66 heavy and shining. "Then went Geraint to the place where his "horse was, and it was equipped with foreign armour, And he desired Enid to mount "her horse, and to ride forward, and to keep a long way "before him. 'And whatever thou mayest see, and "whatever thou mayest hear concerning me,' said he, "do thou not turn back. And unless I speak unto "thee, say not thou one word either.' And they set "forward. And he did not choose the pleasantest and "most frequented road, but that which was the wildest " and most beset by thieves, and robbers, and veno 66 66 mous animals. And they came to a high road, which they followed till they saw a vast forest, and they "went towards it, and they saw four armed horsemen 66 come forth from the forest. When they had beheld "them, one of them said to the other, Behold, here is 66 a good occasion for us to capture two horses and 66 armour, and a lady likewise; for this we shall have 66 no difficulty in doing against yonder single knight, "who hangs his head so pensively and heavily.' And "Enid heard this discourse, and she knew not what she “should do through fear of Geraint, who had told her "to be silent. 'The vengeance of Heaven be upon 66 me,' she said, 'if I would not rather receive my "death from his hand than from the hand of any "other; and though he should slay me, yet will I 66 speak to him, lest I should have the misery to witness "his death.' So she waited for Geraint until he came near to her. 6 6 Lord,' said she, didst thou hear the "words of those men concerning thee?' Then he lifted 66 66 6 up his eyes, and looked at her angrily. Thou hadst only,' said he, to hold thy peace as I bad thee. I "wish but for silence, and not for warning.'" (pp. 103-106.) In December, 1869,1 Tennyson gave to the world four new Idylls, "The Coming of Arthur," "The 66 Holy Grail," "Pelleas and Ettarre," and the "Pass"ing of Arthur." "The Morte d'Arthur," first published in 1842, was, as we have already mentioned, inwoven into the last of these. "The Last Tournament" (originally published in the "Contemporary Review," 2 In the volume entitled "The Holy Grail and other Poems." Strahan and Co., 1870 (but actually published about midway in the month of December, 1869). 2 A very curious alteration has been made towards the conclusion of this poem. The original magazine version reads (p. 22): for December, 1871), and "Gareth and Lynette" (1872), formed a third series, and completed the work. It is probable, however, that these additional Idylls were an afterthought, and that the first four were all that were originally contemplated. "He rose, he turn'd, and flinging round her neck, Warm kisses in the hollow of her throat," &c. The line italicized was apparently rejected as containing too Swinburnian a touch; and the passage is thus toned down in the "Gareth-and-Lynette" volume: "He rose, he turn'd, then, flinging round her neck, Numerous minor alterations have been made in the text of the “Idylls” from time to time; and some additional passages were first introduced in the Library Edition, published in 1873, in which the concluding lines to the Queen first appeared. Some further additions were made in the Cabinet Edition of 1874, in which, apparently, the text was definitively settled. CHAPTER X. LATER POEMS. THE volume of "Enoch Arden, and other Poems," first appeared in August, 1864. Several of the minor poems had been published separately at different periods during the previous five years. "The Grandmother." This poem, under the title of "The Grandmother's Apology," with an illustration by Millais, appeared in July, 1859, in "Once a Week." "Sea Dreams: an Idyl," appeared in " Macmillan's Magazine" for January, 1860; 2. Tithonus in the 66 1 Which illustration so beautifully embodies the pathos of the poem, and is so inseparably connected with it in the minds of those who first read it in the magazine, that it seems a pity the two should have ever been dissociated. 2 There is a very wicked parody of this piece, under the title of "See-Saw: an Idyl," in the "West of Scotland Magazine and Review," for February, 1860. وو "Cornhill of the following month. Both of these poems have been slightly altered. 66 "The Sailor Boy" appeared in a volume of Mis cellanies by various authors, entitled "The Victoria Regia," published by Emily Faithfull, Christmas, 1861.1 The "Attempts at Classic Metres in Quantity" appeared in the "Cornhill Magazine" for December, 1863.2 "A Selection from the Works of Alfred Tennyson," published early in 1865, contained the following new poems: 1 Even this little piece has been altered. 2 It is noteworthy that some lines of the passage translated (from the end of the 8th "Iliad ") are imitated also in an early poem: ὡς δ ̓ ὁτ' ἐν οὐρανῷ ἄστρα φαεινὴν ἀμφὶ σελήνην Iliad, VIII. 551-555. "The revelling elves, at noon of night, Shall throng no more beneath thy boughs, When moonbeams shed a solemn light And every star intensely glows.". The Oak of the North. ("Poems by Two Brothers," p. 218.) |