ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON. 429 



lyrics that are set in it. "The Princess" is somewhat marred 

 by the attempt of the poet to be light; "Maud," on the other 

 hand, which contains much exquisite poetry, is injured by its 

 despairing theme. Tennyson loved despair as one loves a for- 

 eign country, without ever being quite at home in it. He was 

 eminently self-commanding, and violent passion has in his 

 mouth a literary sound which is fatal to its appearance of 

 genuineness. Let anybody who would compare the serious 

 optimist and the laughing pessimist read Tennyson's "Locksley 

 Hall," or "Maud" with its artificial darkness, and then turn 

 to the translation which Tennyson's friend Fitzgerald has made 

 of the poem of Omar Khayyam, with its sad humor and stern 

 questioning of Providence. It is neither " Maud " nor " The 

 Princess " which first rises to the mind when Tennyson's longer 

 poems are mentioned. He is perhaps best known as the writer 

 of the "Idylls of the King." 



The legends of King Arthur had long interested the poet. 

 Among his earlier poems, "The Lady of Shalott," "Sir Galahad," 

 and " Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere " had found a place, 

 calling on him for some of his best work. And in the " Morte 

 d'Arthur " he had gone farther, and actually written a part of the 

 great series which was to be one of the principal achievements of 

 his best years. The Idylls, as we now possess them, form a con- 

 tinuous poem, which has for its theme the rise, the adventures, 

 and the fall of Arthur, the mythical King of Britain, and of the 

 knights whom he collected in his order of the Round Table. The 

 interest and the style of the poem are wonderfully sustained, in 

 view of the fact that an interval of more than forty years elapsed 

 between the appearance of the earliest and that of the last writ- 

 ten cantos. The present arrangement of the parts of the poem is 

 not that of their composition; but the story, as completed, 

 marches firmly and smoothly from the Dedication to Prince 

 Albert and " The Coming of Arthur " at the beginning, to " The 

 Passing of Arthur " and the Ode to the Queen at the close. 

 The stately measure moves steadily along, and scenes of beauty 

 open on every hand. We are in England, but in an England glit- 

 tering with the brilliance of chivalry, and lighted by the glow 

 of fairy -land. Here is no rush, no turmoil, no grime and sweat; 

 wounds and death are but glorious accidents ; even sin has lost 

 its grossness. Adultery is one of the themes of the tale, j^et no 

 coarse word is spoken, no low idea suggested; the poet's imagi- 



