esting to note his
amplifications. It may be doubted whether Tennyson has here surpassed
his original. For its touching simplicity he has substituted a dignified
grandeur, and has involved plain statements in gorgeous rhetoric, as in
his passage upon the efficacy of prayer. The unadorned original had said
only "pray for my soul."

198. THREE QUEENS WITH CROWNS OF GOLD. "That one was King Arthur's
sister, Morgan le Fay; the other was the Queen of Northgales (Wales); the
third was the Lady of the lake." _Malory_.

215-216. DASH'D WITH DROPS--OF ONSET. Words are sometimes poetical from
their precision, and sometimes, as here, they suggest without definite
reference. The meaning is "dashed with drops of blood" from the onset or
encounter.

2t6-220. Arthur is again described in _The Last Tournament_.

That victor of the Pagan throned in hall,
His hair, a sun that rayed from off a brow
Like hillsnow high in heaven, the steel-blue eyes,
The golden beard that cloth'd his lips with light.

228. MY FOREHEAD AND MY EYES. Compare the note to line 132. Here the
specific terms are used according to the epical manner instead of the
general term "face."

232-233. Compare the Gospel of _Matthew_ ii. 11.

240-242. These often-quoted lines have been already referred to above.
Their very intellectuality is alien to the spirit of the original. In
Tennyson's conception they afford the central meaning of the poem, and
also of the completed _Idylls_. We must bow to the will of God who
brings all things in their due season. Good customs too deeply rooted
are like clear waters grown stagnant.

254-255. FOR SO--GOD. The idea that the earth is bound by a gold chain
to heaven is comparatively common in literature from Homer downwards.
Archdeacon Hare has a passage in his sermon on _Self-Sacrifice_ which
doubtless was familiar to Tennyson: "This is the golden chain of love,
whereby the whole creation is bound to the throne of the Creator."

257-258. IF INDEED I GO--DOUBT. There is no reason to suppose that these
lines indicate Tennyson's personal misgivings on the subject of
immortality.

259. THE ISLAND VALLEY OF AVILION. Mr. Rhys in his _Studies in the
Arthurian Legend_ combats the old idea that Avalon (Avilion) meant the
"Island of Apples" (Welsh aval, apple). The name implies the Island of
King Avalon, a Celtic divinity, who presided among the dead.

The valley of Avalon was supposed to be near Glastonbury, i