Idylls of the King

Idylls of the King is one of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's most famous works, and has influenced many modern treatments of the Arthurian legends and myths. Components of the epic poem were worked upon as early as 1842, and published between 1859 and 1885.

These quotations are derived primarily from the e-texts of Project Gutenberg as compared with the Oxford University Press edition of Tennyson: Poems and Plays, as well as various 19th- and 20th-century editions of his poetry.

Dedication


We know him now: all narrow jealousies Are silent; and we see him as he moved, How modest, kindly, all-accomplished, wise, With what sublime repression of himself, And in what limits, and how tenderly; Not swaying to this faction or to that;''' Not making his high place the lawless perch Of winged ambitions, nor a vantage-ground For pleasure; but through all this tract of years Wearing the white flower of a blameless life, Before a thousand peering littlenesses, In that fierce light which beats upon a throne, And blackens every blot
 * '''We have lost him: he is gone:

The Coming of Arthur


Ruled in this isle, and ever waging war Each upon other, wasted all the land'''; And still from time to time the heathen host Swarmed overseas, and harried what was left.
 * '''For many a petty king ere Arthur came

Wherein the beast was ever more and more, But man was less and less, till Arthur came.
 * And so there grew great tracts of wilderness,

But heard the call, and came: and Guinevere Stood by the castle walls to watch him pass; But since he neither wore on helm or shield The golden symbol of his kinglihood, But rode a simple knight among his knights, And many of these in richer arms than he, She saw him not, or marked not, if she saw, One among many, though his face was bare.
 * And Arthur yet had done no deed of arms,

Vext — O ye stars that shudder over me, O earth that soundest hollow under me, Vext with waste dreams?''' for saving I be joined To her that is the fairest under heaven, I seem as nothing in the mighty world, And cannot will my will, nor work my work Wholly, nor make myself in mine own realm Victor and lord. But were I joined with her, Then might we live together as one life, And reigning with one will in everything Have power on this dark land to lighten it, And power on this dead world to make it live.'''
 * What happiness to reign a lonely king,

Let chance what will, I trust thee to the death.
 * Man's word is God in man:

''' For there be those who hate him in their hearts, Call him baseborn, and since his ways are sweet, And theirs are bestial, hold him less than man: And there be those who deem him more than man, And dream he dropt from heaven'''
 * Sir, there be many rumours on this head:

With large, divine, and comfortable words, Beyond my tongue to tell thee — I beheld From eye to eye through all their Order flash A momentary likeness of the King.
 * When he spake and cheered his Table Round

And hundred winters are but as the hands Of loyal vassals toiling for their liege. And near him stood the Lady of the Lake, Who knows a subtler magic than his own — Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful. She gave the King his huge cross-hilted sword, Whereby to drive the heathen out
 * I saw mage Merlin, whose vast wit

Down in a deep; calm, whatsoever storms May shake the world, and when the surface rolls, Hath power to walk the waters like our Lord.
 * She dwells

Before him at his crowning borne, the sword That rose from out the bosom of the lake,''' And Arthur rowed across and took it — rich With jewels, elfin Urim, on the hilt, Bewildering heart and eye — the blade so bright That men are blinded by it — on one side, Graven in the oldest tongue of all this world, "Take me," but turn the blade and ye shall see, And written in the speech ye speak yourself, "Cast me away!" And sad was Arthur's face Taking it, but old Merlin counselled him, "Take thou and strike! the time to cast away Is yet far-off." So this great brand the king Took, and by this will beat his foemen down.
 * '''There likewise I beheld Excalibur

In which the bounds of heaven and earth were lost'''
 * Descending through the dismal night — '''a night

Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame''': And down the wave and in the flame was borne A naked babe, and rode to Merlin's feet, Who stoopt and caught the babe, and cried "The King! Here is an heir for Uther!"
 * '''Wave after wave, each mightier than the last,

A young man will be wiser by and by; An old man's wit may wander ere he die. Rain, rain, and sun! a rainbow on the lea! And truth is this to me, and that to thee; And truth or clothed or naked let it be. Rain, sun, and rain! and the free blossom blows: '''Sun, rain, and sun! and where is he who knows? From the great deep to the great deep he goes.'''
 * Rain, rain, and sun! a rainbow in the sky!

Fear not to give this King thy only child, Guinevere: so great bards of him will sing Hereafter;
 * So Merlin riddling angered me; but thou

Hath spoken also, not in jest, and sworn Though men may wound him that he will not die, But pass, again to come; and then or now Utterly smite the heathen underfoot, Till these and all men hail him for their king.
 * Merlin in our time

Let chance what will, I love thee to the death!'''
 * '''Behold, thy doom is mine.

That God hath told the King a secret word. Fall battleaxe, and flash brand! Let the King reign.
 * Strike for the King and live! his knights have heard

And we that fight for our fair father Christ, Seeing that ye be grown too weak and old To drive the heathen from your Roman wall, No tribute will we pay: so those great lords Drew back in wrath, and Arthur strove with Rome.
 * The old order changeth, yielding place to new;

Were all one will, and through that strength the King Drew in the petty princedoms under him, Fought, and in twelve great battles overcame The heathen hordes, and made a realm and reigned.
 * And Arthur and his knighthood for a space

Gareth and Lynette


Else, wherefore born?
 * Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King—
 * Line 117


 * Eyes of pure women, wholesome stars of love.
 * Line 367

Craft, poisonous counsels, wayside ambushings.
 * A man of plots,
 * Line 422

May-blossom, and a cheek of apple-blossom, Hawk-eyes; and lightly was her slender nose Tip-tilted like the petal of a flower.
 * A damsel of high lineage, and a brow
 * Line 574


 * Who should be King save him who makes us free?


 * The thrall in person may be free in soul

For barefoot on the keystone, which was lined And rippled like an ever-fleeting wave, The Lady of the Lake stood: … And in the space to left of her, and right, Were Arthur's wars in weird devices done, ''' New things and old co-twisted, as if Time Were nothing'''.
 * There was no gate like it under heaven.

Who leaving share in furrow come to see The glories of our King: but these, my men, (Your city moved so weirdly in the mist) Doubt if the King be King at all, or come From Fairyland; and whether this be built By magic, and by fairy Kings and Queens; Or whether there be any city at all, Or all a vision: and this music now Hath scared them both, but tell thou these the truth.
 * We be tillers of the soil,

Keel upward, and mast downward, in the heavens, And solid turrets topsy-turvy in air: '''And here is truth; but an it please thee not, Take thou the truth as thou hast told it me.''' For truly as thou sayest, a Fairy King And Fairy Queens have built the city, son… '''And, as thou sayest, it is enchanted, son, For there is nothing in it as it seems Saving the King; though some there be that hold The King a shadow, and the city real: Yet take thou heed of him, for, so thou pass Beneath this archway, then wilt thou become A thrall to his enchantments, for the King Will bind thee by such vows, as is a shame A man should not be bound by, yet the which No man can keep; but, so thou dread to swear, Pass not beneath this gateway, but abide Without, among the cattle of the field.''' For an ye heard a music, like enow '''They are building still, seeing the city is built To music, therefore never built at all, And therefore built for ever.'''
 * Son, I have seen the good ship sail

Confusion, and illusion, and relation, Elusion, and occasion, and evasion?''' I mock thee not but as thou mockest me, And all that see thee, for thou art not who Thou seemest, but I know thee who thou art. '''And now thou goest up to mock the King, Who cannot brook the shadow of any lie.'''
 * '''Know ye not then the Riddling of the Bards?

Here on the threshold of our enterprise.
 * Our one white lie sits like a little ghost

Despite of Day and Night and Death and Hell.
 * Full pardon, but I follow up the quest,
 * Line 865


 * Say thou thy say, and I will do my deed.

Far liefer had I fight a score of times Than hear thee so missay me and revile.''' Fair words were best for him who fights for thee.
 * '''Damsel, whether knave or knight,

Being but knave, I hate thee all the more. "Fair damsel, you should worship me the more, That, being but knave, I throw thine enemies."
 * Ay, knave, because thou strikest as a knight,
 * Line 994

To call him shamed, who is but overthrown? '''Thrown have I been, nor once, but many a time. Victor from vanquished issues at the last, And overthrower from being overthrown.'''
 * O damsel, be you wise
 * Line 1230

And thou hast wreaked his justice on his foes, And when reviled, hast answered graciously, And makest merry when overthrown. Prince, Knight Hail, Knight and Prince, and of our Table Round!
 * Well hast thou done; for all the stream is freed,

Reviled thee, and hath wrought on Lancelot now To lend thee horse and shield: '''wonders ye have done; Miracles ye cannot'''
 * I curse the tongue that all through yesterday

To dash against mine enemy and win.'''
 * '''Here be rules. I know but one —

With white breast-bone, and barren ribs of Death, And crowned with fleshless laughter — some ten steps — In the half-light — through the dim dawn — advanced The monster, and then paused, and spake no word.
 * High on a nightblack horse, in nightblack arms,

Canst thou not trust the limbs thy God hath given, But must, to make the terror of thee more, Trick thyself out in ghastly imageries Of that which Life hath done with, and the clod, Less dull than thou, will hide with mantling flowers As if for pity?" But he spake no word; Which set the horror higher: a maiden swooned; The Lady Lyonors wrung her hands and wept, As doomed to be the bride of Night and Death; Sir Gareth's head prickled beneath his helm; And even Sir Lancelot through his warm blood felt Ice strike, and all that marked him were aghast.
 * "Fool, for thou hast, men say, the strength of ten,

And Death's dark war-horse bounded forward with him. ''' Then those that did not blink the terror, saw That Death was cast to ground, and slowly rose.'''
 * At once Sir Lancelot's charger fiercely neighed,

What madness made thee challenge the chief knight Of Arthur's hall?" "Fair Sir, they bad me do it. They hate the King, and Lancelot, the King's friend, They hoped to slay him somewhere on the stream, They never dreamed the passes could be past."
 * "My fair child,

The Marriage of Geraint
Dyeing it; and his quick, instinctive hand Caught at the hilt, as to abolish him: But he, from his exceeding manfulness And pure nobility of temperament, Wroth to be wroth at such a worm, refrained From even a word, and so returning said: "I will avenge this insult, noble Queen, Done in your maiden's person to yourself: And I will track this vermin to their earths"
 * The Prince's blood spirted upon the scarf,


 * For man is man and master of his fate.
 * Line 355

Of Fortune and her wheel, and Enid sang: "Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel and lower the proud; Turn thy wild wheel through sunshine, storm, and cloud; Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate.  Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel with smile or frown; With that wild wheel we go not up or down; Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great."
 * It chanced the song that Enid sang was one
 * Line 374

Geraint and Enid



 * The useful trouble of the rain.
 * Line 770

How many among us at this very hour Do forge a life-long trouble for ourselves, By taking true for false, or false for true'''; Here, through the feeble twilight of this world Groping, how many, until we pass and reach That other, where we see as we are seen!
 * '''O purblind race of miserable men,

Your wish, and would obey; but riding first, I hear the violent threats you do not hear, I see the danger which you cannot see: Then not to give you warning, that seems hard; Almost beyond me: yet I would obey.
 * Yea, my lord, I know

To blessing or to cursing save from one'''.
 * '''She was deaf

And all the men and women in the hall Rose when they saw the dead man rise, and fled Yelling as from a spectre, and the two Were left alone together
 * So died Earl Doorm by him he counted dead.

Done you more wrong: we both have undergone That trouble which has left me thrice your own: '''Henceforward I will rather die than doubt. And here I lay this penance on myself, Not, though mine own ears heard you yestermorn — You thought me sleeping, but I heard you say, I heard you say, that you were no true wife: I swear I will not ask your meaning in it: I do believe yourself against yourself, And will henceforward rather die than doubt.'''
 * Enid, I have used you worse than that dead man;

That I was halfway down the slope to Hell, By overthrowing me you threw me higher.
 * Once, when I was up so high in pride

His very face with change of heart is changed.''' The world will not believe a man repents: And this wise world of ours is mainly right. Full seldom doth a man repent, or use Both grace and will to pick the vicious quitch Of blood and custom wholly out of him, And make all clean, and plant himself afresh. Edyrn has done it, weeding all his heart As I will weed this land before I go. On each of all whom Uther left in charge Long since, to guard the justice of the King: '''He looked and found them wanting; and as now Men weed the white horse on the Berkshire hills To keep him bright and clean as heretofore, He rooted out the slothful officer Or guilty, which for bribe had winked at wrong,''' And in their chairs set up a stronger race With hearts and hands, and sent a thousand men To till the wastes, and moving everywhere Cleared the dark places and let in the law, And broke the bandit holds and cleansed the land.
 * '''This work of his is great and wonderful.
 * Lines 897-907.
 * The blameless King went forth and cast his eyes

Balin and Balan


That any of these would wrong thee, wrongs thyself.''' Witness their flowery welcome. Bound are they To speak no evil. Truly save for fears, My fears for thee, so rich a fellowship Would make me wholly blest: thou one of them, ''' Be one indeed: consider them, and all Their bearing in their common bond of love, No more of hatred than in Heaven itself, No more of jealousy than in Paradise.'''
 * '''To dream

And kindled all the plain and all the wold. The new leaf ever pushes off the old. The fire of Heaven is not the flame of Hell.''' Old priest, who mumble worship in your quire — Old monk and nun, ye scorn the world's desire, Yet in your frosty cells ye feel the fire! The fire of Heaven is not the flame of Hell.
 * '''The fire of Heaven has killed the barren cold,

The wayside blossoms open to the blaze. The whole wood-world is one full peal of praise. The fire of Heaven is not the flame of Hell. The fire of Heaven is lord of all things good, And starve not thou this fire within thy blood, But follow Vivien through the fiery flood! The fire of Heaven is not the flame of Hell!
 * The fire of Heaven is on the dusty ways.
 * Lines 442-9


 * Mere white truth in simple nakedness.
 * Line 509

This old sun-worship, boy, will rise again, And beat the cross to earth, and break the King And all his Table.
 * This fire of Heaven,

Goodmorrow — Dark my doom was here, and dark It will be there. I see thee now no more.
 * Goodnight! for we shall never bid again

Together by one doom:
 * We two were born together, and we die

Merlin and Vivien
So Hate, if Hate is perfect, casts out fear.
 * As Love, if Love is perfect, casts out fear,
 * Line 41

That by and by will make the music mute, And ever widening slowly silence all.
 * It is the little rift within the lute
 * Line 386

Tolerant of what he half disdained, and she, Perceiving that she was but half disdained, Began to break her sports with graver fits, Turn red or pale, would often when they met Sigh fully, or all-silent gaze upon him With such a fixt devotion, that the old man, Though doubtful, felt the flattery, and at times Would flatter his own wish in age for love, And half believe her true.
 * He grew

He walked with dreams and darkness, and he found A doom that ever poised itself to fall, An ever-moaning battle in the mist, World-war of dying flesh against the life, Death in all life and lying in all love, The meanest having power upon the highest, And the high purpose broken by the worm.
 * Then fell on Merlin a great melancholy;

Love most, say least'''
 * '''Who are wise in love

"Are these your pretty tricks and fooleries, O Vivien, the preamble? yet my thanks, For these have broken up my melancholy."
 * "To what request for what strange boon," he said,

Faith and unfaith can ne'er be equal powers: Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.
 * In Love, if Love be Love, if Love be ours,


 * Trust me not at all or all in all.

So tender was her voice, so fair her face, So sweetly gleamed her eyes behind her tears Like sunlight on the plain behind a shower
 * Merlin looked and half believed her true,

Man dreams of Fame while woman wakes to love.
 * Yet is there one true line, the pearl of pearls:

And what is Fame in life but half-disfame, And counterchanged with darkness? '''ye yourself Know well that Envy calls you Devil's son, And since ye seem the Master of all Art, They fain would make you Master of all vice.'''
 * The Fame that follows death is nothing to us;


 * Rather use than fame.

For me, I love you somewhat; rest: and Love Should have some rest and pleasure in himself, Not ever be too curious for a boon, Too prurient for a proof against the grain Of him ye say ye love: but Fame with men, Being but ampler means to serve mankind, Should have small rest or pleasure in herself, But work as vassal to the larger love, That dwarfs the petty love of one to one.
 * You, methinks you think you love me well;

Increasing gave me use.''' Lo, there my boon! What other? for men sought to prove me vile, Because I fain had given them greater wits: And then did Envy call me Devil's son.
 * '''Use gave me Fame at first, and Fame again

But when my name was lifted up, the storm Brake on the mountain and I cared not for it. Right well know I that Fame is half-disfame, Yet needs must work my work'''.
 * '''Sweet were the days when I was all unknown,


 * I rather dread the loss of use than fame.

I needed then no charm to keep them mine.
 * Full many a love in loving youth was mine;

That is not of his school, nor any school But that where blind and naked Ignorance Delivers brawling judgments, unashamed, On all things all day long, he answered her.
 * Smiling as a master smiles at one
 * Line 662

And ever margin scribbled, crost, and crammed With comment, densest condensation, To mind and eye; but the long sleepless nights Of my long life have made it easy to me. '''And none can read the text, not even I; And none can read the comment but myself; And in the comment did I find the charm.'''
 * Thou read the book!

Who wouldst against thine own eye-witness fain Have all men true and leal, all women pure; '''How, in the mouths of base interpreters, From over-fineness not intelligible To things with every sense as false and foul As the poached filth that floods the middle street, Is thy white blamelessness accounted blame!'''
 * O selfless man and stainless gentleman,


 * Her words had issue other than she willed.

"Not mount as high;" we scarce can sink as low: '''For men at most differ as Heaven and earth, But women, worst and best, as Heaven and Hell'''.
 * What did the wanton say?
 * Line 812

All brave and many generous and some chaste.
 * I know the Table Round, my friends of old;
 * Line 814

O God, that I had loved a smaller man! I should have found in him a greater heart.
 * I thought that he was gentle, being great;
 * Line 869

Betwixt us twain henceforward evermore.
 * There must be now no passages of love
 * Line 911

Face-flatterer and backbiter are the same. And they, sweet soul, that most impute a crime Are pronest to it, and impute themselves, Wanting the mental range; or low desire Not to feel lowest makes them level all; Yea, they would pare the mountain to the plain, To leave an equal baseness'''; and in this Are harlots like the crowd, that if they find Some stain or blemish in a name of note, '''Not grieving that their greatest are so small, Inflate themselves with some insane delight, And judge all nature from her feet of clay, Without the will to lift their eyes, and see Her godlike head crowned with spiritual fire, And touching other worlds.'''
 * '''Nine tithes of times


 * In a wink the false love turns to hate.

Lancelot and Elaine


Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat, High in her chamber up a tower to the east Guarded the sacred shield of Lancelot;
 * Elaine the fair, Elaine the loveable,

Divinely, are the kingdom's, not the King's — For public use''': henceforward let there be, Once every year, a joust for one of these: For so by nine years' proof we needs must learn Which is our mightiest, and ourselves shall grow In use of arms and manhood.
 * '''These jewels, whereupon I chanced

And eight years past, eight jousts had been, and still Had Lancelot won the diamond of the year, With purpose to present them to the Queen, When all were won; but meaning all at once To snare her royal fancy with a boon Worth half her realm, had never spoken word.
 * Thus he spoke:

And swearing men to vows impossible, To make them like himself: but, friend, to me He is all fault who hath no fault at all: For who loves me must have a touch of earth;
 * Rapt in this fancy of his Table Round,
 * Line 130

No keener hunter after glory breathes.
 * Ye know right well, how meek soe'er he seem,
 * Line 154

When sweetest; and the vermin voices here May buzz so loud — we scorn them, but they sting.
 * The tiny-trumpeting gnat can break our dream

Fills him. I never saw his like; there lives No greater leader.
 * The fire of God
 * Line 314

"Me you call great: mine is the firmer seat, The truer lance: but there is many a youth Now crescent, who will come to all I am And overcome it; and in me there dwells No greatness, save it be some far-off touch Of greatness to know well I am not great: There is the man."
 * Then Lancelot answered young Lavaine and said,
 * Line 443

I pray you, use some rough discourtesy To blunt or break her passion." Lancelot said, "That were against me: what I can I will."
 * "Too courteous are ye, fair Lord Lancelot.

But if I know, then, if I love not him, I know there is none other I can love.
 * I know not if I know what true love is,
 * Line 672

His honour rooted in dishonour stood, And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.
 * The shackles of an old love straitened him,
 * Line 870

And sweet is death who puts an end to pain: I know not which is sweeter, no, not I. Love, art thou sweet? then bitter death must be: Love, thou art bitter; sweet is death to me. O Love, if death be sweeter, let me die. … I fain would follow love, if that could be; I needs must follow death, who calls for me; Call and I follow, I follow! let me die.
 * Sweet is true love though given in vain, in vain;
 * Line 1000


 * He makes no friend who never made a foe.
 * Line 1082

Not to love me, than it is mine to love Him of all men who seems to me the highest.'''
 * '''It is no more Sir Lancelot's fault

But this I know, for all the people know it, He loves the Queen, and in an open shame: And she returns his love in open shame; If this be high, what is it to be low?
 * Daughter, I know not what you call the highest;

Was noble man but made ignoble talk. He makes no friend who never made a foe.
 * These are slanders: never yet

To doubt her pureness were to want a heart — Yea, to be loved, if what is worthy love Could bind him, but free love will not be bound.'''
 * '''To doubt her fairness were to want an eye,

"Let love be free; free love is for the best: And, after heaven, on our dull side of death, What should be best, if not so pure a love Clothed in so pure a loveliness? yet thee She failed to bind, though being, as I think, Unbound as yet, and gentle, as I know."
 * "Free love, so bound, were freëst," said the King.
 * Line 1370

Of greatest knight? I fought for it, and have it: '''Pleasure to have it, none; to lose it, pain; Now grown a part of me: but what use in it? To make men worse by making my sin known? Or sin seem less, the sinner seeming great?'''
 * What am I? what profits me my name

Not knowing he should die a holy man.'''
 * '''So groaned Sir Lancelot in remorseful pain,

The Holy Grail


Drove me from all vainglories, rivalries, And earthly heats that spring and sparkle out Among us in the jousts, while women watch Who wins, who falls; and waste the spiritual strength Within us, better offered up to Heaven.'''
 * '''The sweet vision of the Holy Grail

… What is it? The phantom of a cup that comes and goes?
 * The Holy Grail! —

"The cup, the cup itself, from which our Lord Drank at the last sad supper with his own.… If a man Could touch or see it, he was healed at once, By faith, of all his ills. But then the times Grew to such evil that the holy cup Was caught away to Heaven, and disappeared."
 * "Nay, monk! what phantom?' answered Percivale.

Beyond my knowing of them, beautiful, Beyond all knowing of them, wonderful, Beautiful in the light of holiness.
 * When she came to speak, behold her eyes

The Holy Thing is here again Among us, brother, fast thou too and pray, And tell thy brother knights to fast and pray, That so perchance the vision may be seen By thee and those, and all the world be healed.'''
 * '''Sweet brother, I have seen the Holy Grail…

Among us in white armour, Galahad.
 * One there was among us, ever moved

My sister's vision, filled me with amaze; His eyes became so like her own, they seemed Hers, and himself her brother more than I.
 * Galahad, when he heard

Called him a son of Lancelot, and some said Begotten by enchantment — chatterers they, Like birds of passage piping up and down, That gape for flies — we know not whence they come; For when was Lancelot wanderingly lewd?
 * Sister or brother none had he; but some

And break through all, till one will crown thee king Far in the spiritual city:" and as she spake She sent the deathless passion in her eyes Through him, and made him hers, and laid her mind On him, and he believed in her belief.
 * "Go forth, for thou shalt see what I have seen,


 * Then came a year of miracle...

Fashioned by Merlin ere he past away, And carven with strange figures'''; and in and out The figures, like a serpent, ran a scroll Of letters in a tongue no man could read. And '''Merlin called it "The Siege perilous," Perilous for good and ill; "for there," he said, "No man could sit but he should lose himself..." '''
 * '''In our great hall there stood a vacant chair,

A cracking and a riving of the roofs, And rending, and a blast, and overhead Thunder, and in the thunder was a cry.
 * All at once, as there we sat, we heard

A beam of light seven times more clear than day: And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail All over covered with a luminous cloud. And none might see who bare it, and it past. But every knight beheld his fellow's face As in a glory, and all the knights arose, And staring each at other like dumb men Stood, till I found a voice and sware a vow.
 * And in the blast there smote along the hall

With many a mystic symbol, gird the hall: And in the lowest beasts are slaying men, And in the second men are slaying beasts, And on the third are warriors, perfect men, And on the fourth are men with growing wings, And over all one statue in the mould Of Arthur, made by Merlin, with a crown, And peaked wings pointed to the Northern Star.
 * Four great zones of sculpture, set betwixt

And all the light that falls upon the board Streams through the twelve great battles of our King. Nay, one there is, and at the eastern end, Wealthy with wandering lines of mount and mere, Where Arthur finds the brand Excalibur. And also one to the west, and counter to it, And blank: and who shall blazon it? when and how? — ''' O there, perchance, when all our wars are done, The brand Excalibur will be cast away.'''
 * Twelve great windows blazon Arthur's wars,

Bold was mine answer, "Had thyself been here, My King, thou wouldst have sworn." "Yea, yea," said he, "Art thou so bold and hast not seen the Grail?" "Nay, lord, I heard the sound, I saw the light, But since I did not see the Holy Thing, I sware a vow to follow it till I saw."
 * "Had I been here, ye had not sworn the vow."

I saw the Holy Grail and heard a cry — "O Galahad", and "O Galahad, follow me."
 * I, Sir Arthur, saw the Holy Grail,

As thou art is the vision, not for these.'''"
 * "'''Ah, Galahad, Galahad," said the King, "for such

Five knights at once, and every younger knight, Unproven, holds himself as Lancelot,''' Till overborne by one, he learns — and ye, What are ye? Galahads? — no, nor Percivales
 * '''Lancelot is Lancelot, and hath overborne

Go, since your vows are sacred, being made.'''
 * '''One hath seen, and all the blind will see.

Your places being vacant at my side, This chance of noble deeds will come and go Unchallenged, while ye follow wandering fires Lost in the quagmire! Many of you, yea most, Return no more: ye think I show myself Too dark a prophet: come now, let us meet The morrow morn once more in one full field Of gracious pastime, that once more the King, Before ye leave him for this Quest, may count The yet-unbroken strength of all his knights, Rejoicing in that Order which he made.
 * How often, O my knights,

The highest virtue, mother of them all'''
 * '''Thou hast not true humility,

As Galahad.
 * Thou hast not lost thyself to save thyself

The Holy Grail, descend upon the shrine: I saw the fiery face as of a child That smote itself into the bread, and went; And hither am I come; and never yet Hath what thy sister taught me first to see, This Holy Thing, failed from my side, nor come Covered, but moving with me night and day.
 * Saw ye no more? I, Galahad, saw the Grail,

Shattering all evil customs everywhere, And past through Pagan realms, and made them mine,''' And clashed with Pagan hordes, and bore them down, And broke through all, and in the strength of this Come victor. But my time is hard at hand, And hence I go; and one will crown me king Far in the spiritual city; and come thou, too, For thou shalt see the vision when I go.
 * '''In the strength of this I rode,

A great black swamp and of an evil smell, Part black, part whitened with the bones of men, Not to be crost, save that some ancient king Had built a way, where, linked with many a bridge, A thousand piers ran into the great Sea. ''' And Galahad fled along them bridge by bridge, And every bridge as quickly as he crost Sprang into fire and vanished, though I yearned To follow; and thrice above him all the heavens Opened and blazed with thunder such as seemed Shoutings of all the sons of God''': and first At once I saw him far on the great Sea, In silver-shining armour starry-clear; And o'er his head the Holy Vessel hung Clothed in white samite or a luminous cloud.
 * On either hand, as far as eye could see,

Redder than any rose, a joy to me, For now I knew the veil had been withdrawn.
 * O'er his head the Holy Vessel hung

And gateways in a glory like one pearl — No larger, though the goal of all the saints — Strike from the sea; and from the star there shot A rose-red sparkle to the city, and there Dwelt, and I knew it was the Holy Grail, Which never eyes on earth again shall see.
 * I saw the spiritual city and all her spires

And women were as phantoms.
 * All men, to one so bound by such a vow,

With one great dwelling in the middle of it; Thither I made, and there was I disarmed By maidens each as fair as any flower
 * I chanced upon a goodly town

Brother, and that one only, who had ever Made my heart leap;''' for when I moved of old A slender page about her father's hall, And she a slender maiden, all my heart Went after her with longing: yet we twain Had never kissed a kiss, or vowed a vow. And now I came upon her once again, And one had wedded her, and he was dead, And all his land and wealth and state were hers.
 * '''The Princess of that castle was the one,

Our Lady says it, and we well believe: Wed thou our Lady, and rule over us, And thou shalt be as Arthur in our land.
 * We have heard of thee: thou art our greatest knight,

But wailed and wept, and hated mine own self, And even the Holy Quest, and all but her;''' Then after I was joined with Galahad Cared not for her, nor anything upon earth.
 * '''I rose and fled,

Must be content to sit by little fires.
 * Poor men, when yule is cold,

To find thine own first love once more — to hold, Hold her a wealthy bride within thine arms, Or all but hold, and then — cast her aside, Foregoing all her sweetness, like a weed. '''For we that want the warmth of double life, We that are plagued with dreams of something sweet Beyond all sweetness in a life so rich, — ''' Ah, blessd Lord, I speak too earthlywise, Seeing I never strayed beyond the cell.
 * O the pity

Could see it, thou hast seen the Grail;" and Bors, "'''Ask me not, for I may not speak of it: I saw it;" and the tears were in his eyes.'''
 * "Hail, Bors! if ever loyal man and true

"Thou, too, my Lancelot," asked the king, "my friend, Our mightiest, hath this Quest availed for thee?"
 * Our Arthur kept his best until the last;

Happier are those that welter in their sin, Swine in the mud, that cannot see for slime, Slime of the ditch: but in me lived a sin So strange, of such a kind, that all of pure, Noble, and knightly in me twined and clung Round that one sin, until the wholesome flower And poisonous grew together, each as each, Not to be plucked asunder
 * O King, my friend, if friend of thine I be,

Sware, I sware with them only in the hope That could I touch or see the Holy Grail They might be plucked asunder. Then I spake To one most holy saint, who wept and said, That save they could be plucked asunder, all My quest were but in vain'''
 * '''When thy knights

To tear the twain asunder in my heart, My madness came upon me as of old, And whipt me into waste fields far away; '''There was I beaten down by little men, Mean knights, to whom the moving of my sword And shadow of my spear had been enow To scare them from me once'''.
 * Forth I went, and while I yearned and strove

With such a fierceness that I swooned away — O, yet methought I saw the Holy Grail, All palled in crimson samite, and around Great angels, awful shapes, and wings and eyes'''. And but for all my madness and my sin, And then my swooning, I had sworn I saw That which I saw; but what I saw was veiled And covered; and this Quest was not for me.
 * '''Blasted and burnt, and blinded as I was,

Yea, made our mightiest madder than our least.''' But by mine eyes and by mine ears I swear, I will be deafer than the blue-eyed cat, And thrice as blind as any noonday owl, To holy virgins in their ecstasies, Henceforward.
 * '''Thy holy nun and thou have driven men mad,
 * Gawain to Arthur

"Gawain, and blinder unto holy things Hope not to make thyself by idle vows, Being too blind to have desire to see. But if indeed there came a sign from heaven, Blessed are Bors, Lancelot and Percivale, For these have seen according to their sight. For every fiery prophet in old times, And all the sacred madness of the bard, When God made music through them, could but speak His music by the framework and the chord; And as ye saw it ye have spoken truth."
 * "Deafer," said the blameless King,

Could all of true and noble in knight and man Twine round one sin, whatever it might be, With such a closeness, but apart there grew, Save that he were the swine thou spakest of, Some root of knighthood and pure nobleness; Whereto see thou, that it may bear its flower.
 * — But thou errest, Lancelot: never yet

Was I too dark a prophet when I said To those who went upon the Holy Quest, That most of them would follow wandering fires, Lost in the quagmire? — lost to me and gone, And left me gazing at a barren board, And a lean Order — scarce returned a tithe — And out of those to whom the vision came '''My greatest hardly will believe he saw; Another hath beheld it afar off, And leaving human wrongs to right themselves, Cares but to pass into the silent life. And one hath had the vision face to face, And now his chair desires him here in vain, However they may crown him otherwhere.'''
 * And spake I not too truly, O my knights?

Had seen the sight he would have sworn the vow: '''Not easily, seeing that the King must guard That which he rules, and is but as the hind To whom a space of land is given to plow. Who may not wander from the allotted field Before his work be done; but, being done, Let visions of the night or of the day Come, as they will; and many a time they come, Until this earth he walks on seems not earth, This light that strikes his eyeball is not light, This air that smites his forehead is not air But vision — yea, his very hand and foot — In moments when he feels he cannot die, And knows himself no vision to himself, Nor the high God a vision, nor that One Who rose again: ye have seen what ye have seen.'''
 * Some among you held, that if the King


 * So spake the King: I knew not all he meant.

Pelleas and Ettarre


All that belongs to knighthood, and I love.
 * Make me thy knight, because I know, Sir King,

'''The beauty of her flesh abashed the boy, As though it were the beauty of her soul: For as the base man, judging of the good, Puts his own baseness in him by default Of will and nature, so did Pelleas lend All the young beauty of his own soul to hers'''
 * While he gazed

Raw, yet so stale!"
 * She muttered, "I have lighted on a fool,

Caerleon, ere they past to lodging, she, Taking his hand, "O the strong hand," she said, "See! look at mine! but wilt thou fight for me, And win me this fine circlet, Pelleas, That I may love thee?"
 * When they reached

And wondered after him, because his face Shone like the countenance of a priest of old Against the flame about a sacrifice Kindled by fire from heaven: so glad was he.
 * The men who met him rounded on their heels

Noble among the noble, for he dreamed His lady loved him, and he knew himself Loved of the King: and him his new-made knight Worshipt, whose lightest whisper moved him more Than all the rangd reasons of the world.
 * Pelleas looked

Of pride and glory fired her face; her eye Sparkled; she caught the circlet from his lance, '''And there before the people crowned herself: So for the last time she was gracious to him.'''
 * Then rang the shout his lady loved: the heat

O damsel, wearing this unsunny face To him who won thee glory!'''" And she said, "Had ye not held your Lancelot in your bower, My Queen, he had not won." Whereat the Queen, As one whose foot is bitten by an ant, Glanced down upon her, turned and went her way.
 * Said Guinevere, "'''We marvel at thee much,

Among yourselves. Would rather that we had Some rough old knight who knew the worldly way, Albeit grizzlier than a bear, to ride And jest with: take him to you, keep him off, And pamper him with papmeat, if ye will
 * I cannot bide Sir Baby. Keep him back

Small matter! let him." This her damsels heard, And mindful of her small and cruel hand, They, closing round him through the journey home, Acted her hest, and always from her side Restrained him with all manner of device, So that he could not come to speech with her. And when she gained her castle, upsprang the bridge, Down rang the grate of iron through the groove, And he was left alone in open field.
 * "If he fly us,

"To those who love them, trials of our faith. Yea, let her prove me to the uttermost, For loyal to the uttermost am I."
 * "These be the ways of ladies," Pelleas thought,

Then calling her three knights, she charged them, "Out! And drive him from the walls." And out they came But Pelleas overthrew them as they dashed Against him one by one; and these returned, But still he kept his watch beneath the wall.
 * This persistence turned her scorn to wrath.

A week beyond, while walking on the walls With her three knights, she pointed downward, "Look, He haunts me — I cannot breathe — besieges me; Down! strike him! put my hate into your strokes, And drive him from my walls." And down they went, And Pelleas overthrew them one by one; And from the tower above him cried Ettarre, "Bind him, and bring him in."
 * Thereon her wrath became a hate; and once,

Then let the strong hand, which had overthrown Her minion-knights, by those he overthrew Be bounden straight, and so they brought him in.
 * He heard her voice;

Of her rich beauty made him at one glance More bondsman in his heart than in his bonds. Yet with good cheer he spake, "Behold me, Lady, A prisoner, and the vassal of thy will; And if thou keep me in thy donjon here, Content am I so that I see thy face But once a day: for I have sworn my vows, And thou hast given thy promise, and I know That all these pains are trials of my faith, And that thyself, when thou hast seen me strained And sifted to the utmost, wilt at length Yield me thy love and know me for thy knight."
 * Then when he came before Ettarre, the sight

With all her damsels, he was stricken mute; But when she mocked his vows and the great King, Lighted on words: "For pity of thine own self, Peace, Lady, peace: is he not thine and mine?" "Thou fool," she said, "I never heard his voice But longed to break away. Unbind him now, And thrust him out of doors; for save he be Fool to the midmost marrow of his bones, He will return no more." And those, her three, Laughed, and unbound, and thrust him from the gate.
 * Then she began to rail so bitterly,

She called them, saying, "There he watches yet, There like a dog before his master's door! Kicked, he returns: do ye not hate him, ye? Ye know yourselves: how can ye bide at peace, Affronted with his fulsome innocence? Are ye but creatures of the board and bed, No men to strike? Fall on him all at once, And if ye slay him I reck not: if ye fail, Give ye the slave mine order to be bound, Bind him as heretofore, and bring him in: It may be ye shall slay him in his bonds."
 * And after this, a week beyond, again

Bound upon solitary adventure, saw Low down beneath the shadow of those towers A villainy, three to one: and through his heart The fire of honour and all noble deeds Flashed, and he called, "I strike upon thy side — The caitiffs!" "Nay," said Pelleas, "but forbear; He needs no aid who doth his lady's will."
 * Gawain passing by,

Forbore, but in his heat and eagerness Trembled and quivered, as the dog, withheld A moment from the vermin that he sees Before him, shivers, ere he springs and kills.
 * So Gawain, looking at the villainy done,

And they rose up, and bound, and brought him in. Then first her anger, leaving Pelleas, burned Full on her knights in many an evil name Of craven, weakling, and thrice-beaten hound
 * And Pelleas overthrew them, one to three;

'''I loved you and I deemed you beautiful, I cannot brook to see your beauty marred Through evil spite: and if ye love me not, I cannot bear to dream you so forsworn: I had liefer ye were worthy of my love, Than to be loved again of you — farewell; And though ye kill my hope, not yet my love, Vex not yourself: ye will not see me more.'''
 * Lady, for indeed

Of princely bearing, though in bonds, and thought, "Why have I pushed him from me? this man loves, If love there be: yet him I loved not. Why? I deemed him fool? yea, so? or that in him A something — was it nobler than myself? Seemed my reproach? He is not of my kind. '''He could not love me, did he know me well. Nay, let him go — and quickly." And her knights Laughed not, but thrust him bounden out of door.'''
 * While thus he spake, she gazed upon the man

A rose, one rose, and this was wondrous fair, One rose, a rose that gladdened earth and sky, One rose, my rose, that sweetened all mine air — I cared not for the thorns; the thorns were there.
 * A rose, but one, none other rose had I,

One rose, a rose, to gather and to wear, No rose but one — what other rose had I? One rose, my rose; a rose that will not die, — He dies who loves it, — if the worm be there.
 * One rose, a rose to gather by and by,

Then turned, and so returned, and groaning laid The naked sword athwart their naked throats, There left it, and them sleeping; and she lay, The circlet of her tourney round her brows, And the sword of the tourney across her throat.
 * "Alas that ever a knight should be so false."

Here in the still sweet summer night, but I — I, the poor Pelleas whom she called her fool? Fool, beast — he, she, or I? myself most fool; Beast too, as lacking human wit — disgraced, Dishonoured all for trial of true love —
 * Let the fox bark, let the wolf yell. Who yells

Awaking knew the sword, and turned herself To Gawain: "Liar, for thou hast not slain This Pelleas! here he stood, and might have slain Me and thyself." And he that tells the tale Says that her ever-veering fancy turned To Pelleas, as the one true knight on earth, And only lover; and through her love her life Wasted and pined, desiring him in vain.
 * She, that felt the cold touch on her throat,

Or art thou mazed with dreams? or being one Of our free-spoken Table hast not heard That Lancelot" — there he checked himself and paused.
 * "Am I but false as Guinevere is pure?

Who gets a wound in battle, and the sword That made it plunges through the wound again, And pricks it deeper: and he shrank and wailed, "Is the Queen false?" and Percivale was mute. "'''Have any of our Round Table held their vows?" And Percivale made answer not a word.'''
 * Then fared it with Sir Pelleas as with one

Hath the great heart of knighthood in thee failed So far thou canst not bide, unfrowardly, A fall from HIM?" Then, for he answered not, "Or hast thou other griefs? If I, the Queen, May help them, loose thy tongue, and let me know." But Pelleas lifted up an eye so fierce She quailed; and he, hissing "I have no sword," Sprang from the door into the dark.
 * "O young knight,

And Modred thought, "The time is hard at hand."
 * Then a long silence came upon the hall,

That own no lust because they have no law
 * O great and sane and simple race of brutes
 * Line 471

The Last Tournament


And might of limb, but mainly use and skill, Are winners in this pastime.
 * Strength of heart
 * Line 197

From ear to ear with dogwhip-weals, his nose Bridge-broken, one eye out, and one hand off, And one with shattered fingers dangling lame, A churl, to whom indignantly the King, "My churl, for whom Christ died, what evil beast Hath drawn his claws athwart thy face? or fiend? Man was it who marred heaven's image in thee thus?"
 * Into the hall staggered, his visage ribbed

Brake in upon me and drave them to his tower; And when I called upon thy name as one That doest right by gentle and by churl, Maimed me and mauled, and would outright have slain, Save that he sware me to a message, saying, "Tell thou the King and all his liars, that I Have founded my Round Table in the North, And whatsoever his own knights have sworn My knights have sworn the counter to it — and say My tower is full of harlots, like his court, But mine are worthier, seeing they profess To be none other than themselves — and say My knights are all adulterers like his own, But mine are truer, seeing they profess To be none other; and say his hour is come, The heathen are upon him, his long lance Broken, and his Excalibur a straw."
 * Lord, I was tending swine, and the Red Knight


 * I am but a fool to reason with a fool — 

The woods are hushed, their music is no more: The leaf is dead, the yearning past away: New leaf, new life — the days of frost are o'er: New life, new love, to suit the newer day: New loves are sweet as those that went before: Free love — free field — we love but while we may." "Ye might have moved slow-measure to my tune, Not stood stockstill. I made it in the woods, And heard it ring as true as tested gold."
 * Harken if my music be not true. "Free love — free field — we love but while we may:

Had made thee fool, thy vanity so shot up It frighted all free fool from out thy heart; Which left thee less than fool, and less than swine, A naked aught — yet swine I hold thee still, For I have flung thee pearls and find thee swine.
 * When the King

The dirty nurse, Experience, in her kind Hath fouled me — an I wallowed, then I washed — I have had my day and my philosophies — And thank the Lord I am King Arthur's fool. Swine, say ye? swine, goats, asses, rams and geese Trooped round a Paynim harper once, who thrummed On such a wire as musically as thou Some such fine song — but never a king's fool.
 * I have had my day.
 * Line 316

Conceits himself as God that he can make Figs out of thistles, silk from bristles, milk From burning spurge, honey from hornet-combs, And men from beasts — Long live the king of fools!
 * My brother fool, the king of fools!

But in the heart of Arthur pain was lord.
 * So all the ways were safe from shore to shore,


 * What rights are his that dare not strike for them?

"Flatter me not, for hath not our great Queen My dole of beauty trebled?" and he said, "Her beauty is her beauty, and thine thine, And thine is more to me — soft, gracious, kind —"
 * Softly laughed Isolt;

If this be sweet, to sin in leading-strings, If here be comfort, and if ours be sin, Crowned warrant had we for the crowning sin That made us happy: but how ye greet me — fear And fault and doubt — no word of that fond tale — Thy deep heart-yearnings, thy sweet memories Of Tristram in that year he was away.
 * O my soul, be comforted!

"May God be with thee, sweet, when old and gray, And past desire!" a saying that angered her.
 * Tristram, ever dallying with her hand,


 * The greater man, the greater courtesy.
 * Line 628

In fancy from thy side, and set me far In the gray distance, half a life away, Her to be loved no more? Unsay it, unswear! Flatter me rather, seeing me so weak, Broken with Mark and hate and solitude, Thy marriage and mine own, that I should suck Lies like sweet wines: lie to me: I believe. Will ye not lie? not swear, as there ye kneel, And solemnly as when ye sware to him, The man of men, our King — My God, the power Was once in vows when men believed the King! They lied not then, who sware, and through their vows The King prevailing made his realm: — I say, Swear to me thou wilt love me even when old, Gray-haired, and past desire, and in despair.
 * How darest thou, if lover, push me even

"Vows! did you keep the vow you made to Mark More than I mine? Lied, say ye? Nay, but learnt, The vow that binds too strictly snaps itself — My knighthood taught me this — ay, being snapt — We run more counter to the soul thereof Than had we never sworn. I swear no more.
 * Then Tristram, pacing moodily up and down,
 * Line 649

For once — even to the height — I honoured him. "Man, is he man at all?"… ''' That weird legend of his birth, With Merlin's mystic babble about his end Amazed me; then, his foot was on a stool Shaped as a dragon; he seemed to me no man, But Michaël trampling Satan; so I sware, Being amazed'''
 * I swore to the great King, and am forsworn.

Of our old kings: whence then? a doubtful lord To bind them by inviolable vows, Which flesh and blood perforce would violate
 * They failed to trace him through the flesh and blood

As any maiden child? lock up my tongue From uttering freely what I freely hear? Bind me to one? The wide world laughs at it. And worldling of the world am I, and know '''The ptarmigan that whitens ere his hour Woos his own end; we are not angels here''' Nor shall be
 * Can Arthur make me pure

And therefore is my love so large for thee, Seeing it is not bounded save by love.'''
 * '''We love but while we may;

As valour may, but he that closes both Is perfect, he is Lancelot — taller indeed, Rosier and comelier, thou — but say I loved This knightliest of all knights, and cast thee back Thine own small saw, "We love but while we may," Well then, what answer?
 * For courtesy wins woman all as well
 * Line 702

And out beyond into the dream to come.'''
 * '''I will love thee to the death,

She rose, and set before him all he willed
 * So then, when both were brought to full accord,

Sent up an answer, sobbing, "I am thy fool, And I shall never make thee smile again."
 * "What art thou?" and the voice about his feet

Guinevere


There in the holy house at Almesbury Weeping… For hither had she fled, her cause of flight Sir Modred; he that like a subtle beast Lay couchant with his eyes upon the throne, Ready to spring, waiting a chance
 * Queen Guinevere had fled the court, and sat

No knight of Arthur's noblest dealt in scorn; But, if a man were halt or hunched, in him By those whom God had made full-limbed and tall, Scorn was allowed as part of his defect, And he was answered softly by the King And all his Table.
 * In those days

Would track her guilt until he found, and hers Would be for evermore a name of scorn.
 * She half-foresaw that he, the subtle beast,

For if thou tarry we shall meet again, And if we meet again, some evil chance Will make the smouldering scandal break and blaze Before the people, and our lord the King.
 * O Lancelot, get thee hence to thine own land,

And still they met and met. Again she said, "O Lancelot, if thou love me get thee hence." And then they were agreed upon a night (When the good King should not be there) to meet And part for ever. Vivien, lurking, heard. She told Sir Modred.
 * And Lancelot ever promised, but remained,

There to the nuns, and said, "Mine enemies Pursue me, but, O peaceful Sisterhood, Receive, and yield me sanctuary, nor ask Her name to whom ye yield it, till her time To tell you:" and her beauty, grace and power, Wrought as a charm upon them, and they spared To ask it.
 * And when she came to Almesbury she spake

But let my words, the words of one so small, Who knowing nothing knows but to obey, And if I do not there is penance given — '''Comfort your sorrows; for they do not flow From evil done; right sure am I of that, Who see your tender grace and stateliness. But weigh your sorrows with our lord the King's,''' And weighing find them less; for gone is he To wage grim war against Sir Lancelot there, Round that strong castle where he holds the Queen; And Modred whom he left in charge of all, The traitor — Ah sweet lady, the King's grief For his own self, and his own Queen, and realm, Must needs be thrice as great as any of ours.
 * O pray you, noble lady, weep no more;

For if there ever come a grief to me I cry my cry in silence, and have done. None knows it, and my tears have brought me good:''' But even were the griefs of little ones As great as those of great ones, yet this grief Is added to the griefs the great must bear, That howsoever much they may desire Silence, they cannot weep behind a cloud: As even here they talk at Almesbury About the good King and his wicked Queen, And were I such a King with such a Queen, '''Well might I wish to veil her wickedness, But were I such a King, it could not be.'''
 * '''For me, I thank the saints, I am not great.

"Will the child kill me with her innocent talk?"
 * Then to her own sad heart muttered the Queen,

Of dark Tintagil by the Cornish sea; And that was Arthur; and they fostered him Till he by miracle was approven King: And that his grave should be a mystery From all men, like his birth; and could he find A woman in her womanhood as great As he was in his manhood, then, he sang, The twain together well might change the world. But even in the middle of his song He faltered, and his hand fell from the harp, And pale he turned, and reeled, and would have fallen, But that they stayed him up; nor would he tell His vision; but what doubt that he foresaw This evil work of Lancelot and the Queen?
 * They found a naked child upon the sands

And pray you check me if I ask amiss- But pray you, which had noblest, while you moved Among them, Lancelot or our lord the King?" Then the pale Queen looked up and answered her, "Sir Lancelot, as became a noble knight, Was gracious to all ladies, and the same In open battle or the tilting-field Forbore his own advantage, and the King In open battle or the tilting-field Forbore his own advantage, and these two Were the most nobly-mannered men of all; '''For manners are not idle, but the fruit Of loyal nature, and of noble mind.'''"
 * "Of the two first-famed for courtesy —
 * Line 321

Than is the maiden passion for a maid, Not only to keep down the base in man But teach high thought and amiable words And courtliness and the desire of fame And love of truth and all that makes a man.
 * No more subtle master under heaven
 * Line 475

What knowest thou of the world, and all its lights And shadows, all the wealth and all the woe? If ever Lancelot, that most noble knight, Were for one hour less noble than himself, Pray for him that he scape the doom of fire, And weep for her that drew him to his doom.
 * O closed about by narrowing nunnery-walls,

But I should all as soon believe that his, Sir Lancelot's, were as noble as the King's, As I could think, sweet lady, yours would be Such as they are, were you the sinful Queen." So she, like many another babbler, hurt Whom she would soothe, and harmed where she would heal; For here a sudden flush of wrathful heat Fired all the pale face of the Queen
 * "Yea," said the little novice, "I pray for both;

Meant nothing, but my own too-fearful guilt, Simpler than any child, betrays itself.
 * The simple, fearful child

The knighthood-errant of this realm and all The realms together under me, their Head, In that fair Order of my Table Round, A glorious company, the flower of men, To serve as model for the mighty world, And be the fair beginning of a time.
 * I was first of all the kings who drew

I, whose vast pity almost makes me die To see thee, laying there thy golden head, My pride in happier summers, at my feet.
 * I did not come to curse thee, Guinevere,

Too wholly true to dream untruth in thee, Made my tears burn — is also past — in part. And all is past, the sin is sinned, and I, '''Lo! I forgive thee, as Eternal God Forgives: do thou for thine own soul the rest.'''
 * The pang — which while I weighed thy heart with one

And beauty such as never woman wore, Until it became a kingdom's curse with thee — ''' I cannot touch thy lips, they are not mine, But Lancelot's: nay, they never were the King's.'''
 * O imperial-moulded form,

Let no man dream but that I love thee still.'''
 * '''My doom is, I love thee still.

Gone through my sin to slay and to be slain! And he forgave me, and I could not speak. Farewell? I should have answered his farewell. His mercy choked me. Gone, my lord the King, My own true lord! how dare I call him mine?
 * Gone — my lord!

What help in that? I cannot kill my sin, If soul be soul; nor can I kill my shame; No, nor by living can I live it down. The days will grow to weeks, the weeks to months The months will add themselves and make the years, The years will roll into the centuries, And mine will ever be a name of scorn.
 * Shall I kill myself?

Let the world be; that is but of the world. What else? what hope? I think there was a hope, Except he mocked me when he spake of hope; '''His hope he called it; but he never mocks, For mockery is the fume of little hearts.''' And blessd be the King, who hath forgiven My wickedness to him, and left me hope That in mine own heart I can live down sin And be his mate hereafter in the heavens Before high God.
 * I must not dwell on that defeat of fame.

Thou art the highest and most human too, Not Lancelot, nor another. Is there none Will tell the King I love him though so late?''' Now — ere he goes to the great Battle? none: Myself must tell him in that purer life, But now it were too daring. Ah my God, '''What might I not have made of thy fair world, Had I but loved thy highest creature here? It was my duty to have loved the highest: It surely was my profit had I known: It would have been my pleasure had I seen. We needs must love the highest when we see it'''
 * '''Now I see thee what thou art,

Grasped, made her vail her eyes: she looked and saw The novice, weeping, suppliant, and said to her, "Yea, little maid, for am I not forgiven?" ''' Then glancing up beheld the holy nuns All round her, weeping; and her heart was loosed Within her, and she wept with these and said, "Ye know me then, that wicked one, who broke The vast design and purpose of the King. O shut me round with narrowing nunnery-walls, Meek maidens, from the voices crying 'shame.'  I must not scorn myself: he loves me still. Let no one dream but that he loves me still.'''"
 * Here her hand

Nor shun to call me sister, dwell with you; Wear black and white, and be a nun like you, Fast with your fasts, not feasting with your feasts; Grieve with your griefs, not grieving at your joys, But not rejoicing; mingle with your rites; Pray and be prayed for; lie before your shrines; Do each low office of your holy house; Walk your dim cloister, and distribute dole To poor sick people, richer in His eyes Who ransomed us, and haler too than I; And treat their loathsome hurts and heal mine own; And so wear out in almsdeed and in prayer The sombre close of that voluptuous day, Which wrought the ruin of my lord the King.
 * So let me, if you do not shudder at me,

Still hoping, fearing "is it yet too late?" Dwelt with them, till in time their Abbess died. Then she, for her good deeds and her pure life, And for the power of ministration in her, And likewise for the high rank she had borne, Was chosen Abbess, there, an Abbess, lived For three brief years, and there, an Abbess, past To where beyond these voices there is peace.
 * They took her to themselves; and she

The Passing of Arthur


I marked Him in the flowering of His fields, But in His ways with men I find Him not.''' I waged His wars, and now I pass and die.
 * '''I found Him in the shining of the stars,

As if some lesser god had made the world, But had not force to shape it as he would, Till the High God behold it from beyond, And enter it, and make it beautiful? Or else as if the world were wholly fair, But that these eyes of men are dense and dim, And have not power to see it as it is''': Perchance, because we see not to the close; — For I, being simple, thought to work His will, And have but stricken with the sword in vain; And all whereon I leaned in wife and friend Is traitor to my peace, and all my realm Reels back into the beast, and is no more. My God, thou hast forgotten me in my death; Nay — God my Christ — I pass but shall not die.
 * '''O me! for why is all around us here
 * Line 13

To war against my people and my knights. '''The king who fights his people fights himself. And they my knights, who loved me once, the stroke That strikes them dead is as my death to me.''' Yet let us hence, and find or feel a way Through this blind haze, which ever since I saw One lying in the dust at Almesbury, Hath folded in the passes of the world.
 * Ill doom is mine

Nor ever yet had Arthur fought a fight Like this last, dim, weird battle of the west. A deathwhite mist slept over sand and sea: Whereof the chill, to him who breathed it, drew Down with his blood, till all his heart was cold With formless fear; and even on Arthur fell Confusion, since he saw not whom he fought.
 * On the waste sand by the waste sea they closed.

And friend slew friend not knowing whom he slew'''; And some had visions out of golden youth, And some beheld the faces of old ghosts Look in upon the battle; and in the mist Was many a noble deed, many a base, And chance and craft and strength in single fights, And ever and anon with host to host Shocks, and the splintering spear, the hard mail hewn, Shield-breakings, and the clash of brands, the crash Of battleaxes on shattered helms, and shrieks After the Christ, of those who falling down Looked up for heaven, and only saw the mist; And shouts of heathen and the traitor knights, Oaths, insults, filth, and monstrous blasphemies, Sweat, writhings, anguish, labouring of the lungs In that close mist, and cryings for the light, Moans of the dying, and voices of the dead.
 * '''For friend and foe were shadows in the mist,

Confusion, till I know not what I am, Nor whence I am, nor whether I be King. Behold, I seem but King among the dead.
 * On my heart hath fallen

King everywhere! and so the dead have kings, There also will I worship thee as King. Yet still thy life is whole, and still I live Who love thee; but who hates thee, he that brought The heathen back among us, yonder stands, Modred, unharmed, the traitor of thine house."
 * Then spake the bold Sir Bedivere: "My King,

When all the purport of my throne hath failed, That quick or dead thou holdest me for King. '''King am I, whatsoever be their cry; And one last act of kinghood shalt thou see Yet, ere I pass.'''" And uttering this the King Made at the man: then Modred smote his liege Hard on that helm which many a heathen sword Had beaten thin; while Arthur at one blow, Striking the last stroke with Excalibur, Slew him, and all but slain himself, he fell.
 * "Well for thee, saying in my dark hour,

Among the mountains by the winter sea; Until King Arthur's Table, man by man, Had fallen in Lyonnesse about their lord, King Arthur. Then, because his wound was deep, The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him, And bore him to a chapel nigh the field, A broken chancel with a broken cross, That stood on a dark strait of barren land: On one side lay the Ocean, and on one Lay a great water, and the moon was full.
 * So all day long the noise of battle rolled

The goodliest fellowship of famous knights Whereof this world holds record. Such a sleep They sleep — the men I loved. I think that we Shall never more, at any future time, Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds, Walking about the gardens and the halls Of Camelot, as in the days that were. '''I perish by this people which I made, — Though Merlin sware that I should come again To rule once more; but, let what will be, be, I am so deeply smitten through the helm That without help I cannot last till morn.'''
 * The sequel of today unsolders all

And fling him far into the middle mere: Watch what thou seëst, and lightly bring me word.
 * Delay not: take Excalibur,

And the wild water lapping on the crag.
 * I heard the ripple washing in the reeds,

Not rendering true answer, as beseemed Thy fëalty, nor like a noble knight: For surer sign had followed, either hand, Or voice, or else a motion of the mere. This is a shameful thing for men to lie.''' Yet now, I charge thee, quickly go again, As thou art lief and dear, and do the thing I bade thee, watch, and lightly bring me word.
 * '''Thou hast betrayed thy nature and thy name,

Surely a precious thing, one worthy note, Should thus be lost for ever from the earth, Which might have pleased the eyes of many men. What good should follow this, if this were done? What harm, undone?… Were it well to obey then, if a king demand An act unprofitable, against himself? The King is sick, and knows not what he does. What record, or what relic of my lord Should be to aftertime, but empty breath And rumours of a doubt?
 * If indeed I cast the brand away,

Laid widowed of the power in his eye That bowed the will. I see thee what thou art, For thou, the latest-left of all my knights, In whom should meet the offices of all, Thou wouldst betray me for the precious hilt; Either from lust of gold, or like a girl Valuing the giddy pleasure of the eyes. Yet, for a man may fail in duty twice, And the third time may prosper, get thee hence: But, if thou spare to fling Excalibur, I will arise and slay thee with my hands.
 * Authority forgets a dying king,

Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon, And flashing round and round, and whirled in an arch, Shot like a streamer of the northern morn,… So flashed and fell the brand Excalibur: But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful, And caught him by the hilt, and brandished him Three times, and drew him under in the mere.'''
 * '''The great brand

Speak out: what is it thou hast heard, or seen?
 * Now see I by thine eyes that this is done.

Should blind my purpose, for I never saw, Nor shall see, here or elsewhere, till I die, Not though I live three lives of mortal men, So great a miracle as yonder hilt. Then with both hands I flung him, wheeling him; But when I looked again, behold an arm, Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful, That caught him by the hilt, and brandished him Three times, and drew him under in the mere.
 * Sir King, I closed mine eyelids, lest the gems

'''Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes? For now I see the true old times are dead, When every morning brought a noble chance, And every chance brought out a noble knight.'''… But now the whole Round Table is dissolved Which was an image of the mighty world, And I, the last, go forth companionless, And the days darken round me, and the years, Among new men, strange faces, other minds.
 * My Lord Arthur, whither shall I go?

And God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.'''
 * '''The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
 * Line 408

Pray for my soul. '''More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of.''' Wherefore, let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day. For what are men better than sheep or goats That nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
 * If thou shouldst never see my face again,

Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.
 * The whole round earth is every way
 * Line 422

With these thou seëst — if indeed I go (For all my mind is clouded with a doubt) — To the island-valley of Avilion; Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies Deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns And bowery hollows crowned with summer sea, Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.
 * Farewell. I am going a long way
 * Line 424

As from beyond the limit of the world, Like the last echo born of a great cry, Sounds, as if some fair city were one voice Around a king returning from his wars.
 * Then from the dawn it seemed there came, but faint

To the Queen
To its own harm: the goal of this great world Lies beyond sight:''' yet — if our slowly-grown And crowned Republic's crowning common-sense, That saved her many times, not fail — their fears Are morning shadows huger than the shapes That cast them, not those gloomier which forego The darkness of that battle in the West, Where all of high and holy dies away.
 * '''That which knows not, ruling that which knows