ARTHUR IN ENGLISH LITERATURE
English Arthurian romance before Malory, with the conspicuous exception
of _Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight_--an alliterative poem composed in
the fourteenth century by an unknown author to whom three other poems,
_The Pearl_, _Cleanness_, and _Patience_, are ascribed,--possesses
little literary charm or distinction. The wearisome monotony and the
generally jejune character of the common metrical romances of his day,
with their stereotyped phraseology and futile rhymes, had probably
as much to do as anything with Chaucer’s attitude towards the newer
romantic matters. His _Tale of Sir Thopas_ is so openly contemptuous
a burlesque of the methods of the romantic rhymers of the time that
we may safely assume that the poet had little more respect for their
themes.
“Into his sadel he clamb anon,
And priketh over stile and stoon
An Elf-queene for tespye;
Til he so longe hadde riden and goon
That he foond in a pryvë woon
The contree of Fairye,” etc.
It was scarcely possible for one who could write so irreverently as
this of Elfland and its denizens to attune himself to the mood required
for grave poetical treatment of Arthurian story. An Arthurian setting
of a sort is indeed given to _The Wife of Bath’s Tale_; but the
facetious tone of the opening lines only too plainly reveals Chaucer’s
sense of the unreality of it all.
“In tholdë dayes of the Kyng Arthour,”
he writes,
“Al was this land fulfild of faërie.
The elf-queene with hir joly compaignye
Danced ful ofte in many a grenë mede.”
But, he adds, there are no fairies now; “lymytours and other holy
freres” have effectually driven them away.
“For ther as wont to walken was an elf,
Ther walketh now the lymytour hymself.”
With the elves had gone the knights-errant, and Chaucer’s poetical
genius was not of the kind to restore either to their original pride of
place in imaginative literature.
It was Malory who gave new life to the Arthurian legends, and to
him, more than to any other writer, is due the fascination which
Arthurian story has had for so many modern English poets. Malory’s
book, as we know from Ascham’s testimony, was exceedingly popular
in the Elizabethan age; but there were other causes of the interest
then so widely felt in ancient British legends. Throughout the
sixteenth century chroniclers were busy in recording, and antiquaries
in investigating, the early annals of Britain; and, in the reign of
Elizabeth herself, the heightened patriotic feeling of the day was a
potent stimulus to all who sought to discover material for, and to
reconstruct from it, the history of their country. Hence Geoffrey of
Monmouth’s Latin chronicle in its first printed forms comes to be one
of the most eagerly studied books of the time. And it is, perhaps, not
fanciful to find in the new interest aroused in the annals and legends
of early Britain the influence of the reigning Tudor dynasty. On what
other grounds are we to account, for example, for Spenser going out of
his way to remind Elizabeth that she can boast of a genuine British
ancestry, and that among her forebears is no less a person than the
great King Arthur himself?
“Thy name, O soveraine Queene, thy realme and race
From this renowned Prince derived arre,
Who mightily upheld that royall mace
Which now thou bear’st, to thee descended farre
From mighty kings and conquerours in warre,
Thy fathers and great Grandfathers of old,
Whose noble deeds above the Northern starre
Immortall fame for ever hath enrold;
As in that old man’s booke they were in order told.”
Here is a compliment of which Geoffrey, could he have foreseen it,
would have been as proud as of his inclusion in Chaucer’s ‘Hous
of Fame.’ To have been singled out for honour as one “besy for to
bere up Troy” was much; it was more to be quoted, by a poet no less
illustrious, as an authority for the Arthurian descent of the greatest
of British queens. The glorification of the House of Tudor, and of
Elizabeth’s Welsh descent, is obvious enough in the lines in _The
Faerie Queene_ which refer to the “sparke of fire” that shall
“Bee freshly kindled in the fruitfull Ile
Of Mona, where it lurked in exile:
Which shall breake forth into bright burning flame
And reach into the house that bears the stile
Of roiall majesty and soveraine name:
So shall the Briton blood their crowne agayn reclame.
Thenceforth eternal union shall be made
Betweene the nations different afore.”[115]
In the second book of _The Faerie Queene_ Spenser, following
Geoffrey’s “auncient booke hight Briton moniments,” gives a versified
“chronicle of Briton kings
From Brute to Uther’s rayne,”
thus further emphasising the newly-discovered importance of early
British history. The same patriotic fervour accounts for the production
of such poems as William Warner’s _Albion’s England_ and Michael
Drayton’s _Polyolbion_. Warner is eminently practical, and, in his
reproduction of Geoffrey’s Arthurian narrative, leaves out its more
romantic incidents. Arthur’s
“Scottish, Irish, Almaine, French and Saxone battelles got
Yeeld fame sufficient: these seeme true, the reste I credite not.”
Drayton is inclined to trust Geoffrey more implicitly, and even takes
up the cudgels on his behalf against the critics who were then seeking
to disparage him. The “adversary says,” writes Drayton, that “Geoffrey
Monmouth first our Brutus did devise,” whereas the fact is that
“pregnantly we prove, ere that historian’s days,
A thousand-ling’ring years, our prophets clearly sung
The Britain-founding Brute.”[116]
Drayton’s poem, so largely topographical as it is in its character,
affords him many opportunities of making effective use of Arthurian
traditions. When he comes, for example, to the river Camel, he
remembers that Arthur was born as well as slain in that tract of
western country,
“As though no other place on Britain’s spacious earth
Were worthy of his end, but where he had his birth.”[117]
Again, referring to the songs of the ancient Britons, he tells us--much
in Geoffrey’s manner--of Caerleon with
“her temples and her groves,
Her palaces and walls, baths, theatres, and stoves.”
With all his garrulous “asides” and prosaic disquisitions, Drayton’s
_Polyolbion_ is a well-intentioned poem, and its sympathetic treatment
of the legends entitles it to an honoured place in the Arthurian
library. Like Caxton, Drayton bewails the indifference of British poets
to the wealth of native tradition which lay ready for their use, and
regrets that a British Homer had not been found to rise to “the height
of its great argument”;
“For some abundant brain, oh, there had been a story,
Beyond the blind man’s might to have enhanced our glory.”
Although Elizabethan poets, from patriotic and courtly motives, were
so much interested in the early British legends as presented to them
by the English chroniclers of their time, it is somewhat strange that
these legends, and Arthurian story in particular, did not appeal
strongly to the imagination of the playwrights of our greatest
dramatic period. The only Arthurian drama of any consequence written
during the Elizabethan period was _The Misfortunes of Arthur_ by
Thomas Hughes, which was acted before the Queen in February 1588; and
the plot of that play is derived, in the main, not from Malory, but
from Geoffrey. In one important detail, however, Hughes departs from
Geoffrey’s narrative, and, like many of the later romancers, represents
Modred as Arthur’s son; and he is in touch with Malory in making the
tragedy of Arthur’s doom the nemesis that comes upon him for his sin.
The drama, as a whole, is a standard example of the Senecan type of
tragedy, so much in vogue at the time of its production, and action
and characterisation are altogether subordinated in it to narration.
Some life, however, is given to the characters of the two protagonists,
Arthur and Modred; and the introduction of the ghost of Gorlois at the
beginning and at the end of the play adds not a little to its general
dramatic effect. In his final speech the Ghost, exulting over the ruin
of the sinful house of Uther, is made to pay an adroit compliment to
Queen Elizabeth,
“That virtuous Virgo, born for Britain’s bliss,
That peerless branch of Brute,”
and gives utterance to the hope that she
“Shall of all wars compound eternal peace.”
We are still without a great English drama based upon a theme drawn
from Arthurian story; but what the Elizabethan dramatists, and most of
their successors, rejected as either too unreal or too intractable for
their purposes, continued even down to the Victorian age to haunt and
challenge the imagination of the poets.
“The mightiest chiefs of British song
Scorn’d not such legends to prolong”[118];
and yet we possess no great Arthurian epic in English verse any more
than a drama. Milton and Dryden both cherished the ambition of writing
one, but both, in different ways, found the pressure of circumstances
too strong for the accomplishment of their design. When Milton,
after the turmoil of the Civil Wars and his entanglement in public
controversy, once more turned his attention to poetry, he had need of
higher argument for his long-projected ‘heroic poem’ than
“to dissect
With long and tedious havoc fabl’d knights
In battles feign’d.”[119]
Arthurian memories, however, lingered with him to the last, for even in
_Paradise Regained_ he cannot help referring to what once charmed him
in stories
“Of fairy damsels met in forest wide
By knights of Logres, or of Lyones,
Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore.”
Dryden, again, who had aspired to write an Arthuriad, as he tells us,
“for the honour of his native country,” found himself obliged to turn
to more immediately profitable forms of literature,--“being encouraged
only with fair words by Charles II., my little salary ill-paid, and no
prospect of a future subsistence.”[120] But it is doubtful whether he
was quite the kind of poet who, in Scott’s words, could
“in immortal strain
Have raised the Table Round again,
But that a ribald King and Court
Bade him toil on to make them sport.”
Scott’s assumption, at any rate, is scarcely justified by the
character of the “dramatic opera” called _King Arthur, or the British
Worthy_, which Dryden composed shortly before Charles II.’s death.
This “opera” was written with a courtly, if not exactly a patriotic,
motive; it was meant to be a glorification of King Charles’s public
policy, but, unfortunately, Charles died before any performance of it
could be given. It was produced on the stage, ultimately, in 1691, to
music by Purcell; but, at that time, William and Mary were the reigning
sovereigns, so that the original point of the play was lost, and it
had to be “improved” to suit the changed conditions of the day. Thus,
what Scott calls an “ingenious political drama” was turned into “a mere
fairy-tale” without “any meaning beyond extravagant adventure.”[121]
The story of Arthur, also, is in many of its main features turned in
this play into something very different from its familiar forms up
to Dryden’s time. Several new characters are introduced into it, the
most notable being a blind girl, Emmeline,--a creature of Dryden’s
own invention,--who, in defiance of all tradition and of Guinevere’s
well-attested rights, becomes the wife of “the British Worthy.”
The Restoration age, despite its literary pre-occupation with ‘heroic’
plays and ‘heroic’ poetry, was unpropitious for the production of a
romantic epic worthy of the Arthurian, or any other similar theme. A
brave attempt, however, to achieve the impossible was made by “the City
Bard or Knight Physician,”[122] Sir Richard Blackmore, who in 1695
published _Prince Arthur, an Heroick Poem in Ten Books_, and followed
it up in 1697 with another ‘epic,’ in twelve books, called _King
Arthur_. These ponderous poems, written in heroic couplets, are really
political allegories, in which Arthur stands for the Prince of Orange,
and his Saxon enemy, Octa, for James the Second. But they aim at being
‘epics’ as well. Supernatural ‘machinery,’ evidently suggested in many
of its details by _Paradise Lost_, is introduced, and just as the gods
used to intervene in the struggles of the epic heroes of antiquity,
so angels like Uriel and Raphael watch over the fortunes of Arthur.
Indeed, the whole heavenly host befriends him, while Lucifer and the
rebel angels are the patrons of his foes. Blackmore, whatever else
may be said on his behalf, can claim to be at least faithful to the
tradition which represents Arthur as “the chief and best of the three
Christian kings,” for he makes him the supreme champion of Christendom
in his day:--
“This great deliverer shall Europa save,
Which haughty monarchs labour to enslave;
Then shall Religion rear her starry head,
And light divine through all the nations spread.”[123]
But, alas, who now reads Blackmore? The world generally is quite
content not to know him, and ready to echo Dryden’s pious wish--“peace
be to the _Manes_ of his Arthurs.”
Blackmore, grotesque and even ludicrous though his methods are of
allegorising the Arthurian stories, could, of course, claim high
poetical sanction for this particular use of them. Spenser had, long
before, “laboured to pourtraict in Arthure, before he was king, the
image of a brave knight, perfected in the twelve private morall
virtues, as Aristotle hath devised,”[124] and had also, though somewhat
obscurely, sought to “shadow forth” in him “a modern gentleman” of the
Elizabethan court,--the Earl of Leicester. There is not much to choose
between Leicester and William of Orange as “modern” types of Arthur,
but Spenser has, at least, succeeded in giving a romantic glamour to
his poem which helps us to forget its allegorical intent and takes us
back to the legendary Arthur’s native “land of faerie.” So, in _The
Faerie Queene_, Arthur appears in a rôle somewhat similar to that which
he plays in the romances as the helper and deliverer of sorely-beset
knights; and what the poet tells us about his person, his prowess,
and his accoutrements is, in spirit though not always in the letter,
quite in accord with romantic tradition. Delivered at birth to a faery
knight, “to be upbrought in gentle thewes and martiall might,” he was
put under the tutelage of Timon,[125]
“Old Timon, who in youthly yeares had beene
In warlike feates th’ expertest man alive,”
and who dwelt
“Under the foot of Rauran mossy hore,”
--the Merionethshire mountain, Yr Aran, where the river Dee has
its source. “Thither,” so Prince Arthur’s tale of his own history
runs,--[126]
“Thither the great magician Merlin came,
As was his use, oft-times to visit me;
For he had charge my discipline to frame
And Tutors nouriture to oversee.”
It was Merlin
“which whylome did excell
All living wightes in might of magick spell,”
who forged for Arthur his shield and sword and armour. Spenser,
however, departs from the romancers in calling Arthur’s sword
“Morddure,”[127] and in stating, what is nowhere told of Excalibur,
that it could not be
“forst his rightful owner to offend.”
Nor do we hear in the romances of such marvellous details about the
prince’s shield as those which Spenser gives; it was made of “diamond
perfect, pure and cleene,” and when Arthur chose to uncover it,
“Men into stones therewith he could transmew,
And stones to dust, and dust to nought at all;
And when him list the prouder lookes subdew,
He would them gazing blind, or turne to other hew.”[128]
Spenser, again, finds none of the knights of the Round Table suitable
for the main purposes of his allegory--the only prominent one who is
brought into the poem is Tristram, and he is introduced only as quite a
subordinate character. As the poet expressly tells us in his prefatory
letter that his purpose is to “pourtraict” Arthur “before he was king,”
_The Faerie Queene_, even had it been completed, could hardly have
contained any reference to the later, and more especially the tragic,
features of Arthurian story. Neither did Spenser’s general design admit
of any treatment of them. There could be no Guinevere in his poem, as
Arthur was destined at the end to marry Gloriana, the Fairy Queen, in
whom “I mean Glory in my generall intention, but in my particular I
conceive the most excellent and glorious person of our soveraine the
Queene, and her kingdom in Faery land.” There is indeed some excuse
even for Blackmore’s “particular intentions” in his egregious epics
when we remember that a really great poet was capable of thus imagining
Arthur, even in allegory, as the husband of Queen Elizabeth.
The uses to which Spenser and Blackmore, each in his own way, put the
Arthurian legends are not, after all, so dissimilar to those which
underlie the most popular, and on the whole the most successful,
poetical treatment of them in the nineteenth century.[129] _The Idylls
of the King_ have a palpably symbolical, not to say an allegorical,
meaning, and “a message for the times.” It may be that in no other way
could any new life be infused into stories of which Swinburne says that
“their day is done,”--
“Their records written of the winds, in foam
Fly down the wind, and darkness takes them home.”[130]
At any rate, Tennyson frankly confesses that what he presents in his
‘Idylls’ is a
“tale
New-old, and shadowing Sense at war with Soul”;
and the new element in it is a didactic purpose suited to the moral
and sentimental temper of the Victorian era, and embodying what a
severe critic calls “the ethics of the rectory parlour.”[131] Tennyson
himself is responsible for revealing the “particular intention” which
equates the Arthur of the ‘Idylls’ with the Prince Consort; for he
dedicates the poems to his memory,
“since he held them dear,
Perchance as finding there unconsciously
Some image of himself.”
It is hardly likely, however, that Tennyson, when he first thought
of the Arthurian stories as a poetic theme, had any very definite
idea of putting them into the form of an allegory such as most of
his interpreters now discover in them; but that he, from the first,
intended a “modern meaning” is plain from the lines appended to the
_Morte D’Arthur_ at the time of its original publication,--
“To me, methought, who waited in a crowd,
There came a bark that, blowing forward, bore
King Arthur, like a modern gentleman
Of stateliest port; and all the people cried
‘Arthur is come again: he cannot die.’”
That the ‘Idylls,’ when finally completed and put into their present
order, had “an allegorical or perhaps a parabolic drift,” in them,
is certain, for the words quoted are Tennyson’s own.[132] Tennyson,
however, complains that critics had “taken his hobby and ridden it
too hard, and have explained some things too allegorically.” “The
general drift of the ‘Idylls,’” he continues, “is clear enough. ‘The
whole ... is the dream of man coming into practical life and ruined
by one sin. Birth is a mystery and death is a mystery, and in the
midst lies the tableland of life.’” Modern though this “drift” may
be, it is perennial and universal enough in its appeal to save the
‘Idylls’--notwithstanding the references to the “modern gentleman” and
the Prince Consort--from being a merely Victorian poem, or series of
poems. They do not, together, constitute an Arthuriad: they are not
meant to represent “the epic, some twelve books” with “faint Homeric
echoes” which Tennyson may have been meditating in his earlier years
when he published his _Morte D’Arthur_. “He produced no epic, only a
series of epic idyllia. He had a spiritual conception, ‘an allegory
in the distance,’ an allegory not to be insisted upon, though its
presence was to be felt. No longer, as in youth, did Tennyson intend
Merlin to symbolise ‘the sceptical understanding,’ or poor Guinevere
to stand for the Blessed Reformation, or the Table Round for Liberal
Institutions. Mercifully Tennyson never actually allegorised Arthur in
that fashion.”[133]
Tennyson’s King Arthur is certainly modern enough in sentiment and
speech, but the position which he holds in the ‘Idylls’ is, in many
ways, in harmony with that which he occupies in history and romantic
legend. Tennyson himself warns his readers that they must not expect to
find in the ‘Idylls’
“that gray king whose name, a ghost,
Streams like a cloud, man-shaped, from mountain peak,
And cleaves to cairn and cromlech still; or him
Of Geoffrey’s book, or him of Malleor’s.”
Rather they ought to discern in him
“Ideal manhood closed in real man.”
All the same, Tennyson’s pre-occupation with “ideal manhood” did not
prevent him from bestowing painful labour upon knowing the “real
man,” so far as the records, historical and romantic, reveal him; and
one of the outstanding features of _The Idylls of the King_ is their
remarkable fidelity to the details of Arthurian story as given in its
time-honoured literary sources. “Geoffrey’s book,” and “Malleor’s,” had
been carefully studied by the poet, and he had even been at pains to
garner all he could from early Welsh poetry and from the _Mabinogion_,
as presented in Lady Charlotte Guest’s charming translation. While
Malory is their main source, the ‘Idylls’ contain much that shows
how familiar Tennyson was with Arthurian lore generally in its most
primitive forms. The story of Geraint, for example, as told by him,
follows closely the Welsh version of it given by Lady Charlotte
Guest.[134] Again, the description of Britain in the opening lines
of _The Coming of Arthur_ as a country where each “petty king” was
ever waging war upon some other, and where the children “grew up to
wolf-like men, worse than the wolves,” until
“King Leodogran
Groan’d for the Roman legions here again,”
recalls vividly the bitter lamentations of Gildas over the degeneracy
of his countrymen. The account which Lancelot gives of Arthur’s wars in
_Lancelot and Elaine_ is an expansion of the record in Nennius of the
twelve Arthurian battles. And Tennyson’s general conception of Arthur
as the flower of kings who
“Drew all the petty princedoms under him,”
and “made a realm” in Britain, is far more in keeping with that of
the early chroniclers than with the picture given of him in the later
romances.
But it is not in such incidental features alone that the ‘Idylls’
are true to the older Arthurian tradition. Modern in their sentiment
and ethics though they may be, Tennyson’s main purpose in them of
“shadowing Sense at war with Soul” is not altogether unjustified by
the general literary history of the legends. Malory, at any rate, had
some such purpose, for Caxton assures us that the _Morte Darthur_
was “written for our doctrine, and for to beware that we fall not
to vice nor sin, but to exercise and follow virtue.” “In Malory’s
compilation, and in later mediæval romance, the fate of Arthur means
the fate of the chivalrous ideal, whose irreconcilable elements were
incorporated in him. In the romantic historians the fate of Arthur is
the fate of the Christian Britons in conflict with heathenism from
without and treason from within. Even in the old myths, his fate, if
we may trust Professor Rhys, is the fate of the culture-hero combined
with Father Sky, in conflict with the powers of Darkness and the
Nether-world. It was by a true inspiration that Tennyson was drawn to
the old legends, and reading into them his secret found it to be their
own. Accordingly, this identity of feeling with his predecessors kept
Tennyson on the track of the story.... Thus the ‘Idylls’ are both
truer to the authorities and nearer our own feelings than any other
of the adaptations of Arthurian story. Though the adventures are now
regarded from a modern point of view, this point of view is in the same
spiritual watch-tower from which the framers of the legend looked:
but it is the platform at the top, not a loop-hole on the winding
stair.”[135]
After all, however much the ‘Idylls’ may be cavilled at on the score of
their modern sentiment and occasional homiletic strain, their general
setting and atmosphere are genuinely romantic and in thorough keeping
with the far-off things of which they sing. Tennyson is true enough to
his sources in his descriptions of scenery and in his entire survey
of the traditional Arthurian country. “It is no land dwelt in by bold
bad men we see, when Arthur rides through the mountains and finds the
diamonds; when Geraint and Enid go through the green gloom of the
wood; when Galahad rides over the black swamp, leaping from bridge to
bridge till he sail to the spiritual city; when Lancelot drives through
the storm to the enchanted towers of Carbonek seven days across the
sea.”[136] In none of the ‘Idylls’ do we perhaps breathe more of the
atmosphere of pure romance than in the first and the last. Mystery and
magic surround both the coming and the passing of the King;
“From the great deep to the great deep he goes.”
This “weird rhyme” of Merlin’s comes into Bedivere’s memory as he sees
the barge with the three dark Queens bearing Arthur away into the
distance
“till the hull
Look’d one black dot against the verge of dawn.”
And the last scene closes with the faithful Bedivere left wondering
whether Arthur will “come again,” and whether, “if he come no more,”
the three Queens who bore him away be “friends of Arthur, who should
help him at his need?” So, Tennyson, like Malory and the romancers,
leaves Arthur’s “return” an open question; but Bedivere goes away
comforted by what seemed an assurance that “all was well” with Arthur
whither he had gone.
“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,
Sounds, as if some fair city were one voice
Around a king returning from his wars.”
ADDITIONAL NOTES
_Note A, p. 9._--The Grail and the Round Table, as originally drawn
into Arthurian story, were in all probability survivals of features in
old Celtic nature-worship.
_Note B, p. 26._--Cavall, it may be noted, is referred to in the Welsh
romance _Geraint, Son of Erbin_, as taking part in a stag-hunt under
the leadership of Arthur, and is there called “Arthur’s darling dog”
(_annwylgi Arthur_).
_Note C, p. 94._--Argante--afterwards known as Morgain, or Morgan,
_la fée_ or _le fay_--is first heard of, in literature, in the poem
called _Vita Merlini_, commonly dated 1148 and ascribed to Geoffrey
of Monmouth (see p. 112). She there appears as a maiden, possessed of
magic powers, who heals Arthur’s wounds after the battle of Camlan.
Although she is usually spoken of by the romancers as being Arthur’s
sister, she is also represented as one who hates, and is involved in
certain malign schemes against, him. Her place in Arthurian story is
one of the many points at which the records and popular legends of “the
British King” touch the borders of fairy-land. The fairy element in
Arthurian romance is a fascinating, albeit intricate, subject of study,
but the scope and purpose of this little book allow only the briefest
references to it. Those who are interested in the subject will find a
very full, and suggestive, treatment of it in _Studies in the Fairy
Mythology of Arthurian Romance_, by Lucy A. Paton (Radcliffe College
Monographs, Boston, U.S.A., 1903).
_Note D, p. 101._--Chrétien himself, in the opening lines of _Cligés_,
states that he had written of “_le roi Marc et Iseut la blonde_.”
_Note E, p. 105._--Tristram, or Tristan, is the most accomplished of
all the heroes who are associated with Arthur. In the romances he is
pre-eminent as hunter, horseman, linguist, musician, harp-player. He is
also a liar of infinite resource.
_Note F, p. 115._--Malory, it should be said, is indebted for some of
his most picturesque touches in his account of the passing of Arthur
and of other incidents to an unknown English poet who, probably in
the fourteenth century, composed a metrical _Le Morte Arthure_. As
the first edition of the present book has been accused of having
done “grave injustice to our vernacular Arthurian literature before
Malory” through failure to recognise the merits of “the unknown but
most true poet whose rightful laurels have so long been worn by the
prose writer,” an extract from the poem may be given in order to enable
the reader to judge to which of the two, from a purely literary point
of view, the “rightful laurels” ought to belong. Here is the poet’s
account of the flinging of Excalibur:--
“The knyght was bothe hende and free;
To save that swerd he was fulle glad,
And thought, whethyr it better bee
Yif neuyr man it after had;
An I it caste in to the see,
Off mold was neuyr man so mad.
The swerd he hyd undyr a tree,
And sayd, ‘syr, I ded as ye me bad.’
‘What saw thow there?’ than sayd the kynge,
‘Telle me now, yiff thow can;’
‘Sertes, syr,’ he said, ‘nothynge
But watres depe, and waives wanne,’
‘A, now thou haste broke my byddynge!
Why hast thou do so, thow false man?
Another bode thou muste me brynge,’” etc.
_Note G, p. 130._--It would be impossible, within the limits of such a
book as this, to pass in review all the English Arthurian literature
of the nineteenth century. William Morris’s _Defence of Guinevere_,
_King Arthur’s Tomb_, and other Arthurian poems doubtless breathe much
more of the primitive romantic spirit of the legends than Tennyson’s
_Idylls_, but they are but slight experiments in comparison with
Tennyson’s elaborate design. Then there are other works like Heber’s
_Morte Arthur_, Lytton’s _King Arthur_, and Hawker of Morwenstow’s
_Quest of the Sangreal_, which claim a place in any full survey of
modern Arthurian literature, but are hardly of sufficient importance
to have required notice in so brief a chapter as the last had,
necessarily, to be.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[The following list comprises only a brief selection of books likely to
be of most use and interest to the English reader. Welsh, French and
German authorities are left entirely out of account.]
Six Old English Chronicles. Translated by J. A. Giles. Bohn’s Series.
(Contains useful translations of Gildas, Nennius, and Geoffrey of
Monmouth.)
Geoffrey of Monmouth. History of the Kings of Britain, translated by
Dr Sebastian Evans. The Temple Classics (Dent).
The Four Ancient Books of Wales. Edited, with translations, by Dr W.
F. Skene. Edinburgh, 1868.
The Mabinogion. Translated by Lady Charlotte Guest. The best popular
edition is that of A. Nutt, and is especially valuable for his
critical notes at the end.
Layamon’s Brut. Edited by Sir F. Madden. 3 vols. London, 1847.
Malory’s Morte Darthur. Edited, in 3 vols., by H. O. Sommer (Nutt).
---- With introduction by Sir J. Rhys (Dent).
---- Edited, with introduction, by Sir E. Strachey (Macmillan--Globe
Series).
Dickinson, W. H. King Arthur in Cornwall.
Fletcher, R. H. The Arthurian Matter in the Chronicles (Harvard
Studies and Notes, 1906).
Maccallum, M. W. Tennyson’s Idylls and Arthurian Story.
Newell, W. W. King Arthur and the Table Round. Boston, 1897.
(Contains excellent summaries of Chrétien de Troyes poems.)
Nutt, Alfred. Celtic and Mediæval Romance. (Popular Studies in
Mythology and Folklore.)
---- Legends of the Holy Grail. (Popular Studies, etc.)
---- Studies in the Legend of the Holy Grail (1888).
Rhys, Sir John. The Arthurian Legend (1891).
---- Celtic Folklore (1901).
Schofield, W. H. English Literature, from the Norman Conquest to
Chaucer.
Squire, Charles. The Mythology of the British Islands.
Stephens, Thomas. The Literature of the Kymry (1872).
Weston, Jessie L. King Arthur and his Knights. (Popular Studies in
Mythology and Folklore.)
---- The Legend of Sir Gawain (1897), and other works included in
Nutt’s ‘Grimm Library’.
INDEX
Æneas, 60, 67
_Æneid, The_, 67
Agned, 15
Airem, 13, 54
Alanus de Insulis, 31
_Albion’s England_, Warner’s, 120
Alexander the Great, 5, 70
Almesbury, 115
Ambrosius Aurelianus; _see_ Emrys
Amir, 24
_Aneirin, the Book of_, 40
Anna, 75
_Annales Cambriæ_, 21, 26
Aran, Yr (Rauran), 128
Argante (_Morgan le fay_), 92, 94, 138
Arnold, Matthew, 39, 45, 105
Ascham, 7, 118
Astolat, 98
Aurelius Ambrosius, 74
Avalon, 76, 91, 93
Avallach (Avalon), 53
Badbury, 20
Badon, Mount, 16, 19, 21, 22, 26, 29, 32
Baddesdown-hill (Mount Badon), 28
Baldulph, 76
Bassas, 15
Bath, 76
Bayeux, 82
Bec, 33
Bede, 28, 71, 72
Bedwyr; _see_ Bedivere
Bedivere, 25, 42, 55, 78, 82, 111, 114, 137
Beornicia, 16
Béroul, 106
Blackmore, Sir Richard, 126
Bledri (Bledhericus, Bleheris), 109
Boccaccio, 6
Bodel, Jean, 3
Bodmin, 31
Brân the Blessed, 53
_Branwen, daughter of Llŷr_, 53
_Bricriu’s Feast_, 50
Brittany, 31, 58, _seq._
Broceliande, 98
Brooke, Stopford, 136
Brutus, son of Æneas, 60, 67
Brythons, the, 13, 29, 36
Builth, 23
Cador (Kadwr), Earl or Duke of Cornwall, 51, 76, 83
Cadwallader, 72
Cadwallo, 72
Caerlleon upon Usk, 2, 3, 57, 78, 97, 121
Caledvwlch (Excalibur), Arthur’s sword, 46
Cambula (Camel), 27
Camden, 85
Camel, 57, 83, 98, 121
Camelford, 27, 93
Cameliard, 98
Camelot, 6, 98
Camlan, 26, 53
Caradoc of Llancarvan, 87
Carbonek, 98, 136
Carlisle, 73, 97
_Carmarthen, The Black Book of_, 2, 12, 26, 40, 74
Carnwennan, Arthur’s dagger, 46, 50
Cavall (Cabal), Arthur’s dog, 24, 25, 138
Caxton, 1-10, 11, 37, 135
Celidon, 15
Ceredig, 18
Charlemagne, 8, 70
Chaucer, 60, 103, 116
Cheldric, 34, 76
_Chevalier au lion_, 101
_Chevalier de la Charrette_, 100, 102
Chinon, 82
Chrétien de Troyes, 41, 90, 100, 138
_Chronicle_, The Saxon, 29
Colgrin, 76
_Comes Britanniæ_, 17, 18
_Comes littoris Saxonici_, 17
_Coming of Arthur, The_, 134
Constantine, 83, 94
_Conte del Graal_, 101
Cormac, 84
Cornwall, 31, 34, 49, 56-58, 83, 105
Cradock, 6
Cunedda, 18
Dafydd ap Gwilym, 77
Dante, 103
Dares the Phrygian, 60
David, St, 81
Dictys the Cretan, 60
Dimilioc (Damelioc), 57, 74
Dover Castle, 6
Drayton, M., 86
_Dream of Rhonabwy, The_, 12, 18, 26, 50-52, 56
Dryden, 123, 127
Dubglas, 15
Dubricius, 75, 78, 81
_Dux Britanniarum_, 16
Edern, son of Nudd, 51
Ehangwen, Arthur’s hall, 46
Eilhart von Oberge, 106
Elbodugus (Elfodd), 14
Elizabeth, Queen, 118, 123, 130
Emmeline, 125
Emrys (Ambrosius Aurelianus), 18, 21, 23, 28, 32
Eosa, 74
Ercing (Archenfield), 24
_Erec_, 41, 101
Etáin, 54
Evans, Dr Gwenogvryn, 39, 45
Evans, Dr Sebastian, 3, 35, 65, 67
Excalibur (Caliburn), Arthur’s sword, 26, 46, 76, 93, 114, 129
_Faerie Queene, The_, 119, _seq._
Finn, 84
Flollo, 78
Galahad, 106, 136
Gawain, 2, 6, 32, 75, 77, 107, 110
Gelli (or Kelli) Wic, 49, 56
Geoffrey of Monmouth, 2, 4, 14, 19, 27, 60 _seq._
Geoffrey Gaimar, 85
Geraint, 47, 136
_Geraint, son of Erbin_ (Welsh romance), 2, 52, 101, 138
_Geraint, filius Erbin_ (Welsh poem), 41
Germany, 16
Gildas, 18, 21, 22, 28, 72, 88, 134
_Gildas, Life of_, 88
Giraldus Cambrensis, 5, 84, 87, 109
Glamorgan, 65, 79
Glastonbury, 6, 84, 89, 98
Glewlwyd of the Mighty Grasp, 42, 45
Godfrey of Boulogne, 8
Goleuddydd, 17
Gorlois, 57, 74, 122
Gottfried von Strassburg, 106
Grafton, 85
Grail, The Holy, 8, 9, 98, 107, 138
Griffin of Carmarthen, 92
Guest, Lady Charlotte, 37, 134
Guido de Colonna, 60
Guinevere (Gwenhwyvar), 46, 53, 76, 82, 100, 115
Guinnion, 15, 20
Gwalchmei (Gawain), 110
Gwenn, Arthur’s mantle, 51
Gwledig, 17
Gwynn, son of Nudd, 47, 48
Gwythur, 2, 53
Hawker, R. S., 140
Heber, _Morte Arthur_, 140
Hengist, 15, 33
Henry II., 84
Henry of Huntingdon, 19, 33, 71
_Hergest, The Red Book of_, 27, 101
Higden, 6
_Historia Brittonum_, 14
_Historia Regum Britanniæ_, 64, _seq._
Hoel, King of Armorica, 76
Holinshed, 85
Huel, King of Scotland, 88
Hughes, Thomas, 122
Ida, 16
_Idylls of the King, The_, 4, 130, _seq._
Igerne, 57, 74
Iseult (Essyllt), 54, 100, 104
Joseph of Arimathea, 98, 109
Joyous Gard, 98
Juvenal, 12
Kadwr; _see_ Cador
Kay (Kei), 42, 52, 54, 78, 82
_King Arthur, or The British Worthy_, 125
_Kulhwch and Olwen_, 17, 25, 44, 45, _seq._
_Lady of the Fountain, The_, 3, 18, 52, 101
Lancelot, 6, 10, 100, 103, 107, 115, 136
_Lancelot and Elaine_, 134
Lang, Andrew, 133, 134
_Lanval_, 58
Laon, 31
Layamon, 27, 67, 84, 85, 89, 91, _seq._
_Le Morte Arthure_ (poem), 139
Legion, City of, 15, 19
Leicester, Earl of, 127
Leodogran, 134
Lincoln, 97
Linnuis (Lindisia, Lindsey), 15, 20
Llacheu, Arthur’s son, 43
Llamrei, Arthur’s mare, 25
Llandaff, 64
London, 53, 96
Lot (of Lodonesia), 75, 77, 112
Lucius Hiberius, 53, 81
Lyonesse, 98, 105
Lytton, _King Arthur_, 140
_Mabinogion, The_, 2, 3, 12, 17, 18, 37, 39, 101, 110, 134
Mabon, son of Mellt, 43
Mabon, son of Modron, 42, 48
Maccallum, M. W., 136
Maelgwn Gwynedd (Maglocunus), 22
Malory’s _Morte Darthur_, 1-10, 36, 113-115, 118, 135, 139
Manawyddan, son of Llŷr, 42, 47
Map, Walter, 64, 101, 103, 104
Marie of Champagne, 100, 103
Marie of France, 58
Mark (March, son of Meirchion), 2, 51, 54
Maxen Wledig, 18
Meleager, 48
Melwas (Meleaguant, Mellyagraunce), 89, 102
Merlin, 69, 75, 94, 111, 128, 137
_Merlin, The Prophecies of_, 69, 112
Milton, 50, 123
_Misfortunes of Arthur, The_, 122
Modred (Medrod, Medraut), 26, 27, 34, 52, 75, 82, 112, 122
Monmouth, 65
Mont St Michel, 66
Morris, William, 140
_Morte Darthur_; _see_ Malory
_Morte D’Arthur_ (Tennyson’s), 131
Mynneu, Mount, 52
Natanleod, 30
Nennius, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 29, 41, 71, 134
Neustria, 78
Nutt, Alfred, 45, 50, 107
Octha, 15, 74
Owen and the ravens, 50
Palug’s Cat, 53, 54
_Parzival_ (Wagner’s), 4
Pembrokeshire, 23
Perceval (Peredur), 10, 52, 100, 101, 107
_Peredur_ (Welsh romance), 52, 101
Picts, The, 16, 27
Polydore Vergil, 85
_Polyolbion_, 86, 120
_Prince Arthur, an Heroick Poem_, 126
Prince Consort, The, 131, 132
Pridwen, Arthur’s ship, 44
Priwen, Arthur’s shield, 76
Pryderi, 54
_Pwyll, prince of Dyved_, 54
Rhongomyant (Rhôn), Arthur’s lance, 46, 76
Rhys, Sir John, 2, 12, 13, 17, 38, 44, 49
Ritho, of Mount Eryri, 81
Robert de Borron, 109, 112
Robert, earl of Gloucester, 65, 73
Robert of Gloucester (chronicler), 85
Robert Fitz-Hamon, 65
Robert of Torigni (Robert of the Mount), 33, 66
Rome, 67
Round Table, The, 6, 80, 91, 93
Sackville, 86
St Asaph, 64
St Michael’s Mount, 80
Sarras, 98
Saxons, The, 11, 15, 16, 27, 28
Scots, The, 16, 27
Scott, Sir W., 123, 125
Severus, 16
Shaftesbury, 74
_Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight_, 91, 111, 116
Skene, W. F., 39
Somerset, 89
Spenser, 56, 86, 118, 127
Stubbs, 28
Swinburne, 105
Tacitus, 12
Taliesin, 17, 37, 47
_Taliesin, The Book of_, 40, 43
Thomas de Bretagne, 106
_Thopas, Tale of Sir_, 61, 116
Tennyson, 7, 21, 26, _seq._
Timon (Sir Ector), 128
Tintagel, 57, 74, 105
Triads, The, 26, 38, 52-55
Tribruit (Tryvrwyd), 15, 43
Tristram (Tristan, Drystan), 10, 52, 54, 100, 104, 114, 129, 139
_Tristan und Isolde_ (Wagner’s), 4
Troy, 60
Trwyth, the Boar (_porcus Troit_), 24, 25, 49, _seq._
Uther Pendragon, 42, 57, 74, 122
Virgil, 68
_Vita Merlini_, 112
Vivien, 112
Vortigern, 30, 32, 69
Vortimer, 32
Wace, 58, 67, 85, 89
_Wales, The Four Ancient Books of_, 39, _seq._
Walter, archdeacon of Oxford, 68, 71, 83
Warinus, 33, 34
Warner, William, 86
Westminster, abbey of, 6
Weston, Miss J. L, 108, 109, 110
White Mount, The (in London), 53
_Wife of Bath’s Tale, The_, 117
William of Malmesbury, 2, 28, 31, 66, 71
William of Newburgh, 5, 28, 69, 86
William of Orange, 127
Winchester, 6, 97
Wolfram von Eschenbach, 107
Wordsworth, 20, 62, 86
Wygar, the smith, 92
Wynebgwrthucher, Arthur’s shield, 46
Yspaddaden (Pen Kawr), 26, 45, 50
PRINTED BY
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] ‘The Songs of the Graves,’ in the twelfth century _Black Book of
Carmarthen_. “A grave there is for March (or Mark),”--so the lines
run,--“a grave for Gwythur, a grave for Gwgawn of the Ruddy Sword; a
mystery is the grave of Arthur”: or, as Sir John Rhys translates, “not
wise the thought--a grave for Arthur.”
[2] William of Malmesbury (_Gesta Reg. Angl._, Bk. III.), referring
to the discovery in Wales of the grave of Gawain, Arthur’s nephew,
speaks of the grave of Arthur himself as being unknown--hence, he says,
ancient songs (_antiquitas næniarum_) prophesy his return.
[3] The opening words of the Welsh romance, ‘Gereint, Son of Erbin.’
_Cf._ also the first sentences of ‘The Lady of the Fountain,’ as given
in Lady C. Guest’s _Mabinogion_.
[4] See Geoffrey’s _History_, Bk. IX. Ch. 12, in the excellent
translation by the late Dr Sebastian Evans (Temple Classics).
[5] The three great romantic “matters” are thus categorised in a
well-known passage in the _Chanson de Saisnes_ by the twelfth century
writer, Jean Bodel,--
“Ne sont que trois matières à nul home attendant,
De France et de Bretaigne et de Rome la grant.”
[6] _Hist. Rerum Anglic._ Proemium (Chronicles of Stephen, etc., Rolls
Series, 1884-85).
[7] See note _A_ on p. 138.
[8] See a poem entitled ‘Gereint, Son of Erbin,’ in _The Black Book of
Carmarthen_, and several passages in the _Mabinogion_,--especially in
‘The Dream of Rhonabwy,’--which are referred to later on.
[9] It is worth noting, by the way, that the “Saeson,” or Saxons,
against whom he is presumed to have fought most of his battles, are not
even mentioned in the Welsh Arthurian romances.
[10] The name _Artoria_ occurs is Tacitus, _Annals_, xv. 71; _Artorius_
in Juvenal, _Sat._, iii. 29. It was common enough in Rome.
[11] Rhys, _Arthurian Legend_, p. 48. In Chap. I. of the same work Rhys
puts and answers the main question suggested in these pages as follows:
“How did Arthur become famous above other (Welsh, or British) heroes,
and how came he to be the subject of so much story and romance? The
answer, in short, which one has to give to this hard question must be
to the effect, that besides a historic Arthur there was a Brythonic
divinity named Arthur, after whom the man may have been called, or with
whose name his, in case it was of a different origin, may have become
identical in sound owing to an accident of speech” (_A. L._, p. 8).
[12] The chief authorities on Nennius are Mommsen (see his edition
of the _Historia_, and of Gildas, in _Mon. Germ. Hist._, Berlin,
1898), and Zimmer (_Nennius Vindicatus_, Berlin, 1893). See, also,
Fletcher (_The Arthurian Matter in the Chronicles_, Boston, 1906) and
M. R. James (_Camb. Hist. of Eng. Lit._, Vol. I. Ch. 5). Thurneysen
(_Zeitschr. f. Deutsche Philologie_, 1897) fixes 827 as the date of the
completion of the _History_.
[13] This date must be accepted if we are to believe Nennius’s
statement that he was a disciple of Elbodugus, or Elfodd, bishop of
Gwynedd.
[14] Chap. 56.
[15] _ipse dux erat bellorum._
[16] This is simply the Welsh (modern, _cad coed_) for “the battle of
Celidon Wood.”
[17] Rhys, _Arthurian Legend_, p. 7.
[18] _Arthurian Legend_, p. 7.
[19] A number of chieftains are styled _gwledig_ in the _Mabinogion_
(see index to edition of Welsh _Red Book_, text by Rhys and Evans, p.
342). Among them is one Amlawdd, or Amlodd, who in _Kulhwch and Olwen_
is the father of Goleuddydd, the mother of Kulhwch, “a boy of gentle
birth and cousin unto Arthur.” In a poem ascribed to Taliesin the deity
even is called _gwledig_--“gwledig nef a phob tud,” “ruler of heaven
and of every land.”
[20] Viz., to the tale, included in Lady C. Guest’s _Mabinogion_,
called ‘The Dream of Maxen Wledig.’ The glorification of Maxen, or
Maximus, in Welsh tradition suggests many points of analogy with the
story of Arthur.
[21] Lloyd, _Hist. of Wales_, Vol. I. p. 100.
[22] See the opening words of ‘The Lady of the Fountain,’ “Yr
amherawdyr Arthur oedd yng Kaer Llion ar Wysc.” See also _The Dream of
Rhonabwy_, _passim_.
[23] _Arthurian Legend_, p. 7. See also _The Welsh People_ (Rhys and
Jones), pp. 105 _sqq._
[24] The most elaborate and ingenious expositions of this theory will
be found in Skene’s _Four Ancient Books of Wales_, Vol. I. Chap. 4, and
Stuart-Glennie’s _Arthurian Localities in ‘Merlin’_ (Early Eng. Text
Soc., 1869).
[25] “Mons Badonicus” is still unidentified. Guest, in his _Origines_
_Celticæ_ (ii. 187-189) makes a brave attempt to prove that it was
Badbury in Dorset.
[26] _Hist. Reg. Brit._, Bk. IX. Ch. 4.
[27] _Ecclesiastical Sonnets_, i. 10.
[28] _Coming of Arthur._
[29] The translation is that of Dr H. Williams in his edition of Gildas
(Cymmrodorion Record Series, London, 1901), p. 63.
[30] Such, at any rate, is Rhys’s opinion. See Preface to Dent’s
_Malory_, p. xxxv.
[31] See p. 142 in Nutt’s reprint of Lady C. Guest’s _Mabinogion_.
[32] _Op. cit._, p. 139.
[33] See note _B_ on p. 138.
[34] Tennyson, _The Passing of Arthur_.
[35] Skene’s _Four Ancient Books of Wales_, Vol. I. p. 311.
[36] _Op. cit._, p. 291.
[37] Layamon, in his _Brut_ (l. 28,533), is the first to locate the
battle definitely at this place.
[38] Preface to Rolls Edition of Roger of Hoveden’s _Chronicle_.
[39] For an interesting comparison between the _Chronicle_ and Nennius
in respect to the Arthurian period, see Fletcher, _Arthurian Matter in
the Chronicles_, pp. 21-23.
[40] The account of this incident is given in Migne’s _Patrologia_,
156, col. 983.
[41] _Prophetia Anglicana_, etc. (Frankfort, 1603), Bk. I. p. 17.
[42] _Hist. Reg. Angl._, Bk. III.
[43] Published in Rolls Series, _Chronicles of Stephen_, etc., iv. p.
65.
[44] Quoted from the Epilogue to the late Dr Sebastian Evans’s
translation of Geoffrey’s _History_ (Temple Classics, 1904).
[45] Lady Charlotte Guest’s translation contains twelve tales, but one
of these, the _History of Taliesin_, is from a late sixteenth century
MS. and has no claim to rank with the rest as a genuine mediæval
production.
[46] _Arthurian Legend_, p. 6. “The Triads give us the oldest account
of Arthur, and this now and then in a form which the story-tellers and
romance-writers found thoroughly untractable and best ignored.”
[47] There are, of course, more than four “ancient books” in the Welsh
language--for example, the MS. of what is known as the Venedotian code
of the laws of Wales, and _The White Book of Rhydderch_, the contents
of which have recently been made accessible to Welsh readers in Dr
Gwenogvryn Evans’s fine edition. But Skene’s “four books” contain all
the oldest Welsh poetry that is of any account. These four, named
in chronological order, are known as _The Black Book of Carmarthen_
(twelfth century), _The Book of Aneirin_, _The Book of Taliesin_, and
_The Red Book of Hergest_.
[48] _The Study of Celtic Literature._
[49] See Skene, _Four Ancient Books_, Vol. I. p. 295.
[50] See Gwenogvryn Ewans’s edition of _The Black Book_, p. 103.
[51] Skene, _Four Ancient Books_, I. p. 426.
[52] Skene, _Four Ancient Books_, I. p. 308.
[53] Rhys, Preface to Dent’s edition of _Malory_, p. xxv, where a full
account of these three poems is given.
[54] Skene, _Four Ancient Books_, I. p. 266.
[55] Tryvrwyd, in the form _Tribruit_, is one of the twelve battles
recorded by Nennius. See _ante_, Chap. I.
[56] All the names here cited are found also in the prose story of
_Kulhwch and Olwen_. The connection of the poem with _Kulhwch_ is
referred to later on.
[57] See Preface to Dent’s _Malory_, where a translation of the whole
poem is given, and its correspondences with _Kulhwch and Olwen_ are
pointed out.
[58] _The Study of Celtic Literature._ Rhys’s opinion that the
primitive form, and substance, of this tale date from the tenth century
has been already referred to. Dr Gwenogvryn Evans, in the Preface to
his edition of _The White Book_ ‘_Mabinogion_,’ without assigning to
it so definite a date, holds that _Kulhwch and Olwen_ “is the oldest
in language, in matter, in simplicity of narrative, in primitive
atmosphere,” of all the tales to which the general name ‘mabinogion’
is given. Mr Alfred Nutt, while holding that portions of _Kulhwch and
Olwen_ are of “pre-historic antiquity, far transcending in age any
historic Arthur,” assigns the story in the form we have it to the
twelfth century, on the strength, mainly, of its affinities to eleventh
century Irish sagas.
[59] The Welsh name for “Excalibur.”
[60] Sir John Rhys does this in his _Celtic Folklore_ (Vol. II. pp.
512 _sqq._). See the whole of Chap. IX. in that work for a learned
discussion of the significance of the names, both local and personal,
in _Kulhwch_.
[61] Milton, _Paradise Lost_, ix. The prominence given to these
descriptions in the tale is emphasised by its brief epilogue. “And this
tale is called the _Dream of Rhonabwy_. And this is the reason that
no one knows the dream without a book, neither bard nor gifted seer;
because of the various colours that were upon the horses, and the many
wondrous colours of the arms and of the panoply, and of the precious
mantles and virtuous stones.”
[62] The Emperor (Lucius Hiberius, called in the Welsh narratives Llês)
is said by Geoffrey _(Hist. Reg. Brit._, X. xi) to have been killed by
“an unknown hand.”
[63] Rhys, _Arthurian Legend_, Ch. II.
[64] The most brilliant of these re-builders of “the Celtic Pantheon”
is Sir John Rhys. See, especially, his _Arthurian Legend_ and _Celtic
Heathendom_.
[65] Spenser, _Faerie Queene_, Bk. I. Canto 9.
[66] Dickinson, _King Arthur in Cornwall_ (Longmans), p. vi, where an
interesting account is given of Arthur’s Cornish associations.
[67] _Roman de Brut_, 1. 9994
[68] See above, p. 31.
[69] See the final chapter, on “Great Britain and Little Britain,” in
Rhys’s _Arthurian Legend_.
[70] _Ariegal and Elidure._
[71] _Hist. Reg. Brit._, Chap. I. (Dr Sebastian Evans’s translation).
I have used this translation for nearly all the extracts from Geoffrey
given in this chapter.
[72] This hypothesis is ingeniously elaborated by the late Dr Sebastian
Evans in the epilogue to his translation of Geoffrey (Temple Classics,
1903).
[73] This explanation of the name “Britain” is not, as has been pointed
out (pp. 60, 61), original to Geoffrey. It is his elaboration of the
Brutus legend that is significant.
[74] William of Newburgh, the severest of all Geoffrey’s critics,
writing about 1190, suggests that either this, or his own “love of
lying,” was the motive of the work. “It is manifest that everything
which this person wrote about Arthur and his successors, and his
predecessors after Vortigern, was made up partly by himself and partly
by others, whether from an inordinate love of lying or for the sake of
pleasing the Britons.” William also held that Geoffrey’s account of
events before the time of Julius Cæsar was either invented by himself,
or “adopted after it had been invented by others.”
[75] Jusserand, _Lit. Hist. of the English People_, Vol. I. p. 131.
[76] One MS of the _History_, preserved at Bern, contains a double
dedication addressed to both Robert, and King Stephen. I have given
some account of this MS, and of its bearing upon the date and character
of the _History_, in a paper on Geoffrey published in the _Transactions
of the Cymmrodorion Society_ (London, 1899).
[77] Where, apart from “the British book,” Geoffrey derived the name
and history of Uther, still remains an unsolved problem. It is worth
noting, however, that “Uther Pendragon” is mentioned in a poem in _The
Black Book of Carmarthen_ noticed in the previous chapter (see p. 42).
[78] Dubricius, or Dyfrig, is a well-known early Welsh saint, but
the archbishopric of the City of Legions is entirely a creation of
Geoffrey’s fancy.
[79] I have italicised the words “noble Roman family” here, because
this “Roman” descent of Guinevere would seem not to have been derived
from a Welsh source. In the Triads we read of a Guinevere who is
described as “the daughter of Ogrvan the Giant” (see _ante_, p. 53).
She is, apparently, the one among “the three Guineveres” who is best
known to Welsh tradition as the wife of Arthur. She is mentioned both
in a poem by the famous Welsh poet of the fourteenth century, Dafydd
ap Gwilym--referring to her adventure with Melwas--and in an old Welsh
rhyme, which gives her a somewhat disreputable character (see Rhys,
_Arthurian Legend_, Chap. III.).
[80] It is interesting to note, incidentally, that after the
“solemnity” at Caerleon, Dubricius is reported to have resigned his
archbishopric, and “David, _the King’s uncle_, was consecrated in his
place, whose life was an ensample of all goodness unto them whom he had
instructed in his doctrine.”
[81] This statement appears to indicate quite explicitly that Geoffrey
was indebted to Walter for oral information as well as for the British
book.
[82] The best-known account of the affair is given by Giraldus
Cambrensis (_De Principis Instructione_, viii. 126-9).
[83] There are, for example, thirty-five in the British Museum and
sixteen in the Bodleian.
[84] No copies of Gaimar’s version are known to exist, but his
rhymed chronicle of Anglo-Saxon and Norman kings has been edited and
translated by Duffus Hardy in the Rolls Series.
[85] _Polyolbion_, Song x.
[86] Hueil, and the cause of his quarrel with Arthur, are incidentally
mentioned in _Kulhwch and Olwen_. Hueil, we there read, had stabbed his
sister’s son Gwydre, “and hatred was between Hueil and Arthur because
of the wound.”
[87] Rhys, who doubts Caradoc’s authorship of the _Life of Gildas_, is
“certain that the story” of Melwas “is ancient, for Chrétien de Troyes
in his _Erec_ speaks of Maheloas as the Lord of the Glass Island--‘Li
sire de l’isle de voirre.’” _Arthurian Legend_, p. 52.
[88] Layamon’s _Brut_, ll. 42, 43.
[89] The question of the mythological origin of the Round Table is
one of the many indeterminate problems of Arthurian “criticism.”
For a suggestive study of the question see Brown, _The Round Table
before Wace_ (_Harvard Studies and Notes_, Vol. VII., 1900), where he
confidently states that “the Round Table was a very early Pan-Celtic
institution.”
[90] _Brut_, ll. 19,254 _sqq._ (Madden’s edition).
[91] ll. 28,610 _sqq._
[92] ll. 22,910 _sqq._
[93] See note _C_ on p. 138.
[94] Camelot is, apparently, first heard of in Chrétien de Troyes’
_Chevalier de la Charrette_.
[95] Tennyson, _Merlin and Vivien_.
[96] See note _D_ on p. 138.
[97] So much has been clearly proved in the case of _Peredur_, for
instance, in a French essay on the composition of that romance recently
published from Paris by Dr Mary Williams, formerly Fellow of the
University of Wales.
[98] This, of course, is an obvious variant of the story told in the
_Life of Gildas_, already mentioned, of Guinevere’s abduction by Melwas.
[99] _Nonne Prestes Tale_, l. 392.
[100] See note _E_ on p. 139.
[101] Matthew Arnold, _Tristram and Iseult_.
[102] Swinburne, _Tristram of Lyonesse_.
[103] M. Bédier, in his edition of Thomas’s _Tristan_, maintains that
the original of all the various versions of the story was a single poem
composed in England. This is a disputed point among scholars, but it is
generally agreed that the story is of British origin.
[104] See Tennyson, _The Passing of Arthur_.
[105] A. Nutt, _The Legends of the Holy Grail_ (Popular Studies in
Mythology and Folklore), p. 72.
[106] For a learned and suggestive study of the various versions of
the Grail legend, see Miss J. L. Weston’s _The Legend of Sir Perceval_
(2 vols.) in the Grimm Library (Nutt). Miss Weston there distinguishes
three stages in the growth of the legend as “the Folklore, the
Literary and the Mystical.” In the Mystical, an element which she
holds to be “entirely foreign to the original tale,” viz., the Grail
quest, “modified and finally transformed it.” The folk-tale “assumed
an ecclesiastical and mystical character. The hero became a champion
of Christianity and Holy Church, and as such displayed the qualities
most approved by the religious views of the time: he became not merely
chaste, but an ascetic celibate, and any connection with women was
dropped altogether” (Vol. I. p. 117).
[107] This, of course, raises a vexed question,--two schools of
critics, one German, and the other English, French and American,
being at feud upon it. In connection with the alleged Welsh origin of
some of these traditions, it may be mentioned that the suggestion has
been recently made that the first collection of them for “romantic”
purposes was due to a Welshman variously known as Bledri, Bleheris, or
Bledhericus, who lived probably in the eleventh century, and is spoken
of by Giraldus Cambrensis as a ‘_famosus fabulator, qui tempora nostra
paulo prævenit_.’ See Weston, _Legend of Sir Perceval_, Vol. I. Ch. 12.
[108] He is made the actual achiever of the quest in the German poem
_Diu Krône_, by Heinrich von dem Türlin.
[109] See _The Legend of Sir Gawain_, by Miss J. L. Weston (Grimm
Library).
[110] See the _Sir Gawayne_ romances edited by Sir F. Madden for the
Bannatyne Club (London, 1839).
[111] Strachey, Introduction to Globe Edition of _Le Morte Darthur_.
[112] _Morte Darthur_, Book XVIII. Chap. 25.
[113] Book XXI. Chap. 5.
[114] See note _F_ on p. 139.
[115] _Faerie Queene_, Bk. III. Canto iii.
[116] _Polyolbion_, Song X.
[117] _Polyolbion_, I.
[118] Scott, _Marmion_, Introduction to Canto I.
[119] _Paradise Lost_, Book IX.
[120] _Discourse on Satire._
[121] Scott’s edition of Dryden, Introduction to the play.
[122] Dryden so designates him in his _Preface to the Fables_.
[123] _King Arthur_, Book I.
[124] Introductory Letter to the _Faerie Queene_.
[125] The Sir Ector of Malory.
[126] _Faerie Queene_, Book I. ix.
[127] _Faerie Queene_, II. viii. 21.
[128] _Faerie Queene_, I. vii. 35.
[129] See note _G_ on p. 139.
[130] Dedication to his tragedy, “Locrine.”
[131] Lord Morley, _Studies in Literature_ (“On ‘The Ring and the
Book’”).
[132] _Lord Tennyson, A Memoir_, by his Son, Vol. II. v. 127.
[133] Andrew Lang, _Tennyson_ (Blackwood’s “Modern English Writers”),
p. 103.
[134] How closely it does follow the Welsh tale has well been pointed
out by Mr A. Lang in the work just quoted, from pp. 119 _sqq._
[135] M. W. Maccallum, _Tennyson’s Idylls and Arthurian Story_.
[136] Stopford Brooke, _Tennyson_, Chap. 10.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.