JUNE 131 



Connemara to Calabria. Many of these men and women 

 survive only in the turns which their passionate hearts 

 gave to these ghostly, everlastingly wandering tales. 

 Artists have worked upon them. Bards have sung them, 

 and the sound of their harping is entangled in the words 

 that have reached us to-day. This blending of many 

 bloods is suggested by the Saracen in the Morte d? Arthur 

 who was descended from Hector and Alexander and 

 Joshua and Maccabaeus; by Taliesin, whose " original 

 country is the region of the summer stars," who was 

 with Noah and Alexander and at the birth of Christ. 

 And thus has the tale become so full in the ear of 

 humanity, so rich in scenes designed to serve only an 

 immediate purpose, yet destined by this grace to move all 

 kinds of men in manifold ways. Such is the chess-playing 

 in The Dream of Rhonabwy; the madness of Tristram 

 when he ran naked in the wood many days, but was lured 

 by the music of a damsel playing on his own harp; the 

 speech of Arthur at the scattering of his knights in the 

 Sangraal quest; Launcelot's fighting with the black 

 knights against the white; Launcelot's adventures ending 

 at the castle of Carbonek, where he put on all his arms 

 and armour and went " and the moon shone clear " 

 between the lions at the gate and forced open the door, 

 and saw the " Holy Vessel, covered with red samite, and 

 many angels about it"; and Arthur and Guenevere watch- 

 ing the dead Elaine in the barge; and in the wars of 

 Arthur and Launcelot, the scene opening with the words : 

 " Then it befell upon a day in harvest-time, Sir Launcelot 

 looked over the walls, and spake on high unto King 

 Arthur and Sir Gawaine. . . ." 



No English writer has expressed as well as Traherne 

 K 2 



