The Poetical Works of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. M.P Part 50

It is clear that all which the bewildered Augur could comprehend, in the theological relations by which Arthur (no doubt with equal glibness and obscurity) relieves his historical narrative, would be that, in "worsting Satan," the Emperor of Greece is demolishing the Typhon worship of the Egyptians, and enforcing the adoration of the Dorian Apollo--that deity who had pa.s.sed a probation on earth, and expiated a mysterious sin by descending to the shades; and it would require a more erudite teacher than we can presume Arthur to be, before the Augur would cease to confuse with the Pagan divinity the Divine Founder of the Christian gospel.

8.--Page 259, stanza x.x.xiii.

_Astolfo spoke from out the bleeding tree._

Ariosto, canto vi.

9.--Page 259, stanza x.x.xvi.

_Lo, now where pure Sabrina on her breast._

Sabrina, the Severn; whose legendary tale Milton has so exquisitely told in the Comus.--ISCA, the Usk.

10.--Page 259, stanza x.x.xviii.

_Drawn on the sands lay coracles of hide._

The ancient British boats, covered with coria or hydes--"The ancient Britons," as Mr. Pennant observes, "had them of large size, and even made short voyages in them, according to the accounts we receive from Lucan."--PENNANT, vol. i. p. 303.

11.--Page 260, stanza xl.

_In Cymrian lands--where still the torque of gold._

The twisted chain, or collar, denoted the chiefs of all the old tribes known as Gauls to the Romans. It is by this badge that the critics in art have rightly decided that the statue called "The Dying Gladiator"

is in truth meant to personify a wounded Gaul. The collar, or torque, was long retained by the chiefs of Britain--and allusions to it are frequent in the songs of the Welsh.

12.--Page 261, stanza xlviii.

_The story heard, the son of royal BAN._

According to the French romance-writers, Lancelot was the son of King Ban of Benoic, a tributary to the Cymrian crown. The Welch claim him, however, as a national hero, in spite of his name, which they interpret as a translation from one of their own--Paladr-ddelt, splintered spear. (LADY C. GUEST'S _Mabinogion_, vol. i. p. 91.) In a subsequent page, Lancelot tells the tale (pretty nearly as it is told in the French romance) which obtained him the t.i.tle of "Lancelot of the Lake."--See note in ELLIS'S edition of WAY'S _Fabliaux_, vol. ii. p. 206.

13.--Page 265, stanza lxxvi.

_On earth's far confines, like the Tree of Dreams._

"In medio ramos," &c.--VIRGIL, lib. vi. 282.

"An elm displays her dusky arms abroad, And empty dreams on every leaf are spread."--DRYDEN.

14.--Page 265, stanza lx.x.x.

_To the wild faith of Iran's Zendavest._

Zendavest. Compare the winged genius of the Etrurians with the Feroher of the Persians, in the sculptured reliefs of Persepolis.

(See HEEREN'S _Historical Researches, art. Persians_.) MICALI, vol.

ii. p. 174, points out some points of similarity between the Persian and Etrurian cosmogony. It was peculiar to the Etrurians, amongst the cla.s.sic nations of Europe, to delineate their deities with wings.

Even when they borrowed some h.e.l.lenic G.o.d, they still invested him with this attribute, so especially Eastern.

15.--Page 266, stanza lx.x.xiii.

_Seem'd as the thread in fairy tales, which strung._

In a legend of Bretagne, a fairy weaves pearls round a sunbeam, to convince her lover of her magical powers.

16.--Page 267, stanza xc.

_Of Morn's sweet Maid had died, look'd calm above._

Hom. _Odys._, lib. v.

17.--Page 267, stanza xciii.

_O'er the Black Valley, demon shadows fleet._

Cwm Idwal (in Snowdonia). "A fit place to inspire murderous thoughts,--environed with horrible precipices shading a lake lodged in its bottom. The shepherds fable that it is the haunt of demons, and that no bird dare fly over its d.a.m.ned waters."--PENNANT, vol.

iii. p. 324.

18.--Page 269, stanza cvi.

_No more from Mantu Pales shall control._

Mantu, the G.o.d of the Shades--PALES, the Pastoral Deity.

[C] It may perhaps occur to the reader that Latin, with which Arthur (in an age so shortly subsequent to the Roman occupation of Britain) could scarcely fail to be well acquainted, might have furnished a better mode of communication between himself and the Augur. But the Latin language would have been very imperfectly settled at the time of the supposed Etrurian emigration; would have had small connection with the literature, sacred or profane, of the Etrurians; and would long have been despised as a rude medley of various tongues and dialects, by the proud and polished race which the Romans subjected.

BOOK V.

ARGUMENT.

The Council-hall in Carduel--The twelve Knights of the Round Table described, viz., the three Knights of Council, the three Knights of Battle, the three Knights of Eloquence, and the three Lovers--Merlin warns the chiefs of the coming Saxons, and enjoins the beacon-fires to be lighted--The story returns to Arthur--The dove has not been absent, though unseen--It comes back to Arthur--The Priest leads the King through the sepulchral valley into the temple of the Death-G.o.d-- Description of the entrance of the temple, with the walls on which is depicted the progress of the guilty soul through the realms below--The cave, the raft, and the stream which conducts to the cataract--Arthur enters the boat, and the dove goes before him--aegle awakes from her swoon, and follows the King to the temple--Her dialogue with the Augur--She disappears in the stream--Meanwhile Lancelot wanders in the valleys on the other side of the Alps, and is led to the cataract by the magic ring--The apparition of the dove--He follows the bird up the skirts of the cataract--He finds Arthur and aegle, and conveys them to the convent--The Christian hymn, and the Etrurian dirge--Arthur and Lancelot seated by the lake--The Lady of the Lake appears in her pinnace to Lancelot--The King's sight is purged from its film by the bitter herb, and he enters the magic bark.

In the high Council Hall of Carduel, 1 Beside the absent Arthur's ivory throne (What time the earlier shades of evening fell), Wan-silvering through the hush, the cresset shone O'er the arch-seer,--as, 'mid the magnates there, Rose his large front, august with prophet care;

Rose his large front above the luminous guests, 2 The deathless TWELVE of that heroic Ring, Which, as the belt wherein Orion rests, Girded with subject stars the starry king; Without, strong towers guard Rome's elaborate wall; Within is Manhood!--strongest tower of all.

First, Muse of Cymri, name the Council three[1] 3 Who, of maturer years and graver mien, Wise in the past, conceived the things to be, And temper'd impulse quick with thought serene; Nor young, nor old--no dupes to rushing Hope, Nor narrowing to tame Fear th' ign.o.ble scope.

Of these was Cynon of the highborn race, 4 A cold but dauntless--calm but earnest man; With deep eyes shining from a thoughtful face, And spare slight form, for ever in the van When ripening victories crown'd laborious deeds; Reaper of harvest--sower not of seeds;

For scarcely his the quick far-darting soul 5 Which, like Apollo's shaft, strikes lifeless things Into divine creation; but, the whole Once rife, the skill which into concord brings The jarring parts; shapes out the rudely wrought, And calls the action living from the thought.

Next Aron see--not rash, yet gaily bold, 6 With the frank polish of chivalric courts; Him from the right, no fear of wrong controll'd; And toil he deem'd the sprightliest of his sports; O'er War's dry chart, or Wisdom's mystic page, Alike as smiling, and alike as sage;