. Sin cannot be
extirpated because human nature is not adapted to reach the
ideal which it sees clearly enough.
317. Secret things: Tennyson makes Bellicent refrain from
asserting any family relationship to Arthur. She is inclined to
believe that Arthur is of divine origin (330-331 and 375-395).
See the same story in Guinevere, 340ff.
319. Gawain: Tennyson, in subsequent Idylls, develops
Gawain's character in the direction of lightheadedness, and de-
ceitfulness, mixed with courtesy. In the oldest romances, how-
ever, Gawain is a much solider character, is a man of great
consequence, and next to Arthur himself in famous deeds.
322. Modred: like his father, a traitor to Arthur. (Cf. The
Passing of Arthur, 153, 165.)
338-357. Bellicent speaks of her own childhood; and therein
lies the beauty of the passage.
375. decks: Cf. the brightness of this picture with the black-
ness of the funeral-barge in The Passing of Arthur \ 361-371.
401. riddling triplets: In his office as Bard, Merlin answers
NOTES 133
in the customary riddling triplets, requiring interpretation, since
a double meaning is intended. The first triplet means that the
story of Bleys, whether fact or not, does not give the final truth.
The second triplet means that there may be many versions of the
same truth, many different answers to the questions as to whence
we come, whither we go. What is birth? What is death? What
is life? What is right, what is wrong, who is Arthur, what is
truth itself? There is no one clear, infallible answer. The third
triplet means that Arthur's birth and death, like all birth and
death, is a profound mystery, as is life itself.
420-424. The belief in a second coining is found in the legends
of Charlemagne, Barbarossa, and other heroes. Cf. The Passing
of Arthur, 450-451. Malory XXI, 7, says: "Yet some men yet
say in many parts of England that King Arthur is not dead,
but had by the will of our Lord Jesu in another place. And men
say that he shall come again, and he shall win the holy cross.
I will not say it shall be so, but rather I will say, here in this
world he changed his life. But many men say that there is
written upon his tomb this verse: Hie jacet Art hums Rex quon-
dam Rexque futurus."
Section IV (lines 449-519)
This section tells of the marriage of Arthur and introduces
the battle-lyric.
449-455. Tennyson's poem, Lancelot and Queen Guinevere,
gives the full version of this incident. In Malory ( III, 1 ) , it is
Merlin that conducts Guinevere to Arthur, and (III, 5) the mar-
riage takes place at Camelot, in the Church of Saint Stephen's.
452. Dubric: or Dubritius, archbishop of Caerleon-upon-Usk
and primate of Britain.
459-461. May: The season, redolent of spring blossoms,
matches the purity of purpose in the newly founded order of the
Round Table, when the knights gloried in their vows and in
Arthur.
481-501. This triumphant battle lyric achieves perfection in
the satisfying union of sound, image, and meaning.
503. Lords from Rome: Malory's fifth book is devoted to
Arthur's mythical career as a world conqueror. He is finally
crowned by the Pope at Rome as a result of his great deeds.
134 IDYLLS OF THE KING
50S. Cf. The Passing of Arthur, 408.
511. Roman wall: Agricola established military stations be-
tween the Firth of Forth and the Clyde (about forty miles). In
the reign of Antoninus Pius, this line of stations was fortified
by a turf rampart on foundations of stone. Hadrian caused to
be built a rampart of earth between Newcastle and Carlisle, and
Septimius Severus had a stone wall built parallel to Hadrian's
rampart. Traces of the walls may still be seen.
517. twelve great battles: Cf. Lancelot and Elaine, 281-309.
GARETH AXD LYNETTE
Section I (lines T-320)
Gareth is introduced, his life at home is described, and he is
brought to the enchanted city of Camelot. The story is told in
Malory's Le Morte d' Arthur, book vii.
1. Lot and Bellicent: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 115 and note,
242-244; 309-335, and note to 317.
2. spring: The time of year suits an idyll of youth.
21-25. Gareth here declares the true ambition of knight-
hood. Cf. The Coming of Arthur, note to 261.
25. Gawain: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, note to 319.
26. Modred: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, note to 322.
40. goose and golden eggs: Cf. Tennyson's poem The Goose.
06. Excalibur: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 294-303, and note
to 294.
76. Barons' War: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 61-116.
116-117. follow the Christ: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, note
to 261.
119-129. Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 140-236.
133. Rome: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 476-477, 503-513,
and note to 5.
135. Idolaters: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 35-120, 514-518,
and note to 13.
185. Camelot: Allegorically, Camelot is the highest ideal of
civilized life and social organization that man, at any time, has
imagined. It has been variously conceived by the poets as "The
NOTES 135
City of Light," "The Celestial City," "The City of Justice,"
" The Golden City," " The City of God," " The City of Our Vision,"
"The Future's Citadel."
202. Merlin: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, notes to 150 and 279.
212. The Lady of the Lake: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 282-
293 and note.
225. Three Queens: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 275 and note;
and The Passing of Arthur, 366, 372, 452.
260. The King, etc. : The King is the soul, the only reality ;
the city is material civilization, ever changing and growing to-
ward the ideal. It is "built to music" — i. e., according to prin-
ciples of harmony and spiritual beauty. It is " never built at
all " in the ordinary sense of building, for it is spiritual growth.
280. Riddling of the Bards: The Welsh Bards stated things
so as to produce the effects named in lines 281-282. A specimen
of their riddling is seen in The Coming of Arthur, 402-410.
Section II (lines 310-514)
The King, delivering justice to his people, takes Gareth into
his service.
322. Clear honor: Arthur's court is as yet ruled by the high-
est ideals.
327. Uther: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, note to 14.
359. Sir Kay: the seneschal, manager of the royal household,
fosterbrother of King Arthur, rough and surly, but trustworthy
and, according to Malory (I, 4; IV, 4), highly esteemed by
Arthur.
367. Aurelius Emrys: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, note to 13.
376. Mark: In the first sixty lines of Merlin and Vivien, is
shown the despicable character of Mark,
" He that always bare in bitter grudge
The slights of Arthur and his table."
In The Last Tournament, Mark is shown to be a sneak:
" Mark's way to steal behind one in the dark,"
and the murderer of Tristram,
" Behind him rose a shadow and a shriek —
' Mark's way,' said Mark, and clove him through the brain."
136 IDYLLS OF THE KING
386. Tristram: of Lyonessc, nephew of Mark, in love with
Mark's wife, Isolt. In prowess, Tristram was second only to
Lancelot. Malory's eighth, ninth, and tenth books are largely
devoted to Tristram.
451. Lancelot: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 124-133 and notes.
Malory's sixth, eleventh, and twelfth books are largely devoted to
Lancelot.
465. Fair-hands: " Beaumains," meaning fair-hands — is the
nickname Kay gives Gareth in Malory (VII, 1). He is described
as " well-visaged " and as having " the fairest and largest hand
that ever man saw." Cf. 455-456.
492. Avilion: Cf. The Passing of Arthur, 35, 430 and notes.
The Ideal symbolized in Arthur cannot die.
Section III (lines 515-1394)
Gareth is made a knight, is given a quest, and proves himself,
in his adventures, a true knight of Arthur. The adventures are
numerous, as befits an idyll of youth, and each symbolizes some
phase of the spiritual conflict between the higher and lower nature
in man.
541. vows: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, note to 261.
610. This Order: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, note to 17.
618. fantasy: They are not really what they think them-
selves, the rulers of the Day, human life. They are strong only
because usually thought invincible.
619. Morning-star: temptations of Youth.
Noon-Sun: temptations of Manhood.
Evening-star: temptations of Old Age.
793. quieted: As befits an idyll of youth, there is no touch
of tragedy ; no one is killed.
873. Some ruth is mine for thee: the first sign of a change
in Lynette's feeling towards Gareth.
881. As hers who lay: an excusable hint of Gareth's real
rank, by Gareth himself.
969. A little faintlier: the second sign of change in Lynette's
feelings towards Gareth, which she expresses better in song
(974-976).
993. Sir: an unintended mark of admiration, immediately
withdrawn.
NOTES 137
1015. No room, etc.: The temptations of middle life require
quick action if they are to be successfully resisted.
1029. not a point: Lynette fibs here. Her real feelings are
betrayed in the song (1034-1036, 1040-1042, 1049-1051), and in
the unfinished line, 1039.
1067. harden'd skins: evil old habits. Cf. 1100-1104.
1112. never change again: Lynette is at last won.
1130-1132. Lynette's song again best speaks her feelings.
1168. This is the theme of the whole series of Idylls.
1179. hermit's cave: religion.
1281. Arthur's harp: Cf. The Last Tournament, 331-336.
. . . Dost thou know the star
We call the harp of Arthur up in heaven?
. . . when our King
Was victor well nigh day by day, the Knights,
Glorying in each new glory, set his name
High on all hills, and in the signs of heaven.
Arthur's " Hufe," or haunt, was the old British name for Arc-
turus, constellation Bootes.
1373. a blooming boy: This last conflict, with Death, at
which all the world is terrified, turns out to be burlesque, and
brings "the happier day from underground" (1386).
LANCELOT AND ELAINE
Section I (lines 1-396)
Elaine and the shield of Lancelot, and how it came into her
possession.
1. Elaine: a Celtic form of Helen. The Idyll follows Malory's
he Morte d' Arthur, xviii, 8-20. Malory says that she was named
Elaine le Blank (the fair). There was another Elaine, daughter
of Pelles and mother, by Lancelot, of Galahad.
2. Astolat: Malory identifies Astolat with Guilford in Sur-
rey. But Tennyson's Astolat must have been on the Thames
below London. Cf. 1147.
22. Caerlyle: Carlisle in Cumberland, possibly one of Arthur's
capitals.
138 IDYLLS OF THE KING
23. Caerleon: on the river Usk in South Wales, the place of
one of Arthur's twelve great battles, and another of his capitals.
Camelot. Cf. Gareth and Lynette, 185 and note.
35. Lyonesse: fabled to be an extension of Cornwall to the
south and west, now covered by the sea.
46. diamonds: In The Last Tournament, 34-38, Arthur,
speaking to Queen Guinevere, says:
" . . . O my Queen, I muse
Why ye not wear on arm, or neck, or zone,
Those diamonds that I rescued from the tarn.
And Lancelot won, methought, for thee to wear ? "
And Guinevere says that they had proved a bitterness to
her and had been lost:
" Slid from my hands when I was leaning out
Above the river "
Cf. 1227 below. Malory says nothing about this story.
65. The heathen: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, note to 13.
144. Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 132, and note to 261.
279. Badon hill: the twelfth of Arthur's battles in which
(says Nennius) "nine hundred and forty fell by his hand alone,
no one but the Lord affording him assistance " ; identified by
some with Badbury Hill in Dorsetshire, and by others with
Bowden Hill, near Linlithgow, Scotland. The date assigned to
this battle is 520. (see Green: A Short History of the English
People, chapter I, section ii.)
287. Glem: Perhaps the river of that name in Lincolnshire
is meant; possibly the Glem in Ayrshire.
289. Duglas: probably the Douglas in Lancashire.
Bassa: probably also in Lancashire.
291. Celidan: probably in Cornwall.
292. Castle Gurnion: possibly Cser Gwen, in Stow.
293. Our Lady's Head: In Spenser's Fairie Queen (I, vii),
we read of Arthur:
" Athwart his breast a bauldrick brave he ware,
That shin'd, like twinkling stars, with stones most pretious rare,
And in the midst thereof one pretious stone
Of wondrous worth, and eke of wondrous might,
Shaped like a Ladies head, exceeding shone."
NOTES 139
296. Caerleon: Cf. 23 and note.
297. Cf. Guinevere, 15, 16:
Lords of the White Horse,
Heathen, the brood by Hengist left.
" White Horse " is used for the Saxons themselves in The
Holy Grail, 311, 312:
" Knights that in twelve great battles splash'd and dyed
The strong White Horse in his own heathen blood."
299. Agned-Cathregonion: a hill in Somersetshire; but, some
think, Edinburgh.
300. Trath Treroit: perhaps Solway Firth.
Section II (lines 397-522)
The Wounding of Lancelot.
422* Pendragon: a title usually employed in connection with
King Uther, Arthur's predecessor and reputed father, who adopted
a golden dragon as his emblem. The word means literally
" dragon's head " and signifies " chief war leader," or when re-
ferring to Arthur, as here, " King of Kings." Cf. 432ff. and 525.
Section III (lines 523-739)
Gawain's Quest.
555. Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 319, note.
575. Lancelot told me: Is this true? Cf. 144ff.
600ff. The queen's jealousy is kindled here. It finally finds
expression in 1217fF.
Section IV (lines 740-898)
Elaine's Quest and the Healing, of Lancelot.
795. strange-statued gate: Cf. Gareth and Lynette, 209-233.
838-845. Malory, who knew not chaperones, says, " So this
maiden, Elaine, never went from Sir Lancelot, but watched him
day and night, and did such attendance to him that the French
book saith there was never woman did more kindlier for man
than she." (Le Morte d' Arthur, xviii, 16.)
140 IDYLLS OF THE KING
Section V (lines 899-981)
The return to Astolat, and the parting of Lancelot and Elaine.
Section VI (lines 982-1129)
The Death of Elaine.
998. The Song of Love and Death: Cf. Gareth and Lynette,
974-976, 1034-1036, 1040-1042, 1049-1051, 1130-1132, and note
similarity of form. In each stanza, the third line is of different
length from the first and second, and carries a burden or refrain.
1015. Phantom: Many families believe that they are given
special warnings of an approaching death. In Ireland the Phan-
tom that gives the warning is the "Banshee" (see Dictionary)
or "The Shrieking Woman"; in Scotland, the "water wraith";
in America, the "death watch." (See Dictionary.)
Section VII (lines 1130-1418)
Elaine's Last Quest.
1130. Cf. 411.
1134. Full summer: Cf. 788.
1146. The dead, Oar'd by the dumb: probably the most
impressive of all of Tennyson's effective images.
1168. vibrate: indicating the Queen's emotion.
1169. laughing: glad at this slight indication of the Queen's
passion.
1216. with Amen: indicating an end to their connection.
1250. some do hold: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 420, and
Gareth and Lynette, 200.
1256. Percivale: In The Holy Grail, 3, Percivale is the
knight
Whom Arthur and his knighthood call'd The Pure.
Percivale once sees the Grail, but only for a moment.
1257. Galahad: the type of stainless purity. Cf. Tennyson's
early lyric, Sir Galahad.
1319. that shrine: Although Westminster Abbey was not
begun until 616, there was a more ancient Christian church on
the same site.
NOTES 141
1375. Unbound as yet: King Arthur speaks with simple
sincerity, not knowing the real relation existing between the
Queen and Lancelot. His high-mindedness puts him out of reach
of the gossip of the court.
1393ff. Lancelot: Malory (III, 1) makes Merlin warn Arthur
before his marriage with Guinevere, that Lancelot should love
Guinevere and she him; in VI, 1, Malory says that Lancelot
surpassed all other knights, and that therefore the queen favored
him, and that he loved the Queen. In XI, 3, Malory states it as
generally known that Lancelot loved the Queen. Malory tells us
that Lancelot was the son of King Bans, of Benwicke (in France),
and that the Lady of the Lake named him " Lancelot du Lak."
The story Lancelot tells (1393ff. ) is from a German poem trans-
lated in the twelfth century from a French original now lost.
Lancelot everywhere typifies chivalry as acted upon by the Chris-
tian religion (The Lady of the Lake). At the same time
he is beset by all the pagan temptations, the chief of which is
earthly beauty (Guinevere). He is ashamed of his failure to
live up to the ideal that his name represents.
1418. a holy man: Towards the end of his life, Lancelot en-
tered a hermitage and " served God day and night with prayers
and fastings."
THE PASSING OF ARTHUR
Preceding the death of Arthur, degenerate days had come
upon his realm. Many of the knights of the Round Table had
proved false to their vows. Sin had broken the fair fellowship,
and Arthur had failed to establish the ideal to which his life
had been devoted. The treacherous Modred had discovered and
published the guilt of Guinevere and Lancelot. Guinevere had
fled the court and taken refuge in the nunnery of Almesbury,
seven and one half miles from Salisbury. King Arthur had pur-
sued Lancelot to the north and in his absence Modred had
revolted openly and had had himself proclaimed king. On his
return south, Arthur had stopped at Almesbury for the farewell
interview with Guinevere (described dramatically in the Idyll
of that name) and had then gone in pursuit of Modred, to the
westward.
142 IDYLLS OF THE KING
1. That story, etc.: An archaic beginning, a five-line sub-title:
" The first Idyll and the last, I have heard Mr. Tennyson say, are
intentionally more archaic than the others," Anne Thackeray
Ritchie in Harper's Magazine, December, 1883.
Bedivere: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 173-176 and note. Cf.
50-64, 150-153, 256-277 below for other characteristics of Be-
divere.
6. For: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 5, 61, for the same archaic
use of introductory " for."
9ff. Arthur's doubt and despair in the face of apparent
defeat begin in the preceding Idyll of Guinevere (447-449),
where he says to the Queen:
I march to meet my doom.
Thou hast not made my life so sweet to me
That I, the king, should greatly care to live.
26. Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 11; The Last Tournament,
122-125:
Or whenever the fear lest this my realm, uprear'd
By noble deeds at one with noble vows,
From flat confusion and brute violences
Reel back into the beast and be no more.
And In Memoriam, cxviii:
Move upward, working out the beast
And let the ape and tiger die.
28. I pass but shall not die: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 420,
421 and note.
29. battle: Cf. note to 6.
30-58. Gawain: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, note to 319;
Gareth and Lynette, 25, 408; Lancelot and Elaine, 550-561, 635,
696-718, 1259. In The Holy Grail we read that "Gawain swore,
and louder than the rest to search for the Grail," but that he
soon grew weary and spent the time in pleasure-seeking, sub-
sequently ridiculing all high endeavors " in foolish words." " A
reckless and irreverent knight was he." In Pelleas and Etarre,
Gawain proves an easy victim to temptation, and becomes utterly
faithless to his vows and his word of honor. Now, Gawain is
represented as having discovered after death the vanity and
NOTES 143
worthlessness of his pleasure-seeking life. Such apparitions were
believed to presage imminent disaster. Malory's account is in
XXI, 2, 3.
35. an isle of rest: "the island valley of Avilion " of line
427 below, " The Earthly Paradise," the " isle of the blessed,"
of the Britons. Identified with Glastonbury; but some old
romances say, an ocean isle.
51ff. This speech of the practical Bedivere, discounting super-
natural influences, is in character, but the sentiment is modern
rather than mediaeval.
53. thy name: Cf. the lines To the Queen at the end of the
Idylls.
59. Modred: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 322 and note;
Gareth and Lunette, 28-32, 409; and the last line of Pelleas and
Etarre,
And Modred thought, ' The time is hard at hand.'
— i. e., the time to come out openly as a traitor. In Guinevere,
9-64,. we are told how Modred sowed discord in Arthur's realm,
conspired with heathen traitors, brought scandal upon Lancelot
and the Queen, and raised a rebellion against Arthur. Arthur
refers to him as,
" the man they call
My sister's son — no kin of mine,"
and in 155-158 below disclaims all kinship with him.
69. Roman wall: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 511 and note.
77. One lying in the dust at Almesbury: When the repentant
Queen Guinevere, in hiding at the Almesbury nunnery, heard
Arthur coming,
prone from off her seat she fell
And grovelled with her face against the floor.
— Guinevere, 411-412.
Long afterward
. . . she, for her good deeds and her pure life,
And for the power of ministration in her,
And likewise for the high rank she had borne,
Was chosen, Abbess, there, an Abbess lived
For three brief years, and there, an Abbess, past
To where beyond these voices there is peace.
—Guinevere, 687-692.
144 IDYLLS OF THE KING
81. Lyonesse: Cf. Lancelot and Elaine, 35 and note.
94. This last dim-weird battle: Cf. the bright picture of
Arthur's first battle. The Coming of Arthur, 95-123.
108-110. Cf. the battle lyric in The Coming of Arthur, 481-
501.
157. My house: Cf. Luke xii, 49, 50.
170. So all day long: Here began Tennyson's Morte d' Arthur
of the 1842 volume.
172. King Arthur's Table: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, note
to 17.
189. Camelot: Cf. Gareth and Lynette, note to 185.
191. Merlin: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, notes to 150, 279,
and 420.
195. Excalibur: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, notes to 294,
302, and 304.
199. clothed in white samite: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 284.
272. Maiden of the Lake: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, notes
to 282 and 294.
366. Three Queens: Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 275 and
note.
401. The holy Elders: Cf. Matthew ii, 2-11.
403. an image of the mighty world: Cf. The Coming of
Arthur, note to 17.
406. other minds: strangers to Arthur's ideals. Cf. note to 5.
408-409. in many ways: There is no one final statement of
truth for all. Cf. The Coming of Arthur, note to 401. This line
occurs in The Coming of Arthur, 508.
410. Lest one good custom, etc.: another nineteenth century
idea. Even a good custom (like chivalry) may become harmful
if persisted in too long.
Our little systems have their day,
They have their day and cease to. be.
— In Memoriam, Introduction, stanza 5.
435. ere her death: The ancient popular belief that the swan
sings just before its death is without foundation.
445. Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 410 and note to 401.
455/ Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 275-278.
469. The era of Arthur, typified in the year, is thus com-
plete. Cf. The Coming of Arthur, 208-210.
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