of the church, over the vault of the Hallams, is a tablet, which bears
the following inscription:
TO
THE MEMORY OF
ARTHUR HENRY HALLAM
ELDEST SON OF HENRY
HALLAM ESQUIRE
AND OF JULIA MARIA HIS WIFE
DAUGHTER OF SIR ABRAHAM
ELTON BARONET
OF CLEVEDON COURT
+who was snatched away by sudden death
at Vienna on September 15th 1833
in the twenty-third year of his age
and now in this obscure and solitary church
repose the mortal remains of
one too early lost for public fame
but already conspicuous among his contemporaries
for the brightness of his genius
the depth of his understanding
the nobleness of his disposition
the fervour of his piety
and the purity of his life
Vale dulcissime
Vale dilectissime Desideratissime
requiescas in pace
ter ac mater hic posthac requiescamus
tecum
usque ad tubam.+
_In Memoriam._
ARTHUR.
Supposed to have been in the sixth century a war leader of the tribes
inhabiting Cumbria and Strathclyde against the Saxons from the East and
the Picts and Scots from the North. The name Arthur originally denoted
the Bear, and the constellation of that name is called in Welsh the
Chariot of Arthur. His father was Uther the pendragon, and his mother
Ygernê widow of Gorloïs, duke of Cornwall, and he was born at Tintagel
Castle, Cornwall, about the year 500 +A.D.+ Tennyson says that Merlin
gave Arthur, when an infant, to Sir Anton to bring him up, and he was
brought up as his foster-son.
Wherefore Merlin took the child,
And gave him to Sir Anton, an old Knight
And ancient friend of Uther;
Malory in his _Morte d’Arthur_ says:
So the child was delivered unto Merlin, and so he bore it forth unto
Sir Ector, and made an holy man to christen him, and named him Arthur:
Uther Pendragon dying while Arthur was yet an infant, the succession to
the kingdom was in doubt, and in order to prove who was the rightful
heir to the realm, the method of drawing a sword from a stone was
adopted. This stone, which was in the churchyard of St. Stephen’s,
London, was like a marble stone, with an anvil of steel in the middle
a foot high, and on it was placed a sword naked to the point, and
inscribed thus:
Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil is rightful king
born of all England.
Malory: _Morte d’Arthur_, Book I, chap. iii.
Some 200 knights tried to release it but failed. Arthur alone could
draw it, whereby proving his right of succession to the kingdom.
And right as Arthur did at Christmas he did at Candlemas, and pulled
out the sword easily, whereof the barons were sore aggrieved,
Malory: _Morte d’Arthur_, Book I, chap. iv.
At the age of fifteen he was crowned at Caerleon-upon-Usk by Dubricius,
archbishop of the ‘City of Legions.’ No sooner had he ascended the
throne than slanderous statements began to be circulated as to his
birth, some maintaining he was not the son of Uther and Ygernê:
‘Away with him!
No king of ours! a son of Gorloïs he,
Or else the child of Anton, and no king,
Or else baseborn.’
Others said that he was cast up from the sea on the ninth wave:
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!’
Whilst another version says:
Or if some other told,
How once the wandering forester at dawn,
Far over the blue tarns and hazy seas,
On Caer-Eryri’s highest found the King,
A naked babe, of whom the Prophet spake,
A great war took place between Arthur and eleven kings, all of whom
were slain. Having defeated his enemies he ruled over the kingdom
wisely, establishing order throughout the land, for since the death of
Uther, lawlessness had become rampant. Meeting one day king Pellinore,
he attacked him, and in the encounter their swords met with such force
that the sword of king Arthur was broken in two pieces; but in order
to save his life--being now defenceless--Merlin cast an enchantment on
Pellinore, and he fell to the earth in a deep sleep, and Arthur was
borne away to a place of safety. After three days, when the king’s
wounds were healed, Arthur told Merlin he had no sword. So they rode
till they came to a lake, and afar out in the midst of the lake, an arm
clad in white samite rose from out the water and held up a fair sword.
Then came the Lady of the Lake moving upon the water. ‘Enter into
yonder barge,’ she said, ‘and row to the sword and take it;’ whereupon
the king rowed out in the middle of the lake and seized the sword. The
weapon, which was called Excalibur, was possessed with magic power, and
gave light equal to thirty torches; and it was with this sword that he
defeated all his enemies. He then began his career of conquests. He is
supposed to have fought and won twelve great battles over the Saxons,
Picts and Scots; the first was fought in Northumberland, by the river
Glen; the second, third, fourth and fifth were the four battles of the
Duglas; the sixth by the river Bassa; the seventh in the wood Celidon;
the eighth at Castle Gurnion,
where Arthur bore the image of the Holy Virgin, Mother of God, upon
his shoulders, and through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
the holy Mary, put the Saxons to flight, and pursued them the whole
day with great slaughter.
Nennius: _Six Chronicles._
It is however supposed to have been the head of the Virgin Mary
engraven on the shield borne by Arthur.
and again
By castle Gurnion, where the glorious King
Had on his cuirass worn our Lady’s Head,
Carved of one emerald center’d in a sun
Of silver rays, that lighten’d as he breathed
_Lancelot and Elaine._
Athwart his brest a bauldrick brave he ware,
That shind, like twinkling stars, with stones most pretious rare.
And in the midst thereof one pretious stone
Of wondrous worth, and eke of wondrous mights,
Shapt like a Ladies head, exceeding shone,
Like Hesperus amongst the lesser lights,
And strove for to amaze the weaker sights:
Spenser: _Faerie Queene, Book I. Canto vii._
Amazement runs before the towering casque
Of Arthur, bearing through the stormy field
The virgin sculptured on his Christian shield:
Wordsworth: _Ecclesiastical Sonnets, Part I. Stanza x._
The ninth battle was at Caerleon, or the ‘City of Legions’; the tenth
by the river Trath Treroit, the eleventh near Agned Cathregonion,
and the twelfth--the greatest victory of all--near Badon Hill. Some
authorities consider his kingdom embraced Devon, Cornwall and part of
Wales; others that it extended as far as the Orkneys, for we find that
the king of those islands was married to Arthur’s sister. Leodogran,
king of Cameliard, then appealed to Arthur to assist him in clearing
his kingdom of wild beasts and heathen hordes that swarmed from
overseas. Arthur accepted the call and leading all his knighthood threw
the
kings
Carádos, Urien, Cradlemont of Wales,
Claudias and Clariance of Northumberland,
The King Brandagoras of Latangor,
With Anguisant of Erin, Morganore,
And Lot of Orkney.
Meanwhile Arthur had fallen in love with king Leodogran’s daughter,
Guinevere, and from the battle-field sent three of his knights--Ulfius,
Brastias and Bedivere--to Leodogran, saying:
‘If I in aught have served thee well,
Give me thy daughter Guinevere to wife.’
but Leodogran, having heard of the suspicion attached to his birth
hesitated, but eventually satisfying himself gave his consent. The
marriage was however delayed as Arthur was compelled to enter upon
a campaign abroad, with the result that Ireland and Iceland, as well
as Norway and Gaul, were added to his conquests. Returning, he was
married by Dubric the high priest, amid great splendour, to Guinevere
at Camelot, in the church of St. Stephen’s.
St. Dubric went before Christ had chosen him.
The Archbishop of London walked by his side
And fifteen bishops chosen from many lands.
They were all hung about with very rich clothing
That was all embroidered with burnished gold.
Trumpets were blowing, bells were ringing,
Knights were riding, women forth gliding.
Kirtlan: _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight._
Leodogran gave Arthur for a wedding present the famous Round Table with
100 knights, which tradition says is still preserved at Winchester.
Arthur then established his new Order, known as the Knights of the
Round Table, and made his knights swear to live lives of purest
chastity, to love one maiden only, to redress human wrongs, and to
reverence their king as their conscience. To accommodate the magic
table a magnificent castle was erected, in the centre of which was a
banqueting hall.
‘O brother, had you known our mighty hall,
Which Merlin built for Arthur long ago!
For all the sacred mount of Camelot,
And all the dim rich city, roof by roof,
Tower after tower, spire beyond spire,’
Holding a royal feast and Table Round at Camelot there came into the
hall twelve men, ambassadors from Lucius, emperor of Rome, demanding
that Arthur should acknowledge him as his lord, and pay tribute as
his predecessors had done. Arthur met it with a counterclaim to the
empire for himself as being the real representative of Constantine,
and receiving promise of help from the knights and lords, held a Privy
Council at York to make the necessary arrangements for his departure,
and leaving his nephew sir Modred in charge of the kingdom, sailed from
Sandwich in Kent. Arriving in Brittany he met the united forces of the
Romans and Saracens, and in a great battle slew the emperor and his
allies, the sowdan of Syria, and the kings of Egypt and Ethiopia, sent
their bodies to the Senate at Rome, and marching over the Alps, through
Lombardy and Tuscany, arrived at Rome, where he was crowned king by
the pope. After sojourning in Rome for a short time, a message was
brought to him that his nephew Modred, whom he had left in charge of
his kingdom, had traitorously proclaimed himself king, and had seized
Guinevere and kept her a prisoner. Without delay Arthur returned home,
and landing at Dover was met by Modred, who being defeated fled with
his forces to Winchester. Arthur pursued after him, and joined forces
with him near the river Camel in Cornwall, where they fought all the
day long. As night drew nigh, and some 100,000 lay dead upon the field,
Arthur took his sword, held it with both hands, and ran towards sir
Modred, calling out ‘Death to thee, traitor!’ ‘pierced the helmet and
the brainpan, and sir Modred fell stark dead to the earth. And the
noble Arthur fell in a swoon to the earth.’
And uttering this the King
Made at the man; then Modred smote his liege
Hard on that helm which many a heathen sword
Had beaten thin; while Arthur at one blow,
Striking the last stroke with Excalibur,
Slew him, and all but slain himself, he fell.
Not one of sir Modred’s men remained alive, and of Arthur’s noble
men, sir Bedivere alone had escaped. Finding his end drawing nigh, he
commanded sir Bedivere to return his sword to the Lady of the Lake.
‘But now delay not: take Excalibur,
And fling him far into the middle mere:
Watch what thou seëst, and lightly bring me word.’
Twice did sir Bedivere go to the mere, and twice did his heart fail
him, for instead of flinging the brand into the water he hid it in
the waterflags about the marge. Returning to the dying king and being
questioned as to what he had seen, replied:
‘I heard the ripple washing in the reeds,
And the wild water lapping on the crag.’
Perceiving the knight’s deception, Arthur in wrath commanded him to
fulfil his task:
‘Unknightly, traitor-hearted! Woe is me!
Authority forgets a dying king,
* * * * *
get thee hence:
But, if thou spare to fling Excalibur,
I will arise and slay thee with my hands.’
whereupon the knight quickly rose, and going to the water side took the
sword with both hands and flung it in mid-stream, when an arm rose up
from out of the lake, caught it, and it disappeared for ever:
Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran,
And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged
Among the bulrush beds, and clutch’d the sword,
And strongly wheel’d and threw it. The great brand
Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon,
And flashing round and round, and whirl’d in an arch,
Shot like a streamer of the northern morn.
Seen where the moving isles of winter shock
By night, with noises of the Northern Sea.
So flash’d and fell the brand Excalibur:
But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
And caught him by the hilt, and brandish’d him
Three times, and drew him under in the mere.
Returning again to the king he told him what he had seen, and taking
the king upon his back, placed him in a barge in which were three
queens--Queen Morgan le Fay; the Queen of Northgales; and the Queen of
the Westerlands--who wept over him on account of his grievous wound.
Elsdale in his _Studies of the Idylls_ represents the three queens as
Faith, Hope and Charity. Then sir Bedivere seeing his noble master
about to leave him, asked permission to accompany him:
Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go?
Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?
For now I see the true old times are dead,
and Arthur slowly answered:
‘The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils Himself in many ways,
* * * * *
Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me?
I have lived my life, and that which I have done
May He within Himself make pure! but thou
If thou shouldst never see my face again,
Pray for my soul.
* * * * *
But now farewell. I am going a long way
With these thou seëst--
* * * * *
and the barge with oar and sail
Moved from the brink,
With the three mourning queens he passed up the Bristol Channel and
hence
To the island-valley of Avilion:
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies
Deep-meadow’d, happy, fair with orchard lawns
And bowery hollows crown’d with summer sea,
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.
And in the _Palace of Art_ the scene is pictured:
Or mythic Uther’s deeply-wounded son
In some fair space of sloping greens
Lay, dozing in the vale of Avalon,
And watch’d by weeping queens.
According to tradition, king Arthur is not dead but rests in
Glastonbury, ‘till he shall come again, full twice as fair, to rule
over his people.’ Cervantes in his _Don Quixote_ says:
that he did not die, but that, by magic art, he was transformed into
a raven: and that in process of time, he shall reign again, and
recover his kingdom and sceptre; for which reason it cannot be proved
that, from time to time, any Englishman hath killed a raven.
Some authorities contend that the mystery of his grave remains
unsolved, for
where is he who knows.
From the great deep to the great deep he goes.
Sharon Turner in his _History of the Anglo-Saxons_ says:
In 1189--in the reign of Henry II--the body of king Arthur was found
in Glastonbury Abbey sixteen feet under the surface. It was found
under a stone, bearing the inscription: _Hic jacit sepultus inciltus
rex Arthurus in Insula Avallonia_. The body was crumbled to dust, but
a lock of golden hair was found, supposed to be that of his wife.
In the British Museum is a fifteenth century MS., containing annals of
the Cistercian Abbey of Meaux, and a chronicle of events connected with
it from its establishment in 1150 to the reign of Henry VI. In this
MS., occurs the following:
In the twenty-third year of king Henry, the bodies of Arthur, some
time king of the Britons, and of Wenevere his wife, were found
at Glastonbury, between two stone pyramids formerly erected in
the sacred cemetery. They were hidden by a hollow oak, lay about
fifteen feet deep in the ground, and were distinguished by the most
unmistakeable marks; for Arthur’s thigh-bone, when examined, exceeded
by three fingers in length the tallest man’s thigh-bone that had
ever been found, when measured down to the knee. Moreover, the space
between his eyebrows was of the breadth of the palm of a man’s hand.
King Arthur has been made the hero of many adventures by romancers
and poets of the Middle Ages. The earliest legends are found in the
Welsh Tales, the three Welsh poets, Taliesin, Aneurin and Llywarch
Hen being the first to celebrate his deeds. In the twelfth century
Geoffrey of Monmouth introduced the legends into his Latin _History
of the Britons_. In 1196 archdeacon Map introduced the legend of the
_Quest of the Holy Grail_, and in 1485 sir Thomas Malory published
his _Morte d’Arthur_. It is from this work that Tennyson derived
most of the incidents narrated in his _Idylls of the King_, and his
_Morte d’Arthur_. Spenser introduced Arthur in his _Faerie Queene_,
and Blackwood wrote two epics, and Dryden produced a dramatic opera
entitled _King Arthur_. Later sir Walter Scott edited the old romance
of _Sir Tristram_, and in 1838 lady Charlotte Guest published a
translation of the mediæval Welsh tales, known as the _Mabinogion_. It
is from the latter work that Tennyson derived his characters for his
Idyll of _Geraint and Enid_.
_Morte d’Arthur_;
_Coming of Arthur_;
_Gareth and Lynette_;
_Marriage of Geraint_;
_Geraint and Enid_;
_Balin and Balan_;
_Merlin and Vivien_;
_Lancelot and Elaine_;
_Holy Grail_;
_Pelleas and Ettarre_;
_Last Tournament_;
_Guinevere_;
_Passing of Arthur_;
_Becket_;
_Merlin and the Gleam_.
ARUNDEL (Thomas).
Archbishop of Canterbury. Became bishop of Ely when only twenty-one
years of age, and was Lord Chancellor five times under Richard II and
Henry IV. In 1388 he was created archbishop of York, and translated to
Canterbury in 1396; banished for conspiracy against Richard II in 1397,
but returned to crown Henry IV in 1399. He was a vigorous persecutor of
the Wickliffites (1353-1414).
_Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham._
ARVIRAGUS.
Younger son of Cymbeline, a king of Britain from the time of the
invasion of Claudius to the reign of Vespasian. Upon the arrival of
Joseph of Arimathæa (_q.v._) Arviragus gave him permission to settle,
and presented him with land upon which to erect a church.
‘From our old books I know
That Joseph came of old to Glastonbury,
And there the heathen Prince, Arviragus,
Gave him an isle of march whereon to build;
And there he built with wattles from the marsh
A little lonely church in days of yore.’
Arviragus is one of the characters in Shakespeare’s _Cymbeline_.
_Holy Grail._
ASAPH.
The Levite, chief musician to king David. Considered to have been the
founder of a guild of singers in the second Temple.
I have built the Lord a house--sing Asaph! clash
The cymbal, Heman! blow the trumpet, priest!
Fall, cloud, and fill the house--lo! my two pillars,
Jachim and Boaz!
_Harold._
ASCALON.
A city of the Philistines. The Egyptian army, sent by the Sultan of
Egypt to recapture Jerusalem, was defeated near this town by the
Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon, August 12, 1099. Recaptured by the
Moslems, it was retaken in 1157 by Baldwin III, and in 1192 was the
scene of a great victory gained by the Christians under Richard I, over
the Saracen army under Saladin. Its fortifications were demolished by
the Sultan Bibars, in 1270.
_The Princess._
ASH.
ASHTREE.
A genus of trees of the Olive family.
_Amphion_;
_The Princess_;
_In Memoriam_;
_Harold_;
_The Foresters_;
_Promise of May_.
ASHRIDGE.
_Gardiner._ I think she means to counsel your withdrawing
To Ashridge, or some other country house.
* * * * *
_Elizabeth._ ’Tis mine own wish fulfill’d before the word
Was spoken, for in truth I had meant to crave
Permission of Her Highness to retire
To Ashridge,
Ashridge House, in Buckinghamshire, was founded in 1221 by Edmund, earl
of Cornwall, a grandson of king John, for an order of friars, called
Bonhommes. After the dissolution of the monasteries it was given to
the princess Elizabeth by her brother, Edward VI, after whose death
she continued to occupy it during the reign of Mary, and after her
retirement from court made it her permanent residence until she was
suspected of conniving at sir Thomas Wyatt’s rebellion, when she was
removed to the Tower.
_Queen Mary._
ASIA.
_Locksley Hall Sixty Years After._
ASMODEUS.
Devils pluck’d my sleeve,
Abaddon and Asmodeus caught at me.
The angel of the bottomless pit.
_St. Simeon Stylites._
ASPASIA.
The most accomplished woman in Athens during the government of that
city by Pericles, whose mistress she was. When Pericles was deposed
from the office of General in 430 +B.C.+ Aspasia was, by the poet
Hermippus, charged with impiety and brought to trial, but the pleading
of Pericles procured her acquittal, and subsequently a decree was
passed legitimizing her son.
_The Princess._
ASPEN.
ASPEN-TREE.
A species of the poplar; the trembling poplar.
_Lady of Shalott_;
_A Farewell_;
_Lancelot and Elaine_.
ASPHODEL.
A plant of the lily species.
_Œnone_;
_Lotos-Eaters_;
_Demeter and Persephone_.
ASPICK.
A venomous serpent.
_Dream of Fair Women._
ASS.
A well-known quadruped of the horse family.
_The Princess_;
_Last Tournament_;
_Queen Mary_.
ASSAYE.
Against the myriads of Assaye
Clash’d with his fiery few and won;
A small town in the Deccan, India. Here Wellington, with an army of
4,500 English and Sepoy troops defeated the Mahratta army, consisting
of 30,000 men, on August 23, 1803.
_Ode on the death of the Duke of Wellington._
ASSYRIAN BULL.
That oil’d and curl’d Assyrian Bull
Smelling of musk and of insolence,
Her brother,
Maud’s brother, with his well-oil’d and groomed curly hair, and
his dignified manner, is represented here by the Assyrian Bull,
human-headed winged lions and bulls, sculptured in stone as found
among Assyrian antiquities.
_Maud._
ASTOLAT.
According to Malory, the town of Guildford in Surrey, thirty miles
south-west of London, and situated on the river Wey; a tributary of the
Thames.
And then he rode so much until he came to Astolat, that is Gilford.
Malory: _Morte d’Arthur, Book XVIII. chap. ix._
It was the home of Elaine ‘the lily maid of Astolat.’
_Lancelot and Elaine._
ASTRÆAN.
The second-sight of some Astræan age,
Astræa, which means ‘star-bright’ was a daughter of Astræus and Eos,
or, according to another account, of Zeus and Themis. She lived among
men on earth during the golden age, and in the brazen age was the
last to withdraw into the sky, where she shines as the constellation
of Virgo. Should the golden age ever return it is believed she will
re-establish her home on earth again. Many poets make reference to this
theory, but the best known is Dryden’s _Astræa Redux_.
_The Princess._
ATHELING (Edgar).
_See_ =Edgar (the Atheling)=.
ATHELING (Edmund).
_See_ =Edmund Atheling=.
ATHELSTAN.
King of the Mercians and West-Saxons, and afterwards of all the
English. Son of Edward the Elder and grandson of Alfred the Great.
Defeated the Welsh of Devonshire, Cornwall and Wales, and in 937 in a
decisive battle defeated the Welsh, Scots and Danes at Brunanburh. He
died at Gloucester in 940, and was buried at Malmesbury (895-940).
Athelstan King,
Lord among Earls,
Bracelet-bestower and
Baron of Barons,
He with his brother,
Edmund Atheling,
Gaining a lifelong
Glory in battle,
Slew with the sword-edge
There by Brunanburh,
_Battle of Brunanburh_;
_Harold_.
ATHENE (Pallas).
_See_ =Pallas, Pallas Athene=.
ATHENS.
Capital of the kingdom of Greece.
_Freedom._
ATHOS.
Signifies ‘Holy Hill.’ A mountain in the peninsula of Salonica, 6,780
feet high. It is celebrated for its twenty large monasteries, built
during the ninth and tenth centuries, the first of which is said to
have been founded by the empress Helena. The roofs of these monastic
buildings sparkle with hues of bronze and purple and gold, and present
a very picturesque appearance. There are many legends connected with
the mountain.
_To E. L._
ATLANTIC.
The Atlantic Ocean.
_Third of February_;
_The Princess_;
_Columbus_.
AUBREY (Ellen).
_See_ =Ellen, Ellen Aubrey=.
AUDLEY.
AUDLEY COURT.
‘Let us picnic there
At Audley Court.’
I spoke, while Audley feast
Humm’d like a hive all round the narrow quay.
A place-name in the poem entitled _Audley Court_. The poem was
suggested by Abbey Park, at Torquay.
_Audley Court._
AUGUSTINE.