The closing scene in this drama is impressively described by Malory. "So
Sir Bedivere came again to the King, and told him what he saw. 'Alas,'
said the King, 'help me hence, for I dread me I have tarried over long.'
Then Sir Bedivere took the King upon his back, and so went with him to
that water side. And when they were at the water side, even fast by the
bank hoved a little barge, with many fair ladies in it, and among them
all was a queen, and all they had black hoods, and all they wept and
shrieked when they saw King Arthur. 'Now, put me into the barge,' said
the King: and so they did softly. And there received him three queens
with great mourning, and so they set him down, and in one of their laps
King Arthur laid his head; and then that queen said; 'Ah, dear brother,
why have ye tarried so long from me? Alas, this wound on your head hath
caught overmuch cold.' And so then they rowed from the land; and Sir
Bedivere beheld ail those ladies go from him. Then Sir Bedivere cried;
'Ah, my Lord Arthur, what shall become of me now ye so from me, and leave
me here alone among mine enemies?' 'Comfort thyself,' said the King:,
'and do as well as thou mayest, for in me is no trust for to trust in.
For I will into the vale of Avilion, to heal me of my grievous wound.
And if thou hear never more of me, pray for my soul.' But ever the
queens and the ladies wept and shrieked, that it was pity to hear. And,
as soon as Sir Bedivere had lost the sight of the barge, he wept and
wailed, and so took the forest, and so he went all that night. . . . . ."
It is interesting to note how the poet suggests here and there the
phrasing of his original, but even more interesting to note his
amplifications. It may be doubted whether Tennyson has here surpassed
his original. For its touching simplicity he has substituted a dignified
grandeur, and has involved plain statements in gorgeous rhetoric, as in
his passage upon the efficacy of prayer. The unadorned original had said
only "pray for my soul."
198. THREE QUEENS WITH CROWNS OF GOLD. "That one was King Arthur's
sister, Morgan le Fay; the other was the Queen of Northgales (Wales); the
third was the Lady of the lake." _Malory_.
215-216. DASH'D WITH DROPS--OF ONSET. Words are sometimes poetical from
their precision, and sometimes, as here, they suggest without definite
reference. The meaning is "dashed with drops of blood" from the onset or
encounter.
2t6-220. Arthur is again described in _The Last Tournament_.
That victor of the Pagan throned in hall,
His hair, a sun that rayed from off a brow
Like hillsnow high in heaven, the steel-blue eyes,
The golden beard that cloth'd his lips with light.
228. MY FOREHEAD AND MY EYES. Compare the note to line 132. Here the
specific terms are used according to the epical manner instead of the
general term "face."
232-233. Compare the Gospel of _Matthew_ ii. 11.
240-242. These often-quoted lines have been already referred to above.
Their very intellectuality is alien to the spirit of the original. In
Tennyson's conception they afford the central meaning of the poem, and
also of the completed _Idylls_. We must bow to the will of God who
brings all things in their due season. Good customs too deeply rooted
are like clear waters grown stagnant.
254-255. FOR SO--GOD. The idea that the earth is bound by a gold chain
to heaven is comparatively common in literature from Homer downwards.
Archdeacon Hare has a passage in his sermon on _Self-Sacrifice_ which
doubtless was familiar to Tennyson: "This is the golden chain of love,
whereby the whole creation is bound to the throne of the Creator."
257-258. IF INDEED I GO--DOUBT. There is no reason to suppose that these
lines indicate Tennyson's personal misgivings on the subject of
immortality.
259. THE ISLAND VALLEY OF AVILION. Mr. Rhys in his _Studies in the
Arthurian Legend_ combats the old idea that Avalon (Avilion) meant the
"Island of Apples" (Welsh aval, apple). The name implies the Island of
King Avalon, a Celtic divinity, who presided among the dead.
The valley of Avalon was supposed to be near Glastonbury, in
Somersetshire, where Joseph of Arimathea first landed with the Holy Grail.
67 ff. There is an evident symbolical meaning in this dream. Indeed
Tennyson always appears to use dreams for purposes of symbol. The lines
are an application of the expression; "The old order changeth," etc. The
parson's lamentation expressed in line 18, "Upon the general decay of
faith," is also directly answered by the assertion that the modern Arthur
will arise in modern times. There is a certain grotesqueness in the
likening of King Arthur to "a modern gentleman of stateliest port." But
Tennyson never wanders far from conditions of his own time. As Mr.
Stopford Brooke writes; "Arthur, as the modern gentleman, as the modern
ruler of men, such a ruler as one of our Indian heroes on the frontier,
is the main thing in Tennyson's mind, and his conception of such a man
contains his ethical lesson to his countrymen."