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Home , Gorlois, Guinevere, Idylls of the King, Igraine, King Lot, Lamorak

Frances Zapata Torres

Alfred Tennyson, and the Revival of the Arthurian Legend in the Victorian Era

Frances Zapata Torres

The Middle Ages, also known as half-sister, . It was through this The Dark Ages, was a period when incestuous relationship that - Europe succumbed to social and Arthur’s future murderer - was begotten. economic chaos, the Black Plague, and Le Morte’s Arthur, finally, was not an many bloody wars. In these times of honorable figure at first. For upon turmoil, the legend of King of Arthur telling him that, as a divine was created to instill hope. Though it is punishment for his incestuous affair the part of England’s folklore, this legend man who would destroy him would be has become universally known. It is so born on Mayday, Arthur ordered all the popular, that medieval Arthurian children born on that day killed. His romances have had many modern plan failed, however, for Mordred was retellings. Of these, Alan Lupack argues rescued. that “no romance has been more influential or more often adapted or Tennyson’s Arthur, on the reworked… than Le Morte d’Arthur by contrary, is the “blameless King.”2 He Sir .”1 Malory was did not have an incestuous affair with his influential especially during the half-sister, did not cruelly order all Victorian Age, when major Arthurian children born on Mayday to be killed, works based on Le Morte were and Mordred is the son of , not produced. Arthur’s son/ brother. “So perfect is he,” Lupack contends, “that Tennyson first Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote one defies his source [Le Morte] by making of those works. He wrote, in fact, the Uther and conceive him after the greatest Arthurian poem of the Victorian death of and then by creating an era: . Tennyson’s alternative story of a mystical coming of Arthur, however, is very different from Arthur.”3 In this alternative story, Bleys, Malory’s. The latter’s was conceived Merlin’s master, and Merlin himself find through trickery. King Uther, Arthur’s baby Arthur at a shore: father, was infatuated with Igraine, the wife of the Duke Gorlois. The magician When Uther in Tintagilpast away Merlin agreed to make King Uther look Moaning and wailing for an heir, the two Left the still King, and passing forth the breathe, like the Duke so that he could sleep with Then from the castle gateway by the chasm her. The mage helped the king because Descending thro’ the dismal night- a night Uther agreed to let him raise the child In which the bounds of heaven and earth were that the King conceived with Igraine. lost-Beheld, so high upon the dreary deeps Malory’s Arthur, moreover, It seem’d in heaven, a ship, the shapethereof A dragon wing’d, and all from stem to stern unknowingly had intercourse with his Bright with a shining people on the decks, And gone as soon as seen. And then the two

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Alfred Tennyson . . .

Dropt to the cove, and watch’d the great seafall, A dragon wing’d, and all from stem to stern Wave after wave, each mightier than thelast, Bright with a shining people on the decks, Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep And gone as soon as seen.7 And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame: The fact that the newborn Arthur And down the wave and in the flame wasborne A naked babe, and rode to Merlin’s feet, specifically “rode to Merlin’s feet” Who stoopt and caught the babe, and cried“The pushed slowly specifically by the sea’s / King! ninth wave further reinforces the Here is an heir for Uther!”4 impression that he is a Messiah-like figure. For in Christianity, the number The reader never knows for sure nine, which stands for finality and if this alternative story to Arthur’s birth judgment, is associated with Jesus.8 The is real or not, for when Merlin is asked wave, moreover, was in flames, and to confirm its veracity, he respons with a Christians link fire to the Holy Ghost. In riddle: the Bible’s Act 2, for example, there is a passage which describes the apostles’ Rain, rain, and sun! a rainbow in the sky! encounter with the Holy Ghost: “Then A young man will be wiser by and by; An old man’s wit may wander ere he die. there appeared to them divided tongues, […] And truth is this to me, and that tothee; as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And truth or clothed or naked let it be.5 /And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other The tale’s authenticity need not tongues as the Spirit gave them concern us, though. What really matters utterance” (Act 2: 3- 4). is the question of why Tennyson decided to create this alternate birth story. It is When Arthur reaches adulthood, reasonable to argue that he did it to Tennyson continues to portray him as a reinforce his contention that Arthur is a supernatural – almost angel-like – being: savior, different from the average human. In the night of Arthur’s birth, An four great zones of sculpture, set betwixt With many a mystic symbol, gird the hall: Tennyson actually seems to be And in the lowest beasts are slaying men, describing the birth of a divine being, for And in the second men are slaying beasts, it was “a night / In which the bounds of And on the third are warriors, perfect men, heaven and earth were lost.”6 Because And on the fourth are men with growingwings, the celestial realm seemed to be And over all one statue in the mould Of Arthur, made by Merlin, with a crown, intermingling with the terrestrial, one And peaked wings pointed to the NorthernStar. could argue that Arthur came from the And eastward fronts the statue, and the crown heavens. To further substantiate this And both the wings are made of gold, andflame argument, Tennyson asserts that the ship At sunrise till the people in far fields, Wasted so often by the heathen hordes, in which Arthur was on, not only seemed 9 to be in heaven, but it mysteriously Behold it, crying, “We shall have a King.”

disappeared very quickly: Tennyson idealizes Arthur

Beheld, so high upon the dreary deeps “almost to the point of unreality,” partly It seem’d in heaven, a ship, the shapethereof as a result of the death of his beloved

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Frances Zapata Torres

twenty- two year old friend, Arthur kingdom’s demise. For after she Henry Hallam in 1833, whom he committed adultery with , not honored in In Memoriam, one of greatest only did other follow and elegiac in the .10 committed the same sin, but Mordred Tennyson wrote “Morted’Arthur” in the successfully used Lancelot’s behavior to same notebook in which he began to convince Arthur that he was a traitor. As write In Memoriam. It is reasonable to a result, Arthur went to war against him, argue, thus, that he could have had and left Mordred as his kingdom’s Hallam in mind, when he wrote about regent. After losing numerous men in the “blameless King”11 battle, Arthur realized that Lancelot was really loyal to him, and that Mordred If Tennyson’s Arthur is a lied to him to take over his realm. But “blameless King” and seemingly with so few men left to fight against supernatural, his Queen is the Mordred, Arthur knew that he was opposite. He blames her for the demise condemned to lose and to die in battle. It of Arthur’s kingdom. After her illicit is because he knew his death was affair with Lancelot is discovered, imminent, that Arthur visited Guinevere Guinevere hides in an abbey in which a at the nunnery and forgave her, so that novice refers to Arthur and Guinevere as she could be at peace. “the good King and his wicked Queen”12 Tennyson reiterates Guinevere’s guilt We may think that Arthur was when Arthur comes to visit her at the being unfair in placing all the blame on nunnery. She pathetically “grovell’d Guinevere and not holding Lancelot with her face against the floor,” as equally guilty, but Tennyson assures the Arthur spoke.13 reader that Guinevere was the guiltiest by having her accept full responsibility Liest thou here so low… and stating that “Mine is the shame, for I For thou has spoilt the purpose of my life… was wife, and thou [Lancelot] I wedded thee, 15 Believing, “lo mine helpmate, one to feel /Unwedded.” When Arthur left the My purpose and rejoicing in my joy.” nunnery, she further reiterated her fault Then came thy shameful sin with Lancelot; by saying: Then came the sin of and Isolt; Then others, following these my mightiest Gone thro’ my sin to slay and to be slain! / Knights And he forgave me, and I could not speak. And drawing foul ensample from fair Farewell? I should have answer’d his farewell. / names, His mercy choked me… Sinn’d also… I thought I could not breathe in that fine air Yet think not that I come to urge thy crimes, That pure severity of perfect light- I did not come to curse thee, Guinevere… I yearn’d for warmth and colour which I foundIn Lo! I forgive thee, as Eternal God Lancelot- now I see thee what thou art, 14 Forgives: do thou for thine own soul the rest. Thou art the highest… Not Lancelot, nor another… This speech, not only illustrates What might I not have made of thy fair world, “the blameless King’s” mercy, but Had I but loved thy highest creature here? It was my duty to have loved the highest. 16 further reemphasizes Guinevere’s responsibility for Arthur and his

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Alfred Tennyson . . .

In this speech Guinevere the birth of the passionate attraction evidently belittled herself and exalted between herself and Launcelot,” Lupack Arthur. She finally realized that her says, “and reminds Gauwaine [one of wanting Lancelot was wrong, and that Arthur’s best knights] of the fatal she should have loved the “highest outcome of his own mother’s passion, creature.” She tried, though, to explain she links herself to Morgawse her illicit affair by arguing that: [Gauwaine’ mother] as a device for evoking sympathy at the same time she I thought I could not breathe in that fine air suggests the disastrous results of an That pure severity of perfect light- inability to accept human nature or to I yearn’d for warmth and colour which I found 19 in Lancelot […] 17 pity a wrongdoer.” Morgawse fell in love with , the son of the man This justification is lame. who killed her husband (King Lot) and Tennyson’s Guinevere does not really Gauwaine’s father. When Gauwaine’s make a strong case for her bad behavior, brother, Agravaine, catches Lamorak for her infidelity. She is a meek figure and his mother in bed, he kills her. He who, in the end, becomes a nun to try to rashly murdered his own mother because compensate for her sin. he could not control his fury, because he In his poem “The Defence of let it take him over. Guenevere, warns Guenevere,” Victorian artist and writer, the knights that, to overt a tragedy like William Morris, portrays the Queen very that of Morgawse, they should not act differently (his spelling of her name against her, as impulsively as Agravaine differs from Tennyson’s as well). In this did. dramatic monologue, which is also based Remember in what grave your mother sleeps, on Malory’s Le Morte, Guenevere is Buried in some place far down in the south, defiant, and strongly and convincingly Men are forgetting as I speak to you; explained the reasons for her actions to By her head sever’d in that awful drouth the knights who tried her for treason and Of pity that drew Agravaine’s fell blow, 20 are planning to put her to death. Though I pray your pity. her eyes water at times, she is not the Perhaps Guenevere’s best hysterical woman who “grovell’d with argument on her behalf, though, is her her face against the floor” in Idylls. Here metaphor of the angel who presents a she: man with a blue colored cloth and a red

[…] stood right up, and never shrunk, one. The angel tells the man he must But spoke on bravely, glorious lady fair! choose one of the cloths and warns him Whatever tears her full lips may have drunk, that one will lead him to hell and the She stood, and seemed to think, and wrung other to heaven. Because heaven is / her hair, associated with blue, the man chose the Spoke out at last with no more trace of / shame. 18 blue cloth. The angel told him, however, that he had chosen wrong. With this In her defense, she uses well analogy, Lupack argues, Guenevere elaborated arguments. “As she describes “shows how difficult and arbitrary life’s

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choices sometimes are” (158). Hence, “blameless King,” superior to any because mistakes can easily be made by human; Morris’ Guinevere, on the anyone, Guenevere argues it is unfair for contrary, is too human. She admits her the knights to judge her so severely. flaws but does not belittle or demean herself - as Tennyson’s Guinevere does- Though Morris’ Guenevere is and is a defiant woman very much ahead witty, Lupack asserts that she is also of her time. Tennyson and Morris, not ambiguous: only created these memorable literary works, but they also helped to revive the There is some doubt as to what Guenevere Arthurian legend for the Victorian public actually believes to be true and what she saysfor in a major way. For, according to effect. She tells Gauwaine that he lies in his accusation of her, but it is not clear what she Lupack, “Malory was not printed or means by this. Perhaps she means that she never frequently adapted between 1634 and 23 intended to be treasonous, to undermine Arthur 1816.” Tennyson and Morris made and his realm. Perhaps she is suggesting that on sure, then, that Arthur was not lost in the the night she and Launcelot were surprised in her mists of , andresurrected the once chamber, they had not slept together. Or perhaps she is merely denying the accusation to buy and future King. time until Launcelot comes to her rescue, as she knows he will. However the ambiguity is Endnotes resolved, it is clear that Morris’ Guenevere stands in sharp contrast to the grief- stricken 1 Alan Lupack, Guide to Arthurian queen who grovels at Arthur’s feet in 21 Literature and Legend, Oxford: Oxford Tennyson’s Idylls. University Press, 2007, p. 133. 2 Alfred Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King, It is not outlandish to argue, “The ,” London: Penguin Books, moreover, that Guenevere acted the way 2004, Line 85. she did because, due to his governing 3Lupack, Guide to Arthurian Literature and obligations, Arthur neglected her Legend, p. 147. immensely. “I was bought,” she 4 Tennyson, Idylls of the King, “The Coming contends, “by Arthur’s great name and of Arthur,” lines 366-385. his little love.”22 This, then, is not the 5Ibid., lines 402-407. 6 “blameless king” depicted in Tennyson’s Ibid.,lines 370-371. 7Ibid, lines 402-407. Idylls. Arthur’s careless behavior 8 towards the queen partly explains her E.W. Bullinger, Number in Scripture: Its adultery. Supernatural Design and Spiritual Significance, London: Eyre &Spottiswoode, 1921, p. 218. Even though they were adapted 9 Tennyson, Idylls of the King, “The Holy from the same source - Malory’s Le Grail,” lines 230-245. Morte- it is evident, then, that 10Lupack, Guide to Arthurian Literature, p. Tennyson’s Idylls and Morris’ “The 147. Defence of Guenevere,” two of the most 11Ibid. recognizable poems of the Victorian era, 12 Tennyson, Idylls of the King, are very distinct. Both authors, though, “Guinevere,” line 207. 13Ibid., line 412 succeeded in creating their own unique 14 characters. Tennyson’s Arthur is a Ibid., lines 420- 541

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Alfred Tennyson . . .

15Ibid., lines 118- 119 20 Cecil Ynag, ed, The Pre- Raphaelites and 16Ibid., lines 607- 652. Their Circle, lines 153- 158. 17Ibid.,lines 612-615. 21Lupack, Guide to Arthurian Literature and 18 Cecil Yang, ed. The Pre- Raphaelites and Legend. p. 158. Their Circle, Chicago: The University of 22 Cecil Yang ed, The Pre- Raphaelites and Chicago, 1975, Lines 55- 59. Their Circle, Lines 82-83. 19Lupack, Guide to Arthurian Literature and 23Lupack, Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend, p. 158. Legend, p. 146.

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