THE MIDDLE MERE. Compare a similar classical construction in Oenone, l.
10, topmost Gargarus.
53-55. THE WINTER MOON--HILT. The frosty air made the moonlight more
than usually brilliant.
60. THIS WAY--MIND. An echo of Vergil's line, Aeneid, VIII. 20. _Atque
animum nunc huc celerem, nunc dividit illuc_. "And he divides his swift
mind now this way, now that."
63. MANY-KNOTTED WATER FLAGS. Dr. Sykes has a careful note on this
expression (_Select Poems of Tennyson_; Gage & Co.). "The epithet
many-knotted is difficult to explain. The possible explanations would
refer the description to (1) the root-stock of the flag, which shows
additional bulbs from year to year; (2) the joints in the flower stalks,
of which some half-dozen may be found on each stalk; (3) the large
seed-pods that terminate in stalks, a very noticeable feature when the
plant is sere; (4) the various bunches or knots of iris in a bed of the
plants, so that the whole phrase suggests a thickly matted bed of flags.
I favour the last interpretation, though Tennyson's fondness of technical
accuracy in his references makes the second more than possible."
70-71. I HEARD--CRAG. It is interesting to read Chapter V., Book XXI. of
Malory in connection with Tennyson's version of the story. He is
throughout true to the spirit of the original. _A propos_ of lines
70-71, we find in Malory: "What saw thou, there?" said the King. "Sir,"
he said, "I saw nothing but the waters wap and the waves wan." Tennyson,
in these two lines, gives us a consummate example of creative imitation.
84. COUNTING THE DEWY PEBBLES. This aptly describes the absorption of
his mind.
85 f. and 56-58 supra. Compare the description of Excalibur, and of
Bedivere's hesitancy, in Malory's book. "So Sir Bedivere departed, and
by the way he beheld that noble sword, that the pommel and haft were all
of precious stones, and then he said to himself, 'If I throw this rich
sword in the water, thereof shall never come good, but harm and loss.'
And then Sir Bedivere hid Excalibur under a tree."
104. THE LONELY MAIDEN OF THE LAKE. The "Lady of the Lake" was present
at the crowning of Arthur. In the _Coming of Arthur_ she is described as
dwelling--
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.
Arthur's first meeting with her is described in Malory:-- "So they rode
till they came to a lake, the which was a fair water and broad, and in
the midst of the lake Arthur was ware of an arm clothed in white samite,
that held a fair sword in that hand. 'Lo,' said Merlin, 'yonder is that
sword that I spake of.' With that they saw a damsel going upon the lake;
'What damsel is that?' said Arthur. 'That is the Lady of the Lake,' said
Merlin; 'and within that lake is a rock, and therein is as fair a place
as any upon earth, and richly beseen.'"
In _Gareth and Lynette_ the Lady of the Lake is mystically figured forth
upon the great gate of Camelot.
105-106. NINE YEARS--HILLS. Hallam, Lord Tennyson, in the Memoir, quotes
Fitzgerald's short account of a row on Lake Windermere with the poet;
"'Resting on our oars one calm day on Windermere, whither we had gone for
a week from dear Spedding's (Mirehouse), at the end of May, 1835; resting
on our oars, and looking into the lake quite unruffled and clear, Alfred
quoted from the lines he had lately read us from the MS. of _Morte
d'Arthur_ about the lonely lady of the lake and Excalibur:
"Nine years she wrought it, sitting in the deeps,
Under the hidden bases of the hills.
"--Not bad, that. Fitz, is it?
"This kind of remark he would make when rendering his own or others'
poetry when he came to lines that he particularly admired from no vanity
but from a pure feeling of artistic pleasure." (Vol. I. pp. 152-153).
112. Note the slowness of the movement expressed in the rhythm of this
line, and compare with it line 168. Contrast the swiftness and energy
expressed in ll. 133-136.
121. AUTHORITY--KING. This line has been described as Shakespearian.
Its strength is derived from the force of the metaphorical
personification. The boldness of the poetical construction is carried
into the metaphor in the next line.