The Poetical Works of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. M.P Part 59

But ev'n in that not democratic age 129 Too large majorities were stubborn things, Nor long could one man strive against the rage Of half a hundred thick-skull'd ocean kings-- Four felons crept between him and the rocks, Lifted four clubs and fell'd him like an ox.

When next the knight unclosed his dizzy eyes, 130 His feet were fetter'd and his arms were bound-- Below the ocean and above the skies; Sails flapp'd--cords crackled; long he gazed around; Still where he gazed, fierce eyes and naked swords Peer'd through the flapping sails and crackling cords--

A chief before him leant upon his club, 131 With hideous visage bush'd with tawny hair.

"Who plays at bowls must count upon a rub,"

Said the bruised Gawaine, with a smiling air; "Brave sir, permit me humbly to suggest You make your gyves too tight across the breast."

Grinn'd the grim chief, vouchsafing no reply; 132 The knight resumed--"Your pleasant looks bespeak A mind as gracious;--may I ask you why You fish for Christians in King Arthur's creek?"

"The kings of creeks," replied that hideous man, "Are we, the Vikings and the sons of Ran!

"Your beacon fires allured us to your strands, 133 The dastard herdsmen fled before our feet, Thee, Odin's raven guided to our hands; Thrice happy man, Valhalla's boar to eat!

The raven's choice suggests it's G.o.d's idea, And marks thee out--a sacrifice to Freya!"

As spoke the Viking, over Gawaine's head 134 Circled the raven with triumphal caw; Then o'er the cliffs, still hoa.r.s.e with glee, it fled.

Thrice a deep breath the knight relieved did draw, Fair seem'd the voyage--pleasant seem'd the haven; "Bless'd saints," he cried, "I have escaped the raven!"

NOTES TO BOOK VI.

1.--Page 293, stanza ii.

_Stretch'd o'er the steel-clad hush their swordless hands._

See Tacitus, lib. xiv. cap. 30, for the celebrated description of the attack on the Druids, in their refuge in Mona, under Publius Suetonius.

2.--Page 296, stanza xxv.

_"You know the proverb--'birds of the same feather,'

A proverb much enforced in penal laws._

In Welch laws it was sufficient to condemn a person to be found with notorious offenders.

3.--Page 299, stanza xl.

_'Twould favour white, and raise the deuce in black._

If the celebrated controversy between Black and White, which divided the Cymrian church in King Arthur's days, should seem to suggest a parallel instance in our own,--the Author begs sincerely to say that he is more inclined to grieve than to jest at a schism which threatens to separate from so large a body of the upholders of the English church the abilities and learning of no despicable portion of the English clergy. There is a division more dangerous than that between theologian and theologian--viz., a division between the Pastors and their flocks--between the teaching of the pulpit and the sympathy of the audience. Far from the Author be the rash presumption to hazard any opinion as to matters of doctrine, on which--such as Regeneration by Baptism--it cannot be expected that, for the sake of expediency or even concord, the remarkable thinkers who have emerged from the schools of Oxford should admit of compromise;--but he asks, with the respect due to zeal and erudition, whether it be worth while to inflame dispute, and risk congregations--for the colour of a gown?

4.--Page 300, stanza lii.

_(If wine this be) ye come from HUERDAN'S sh.o.r.e._

Huerdan, i. e. Ireland, p.r.o.nounced, in the Poem, as a dissyllable.

5.--Page 306, stanza xcv.

_But never yet the dog our bounty fed Betray'd the kindness or forgot the bread._

The whole of that part of Sir Gawaine's adventures, which includes the incidents of the sword and the hound, is borrowed (with alterations) from one of LE GRAND'S _Fabliaux_.

6.--Page 307, stanza c.

_Of evil fame was Nannau's antique tree, Yet styled the "hollow oak of demon race."_

In the domain of Nannau (which now belongs to the Vaughans) was standing, to within a period comparatively recent, the legendary oak called Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyll--the hollow oak, the haunt of demons.

7.--Page 307, stanza ci.

_Or prison'd Mawddach clangs his triple chain._

Mawddach, with its three waterfalls.

8.--Page 308, stanza ciii.

_And herds of deer as slight as Jura's roe._

The deer in the park of Nannau are singularly small.

9.--Page 312, stanza cxxvii.

_Thor ever nursed, or Rana ever knew._

Ran, or Rana, the malignant G.o.ddess of the sea, in Scandinavian mythology.

BOOK VII.

ARGUMENT.

Arthur and the Lady of the Lake--They land on the Meteor Isle--which then sinks to the Halls below--Arthur beholds the Forest springing from a single stem--He tells his errand to the Phantom, and rejects the fruits that It proffers him in lieu of the Sword--He is conducted by the Phantom to the entrance of the caves, through which he must pa.s.s alone--He reaches the Coral Hall of the Three Kings--The Statue crowned with thorns--The Asps and the Vulture, and the Diamond Sword--The choice of the Three Arches--He turns from the first and second arch, and beholds himself, in the third, a corpse--The sleeping King rises at Arthur's question--"if his death shall be in vain?"--The Vision of times to be--C?ur de Lion and the age of Chivalry--The Tudors--Henry VII.--the restorer of the line of Arthur and the founder of civil Freedom--Henry VIII. and the Revolution of Thought--Elizabeth and the Age of Poetry--The union of Cymrian and Saxon, under the sway of "Crowned Liberty"--Arthur makes his choice, and attempts, but in vain, to draw the Sword from the Rock--The Statue with the thorn-wreath addresses him--Arthur called upon to sacrifice the Dove--His reply--The glimpse of Heaven--The trance which succeeds, and in which the King is borne to the sea sh.o.r.es.

As when, in Autumn nights and Arctic skies, 1 An angel makes the cloud his noiseless car, And, through cerulean silence, silent flies From antique Hesper to some dawning star, So still, so swift, along the windless tides Her vapour-sail the Phantom Lady guides.

Along the sheen, along the gla.s.sy sheen, 2 Amid the lull of lucent night they go; Till, in the haven of an islet green, Murmuring through reeds, the gentle waters flow: The shooting pinnace gains the gradual strand, Hush'd as a shadow glides the Shape to land.

The Cymrian, following, scarcely touch'd the sh.o.r.e 3 When slowly, slowly sunk the meteor-isle, Fathom on fathom, to the sparry floor Of alabaster shaft and porphyr-pile, Built as by Nereus for his own retreat, Or the Nymph-mother of the silver feet.[1]

Far, through the crystal lymph, the pillar'd halls 4 Went lengthening on in vista'd majesty; The waters sapp'd not the enchanted walls, Nor shut their roofless silence from the sky; But every beam that lights this world of ours Broke sparkling downward into diamond showers.

And the strange magic of the place bestow'd 5 Its own strange life upon the startled King, Round him, like air, the subtle waters flow'd; As round the Naiad flows her native spring; Domelike collapsed the azure;--moonlight clear Fill'd the melodious silvery atmosphere--

Melodious with the chaunt of distant falls 6 Of sportive waves, within the waves at play, And infant springs that bubble up the halls Through sparry founts (on which the broken ray Weaves its slight iris), hymning while they rise To that smooth calm their restless life supplies,

Like secret thoughts in some still poet's soul, 7 That swell the deep while yearning to the stars:-- But overhead a trembling shadow stole, A gloom that leaf-like quiver'd on the spars, And that quick shadow, ever moving, fell From a vast Tree with root immoveable;