his crowning and establishment on the throne; next comes ‘Gareth and Lynette,’ a tale of love and scorn, and of the conflict between a false pride and a true ambition; to this is appended ‘The Marriage of Geraint,’ of Arthur’s court, and a member of the great order of the Round Table.  Next follows ’Geraint and Enid,’—­Enid, the gentle and timid, whom Geraint had married after wooing the haughty Lynette,—­a tale of pure and loyal womanhood, darkened for awhile by the clouds of jealousy and suspicion, yet closing happily long after the “spiteful whispers” had died down, and Geraint, assured of Enid’s fealty, had ruled his kingdom well and gone forth to “crown a happy life with a fair death” against the heathen of the Northern Sea, “fighting for the blameless King.”  The next Idyll relates how the venerable magician Merlin succumbs to the thrall of the wily harlot Vivien, decked in her rare robe of samite, and yields to her the charm which was his secret.  ‘Lancelot and Elaine’ follows with its conflict between the virgin innocence of Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat, and the guilty passion of the noble though erring Lancelot.  To this, in order, succeeds ‘The Holy Grail,’ telling of the vain quest of Arthur’s Knights for the sacred relic.  Despite its mystic character, this is admittedly one of the finest of the series of Idylls, and rich in its spiritual teaching,—­that the heavenly vision is to be seen only by the eyes of purity and grace.  ‘Pelleas and Ettarre’ is a tale of dole, showing the evil at work at the court, and the wrecking effect of another woman’s perfidy.  ‘The Last Tournament’ has for its hero the court fool, who, amid the treason of Arthur’s knights, is firm in his loyal allegiance to the King.  In contrast to him is Sir Tristram, who, despite his prowess, in jousts on the tilting-field, is “one to whom faith is foolishness, and the higher life an idle delusion.”  The climax is reached in ‘Guinevere,’ whom, in spite of her faithlessness and guilty intrigue with Lancelot, Arthur, with his great high soul, pityingly loves and forgives.  The end comes with the sad though shadowy ‘Passing of Arthur,’ the royal barge mysteriously carrying him out into the beyond, whence issue sounds of hail and greeting to the victor-hero

     “——­as if some fair city were one voice
     Around a king returning from his wars.”

In 1864 Tennyson published “Enoch Arden,” an idyll of the hearth, depicting a pathetic incident in a seafarer’s career, of much simple idyllic beauty.  The poem has some fine descriptive passages, and many examples of the poet’s rich word-painting in treating of the splendid tropic scenery among which the mariner is for the time cast.  The volume contained also some minor pieces, including the dialect poem, ’The Northern Farmer,’ with its humorous rendering of yokel speech.  This was followed (1875-84) by three dramas on English historical themes, which, as the poet had not, as we have already hinted, the gifts of a Shakespeare, were somewhat