Idylls of the King

DOVER GIANT THRIFT EDITIONS

GENERAL EDITOR: PAUL NEGRI

EDITOR OF THIS VOLUME: JANET BAINE KOPITO

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 2004, contains the unabridged text of Idylls of the King as published in The Poetic and Dramatic Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Cambridge Edition), edited by W. J. Rolfe, Houghton Mifflin Company (The Riverside Press), Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1898. Explanatory Notes from the Appendix of that edition have been included after the poem text, and an introductory Note has been prepared specially for this Dover edition.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron, 1809–1892.

Idylls of the king / Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

p. cm.—(Dover giant thrift editions)

9780486113258

1. Arthurian romances—Adaptations. 2. Knights and knighthood—Poetry. 3. Kings and rulers—Poetry. 4. Arthur, King—Poetry. 5. Britons—Poetry. I. Title. II. Series.

PR5558.A1 2004

821’.8—dc22

2004050234

Manufactured in the United States of America

Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Note

IDYLLS OF THE KING

THE ROUND TABLE

Notes

To the Queen.

Note

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1809. He was the fourth (of twelve) children born to George Clayton Tennyson, a parish rector, and his wife, Elizabeth. An unenthusiastic student, but an adept storyteller, Alfred read widely and developed a natural voice for literature; before reaching his teens he had composed verse influenced by Milton and Pope. Growing up in the relative isolation of the rectory, he enjoyed the countryside and would later show its influence in his literary compositions. In the late 1820s, Alfred and two of his brothers attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he began a friendship with Arthur Hallam. Hallam’s sudden death in 1833 was the catalyst for Tennyson’s In Memoriam A. H. H., elegies composed on the loss of his dearest friend. In fact, the work’s publication in 1850 was so esteemed by Queen Victoria that Tennyson was proclaimed poet laureate.

Plagued throughout his adulthood by financial worries, poor health, and an apparently inherited mental instability, Tennyson nonetheless formed a successful union. In 1850 he wed Emily Sellwood, his brother Charles’s sister-in-law. The couple moved to the Isle of Wight in 1853, and they divided their time between that remote location and their country home in Aldworth, Surrey. In 1884, Tennyson was made a peer—Baron of Aldworth and Farringford. Actively writing until the year of his death—a play, The Foresters, was produced in New York, and a final volume of poetry, The Death of Œnone, Akbar’s Dream, and Other Poems, was issued—Tennyson died at Aldworth in 1892.

Steeped in myth and legend, King Arthur and his court were the inspiration for Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, a poetic examination of love, betrayal, and the intricacies of the moral order, the chivalric code, and various human foibles. The Idylls (an idyll being a narrative poem involving romantic or tragic themes) are played out against a background colored by sorcery and the supernatural, especially regarding the figure of Merlin, who practices the magic art [line 151]. Tennyson’s chief source was, of course, Sir Thomas Malory’s late-fifteenth-century epic, the Morte Darthur. Idylls was not Tennyson’s first foray into the Arthurian landscape: he had published a number of Arthurian-themed poems years before, including The Lady of Shalott (1832) and Sir Galahad, Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere, and Morte d’Arthur (all published in 1842). In its depiction of the many episodes involving the knights of the Round Table and their various adventures and paramours, Idylls inevitably blends Tennyson’s Victorian sensibility with his medieval source material.

The publication history of Idylls of the King is somewhat complex, as the work was published in installments. The date given for the first publication of the work—1859—actually refers to an edition comprised of four of the Idylls. This 1859 edition included Enid, Vivien [later Merlin and Vivien], Elaine [later Lancelot and Elaine] and Guinevere. Ten years later, another four Idylls were published—The Coming of Arthur, The Holy Grail, Pelleas and Ettarre, and The Passing of Arthur [The Passing of Arthur includes the poem Morte d’Arthur, which Tennyson published in 1842]. The Last Tournament and Gareth and Lynette were included in the 1872 edition, and Balin and Balan appeared in the 1885 edition. Enid, one book in the 1859 edition, now appeared in two parts, The Marriage of Geraint and Geraint and Enid, in the 1884 edition. Tennyson rearranged the order of the segments in 1888. A pleasing symmetry was achieved with the framing of the ten tales of The Round Table by The Coming of Arthur, which precedes the tales, and The Passing of Arthur, which follows them. In addition to the twelve books, Tennyson inserted a Dedication to the memory of Prince Albert at the opening of the 1862 edition; the prince, who died in 1861, had praised the book and sent a copy to the poet, requesting his signature. Tennyson closed the epic with To the Queen, an epilogue that first appeared in the Library Edition (1872–1873).

In his book Victorian Poets (first American edition, 1875), the American critic and poet Edmund Clarence Stedman refers to Idylls of the King as the epic of chivalry, in which Tennyson offered our conception of what knighthood should be, rather than what it really was. With Idylls, Tennyson has made an enduring contribution to the interpretation and appreciation of the heroic elements of Arthurian legend, and the complicated demands of the chivalric life.

IDYLLS OF THE KING

‘Flos Regum Arthurus.’—JOSEPH OF EXETER

DEDICATION

THESE to His Memory—since he held them dear,

Perchance as finding there unconsciously

Some image of himself—I dedicate,

I dedicate, I consecrate with tears—

These Idylls.

And indeed he seems to me

Scarce other than my king’s ideal knight,

‘Who reverenced his conscience as his king;

Whose glory was, redressing human wrong;

Who spake no slander, no, nor listen’d to it;

Who loved one only and who clave to her—’

Her—over all whose realms to their last isle,

Commingled with the gloom of imminent war,

The shadow of his loss drew like eclipse,

Darkening the world. We have lost him; he is gone.

We know him now; all narrow jealousies

Are silent, and we see him as he moved,

How modest, kindly, all-accomplish’d, wise,

With what sublime repression of himself,

And in what limits, and how tenderly;

Not swaying to this faction or to that;

Not making his high place the lawless perch

Of wing’d ambitions, nor a vantage-ground

For pleasure; but thro’ all this tract of years

Wearing the white flower of a blameless life,

Before a thousand peering littlenesses,

In that fierce light which beats upon a throne

And blackens every blot; for where is he

Who dares foreshadow for an only son

A lovelier life, a more unstain’d, than his?

Or how should England dreaming of his sons

Hope more for these than some inheritance

Of such a life, a heart, a mind as thine,

Thou noble Father of her Kings to be,

Laborious for her people and her poor—

Voice in the rich dawn of an ampler day—

Far-sighted summoner of War and Waste

To fruitful strifes and rivalries of peace—

Sweet nature gilded by the gracious gleam

Of letters, dear to Science, dear to Art,

Dear to thy land and ours, a Prince indeed,

Beyond all titles, and a household name,

Hereafter, thro’ all times, Albert the Good.

Break not, O woman’s-heart, but still endure;

Break not, for thou art royal, but endure,

Remembering all the beauty of that star

Which shone so close beside thee that ye made

One light together, but has past and leaves

The Crown a lonely splendor.

May all love,

His love, unseen but felt, o’ershadow thee,

The love of all thy sons encompass thee,

The love of all thy daughters cherish thee,

The love of all thy people comfort thee,

Till God’s love set thee at his side again!

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 over-seas, 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.

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,

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

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 wolf-like men,

Worse than the wolves. And King Leodogran

Groan’d for the Roman legions here again

And Cæsar’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,

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

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.

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

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,

Are like to those of Uther whom we knew.

This is the son of Gorloïs, 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?

What happiness to reign a lonely king,

Vext—O ye stars that shudder over me,

O earth that soundest hollow under me,

Vext with waste dreams? 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,

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.

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,

And leading all his knighthood threw the kings,

Carádos, Urien, Cradlemont of Wales,

Claudius, and Clariance of Northumberland,

The King Brandagoras of Latangor,

With Anguisant of Erin, Morganore,

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, they swerved and brake

Flying, and Arthur call’d to stay the brands

That hack’d among the flyers, ‘Ho! they yield!’

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 honor’d most. ‘Thou dost not doubt me King,

So well thine arm hath wrought for me to-day.’

‘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,

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,

However much he holp me at my need,

Give my one daughter saving to a king,

And a king’s son?’—lifted his voice, and call’d

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

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:

‘O 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 Bedivere.’

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 Gorloïs,

Others of Anton? Tell me, ye yourselves,

Hold ye this Arthur for King Uther’s son?’

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—

‘Sir, there be many rumors 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;

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 Gorloïs, 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

To Arthur,—but a son she had not borne.

And Uther cast upon her eyes of love;

But she, a stainless wife to Gorloïs,

So loathed the bright dishonor of his love

That Gorloïs and King Uther went to war,

And overthrown was Gorloïs 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,

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 him self,

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

That vext his mother, 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

Of Gorloïs. 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,

A hundred voices cried: "Away with him!

No king of ours! a son of Gorloïs he,

Or else the child of Anton, and no king,

Or else baseborn." Yet Merlin thro’ his craft,

And while the people clamor’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,

Or born the son of Gorloïs, after death,

Or Uther’s son and born before his time.

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,

So few his knights, however brave they be—

Hath body enow to hold his foemen down?’

‘O 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 daïs, 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,

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

From eye to eye thro’ all their Order flash

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-color, 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 faces, who will help him at his need.

‘And there I saw mage Merlin, whose vast wit

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

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,

Bewildering heart and eye—the blade so bright

That men are blinded by it—on one side,

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 counsell’d 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,

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 Gorloïs 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

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 Gorloïs; yea, and dark was Uther too,

Wellnigh to blackness; but this king is fair

Beyond the race of Britons and of men.

Moreover, always in my mind I hear

A cry from out the dawning of my life,

A mother weeping, and I hear her say,

"O 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?’

‘O King!’ she cried, ‘and I will tell thee true.

He found me first when yet a little maid.

Beaten I had 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,

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

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

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

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,

Free sky and stars. And this the 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,

Not ever to be question’d any more

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—

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?

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

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,

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

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

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 honor’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

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