faced infant, wrapped up in a purple mantle, and upon each arm a bracelet of gold, a clear sign that he was born of noble parents. Whereupon the king took charge of him, and caused him to be baptized; and, because he was found in a nest, he gave him the name of Nestingum, and, in aftertime, having nobly educated him, he advanced him to the dignity of an earl.'

37. Those diamonds that I rescued from the tarn. See Lancelot and Elaine,' 34 fol.

39. Would rather you had let them fall. Originally, ye' for you.'

6

51. A great jousts. This use of jousts' in the singular is peculiar, and is not mentioned in the dictionaries.

150. And vail'd his eyes again. Cast down his eyes. Compare Guinevere, line 657 below: made her vail her eyes.' This word 'vail' has no connection with 'veil,' though often confounded with it. It is contracted from avail,' or 'avale,' the French avaler' (Latin, ad vallem'). Compare Hamlet,' i. 2. 70:

Do not forever with thy vailed lids

Seek for thy noble father in the dust. Avail' occurs in Malory (v. 12): Then the King availed his visor, with a meek and lowly countenance,' etc.

216. A swarthy one. Originally, 'a swarthy dame.'

222. Come-let us gladden their sad eyes. Originally, comfort their sad eyes.'

252. And while he twangled, little Dagonet stood, etc. Littledale says that 'Dagonet's standing still is doubtless meant to recall St. Matthew, xi. 17: "We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced," etc.' It may or may not remind us of that passage, but I doubt whether it was 'meant' to do so.

on the morn they rode into the forest of adventure till they came to a lawn, and thereby they found a cross,' etc.

450. The scorpion-worm that twists itself in hell, etc. A legendary creature, evidently suggested by the old notion (long since proved false by naturalists) that the scorpion, if surrounded by fire, will sting itself to death. The use of worm is suggested by the obsolete sense of snake, dragon, etc. Compare Shakespeare, Measure for Measure,' iii. 1. 17:

For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
Of a poor worm.

It is in a similar sense that Venus ( Venus and Adonis,' 933) calls Death 'grim-grinning ghost, earth's worm.'

461. Fall, as the crest of some slow-arching wave. The elaborate simile seems out of keeping with the fall of the drunken knight from his horse; but it is an Homeric echo, like not a few others in the Idylls.

467. Then the knights, etc. Originally, ' while' for then.'

477. Then, echoing yell with yell. Originally, 'Then, yell with yell echoing.'

479. Alioth and Alcor. Stars in the Great Bear. Alcor is really a fifth-magnitude star close to Mizar, and distinguishable only by good eyes. For the reference to the Aurora borealis, compare The Passing of Arthur,' 307.

481. As the water Moab saw, etc. See 2 Kings, iii. 22.

483. Lazy-plunging sea. Compare 'The Palace of Art':

that hears all night
The plunging seas draw backward from the land
Their moon-led waters white;

and A Dream of Fair Women': -

373. From lawn to lawn. For lawn' as an open place in a forest, compare 'A Dream of Fair Women':

On those long, rank, dark wood-walks drench'd in dew, Leading from lawn to lawn.

Malory (iv. 19) has the word in this sense: 'So

Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each;

that is, like a chime of bells.

502. Felt the goodly hounds Yelp at his heart. Littledale thinks this may mean that the belling of the hounds set the hunter's heart throbbing in harmony he longed to follow the chase, but turned aside to Tintagil;' but I prefer Elsdale's explanation, that it is a presentiment of coming disaster.

504. Tintagil, half in sea and high on land. The ruins of the castle are still to be seen by the Cornish sea,' six miles from Camelford. The keep, the oldest part of the structure, is probably Norman, but there may have been a Saxon, and perhaps also a British, stronghold on the same site.

If this be he, or a draggled mawkin, thou, That tends her bristled grunters in the sludge! 'Mawkin' is merely a phonetic spelling of 'malkin,' which is probably a diminutive of 'Mall,' or Mary,' though it was also connected with Matilda.' The Promptorium Parvulorum has: Malkyne, or Mawt, proper name Matildis.'

629. Far other was the Tristram, Arthur's knight! This line is not in the 1st edition.

650. Vows! did you keep the vow you made to Mark? The 1st edition has 'ye' for you.' 690. The wide world laughs at it. The 1st edition has great world.'

692. The ptarmigan that whitens ere his hour, etc. The color of this bird varies, being brownish-gray in summer and white in winter. The changes of plumage enable it to harmonize with its surroundings at the various seasons. If the ptarmigan's feathers were to turn white before the winter snows began, it would be seen by the eagle-owls and falcons, and would soon be killed (Littledale).

695. The garnet-headed yaffingale. The green woodpecker, Gecinus viridis; so called from its loud laughing notes. It is also known as the yaffle' (or 'yaffil') and 'yaffler.'

743. He spoke, he turn'd, then flinging round her neck, etc. The 1st edition reads:

He rose, he turn'd, and, flinging round her neck,
Claspt it; but while he bow'd himself to lay
Warm kisses in the hollow of her throat,
Out of the dark, etc.

752. The great Queen's bower was dark. She had fled, as the next Idyll explains.

Page 433. GUINEVERE.

The poet is indebted to Malory for only a few hints of the story Arthur's discovery of the guilt of Lancelot and Guinevere; her condemnation to be burnt alive; her escape from the stake through Lancelot, who carries her off to his castle of La Joyeuse Gard; the siege of the castle by Arthur, who compels Lancelot to give up the Queen; and her retirement but not until after Arthur's death- to Almesbury, where she I was ruler and abbess as reason would.'

9. For hither had she fled, etc. The 1859 reading was:

A being full of clearest insight,

... whose fame
Is couching now with panther eyes intent,
As who shall say, 'I'll spring to him anon,
And have him for my own.'

́Almesbury;' now Amesbury, is about eight miles from Salisbury, and the old Abbey Church is still standing.

15. Lords of the White Horse. See on 'Lancelot and Elaine,' 297.

22. Plumes that mock'd the may. That is, white as the hawthorn blossoms. Compare 'The Miller's Daughter': The lanes, you know, were white with may;' and see note on 'Gareth and Lynette,' 642.

Vivien, lurking,

97, 98. And part for ever. heard, etc. The 1859 ed. reads: 'And part for ever. Passion-pale they met,' etc. The addition is not in the ed. of 1884, but I find it in that of 1890. They met ' is now ambiguous.

147. For housel or for shrift. For receiving the Eucharist, or for confession.

166. Late, late, so late! It is hardly necessary to say that the song is founded on the parable of the wise and foolish virgins (Matthew, xxv.).

289. Bude and Bos. Districts of Cornwall. 292. Of dark Tintagil. See page 860, note on 504. The 1859 edition has Dundagil.' 400. Came to that point where first she saw the King. The 1859 edition has when first.' 470. To honor his own word as if his God's. This line is not in the 1859 edition.

481. Before I wedded thee. The 1859 edition has until I wedded.'

535. The flaming death. Being burned at the stake, a punishment for unfaithful wives mentioned several times by Malory.

569. Where I must strike against the man they call, etc. The 1859 edition reads:

Where I must strike against my sister's son,
Leagued with the lords of the White Horse and knights
Once mine, and strike him dead, etc.

That

601. Moving ghostlike to his doom. doom is told in The Passing of Arthur," but that he is already enwound by its misty pall, and himself a ghost in it, is nobly conceived, and as splendidly expressed '(Stopford Brooke).

642. I yearn'd for warmth and color. The 1859 edition has: I wanted warmth,' etc. 657. Made her vail her eyes. See on 'The Last Tournament,' 150.

Page 443. THE PASSING OF ARTHUR.

This Idyll in its present form was first published in the 'Holy Grail' volume, 1869; but, with the exception of 169 lines at the beginning and 30 at the close, it was printed in 1842 in 'The Epic,' which is still included in the col

Apparently the addition of Gareth and Lynette and The Last Tournament was an afterthought; and later the poet decided to divide Geraint and Enid,' and to add Balin and Balan,' making twelve books' in all.

The story of The Passing of Arthur' is taken from Malory (xxi. 5).

6-28. For on their march to westward, . . . I pass, but shall not die. These twenty-three lines are not in the 1869 edition, which goes on thus: Before that last weird battle in the west,' etc.

61. Once thine whom thou hast loved, etc. The reading of 1869 was: -

Once thine, whom thou hast loved, but baser now
Than heathen scoffing at their vows and thee.

68. And brake the petty kings, and fought with Rome. This line is not in the 1869 edition, in which the next line begins with 'And thrust,'

etc.

85. And the long mountains, etc. Originally, " the long mountain.'

129. Only the wan wave. Originally, 'waste wave.'

170. So all day long the noise of battle roll'd. With this sonorous line the early Morte d'Arthur' begins.

175. The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him. After this line, the Morte d'Arthur' of 1842 has the line, Sir Bedivere, the last of all his knights;' omitted here, of course, because the fact is mentioned in line 2 of the new matter.

195. Thou therefore take my brand Excalibur, etc. Compare Malory (xxi. 5): But my time hieth fast, said the king. Therefore said Arthur, take thou Excalibur, my good sword, and

But

go with it to yonder water side, and when thou comest there, I charge thee throw my sword in that water, and come again, and tell me what thou there seest. My lord, said Bedivere, your commandment shall be done, and lightly bring you word again. So Sir Bedivere departed, and by the way he beheld that noble sword, that the pommel and haft were all of precious stones, and then he said to himself, If I throw this rich sword in the water, thereof shall never come good, but harm and loss. And then Sir Bedivere hid Excalibur under a tree. And as soon as he might he came again unto the king, and said he had been at the water, and had thrown the sword into the water. What sawest thou there? said the king. Sir, he said, I saw nothing but waves and winds. That is untruly said of thee, said the king; therefore go thou lightly again, and do my command as thou art to me lief and dear, spare not, but throw it in. Then Sir Bedivere returned again, and took the sword in his hand; and then him thought sin and shame to throw away that noble sword; and so eft he hid the sword, and returned again, and told to the king that he had been at the water, and done his commandment. What saw thou there? said the king. Sir, he said, I saw nothing but the waters wap and the waves wan. Ah traitor, untrue, said king Arthur, now hast thou betrayed me twice. Who would have wend that thou that hast been to me so lief and dear, and thou art named a noble knight, and would betray me for the riches of the sword. now go again lightly, for thy long tarrying putteth me in great jeopardy of my life, for I have taken cold. And but if thou do now as I bid thee, if ever I may see thee, I shall slay thee with mine own hands, for thou wouldest for my rich sword see me dead. Then Sir Bedivere departed, and went to the sword, and lightly took it up, and went to the water side, and there he bound the girdle about the hilts, and then he threw the sword as far into the water as he might, and there came an arm and an hand above the water, and met it, and caught it, and so shook it thrice and brandished, and then vanished away the hand with the sword in the water. So Sir Bedivere came again to the king, and told him what he saw. Alas, said the king, help me hence, for I dread me I have tarried over long. Then Sir Bedivere took the king upon his back, and so went with him to that water side. And when they were at the water side, even fast by the bank hoved a little barge, with many fair ladies in it, and among them all was a queen, and all they had black hoods, and all they wept and shrieked when they saw king Arthur. Now put me into the barge, said the king: and so he did softly. And there received him three queens with great mourning, and so they set him down, and in one of their laps king Arthur laid his head, and then that queen said, Ah, dear brother, why have ye tarried so long from me? Alas, this wound on your head hath caught over much cold. And so then they rowed from the land; and Sir

Bedivere beheld all those ladies go from him. Then Sir Bedivere cried, Ah, my lord Arthur, what shall become of me now ye go from me, and leave me here alone among mine enemies. Comfort thyself, said the king, and do as well as thou mayest, for in me is no trust for to trust in. For I will into the vale of Avilion, to heal me of my grievous wound. And if thou hear never more of me, pray for my soul. But ever the queens and the ladies wept and shrieked, that it was pity to hear. And as soon as Sir Bedivere had lost the sight of the barge, he wept and wailed, and so took the forest, and so he went all that night, and in the morning he was ware betwixt two holts hoar of a chapel and an hermitage.'

354. Dry clash'd his harness in the icy caves, etc. We hear all the changes on the vowel a every sound of it used to give the impression -and then, in a moment, the verse runs into breadth, smoothness, and vastness; for Bedivere comes to the shore and sees the great water:

And on a sudden, lo! the level lake

And the long glories of the winter moon.

in which the vowel o in its changes is used as the vowel a has been used before' (Stopford Brooke).

379. And dropping bitter tears against a brow. The 1869 edition has his brow."

435. Like some full-breasted swan. Compare "The Dying Swan.'

440. And on the mere the wailing died away. Here the original Morte d'Arthur' ends.

The next five lines are not in the 1869 edition, which goes on thus:

At length he groan'd, and turning slowly clomb
The last hard footstep of that iron crag.

445. Even to the highest he could climb. The 1869 edition has 'E'en,' for which the printer is probably responsible, as Tennyson never uses it.

To the Queen. This epilogue has not been altered since it first appeared in the Library Edition,' 1872-73.

3. That rememberable day. Referring to the public thanksgiving in February, 1872, on the recovery of the Prince of Wales from typhoid fever.

12. Thunderless lightnings striking under sea, etc. Congratulatory despatches by submarine telegraph.

14. That true North, etc. When Manitoba was added to the Dominion of Canada, complaint was made in England of the cost of maintaining the colonial possessions in North America. Mr. Justin McCarthy, in his History of Our Own Times,' says: For some years a feeling was spreading in England which began to find expression in repeated and very distinct suggestions that the Canadians had better begin to think of looking out for themselves. Many Englishmen complained of this country being expected to undertake the principal cost of the defences of Canada, and to guarantee her railway schemes, especially when the commer

cial policy which Canada adopted towards England was one of a strictly protective character.'

20. The roar of Hougoumont. The battle of Waterloo. The Château of Hougoumont, with its massive buildings, its gardens and plantations, was occupied by the Allies, and formed the key to the British position.' It is computed that during the day the attacks of nearly 12,000 men were launched against this miniature fortress, notwithstanding which the garrison held out to the last.'

35. For one to whom I made it, etc. Referring to the dedication of the 'Idylls' to the memory of Prince Albert.

38. Ideal manhood closed in real man. This line does not appear in any English or American edition up to the present time (1898); but the Memoir (vol. ii. p. 129) states that the poet, thinking that 'perhaps he had not made the real humanity of the King sufficiently clear in his epilogue,' inserted this line in 1891, as his last correction.' It is probably through mere oversight that it has not been inserted in the editions published since 1891.

41. Geoffrey's book, or him of Malleor's. Geoffrey of Monmouth and Malory, whose name was also written Malorye, Maleore, and Malleor.

55. With poisonous honey stolen from France. Compare Locksley Hall Sixty Years After,' 145: Set the maiden fancies wallowing in the troughs of Zolaism,' etc. Littledale quotes Goldwin Smith, Essays': 'As to French novels, Carlyle says of one of the most famous of the last century that after reading it you ought to wash seven times in Jordan; but after reading the French novels of the present day, in which lewdness is sprinkled with sentimental rosewater, and deodorized, but not disinfected, your washings had better be seventy times seven.' Page 452. THE FIRST QUARREL.

The poem is an idyll of the hearth inspired with life: Nelly and Harry are lifelike in the very respect in which Annie and Philip in "Enoch Arden are idealized. They speak the rough, genuine language of the fisherfolk' (Waugh).

Page 454. RIZPAH.

A reviewer in Macmillan's Magazine' for January, 1881, says of the poem: As the recital in lyric form of a weird tale of misery and madness, this poem is unmatched in Mr. Tennyson's work. An old woman, in her fierce and at the same time trembling dotage, tells a lady who has come to visit her how her boy had long ago been hung in chains, under the old laws of England, for robbing the mail; how he had done it not in wickedness but in recklessness, but how her plea to that effect had availed him nothing; how, when she had gone to visit him in prison, she had been forced from him by the jailer, with his cry of "mother, mother! " ringing in her ears; how the same cry rang afterwards in her brain while she lay bound and beaten in a madhouse; and how, when she was at last set free, she used to steal out on stormy

nights, and gather together his bones from beneath the gallows, until she had gathered them every one and buried them in consecrated ground beside the churchyard wall. It is as terrible a tale as could well be imagined, and is told with a plain and classic force, a freedom from shrillness or emphasis, which leaves the terror all the more piercing and unescapable.'

The Edinburgh Review' for October, 1881, refers to the poem as one in which Tennyson has broken on the world with a new strength and splendor,' and 'has achieved a new reputation.' The writer adds: Of this astonishing production it has been said that, were all the rest of the author's works destroyed, this alone would at once place him among the first of the world's poets. Such was the verdict pronounced by Mr. Swinburne. It has all his characteristic generosity, and not much of his characteristic exaggeration. A work of this order can never be done justice to by quotations; but we have used them with no further end than to indicate baldly the outline of the poet's subject. For his sublime treatment of it, for the tenderness and the terror of his pathos, we must refer the reader to the poem itself in its entirety. Nothing in "Maud," nothing in" Guinevere," can approach in power to Rizpah." This fact can, we conceive, be accounted for by the special nature of the subject. Of all the affections of human nature that are least subject to change, either in the way of contraction or development, is the passion of mother for child. It asks least aid either from faith or reason. And something may be said of the three other poems that we have associated with "Rizpah [The First Quarrel, The Northern Cobbler,' and 'The Village Wife']. These three deal all of them with the life of the common people, and touch our feelings and principles in their rudest and simplest form. They take us below the reach of either conscious faith or philosophy; and they elude, they do not meet, the problems of human destiny. Thus Mr. Tennyson's genius has escaped, in these cases, from the external circumstances that have been depressing it; and, once supplied with a fitting theme to handle, it has shown itself as strong, if not stronger than ever.'

For the suggestion of the title of 'Rizpah,' see 2 Samuel, xxi. 1-14.

Line 7. The creak of the chain. It was formerly the custom in England to hang the bodies of certain malefactors in chains after execution. The bodies of pirates were so hanged on the banks of the Thames.

54. They had moved in my side. For the use of 'side,' compare Comus, 1009:

And from her fair unspotted side
Two blissful twins are to be born,
Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn.

Page 456. THE NORTHERN COBBLER. 'The general lines of the Northern Cobbler's position are the same as of many reformed drinkers, but no one but himself could have set

the bottle up in the window, or declared that he would take it with him after death, like a Norse warrior his sword, before the throne' (Stopford Brooke).

Line 6. The line. The equator.

13. I could fettle and clump, etc. Repair and put new soles to old boots and shoes. Shakespeare uses 'fettle' once, in 'Romeo and Juliet,' iii. 5. 154:

But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next, To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church; where it means to prepare, make ready. 19. I slither'd. That is, slipped.

20.

Slaäpe down i' the squad. Suddenly down in the slush. Clawed and

Scrawm'd and scratted.

22. scratched.

32.

Wear'd it o' liquor. Spent it for liquor. 53. All in a tew. All in a fluster. 78. Snaggy. Snappish, ill-tempered. 108. Feat. Trim; used by Shakespeare several times.

110. A codlin. A codling, or unripe apple. Compare Twelfth Night,' i. 5. 167: a codling when 't is almost an apple.'

Page 458. THE REVENGE.

Line 51. Having that within her womb, etc. 'Womb' is here used in its original sense of belly. Compare Wiclif's Bible, Luke, xv. 16: 'And he coveitide to fille his wombe of the coddis that the hoggis eaten,' etc..

118. And the little Revenge herself went down, etc. Markham, in a postscript to his poem, says: What became of the Reuenge after Sir Richards death, diuers report diuersly, but the most probable and sufficient proofe sayth, that within fewe dayes after the Knights death, there arose a great storme from the VVest and North-west, that all the Fleet was disperced, aswell the Indian Fleet, which were then come vnto them, as all the rest of the Armada, which attended their ariuall; of vvhich fourteene sayle, together with the Reuenge, and in her two hundred Spanyards, were cast away vppon the Ile of S. Michaels; so it pleased them to honour the buriall of that renowned Ship the Reuenge, not suffering her to perrish alone, for the great hor.our shee atchiued in her life time.' Page 461. THE SISTERS.

Line 91. Lake Llanberis. In North Wales. Compare The Golden Year':

And found him in Llanberis: then we crost
Between the lakes, etc.

The lakes are Llyn Padarn and Llyn Peris; but they are often called the 'Llanberis Lakes.'

111. Of our New Forest. An ancient royal hunting demesne, extending westward from Southampton Water. There are about 140 square miles in the district, little more than two thirds of which now belongs to the crown. 117. My Rosalind in this Arden. The allusion to As You Like It' is obvious.

Page 465. THE VILLAGE WIFE.

Line 19. Can tha tell ony harm on 'im, lass? All the English editions omit the comma before 'lass.'