191-192.  AND ON A SUDDEN—­MOON.  “Do we not,” writes Brimley, “seem to burst from the narrow steep path down the ravine, whose tall precipitous sides hide the sky and the broad landscape from sight, and come out in a moment upon—­

    “the level lake,
  And the long glories of the winter moon!”

193.  HOVE=hove in sight.

The closing scene in this drama is impressively described by Malory.  “So Sir Bedivere came again to the King, and told him what he saw.  ‘Alas,’ said the King, ‘help me hence, for I dread me I have tarried over long.’  Then Sir Bedivere took the King upon his back, and so went with him to that water side.  And when they were at the water side, even fast by the bank hoved a little barge, with many fair ladies in it, and among them all was a queen, and all they had black hoods, and all they wept and shrieked when they saw King Arthur.  ‘Now, put me into the barge,’ said the King:  and so they did softly.  And there received him three queens with great mourning, and so they set him down, and in one of their laps King Arthur laid his head; and then that queen said; ’Ah, dear brother, why have ye tarried so long from me?  Alas, this wound on your head hath caught overmuch cold.’  And so then they rowed from the land; and Sir Bedivere beheld ail those ladies go from him.  Then Sir Bedivere cried; ’Ah, my Lord Arthur, what shall become of me now ye so from me, and leave me here alone among mine enemies?’ ‘Comfort thyself,’ said the King:, ’and do as well as thou mayest, for in me is no trust for to trust in.  For I will into the vale of Avilion, to heal me of my grievous wound.  And if thou hear never more of me, pray for my soul.’  But ever the queens and the ladies wept and shrieked, that it was pity to hear.  And, as soon as Sir Bedivere had lost the sight of the barge, he wept and wailed, and so took the forest, and so he went all that night. . . . . .”

It is interesting to note how the poet suggests here and there the phrasing of his original, but even more interesting to note his amplifications.  It may be doubted whether Tennyson has here surpassed his original.  For its touching simplicity he has substituted a dignified grandeur, and has involved plain statements in gorgeous rhetoric, as in his passage upon the efficacy of prayer.  The unadorned original had said only “pray for my soul.”

198.  THREE QUEENS WITH CROWNS OF GOLD.  “That one was King Arthur’s sister, Morgan le Fay; the other was the Queen of Northgales (Wales); the third was the Lady of the lake.” Malory.

215-216.  DASH’D WITH DROPS—­OF ONSET.  Words are sometimes poetical from their precision, and sometimes, as here, they suggest without definite reference.  The meaning is “dashed with drops of blood” from the onset or encounter.

2t6-220.  Arthur is again described in The Last Tournament.

  That victor of the Pagan throned in hall,
  His hair, a sun that rayed from off a brow
  Like hillsnow high in heaven, the steel-blue eyes,
  The golden beard that cloth’d his lips with light.