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.

"The questions and replies of Arthur and Bedivere, the reproaches of the
King, the excuses of the Knight, the sorrow and the final wrath of
Arthur, are worthy of the landscape, as they ought to be; and the
dominance of the human element in the scene is a piece of noble
artist-work. Arthur is royal to the close, and when he passes away with
the weeping Queens across the mere, unlike the star of the tournament he
was of old, he is still the King. Sir Bedivere, left alone on the
freezing shore, hears the King give his last message to the world. It is
a modern Christian who speaks, but the phrases do not sound out of
harmony with that which might be in Romance. Moreover, the end of the
saying is of Avilion or Avalon--of the old heathen Celtic place where the
wounded are healed and the old made young."

In the final analysis, therefore, the significance of the _Morte
d'Arthur_ is a significance of beauty rather than moralistic purpose. It
has been said that the reading of Milton's _Lycidas_ is the surest test
of one's powers of poetical appreciation. I fear that the test is too
severe for many readers who can still enjoy a simpler style of poetry.
But any person who can read the _Morte d'Arthur_, and fail to be
impressed by its splendid pictures, and subdued to admiration by the
dignity of its language, need scarcely hope for pleasure from any poetry.

THE EPIC

3. SACRED BUSH. The mistletoe. This plant was sacred to the Celtic
tribes, and was an object of particular veneration with the Druids,
especially when associated with the oak-tree.

8. OR GONE=either gone.

18. THE GENERAL DECAY OF FAITH. The story of Arthur is intended to show
how faith survives, although the form be changed. See esp. _Morte
d'Arthur_, ll. 240-242.

27-28. 'HE BURNT--SOME TWELVE BOOKS.' This must not be taken literally.
See, however, p. xxxiii. of the Biographical Sketch, as to Tennyson's
hesitation in treating the subject.

48-51. This is self-portraiture. Lord Tennyson's method of reading was
impressive though peculiar.

MORTE D'ARTHUR

THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND. Throughout the mediaeval period three great cycles
of stories commanded the imagination of the poets. Of these cycles one,
the tale of Troy in