Built it firm of posts and planks;
Julius Cæsar built it next;
Cæsar marched through London Town,
When Duke Brutus killed him dead.
Good St. Olave dinged it down;
So he saved us from the foe;
So we built his holy shrine.
Norman William built it up,
Built it strong of wood and iron;
He was crowned in London Town.
London Bridge is broken down;
Who will build it up again?
We must build it up again.
How shall we build it up again?
_Queen Mary._
LOT.
King of Orkney, married Bellicent, daughter of Gorloïs, lord of
Tintagel Castle, Cornwall. Father of sir Gawain and sir Modred. Made
war on king Arthur on several occasions, notably that of the great
battle of the kings. Allied himself with Nero, brother of King Rience
of North Wales against Arthur and in the battle which ensued was slain
by Pellinore. In Geoffrey of Monmouth he is called king of Norway.
_Coming of Arthur_;
_Gareth and Lynette_;
_Balin and Balan_;
_Lancelot and Elaine_.
LOTOS--LOTUS.
A low thorny shrub, a native of Northern Africa, fabled by the ancients
to make strangers who ate of it to forget their native country, or lose
all desire to return to it.
_Œnone_;
_Lotos-Eaters_;
_Akbar’s Dream_.
LOTOS-EATERS.
And round about the keel with faces pale,
Dark faces pale against that rosy flame,
The mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters came.
A race of people who lived in Cyrenaica, a district on the north and
north-east coast of Africa (Tripoli and Tunis), who lived on the fruit
of the lotos tree.
_Lotos-Eaters._
LOTOS-LAND.
In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined
On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind.
The north and north-east coast of Africa.
_Lotos-Eaters._
LOT’S WIFE.
see how you stand
Stiff as Lot’s wife,
_See Genesis xix. 26._
_The Princess._
LOTUS.
_See_ =Lotos=.
LOUIS.
LOUIS OF FRANCE.
Son of Louis VI, whom he succeeded in 1137. Engaged in a crusade but
was defeated by Saladin. Having divorced his wife Eleanor, she married
Henry II of England by which the provinces of Poitou and Guienne were
annexed to the English crown. This produced war between England and
France which lasted twenty-one years (1120-1180).
_Becket._
LOVER’S BAY.
_Lover’s Tale._
LOVER’S LEAP.
_Lover’s Tale._
LUCILIA.
_See_ =Lucretius=.
LUCIUS JUNIUS BRUTUS.
Son of Junius and Tarquinia, sister of Superbus. When Tarquin put his
brother to death Brutus pretended to be an idiot, hence his name,
meaning ‘stupid.’ When the public indignation was aroused on account
of the foul outrage on Lucretia by Tarquin’s son, he raised a revolt
and expelled the tyrant from Rome. In 509 he became the first consul of
Rome and sentenced to death his two sons found guilty of conspiring to
restore the monarchy and in the same year was killed in an attack led
on by Aruns, son of Tarquin.
_The Princess._
LUCKNOW.
City in British India, and capital of the district of Lucknow and of
the old province of Oudh. During the Indian Mutiny it underwent a siege
of six months at the hands of the mutineers. It was relieved by sir
Colin Campbell.
_Defence of Lucknow._
LUCRETIUS.
Lucilia, wedded to Lucretius, found
Her master cold;
The poem portrays the ravings of the maddened Lucretius. His wife,
Lucilia, not being satisfied with her husband’s conduct towards her,
mixed a love-philtre and mingled it with his drink. At one moment he
cursed, and the next revelled in, the animal passion.
--how the sun delights
To glance and shift about her slippery sides,
And rosy knees and supple roundedness,
And budded bosom-peaks--
He raved against love and the gods, and lashing himself into a frenzy
committed suicide.
_Lucretius._
LUCULLUS.
that Lucullus or Apicus might have sniffed it in their Hades of
heathenism,
A Roman general and epicure, who distinguished himself in the war
against Mithridates, and who was celebrated for the luxurious life he
lived at Rome. For placing before him one day a less sumptuous feast
than usual he reprimanded his servant, remarking:
‘Are you aware, sirrah, that Lucullus dines with Lucullus to-day?’
_Becket._
LUCUMO.
_See_ =Lar=.
LUCY.
Daughter of the village squire. She was supposed to have an ungainly
deportment.
An’ Lucy wur laäme o’ one leg, sweet-’arts she niver ’ed none--
Straänge an’ unheppen Miss Lucy! we naämed her ‘Dot an’ gaw one!’
_Village Wife._
LUDGATE.
A famous London gateway supposed to have been built by Lud, king of
the Britons, who lies buried beneath the gate.
_Queen Mary._
LUNNON (London).
_Northern Farmer, Old Style_;
_Promise of May_.
LURE.
Yet while they rode together down the plain,
Their talk was all of training, terms of art,
Diet and seeling, jesses, leash and lure.
A decoy, used in falconry for training the hawk.
_Merlin and Vivien._
LUSCOMBE.
A farm labourer.
_Promise of May._
LUSITANIAN.
But such whose father-grape grew fat
On Lusitanian summers.
= Lusitania, the ancient name for Portugal.
_Will Waterproof’s Lyrical Monologue._
LUTHER.
The ghosts of Luther and Zuinglius fade
Into the deathless hell which is their doom
Before my star!
Has reference to Martin Luther, the protestant reformer.
_To J. M. K._;
_Queen Mary_.
LUTTERWORTH.
Not least art thou, thou little Bethlehem
In Judah, for in thee the Lord was born;
Nor thou in Britain, little Lutterworth,
Least, for in thee the word was born again.
A town in Leicestershire, the church of which John Wycliffe was Rector
from 1374 till his death in 1384. He was buried there, but in 1428 his
remains were exhumed and burned, and the ashes cast into the river
Swift that flows through Lutterworth on its course to the Avon.
‘the little river conveyed Wycliff’s remains into the Avon, Avon into
the Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they to the main ocean. And
thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now
is dispersed all the world over.’
_Thomas Fuller._
_Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham._
LYCIAN CUSTOM.
Appraised the Lycian custom, spoke of those
That lay at wine with Lar and Lucumo:
The ‘custom’ referred to here is that the Lycians, inhabitants of the
country of Lycia in Asia Minor took their names from their mothers and
not their fathers, and always reckoned their ancestry in the female
line.
_The Princess._
LYDIAN CARPETS.
Lay down the Lydian carpets for the king.
Lydia was a country of Asia Minor and as early as 700 +B.C.+ was a
powerful empire and a centre of religion and culture. It was noted for
its music, its purple dyes, and the weaving of carpets in colours and
patterns.
_The Cup._
LYDIAN LAUGHTER.
as we wander’d to and fro
Gazing at the Lydian laughter of the Garda Lake below
Sweet Catullus’s all-but-island,
= Soft, melodious, as the ancient Greek mode of music known as Lydian.
_Frater Ave Atque Vale._
LYNETTE.
Sister to the lady Lyonors. She was a high-spirited girl and
exceedingly proud, a fact of which she was reminded by the peacock in
his pride that ladies should be of a loving and gentle disposition.
And there they placed a peacock in his pride
Beside the damsel, and the Baron set
Gareth beside her, but at once she rose.
Lynette went to king Arthur to ask for a knight to deliver her sister
Lyonors (_q.v._) from the tyranny of four knights who held her prisoner
in Castle Perilous.
_Gareth and Lynette._
LYNX.
An animal resembling the common cat; with a short tail and ears tipped
with pencils of hair.
_Becket._
LYONESSE--LYONNESSE.
Considered to have been a country uniting the Scilly islands with
western Cornwall, and now covered by the sea. The ‘last weird battle in
the west’ between king Arthur and sir Modred is supposed to have been
fought here.
Then rose the King and moved his host by night,
And ever push’d Sir Modred, league by league,
Back to the sunset bound of Lyonnesse--
A land of old upheaven from the abyss
By fire, to sink into the abyss again;
Where fragments of forgotten peoples dwelt,
And the long mountains ended in a coast
Of ever-shifting sand, and far away
The phantom circle of a moaning sea.
_Morte d’Arthur_;
_Lancelot and Elaine_;
_Last Tournament_;
_Merlin and Vivien_;
_Guinevere_;
_Passing of Arthur_.
LYONORS.
The lady of Castle Perilous, where she was held captive by four
knights. Her sister, the lady Lynette, went to king Arthur to ask for
a knight to deliver her from the tyrants. The king gave the quest to
sir Gareth (_q.v._) who overcame the knights and liberated the lady,
whom according to Malory he married. Tennyson however makes Gareth
marry Lynette.
And he that told the tale in older times
Says that Sir Gareth wedded Lyonors,
But he, that told it later, says Lynette.
_Gareth and Lynette._
MACAW.
A tropical bird of the parrot tribe, with long tail and a hooked jaw.
_Day-Dream._
MACHREE.
An’ shure thin ye’ll meet me tomorra?’
‘Tomorra, tomorra, Machree!’
_Tomorrow._
MACREADY.
A famous tragedian; was manager of Covent Garden, and afterwards of
Drury Lane Theatres. He was a friend of Tennyson, and on his retirement
from the stage the poet addressed the following sonnet to him:
Farewell, Macready, since to-night we part
Full-handed thunders often have confessed
Thy power, well used to move the public breast.
We thank thee with our voice and from the heart.
Farewell, Macready, since this night we part.
Go, take thine honours home; rank with the best,
Garrick and statelier Kemble, and the rest,
Who made a nation purer thro’ their art.
Thine is it that our drama did not die,
Nor flicker down to brainless pantomime,
And those gilt gauds men-children swarm to see.
Farewell, Macready; moral, grave, sublime;
Our Shakespeare’s bland and universal eye
Dwells pleased, thro’ twice a hundred years, on thee.
_To W. C. Macready._
MADELINE.
Described by the poet as a person of an ever-changing mood. He speaks
of her as ‘Ever-varying Madeline,’ and remarks that her smiles and
frowns seem to be part of each other.
Thy smile and frown are not aloof
From one another,
Each to each is dearest brother;
_Madeline._
MAELDUNE.
The hero of an Irish legend +A.D.+ 700. He was the son of Owenacht of
Aran, but before his birth his father was killed by a band of robbers.
When he had grown to manhood he determined to seek out his father’s
murderers, and with a crew of some fifty men set out on his voyage.
The vessel was blown away from the coast of Ireland, probably amongst
the Hebrides, and they visited islands,--described by the poet as the
Isle of a Saint, the Bounteous Isle, Isle of Fire, Isle of Flowers,
Isle of Fruits, Isle of Shouting, Isle of the Double Towers, the Isle
of Witches, and the Silent Isle--which abounded with monstrous animals,
fruits, shouting birds, and biting horses of gigantic size, lakes of
fire and of witches. Eventually they came to a bare rock upon which was
a fortress where lived his father’s murderers, but instead of slaying
them, he forgave them in thankfulness to God for having delivered him
from so many perils.
_Voyage of Maeldune._
MAGDALEN.
A character in _Queen Mary_.
_Queen Mary._
MAGDALEN (Saint Mary).
_Becket._
MAGEE (Molly).
_See_ =Dan, Danny O’Roon=.
MAGPIE.
A bird of the genus _Pica_, allied to the jay.
_To Rev. F. D. Maurice._
MAHOMET.
till warming with her theme
She fulmined out her scorn of laws Salique
And little-footed China, touch’d on Mahomet
With much contempt, and came to chivalry:
Probably refers to the system of Islam, which permits polygamy, or to
the general idea that Mahomet considered that women have no souls.
_The Princess._
MAHOUND.
The corrupt form of the name Mahomet used by old writers.
_Becket_;
_The Foresters_.
MAID MARIAN.
Supposed to have been the daughter of sir Richard Lea, who assumed the
name of Maid Marian while Robin Hood remained in a state of outlawry.
She is frequently mentioned as the paramour of Robin Hood. She was
supposed to have been poisoned at Dunmow Priory by order of king John,
because she rejected him.
_Queen Mary_;
_The Foresters_.
MAID OF ASTOLAT.
Elaine the fair, Elaine the loveable,
Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat,
High in her chamber up a tower to the east
Guarded the sacred shield of Lancelot;
_See_ =Elaine=.
_Lancelot and Elaine._
MAIDSTONE.
The county town of Kent, situated on the river Medway.
_Queen Mary._
MAIDSTONE MARKET.
_Queen Mary._
MALET.
William Malet of Graville in Normandy and a companion of the Conqueror.
Was sheriff of York till 1068, taken prisoner at the capture of York in
1069, but subsequently released.
_Harold._
MALLEOR.
or him
Of Geoffrey’s book, or him of Malleor’s,
= Sir Thomas Malory, author of _Morte d’Arthur_.
_To the Queen, II._
MALLOW.
A plant which grows on marshy or moist soils.
_The Brook._
MALVOISIE.
= Malmsey, a sweet wine from Crete, Canary Islands, and the Azores.
_The Foresters._
MAMMON.
He believed
This filthy marriage-hindering Mammon made
The harlot of the cities:
Has reference to the Syrian god of wealth, and wishes to convey that
persons prevented from marrying on account of material wealth are apt
to fall into dissipation.
_Aylmer’s Field._
MAMMONITE MOTHER.
When a Mammonite mother kills her babe for a burial fee,
The mother subscribes to an Insurance Society and then murders her
child in order to get its funeral expenses.
_Maud._
MANCHESTER.
Tho’ niggard throats of Manchester may bawl
What England was, shall her true sons forget?
Has reference to the ‘School of Manchester’ who protested against the
Crimean war.
_Third of February._
MANSFIELD.
A town in Nottinghamshire.
_The Foresters._
MANTOVANO.
I salute thee, Mantovano, I that loved thee since my day began,
Wielder of the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of man.
Has reference to Virgil, the Latin poet, who was born near Mantua.
_To Virgil._
MAP.
_See_ =Walter Map=.
MARAH.
_Becket._ Breaking already from thy noviciate
To plunge into this bitter world again--
These wells of Marah.
_See Exodus xv. 23._
_Becket._
MARGARET.
Represented by the poet as a pale, delicate and pensive girl, and also
appears at times to be given to melancholy. He compares her to the calm
sea, and also speaks of her as the evening star.
alway
Remaining betwixt dark and bright:
_Margaret._
MARGARET.
Friend of a little girl Alice, who is to be ‘Queen of the May.’
_May Queen._
MARGARET.
The three year old daughter of a city clerk, gently born and bred,
who with his wife and child was spending a holiday at the sea-side.
The mother rocked Margaret’s cradle, singing her to sleep with the
well-known slumber song:
‘What does little birdie say.’
_Sea Dreams._
MARGERY.
Daughter of a poor woman, who received permission from the priest,
Father Philip, to send her daughter into the world to earn her own
living as a bower-maid. Margery related ‘he asked our mother if I could
keep a quiet tongue i’ my head, and not speak till I was spoke to.’
Fulfilling these conditions she was to be advanced into the service
of a great lady, namely Rosamund de Clifford, paramour of Henry the
Second. It was Margery, however, who first disclosed to Rosamund the
secret fact of Henry’s marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine. The news
caused great grief to Rosamund. Margery left the bower, singing:
Bee mustn’t buzz,
Whoop--but he knows.
_Becket._
MARIA.
_Pole._ Ave Maria, gratia plena, Benedicta tu in mulieribus.
= Virgin Mary.
_Queen Mary._
MARIAM (ISSA BEN).
_See_ =Issa Ben Mariam=.
MARIAN.
_See_ =Maid Marian=.
MARIAN.
The dead wife of a friend in the poem. He induced him to leave London,
and come to spend a few days with him at his country home.
Is memory with your Marian gone to rest,
Dead with the dead?
The writer thought that a change of scenery would be some consolation
to him in his grief for his wife Marian.
_To Mary Boyle._
MARIE.
MARIE ALEXANDROVNA.
Only daughter of Alexander II, czar of Russia, married to the duke of
Edinburgh, second son of the late queen Victoria, at St. Petersburg,
January 23, 1874.
_A Welcome to Her Royal Highness Marie Alexandrovna,
Duchess of Edinburgh._
MARK.
of Tintagel Castle, king of Cornwall. He was a man of vice and
treachery, and was hated by all the Knights of the Round Table. He
sent an envoy to king Arthur bearing a costly cloth of gold as a gift
to the king, with a request that Arthur would knight him, as he had
knighted Tristram, but the king rejected with scorn both the gift and
the request.
Then came in hall the messenger of Mark,
A name of evil savour in the land,
The Cornish king. In either hand he bore
What dazzled all, and alone far-off as shines
A field of charlock in the sudden sun
Between two showers, a cloth of palest gold,
Which down he laid before the throne, and knelt,
Delivering, that his lord, the vassal king,
Was ev’n upon his way to Camelot;
For having heard that Arthur of his grace
Had made his goodly cousin, Tristram, knight,
And, he himself was of the greater state,
Being a king, he trusted his liege-lord
Would yield him this large honour all the more;
So pray’d him well to accept this cloth of gold,
In token of true heart and feälty.
Then Arthur cried to rend the cloth, to rend
In pieces, and so cast it on the hearth.
Being jealous of the popularity of his brother Boudwin he murdered
him. He married Isolt, daughter of king Anguish of Ireland. He plotted
against his nephew Tristram (_q.v._), who had married Isolt, daughter
of Howell, king of Brittany, and finally slew him whilst dallying with
his wife.
He spoke, he turn’d, then, flinging round her neck,
Claspt it, and cried ‘Thine Order, O my Queen!’
But, while he bow’d to kiss the jewell’d throat,
Out of the dark, just as the lips had touch’d,
Behind him rose a shadow and a shriek--
‘Mark’s way,’ said Mark, and clove him thro’ the brain.
_Gareth and Lynette_;
_Balin and Balan_;
_Merlin and Vivien_;
_Last Tournament_.
MARK ANTONY.
Marcus Antonius, son of Marcus Antonius Creticus and Julia, sister
of Julius Cæsar. He became consul with Cæsar 44 +B.C.+, whom he
accompanied to Gaul. When Cæsar was murdered on the Ides of March he
formed a triumvirate and defeated Brutus and Cassius at Philippi.
Fell in love with Cleopatra, with whom he lived in luxury in Egypt.
Eventually he was deposed by the Triumvirate and war being proclaimed
he was defeated in a naval engagement off Actium, by Octavius, +B.C.+
31. His outburst against Cleopatra after his defeat is depicted in
Shakespeare’s _Antony and Cleopatra, Act iv. Scene xii_.
All is lost;
This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me:
My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder
They cast their caps up and carouse together
Like friends long lost. Triple-turn’d whore! ’tis thou
Hast sold me to this novice; and my heart
Makes only war on thee.
and when she has left him, he proceeds:
’Tis well thou’rt gone,
If it be well to live; but better ’twere
Thou fell’st into my fury, for one death
Might have prevented many. Eros, ho!
The shirt of Nessus is upon me:
Twelve months later he committed suicide (83-30 +B.C.+).
_Dream of Fair Women._
MARRIS (Bessy).
_See_ =Bessy Marris=.
MARS.
The Roman god of war. He was regarded as the father of Romulus, the
founder of Rome.
_Maud_;
_Locksley Hall Sixty Years After_.
MARSH-DIVER.
_The Princess._
MARSH-MARIGOLD.
A genus of plants of the Ranunculus order, having large yellow flowers,
common in marshes.
_Queen Mary._
MARY.
But ‘Ave Mary,’ made she moan,
And ‘Ave Mary,’ night and morn,
= ‘Hail Mary,’ a prayer to the Virgin Mary.
_Mariana in the South_;
_Harold_;
_The Foresters_.
MARY.
One of four girl friends spoken of by Alice, the ‘Queen of the May.’
_May Queen._
MARY.
When Lazarus left his charnel-cave,
And home to Mary’s house return’d,
Was this demanded--if he yearn’d
To hear her weeping by his grave?
Sister of Martha and Lazarus.
_In Memoriam._
MARY.
The silver year should cease to mourn and sigh--
Not long to wait--
So close are we, dear Mary, you and I
To that dim gate.
= Mary Boyle, to whom the _Progress of Spring_ is dedicated.
_To Mary Boyle._
MARY.
Wife of Romney, the great painter, who married when he was only
nineteen. Sir Joshua and other artists remarked to him that marriage
spoiled an artist, and almost immediately he forsook his wife and
young child, and scarcely saw them until the close of his life. When
old and weary and desolate he returned to her, who received him kindly
and nursed him until he died. Before his death he implored for her
forgiveness, and said he
lost
Salvation for a sketch.
_Romney’s Remorse._
MARY.
Queen of England, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.
On the death of Edward VI she was proclaimed queen. The duke of
Northumberland had however induced Edward VI to set aside Henry’s will
in favour of lady Jane Grey, who had married his son, lord Guildford
Dudley, but the country favoured Mary and she entered London in triumph
on July 10, 1553. Northumberland and others were executed, including
lady Jane Grey and her husband, and the Roman Catholic religion was
again restored. The unpopularity of the proposal to marry Philip of
Spain brought about the rebellion of sir Thomas Wyatt, which was
crushed with severity, and the princess Elizabeth being suspected was
committed to the Tower, and afterwards removed to Woodstock. In 1555
persecution broke out which gave her the name of ‘Bloody Mary,’ some
300 persons, including Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer being sent to the
stake. At the instigation of Philip she declared war with France, with
the result that Calais was lost to England. During the last years of
her reign she suffered from ill-health, and her unhappy and childless
marriage, aggravated by the loss of Calais, produced a fever of which
she died on November 17, 1558, and with her ended the domination of
the papal power in England.
_Queen Mary._
MARY.
MARY MORRISON.
The lover, and eventually the wife of William, son of farmer Allan.
_Dora._
MARY OF ENGLAND.
_See_ =Mary (Queen of England)=.
MARY OF SCOTLAND.
_See_ =Scots (Mary, Queen of)=.
MASTIFF.
A large dog.
_Promise of May._
MATILDA (or Maud).
Daughter of Henry I of England. Married in 1114 to the emperor Henry
V, and after his death in 1128 to Geoffrey Plantagenet. On the death
of her father, her cousin Stephen (_q.v._) became king, and civil war
broke out. In 1139 she arrived in England from Normandy, defeated and
took Stephen prisoner at the battle of Lincoln, but being defeated
herself she fled to Normandy. In 1153 a peace was concluded by which it
was agreed that Matilda’s son Henry should be Stephen’s successor.
_Becket._
MAUD.
Daughter of a man who by speculation came into possession of a hall
and certain estates. The son of the ruined man thought of leaving the
hateful neighbourhood, but as Maud, the playmate of his youth, returned
to the hall, he remained. Maud was perfectly beautiful, but her face
was expressionless. She grew to love the playmate of her youth, to
whom she had been betrothed since birth. Her harsh brother forbade all
intercourse, but her lover invited her to meet him in the garden, using
the lovely lyric,
‘Come into the garden, Maud.
The trysting-place was however discovered by her brother and a certain
young lord. High words ensued, followed by a duel. Maud’s brother was
shot dead--and the lover fled to the Breton coast. The news of Maud’s
death reached him and he fell into the apathy of despair.
_Maud._
MAURICE (Rev. Frederick Denison).
Theologian and social reformer and friend of the poet. Son of a
Unitarian minister, in 1812 went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and
founded--in conjunction with Sterling--the Apostles Club; in 1834
proceeded to Oxford and took his degree; appointed chaplain of Guy’s
Hospital 1837; and from 1846-53 was Professor of Theology at King’s
College, having in the meantime appeared before the principal to
answer the charges of heterodoxy brought against him in the _Quarterly
Review_.
For, being of that honest few,
Who give the Fiend himself his due,
Should eighty thousand college-councils
Thunder ‘Anathema,’ friend, at you;
Should all our Churchmen foam in spite
At you, so careful of the right,
Yet one lay-hearth would give you welcome
(Take it and come) to the Isle of Wight;
In 1852 he was godfather to Hallam Tennyson.
Come, when no graver cares employ,
Godfather, come and see your boy:
Your presence will be sun in winter,
Making the little one leap for joy.