mpHfvpp IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I |iO "^^ l^H I4£ 12.0 IL25 in 1.4 I 1.6 Hiotographic ^Sciences Corporation 23 WIST MAIN STRUT WHSTM.N.Y. I4SM (716) 872.4903 ^\ s^^ ^v \\ 0^ k npHfMPP CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques h Tachntcai and Bibliographic Notaa/Notaa tachniquas at bibliographiquaa Tha Instituta has attamptad to obtain tha baat original copy availabia for filming. Faaturaa of this copy which may ba bibiiographically uniqua, which may altar any of tha imagaa in tha raproduction, or which may significantly changa tha usual mathod of filming, ara chaekad balow. 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This Item is filmed at tha reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film* au taux da reduction indlqui ei>das30us. 10X 14X 18X 22X 2SX 30X y 12X IfX 20X 24X 28X 32X Th« oopy ftlm«d tmn has baan raproduead thanks to tha ganaroaity of: DafMrtimnt of Rart Books Mid SpaeM CollMtkNW, MeQill Univtrtity, Montraal. Tha imagaa appaaring hara ara tha poaaiMa eonaidaring tha condition of tlw original copy and in kaaping filming contract apacif icationa. quality lagibiilty tha L'axampiaira fHmd fut raproduit grica * ia gdniroait* da: Dapartimnt of Rart Books and Spadai Coliaettom, MeQill Univanity, Monttaai. imagaa auhrantaa ont 4t* raproduitoa avac la plua grand aoin. eompta tinu da la condition at da la naciat* da l'axampiaira film4. at an oonformitA avae laa conditiona du eontrat da fNmaga. Original copiaa in printad papar covara ara fNmad baginning with tha front covar and anding on tha iaat paga with a printad or iliuatratod impraa- aion. or tho book eovar whan appropriata. All othor original copiaa ara fllmad baginning on tho firat paga with a printad or illuatratad impraa- alon. and anding on tho kMet paga with a printad or Illuatratad impra a a l on. Laa axamplairaa originaux dont la cOuvorturo on poplar aat imprimda sont fHmda an common^nt par la pramiar plat at an tarminant aoit par la da m iira paga qui comporto una amprainta dimpraaaion ou dlHuatration. aoit par la aaeond plat, a alon la caa. Toua laa autraa wamplairao originaux sont fHmda 9in common^ant par la pramlAro paga qui comporto uno amprainta dHmpraaaien ou dlHuatration at an tarminant par la damlAra paga qui comporto uno tollo Tho Iaat raoordod framo on aaoh mierofioho ahoH contain tha symbol «^ I moaning "CON> TINUIO"). or tho aymbol ▼ (moaning "END"). Mapa, piataa, charts, ate., may ba fNmad at d i ffarant raduetion ratioa. Thoaa too larga to bo ontiraly ineludod In ono axpoaura ara fHmad baginning in tha uppar iaft hand comor. loft to right and top to bottom, so many framaa as raquirad. Tha following dlagrama IHuatrata tho Un daa symboiaa suivanta apparaftra tur la damiira imaga do chaqua mieroficha. aalon lo caa: la symbolo -» aigniflo "A SUIVRE". lo symbolo V slgniflo "RN". planchaa. tabiaaux, ate., pauvant 4tra fllmda A daa taux da rMuetion diffiranta. lArsquo lo doeumont sst trop grand pour too raproduit on un soul cHehd. ii sot fiimd i partir da I'angia aupdriaur gaueho. da gaueha i droito, oc do haut an baa. wn pranant la nombro dlmogaa ndcaaaaira. Las diagrammaa auivants ilkistrantla mdthodo. 1 2 3 1 2 9 4 S AN ATHBNJBUM BSSA7. THEIR GROWTH AND MEANING. MV R. W. BOODLE, MONTREAL. '^\ Jifl (Reprinted trom the " Canadian Monthly," April, 1881.) KOSE-BELFOKD PUBLISHING (X)MPANY. 1881 m ',-SiJi€ ■ ri*'fft 1 , „^ . ' * y - 'I y .''p4;^^J9 , i; '..;^ o H/ THE IDYLLS OF THE KING: ^k THEIR GROWTH A:N^D MEANING.* BY R. W. BOODLE, MOMTUEAL. f pHERE can be litt'e doubt that, by X • The Idylls of theKing,' rather than by any other of his works, pos- terity will measure the greatness of their author. To the mass of the read- ing public, notwithstanding all that -critics have said about its merits, 'In Memoriam' is almost as unreadable as * The Anatomy of Melancholy,' its per- sistent obscurity and the narrow range of feelings and interests, to which it appeals, being in themselves faults and bringing their own reward. But be- yond this, in his Arthurian poem, its author has taken higher ground. He has challenged comparison with Homer and Virgil, with Milton and Tasso. He has realized the dream of Milton and Diyden, and fulfilled the promise of the long years of English literature, by enriching the language with an Epic taken from the Plistory of Eng- land. Far then from dating, with Mr. Buxton Forman, the decadence of Ten- nyson from his writing the Idylls, we ftilly agiee with the American critic, Mr. Stedman, when he calls them their author's muster-work — the greatest narrative poem since ' Paradise Lost.' The greatness of the Arthuriad is two-fold. It is great from an artistic as well ns from a moral point of view, for the artistic and moral purposes of their author are in equal promi- nence. Tennyson's perfection us an artist, when at his best, has never been doubted, and he is never greater than in the best parts of the Arthuriad. But * Head before tlie AtlitiKkuiu Club, Mon- treal. no onecan read the poem without being touched more deeply than he would be by mere artistic perfection. Much cre> dit is due to the dexterity with which Tennyson has selected and recast his materials; but by far the hardest part of his task was to give to his recon- struction of the Arthurian legend an ideal moral unity. How far he has succeeded in this part of his task must be allowed to be an open question. Moral unity is very hard to attain ; and, where Milton has failed, we must not be too rigorous with other& Yet the attempt had to be made. If he had merely told again the tale of Ma- lory, he might have written a series of intcesiing narrative poems of the kind that charm our leisure in the 'Earthly Paradise'; but he would not have taken his place among those poets, who have reconstructed our views of the past, by giving an ideal reality to that back- ground of mingled fact and legend, which is at once the pictv a that we dwell upon, and the curtain that con- ceals what is lost to us. The Aclia'ans became a subject race, or lurked in obscure corners of Hel- las ; the feudal grandeur of the High- land clans is ro more ; the dominion of Puck and the fairies is over ; yet the glorit's of their past still linger among us, owing to the genius of Ho- mer, Shakespeare and fc'cott. What they did for their subjects, Tennyson has done for the British King who re- sisted the English invaders. The Ar- thurian legend is, in fact, one of many similar formations, that the time spirit. 2 THE IDYLLS OF THE KIKU. OS it were, by way of compensation, has allowed to gi-ow about what is past ; BO that what inexorable nature with its death-struggles and eventual survival of the fittest has banished from the world of fact, survives as a new creation and a fit representative in the ideal world of fiction. Like the canopy of vapours above, like a ruin in the world about us, this and like tales of the past have taken different shades from the rays of the rising and the set- ting sun ; variously viewed by different ages,' the historical has been re-co- loui-ed, and an unhistorical element added. History is bafiled, and the work of fancy triumphs over the critical in- stinct of the inquirer. In the case of the Arthurian le- gend,* this has been a work of time. At first a reality in the writings of the Welsh poets, Arthur soon became a tradition. This tradition, magnified and distorted, is found in the work that goes by the name of Nennius. From a tradition, nominally historical, the story of Arthur was changed to a mere romance by Geoffrey of Mon- mouth ; from this point it began to gi'ow, attracting to itself fragments from different sides, taking colour fi-om the periods in which these addi- tions w ere made, from the institutions among which the tangled web was spun, from the countries of the wri- ters, from their beliefs and modes of life. Among the additions that were made to the original romance, none was of greater importance in determining the ultimate fate of the story than the element contributed by Walter de Map. ' The Church, jealous of the popularity of the legends of chivalry, invented as a counteracting influence the poem of the Sacred Dish, the "San Grual.'" Walter de Map made this a part of the Arthurian cycle, and in doing so, takes his place as the first of the allegorizer& • The gradual develojjment of the Arthurian legend, from itH beginning to the days of Spenser, is the stibject of a paper contributed by the writer to the Canaiiian Monthly, IJec 1880. The legend, in its latest shape, was i-e-written by Sir Thomas Malory, and printed by Caxton, as a work valu- able historically, as well as for its moral tendency. Thus the allegoric turn, given to the legend by Walter de Map, was confirmed, Caxton's preface holding up the character of Arthur aa an example for imitation. The bint thus given was taken by Spenser, whO' treated Arthur as an embodiment of the Aristotelian virtue of Magnificence. From Spenser, in whom the moralizing tendency is confirmed, to Tennyson in our owu days, the position of the Ar- thurian cycle in men's minds may be described as that of an episode, re- garded as more or less historical, but as a fair subject for expansion, and most valuable as illustrating the play of the virtues and the passiona Still, all early writers regarded Arthur and his knights, as part of their secular faith, just as Milton regarded the story of the Creation and the Fall as a reli- gious belief. To us, Arthur and Gui- nevere are, if anything, more real than Adam and Eve ; to Milton, who ac- tually thought of writing a great poem upon the subject,* they were only less so. It is not proposed to examine the various additions to Arthurian litera- ture made, between the days of Sjienser and Tennyson, by Blackmore, Dryden, Lytton and others; but as a prepara- tory step to the chronological study of the Idylls, it will be well to notice the main points, in which the treatment of Tennyson differs from that of the earlier writers. The leading differences between Ten- nyson and his predecessors lie in their aspect with regard to Arthur's mission. By all of them he is regarded as a great king, the creator of an order of knights with a high ideal, the perso- nification of an early chivalry. But in Geoffrey and his followers, it is his success which is brought into promin- ence ; while in Tennysnn the pathos of the whole poem lies in his failure. The * See the Latin poems entitled ' Mansus* and 'Kpitnphium Uamonis . ' THE IDYLLfi OF THE KINO. 3 M» mournful beauty of decline, which is imaged by the dying year, and the Bympalhy that the magnificent failure of Arthur excite*, are, ho to speak, the ground tone of the Idylls ; while the triumphant glory of success pervades the earliest writers. What was inci- dental with them has become essen- tial in Tennyson. Soloa bade us call no man happy till we have looked to his end, and these early writers adopted the maxim. They gave their hero a gloiious life, and he leaves it by the most glorious of all deaths — death in battle. Dunlop has noticed this point in his ' History of Fiction.' 'It appears strange at first sight, that Arthur and his knights should be represented in romance, as falling in battle, as well as Charle- magne with all his peerage, at a time when success in wur was thought ne- cessary to complete the character of a warrior. But the same fate has been attributed to all the fabulous chiefs of half-civilized nations, who have inva- riably represented their favourite leaders as destroyed bya concealed and treacherous enemy. . . . This has probably ariHen from poets and ro- mancors, wishing to spare their heroes the Buspicioit of having died in bed by the languor of disease, to which any violent death is preferred by barbarous nations.' But what was incidental, because inevitable in early writers, has l>ecome the chief point in Tennyson. We have, it is true, two Idylls devoted to Arthur triumphant, but the inter- est of the poem iK centred in the de- cline and fall. The notes of approach- ing ruin sound more loudly as the tale proceeds, and the interest of most of the Idylls, as well as of the Arthuriad as a whole, clearly culminates in the catastrophe. The world, like the individual, as age advances, becomes more sensible to the beauty of pathos ; it has not the same contempt for the unsuccessful. Our admiration may be excited by the career of a successful man, but our sympathy lies with the struggle of the doomed. Though Homer is a greater poet than Virgil, it is the Trojans ra- ther than the Greeks, who have our love and pity ; our favourites in fiction, and history are the advocates of a fallen cause — Hector and Tumus, Demosthenes and Hannibal, Mont- calm and Lee. Life presents a constant paradox. The world has pronounced a cynical maxim about success, and its is the shrine at which our worship is of- fered up. So far our practical instincts take us ; but imagination, constantly in antagonism with the facts of the world, sides against our reason. What has failed is idealized ; success is left to rest upon its merits. Thus the aspect of the whole story of Arthur has been changed ; the Romance writers des- cribed the glorious king, Tennyson en- lists our sympathy for an unsuccessful reformer and a falling cause. The form that this idealization of failure assumes, is also distinctive and important. Living in an age, when in- dustrialism and the commercial spirit were beginning to feel their strength, while the influence of chivalry, though fast declining, was not yet extinct, Spenser, as his model of a perfect man, took Prince Arthur, an ideal embodi- ment of the chivalric feeling. A simi- lar tendency has influenced Tennyson in the process of writing the Idylls, and in the colouring he has given to them. Many writers have read in the character of Arthur an allegory, and Tennyson himself lets us into the se- cret, that his object was to shadow forth sense at war with soul. It is not inconsistent with this to see, in the gradual dissolution of Arthur's order, a symbolic account of the decline of supernaturalism, a regretful picture of the growing disregard of miracles, and of the lessening hold of Christianity upon the world — the partial rejection of which has been a marked result of the movements of the thought of late years. Fifty years have passed since Carlyle describad the 'Temple now THE IDYLLS OF THE KINO. lying in ruins, overgrown with jungle, the habitation of doleful creatures.'* What was so long xgo apparent to the philosopher has been brought more strikingly home to us all since. The last decade has been a period of rapid growth of thought ; of large expansion, during which, if not Christianity it- self, yet various doctrines and ways of thinking that were generally associat- ed with Christianity, have been dis- carded and sent to join ' all things transitory and vain' in the wilds of the Miltonic Limlo. These have been years of intense mental effort and strivings of spirit, and have for the present ended in a kind of world- wearied Pessimism. And this period has left deep traces on the ideal of Arthur created by Tennyson. From this point of view, as well as from many others (e. g. the characters of ^neas and Arthur), it would be in- structive to compare Tennyson with the writer of the .^neid. Just as Virgil, while describing the coming of his hero to Italy and the foundation of the Trcjan kingdom, is constantly thinking of the fortunes of the Julian family in his own day, and of the Empire that was being founded while he wrote ; so Tennyson depicts the de- cline of the Hound Table, and the gene- ral laxity of itb morals in language that would be equally appropriate to what was going on while he wrote, and is still continuing — the Religious Revo- lution of the nineteenth century. In the following pages it will be shown that the Arthuriud, from first to last, faithfully reproduces the political and moral atmosphere of the period during which it was taking shape, in jnst as marked u manner as the feelings that most Englishmen entertained with re- gard to the Manchester Peace Party, at the time of the Crimean War, are mirrored in our author's ' Maud.' One of the special marks of Tennyson's workmanship is the manner in which he introduces into an apparently for- Sartor ReBartus, 1831. eign subject matters of contemporary interest and significance. A striking thought in a book, published at the time when some poem of his may be supposed to have been in the process of construction, will often be found echoed quite naturally in the strange context. But though this feature is very marked in Tennyson— a poet, it must be remembered, whose origina- lity, like Virgil's lies far more in his style that in his manner, in the turn he gives a thought, rather than in the thought itself — it is a feature that is to a greater or less extent common to most poets. The poet is one possessed of nicer feelings, quicker sensibilities than or- dinary men. Hence he is the first to perceive the changes in the tone of public opinion. He is like a thin- skinned animal, with an animal's quickness of instinct, an animal's sen- sitiveness to what is external and at- mospheric in nature. When, however it is said that a poet is more quickly affected than the ordinary individual, it must not be forgotten that all he sees, he sees as a poet, and not exactly as the rest of us do. The lens of his mind is a coloured medium, and so every- thing appears to him coloured and refracted. Imagination and artistic proprieties affect his impression of ex- ternal nature and of events. He can- not see the thing as it is, or at least he cannot see things exactly as they appear to the rest of the world. To illustrate this will be unnecessary to those who remember how constantly Scott's pictures of scenery are medi- evalized, and how Wordsworth tills his descriptions with religious thought. And this is not only true, when it is external nature, that the poet is study- ing. The emotions and feelings, the religious and political beliefs of the poet, are after all, those of the poet, and not those of the ordinary man, and so perhaps are felt in a sense less deeply. This qualification has to be made and must be illustrated. A political landmark or a church, i# 4 K^wMirt^MMMnaatrwMi THE IDYLLS OF THE KIKO. m let UB say, is doomed. It is invested with the love and veneration, the countless feelings so hard to analyze which go to make up the ordinary con- servative frame of mind. To part with it is a sore blow to the ordinary indi- vidual ; it is a strain to his feelings, and he deeply regrets the loss. The poet, too, feels this to some extent; but then he is a poet, and he has also ano- ther point of view. The collapse ap- pears to him as a ruin, and the artistic beauty of the ruin is some compensa- tion to him for the melancholy fact. He feels the loss less deeply, because he does not look at the facts as clear- ly — or, perhaps, we should say, be- cause be takes in their import more thoroughly. His eyes are fixed alike on the present and the past ; he sees institutions rise and fall, and the pre- sent loss is to him no new one. He is able to grasp more clearly than others the permanent, that is un- changeable and that will last when time has done its work with what is mutable and evanescent. Thus the poet is a kind of spiritual Captain Cuttle, with his gaze turned into the distance, even when he is considering what is present before him. Sometimes this feeling is expressed consciously, as by Tennyson in the lines — Our little systems have their day ; They have their day and cease to be : They are hut broken lights of thee. And thou, O Lord, art more than they. Sometimes it finds unconscious ex- pression, as in the fine lines that end the battle scene in the ' Passing of Ar- thur,' where the wave is described, creeping over the field strewn with the dead. And rolling far along the gloomy shores The voice of days of old and days to be.* What then 1 The |)oet sees more clearly, we see less clearly : he feels more quickly, we feel less deeply. He * This is Matthew Arnold's habitual mood. Cf the conclusion of Sohrah and Rustum, and of the second part of Tristram and Iseult. He has given a, description of the feeling, as part of the true poetic nature, in the poem ' Resig- nation.' is almost an Hegelian contradiction — that is, he is a poet It follows that he is more prone than the ordinary thinker to acknowledge facts, for in every fact he has a consolation. A nd the more of the true poetic nature he has, the more instinctive are his utter- ances. What he feels forces itself in- to what he writes. It cannot be kept out If in one way his view of things is less true because less common-place, in another he is a tru^r witness be- cause his mind is stronger, being self- sustained by its width of interest He is a strong man where others are weak. His strength even appears to many to be a lack of feeling, and occasionally, as in the character of Goethe, is capa- ble of producing it. We accordingly find in the Idylls, read chronologically, a veracious echo of the tone of public opinion and a test of the average feel- ing in regard to questions, which it is so hard to gather from the mere party statements of writers and thinkers ac- tively engaged in the contest upon either side. The Round Table sym- bolizes more or less distinctly the Chris- tian world, at first with an enthusias- tic belief in, and full of the feelings of, Christianity, but by def,ree8 falling away and lapsing into immorality and scepticism. Arthur in its midst, an ideal and not a real man, speaks and acts like a modern Christ, passing ver- dict after the manner of aGreek chorus upon the phases of thought as they are presented to the reader. All this will be shown in further detail, as we ex- amine the poem chronologically. It has been noticed before now, that the two great sources of Romance that were the glory of the Middle Ages, the Carlovingian and Arthiirian cy- cles, took shape under the influence of the story of the Gospels ; that Char- lemagne and Arthur were pictures of the Christ adapted to the lay life of Christians in general. This is espe- cially the case with Arthur ; and the likeness has been increased by Tenny- son in his new rendering of the Ar- thurian legend (e.g., by his striking out G THE IDYLLS OF THE KINO. such episodeg as Ai*^«ir'8 incest, re- sulting in the birth of Modred), so that it is impossible to read the Idylls without thinking of the Gospels. It is not only that we have points of ex- ternal similarity, such as the mystery of their life and death, their position as leaders of bands of reformers, their failure brought about by treach- ery, and their immaculate and almost colourless piety. But Tennyson has supplemented all this by making his hero constantly use the words of his prototype. This is a feature of such constant occurrence that it will be un- necessary to illustrate it Should illus- tration be needed, it will be found in detached passages in the following pages. I will now sum up the results at which I have arrived from this part of my study. The story of the Idylls, as we have it, is a kind of idealization of failure — the picture of how Arthur came into the world and lived the life of a reformer, founding an order and binding them By such vowR, as is a sliame A man should not be bound by, yet the which No man can keep. So the order dissolves internally, and the high ideal of Arthur passes away. In the midst he is a kind of chivalrous Christ ; and the decline of belief in Arthur and his vows, and the corre- sponding dissolutionof the oietythey held together, are a picture, the origi- nal of which is to be found, as will be seen, in the sentiments and feelings of the years during which the poet was framing his Idylls. Tennyson had be- fore his eyes the decline of orthodox Christianity, while he was occupied in describingthe fall of his chivalric ideal, and sometimes his description of the latter reads like a page from the his- tory of the former — to such an exl-ent had the times impressed themselves upon his nature. At the same time, it has been proved by other writers that the poem is an allegory of sense at war with soul. King Arthur being the King within us. Nor shall we find any difficulty in accepting this dupli- cate interpretation (remembering how it is certainly true in the case of the ' Fairy Queen') if we realize the compa- ratively conservative aspect with which Tennyson regards the religious move- ments of the day. The real incon- sistency, as will be seen, arises from the difference of the aim with which he set out from that with which ho concluded his Arthuriad. Starting in 1832 and 1842 with purely tentative work, which, however, included a poem afterwards a part of the whole, he pro- duced, in 1 8.59, the four original Idylls, King Arthur being an 'ideal knight' As he grew older, the tendency to alle- goric meaning increased, and was pro- minent in his volume of 1869 entitled ' The Holy Giail ; ' the poem ' Gareth and Lynette,' (published latest of all in 1872), is a pure allegory of the temp- tations that assail men at different stages of life. After this came the additions and alterations made through the whole series of poems (published in the Complete Edition of 1875) — alterations, which have changed the pc3m to such an extent that Tenny- son was quite justified in at last pro- claiming it, in his Epilogue to the Queen, as ' Shadowing sense at war with soul Rather than that gray king.' As, however, in no case has Tenny- son deliberately destroyed the old work, the series of poems, composing the Arthuriad, when analyzed care- fully, present the appearance of suc- cessive strata of thought contorted and inspissated into one another. I shall now proceed to consider these periods chronologically. Of the four pieces that make up the early work upon the subject of Arthur, two only deserve attention, the othei-8, Sir Galahad and Sir Lance- lot, being interesting merely as show- ing that the young poet's thought dwelt early THE IDYLLS OF THE KINO. On the (IruntiiH of all "Whish fiUeil.the earth with pasMiig lovelineBo, to quote his own words in 'Timbuctoo' — and that he was specially interested in Arthurian literature. Of the other two the ' Lady of Shalott ' is an early treatment of the theme that Tennyson afterwards turned into the most touch- ing of all the Idylls, the story of Elaine. It is quite different in char- ftcter from the Idylls being wijtten in the so-called Pre-Raphaelite manner. In the ' Morte d' Arthur ' we have the earliest contribution to the com- pleted series It was accompanied by an introduction, relating how Hall had written an epic on King Arthur in twelve books, but had destroyed all but one, because they were 'faint Homeric echoes.' The day is past for Homeric epics, ' nature brings not back the Mastodon,' and ' truth looks freshest in the fashion of the day.' The remainins? book in the ' Morte