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In the time of Giraldus Cambrensis a large tower existed among the ruins of Caerleon.

828. the goodly hills of Somerset are the Mendip Hills, seen across the Bristol Channel.

829. And white sails etc. On this line Mr. Swinburne writes as follows:-'On the first bright day I ever spent on the eastern coast of England I saw the truth of this touch, and recognized once more with admiring delight the subtle and sure fidelity of that happy and studious hand. There on the dull yellow, foamless floor of dense, discoloured sea, so thick with clotted sand that the water looked massive and solid as the shore, the white sails flashed whiter against it and along it as they fled, and I knew once more the truth of what I had never doubted that the eye and the hand of Tennyson may always be trusted at once and alike to see and to express the truth.'

832. By the flat meadow, mentioned in Pelleas and Ettarre as the field where the jousts were held :

'Down in the flat field by the shore of Usk.'

838. Dubric is Dubritius archbishop of Legions (i.e. Caerleon), and primate of Britain. Dubric is mentioned in the Coming of Arthur, 11. 452 and 470, on the occasion of the marriage of Arthur and Guinevere, see also Geraint and Enid, 1. 864. In all these passages he is called 'Dubric the high saint.' Geoffrey of Monmouth says of him :-This prelate who was primate of Britain, and legate of the apostolical see, was so eminent for his piety, that he could cure any sick person by prayer' (Hist. Brit. 9, 12).

840. the last year's Whitsuntide, i.e. about a year before the events related at the beginning of the idyll, ll. 1-144, of which the narrative is now continued.

848, 849. she found And took it. The dress is associated in her mind not only with her husband's first coming and his love for her, but also with his former demand of obedience without reason given, which she sees now repeated.

GERAINT AND ENID.

1. O purblind race etc.

This reflection is rather in the manner of Spenser, who often begins his canto with a stanza in which the moral of the tale is pointed in the form of exclamation: e.g.—

'Ay me, how many perils doe enfold

or this:

The righteous man, to make him daily fall,
Were not that heavenly grace doth him uphold,' etc.
Faery Queene, 1, 8, 1;

'O! why doe wretched men so much desire
To draw their daies unto the utmost date,
And doe not rather wish them soon expire;
Knowing the misery of their estate,' etc., 4, 3, 1.

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purblind originally means 'wholly blind' ('pure-blind'), but it has come to mean 'partly blind,' much as 'parboil' meaning originally boil thoroughly (Lat. perbullire) came to mean 'partly boil' by confusion with 'part.' Skeat Etym. Dict. (where however the change of sense is said to be probably due to confusion with the verb 'pore').

3. Do forge, i.e. are forging': 'forge' is from French forge, derived from the Latin fabrica, 'a workshop.'

6. Groping, 'feeling our way': the word properly means 'to seize,' from the stem of 'gripe,' hence of taking hold of things to guide one in the darkness.

how many, i.e. how many among us forge trouble for ourselves,' referring to the foregoing words. For the pathetic repetition, cp. Marriage of Geraint, 116.

pass, for pass away' from this world; used in the Idylls especially of the mysterious end of Arthur, whose destiny it was to pass into another state of life, whence he would again

come:

'Nay --God my Christ-I pass

but shall not die.' Passing of Arthur, 28.

Here the word suggests the thought of death as a transition from this world to another.

7. where we see as we are seen: a reference to St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, 13, 12:-'Now we see in a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known," i.e. by God.

9. when they both had got to horse: this and the succeeding clauses belong to what follows, the verb 'said' in l. 13: 'get to horse' is the same as 'take horse, i.e.

11, 12. that... Which, i.e. such

mount.'

as,' a Latinism: cp. 1. 736.

brooding, properly of birds sitting upon eggs to hatch them, then metaphorically of things which hang over or round, and especially of clouds hanging heavily overhead, as in the Palace of Art, 75:- The ragged rims of thunder brooding low.'

12, 13. break... in thunder: his anger is metaphorically compared to a thunder-storm ready to break, and his speech to the bursting of the tempest with lightning which may strike whatever is beneath. Therefore, lest the storm should break in thunder upon so dear a head, he will avoid occasion for speech, which if uttered cannot but be passionate. In the romances he bids Enid ride before, simply because he does not desire her company after what she has said of him, and he lays the injunction of silence upon her to test her obedience.

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16. on thy duty etc. : a form of appeal to her sense of duty, like 'on thy honour,' 'on thy faith as a Christian' etc., meaning as thou regardest thy duty, honour, faith' etc.

18. aghast, properly 'terrified,' from Old English agasten: so in Chaucer, Knightes Tale, 1566 :

:

'Of which Arcita somwhat hym agaste,'

i.e. was terrified,' and Spenser, Faery Queene, 1, 9, 21 :—

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or other griesly thing, that him aghast.'

Cp. Shaks. King Lear, 2, 1, 57, 'gasted by the noise I made.' Even as early as Spenser an h had crept in, as in 'ghost,' 'ghastly,' and the word means here, as in Modern English generally, rather struck with horror' than 'terrified.'

20. Effeminate as I am, i.e. according to the opinion of others. He refers to Enid's words in Marriage of Geraint, 106 :'saying all his force

Is melted into mere effeminacy,'

which was one of the fragments that he overheard.

21. gilded arms, i. e. the help of wealth.

25. Was all the marble threshold flashing etc. The poet leaves us, as well as Enid, with a vivid picture of the scene impressed on our minds, though in itself it is of little importance.

The

27. Chafing, 'rubbing,' because the purse had struck it. word 'chafe' properly means 'warm,' Old French chaufer

(modern chauffer), Low Latin caleficare; hence warm by rubbing' and then simply 'rub': cp. 1. 581, and Passing of Arthur, 377:

'And loosed the shatter'd casque, and chafed his hands." More common is the metaphorical use of the word in the sense of 'to vex' or 'to be vexed,' as e.g. 'it chafes me that I could not bend One will,' Dream of Fair Women, 137, or 'Began to chafe as at a personal wrong,' Enoch Arden, 471.

30. the marches, i.e. the boundaries of Geraint's territory, those marches which he had craved leave from Arthur to go and defend (Marriage of Geraint, 40), and beyond which lay the territory which he then spoke of as the refuge of bandits and assassins. Jealousy and anger make him do now what regard for his promise and for his honour should have made him do before.

bandit-haunted holds for bandit' see Marriage of Geraint, 35: 'haunt' is from French hanter, 'to frequent 'holds' for 'strongholds.'

31. of the hern, ‘frequented by the hern' (or heron), a bird which seeks its food in lonely pools and swamps.

,

33. Round, i.e.quick.' We speak of a 'round sum' of money, meaning that which is reckoned in hundreds or thousands without regard to the odd units (which suggest the idea of breaking up into parts), a sum which may be regarded as a smooth unbroken lump. Then similarly to 'speak roundly' is to speak in general terms and without regard to details, and so in an absolute and unqualified manner. When in Shaksp. Henry V. 4, 1, 216, the king says, 'Your reproof is something too round,' he means that the saying is too absolute, there is not enough qualification in it. From this use the idea of vigour attaches to the word, and a 'round pace' is one in which there is no slack

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35. This line is a parenthesis thrown in, as often in Tennyson, so as to suspend suddenly the flow of the sentence, which is resumed afterwards as if no interruption had occurred: cp. Gareth and Lynette, 240:

'but these my men

(Your city moved so weirdly in the mist)
Doubt if the King be King at all,' etc.

And see note on Marriage of Geraint, 296.

37. OI that etc., meaning 'O how unhappy a man am I, who' etc., the sentence being broken in his heart (1. 41).

tend upon her, 'attend upon her.'

39. compass, 'surround.'

40. To dress her beautifully etc. Geraint is always apt to rate highly the attractions of dress, and this is a genuine British trait, if we may trust the Welsh romances: see note on Marriage of Geraint, 163. He dressed very brilliantly himself, was 'splendid in his acts and his attire' as Enid felt, and he rated highly the probable effect of his brilliancy upon others (M.G. 801). The greatest proof of strength of character and love for himself which he can suggest is the laying aside of a gorgeous gown at his request; the care which he had taken to dress his wife beautifully, he feels ought to have kept her true; and the first punishment that he thinks of is to bid her put on her meanest dress. It is evidently meant to suggest that in him there was a courtly regard for outward show, which was a contrast to Enid's contentment in her humble state. She cared little for the splendour except so far as it pleased him or did him honour (M.G. 11, 621). 42. The breaking off of the thought is compared to the breaking off of uttered speech under the influence of passion.

46. cast about. The metaphor in this expression may be originally from hunting, in which to make a cast' or 'to cast about' is to send out the hounds in various directions in search of the trail, and so also in hawking: but the word 'cast' means often in older English 'consider,' or 'contrive': cp. Chaucer, Man of Lawes Tale, 450:

'And caste anon how he myghte quyte hir while.'

47. unnoticed by herself. She had asked,

'If Enid errs, let Enid learn her fault,'

and he had replied,

'I charge thee, ask not, but obey.'

49. the great plover would be perhaps the so-called 'gray plover,' rather larger than the golden plover: but the golden plover has the more 'human' whistle. Enid is amazed by the likeness of its whistle in these waste places to that of a man, and fears constantly that some one will attack them.

51. brake means properly 'fern,' perhaps so-called because growing upon broken ground; hence it is used for underwood generally' (Skeat, Etym. Dict.).

ambuscade, from Spanish emboscada, Low Latin imboscare, 'to set in a bush or thicket' (Skeat, Etym. Dict.).

58. caitiffs: see note on M. of Geraint, 35. The word is used either as substantive or adjective, cp. 1. 66: so 'villain' in Gareth and Lynette, 157 and 700.

60. laggard. The same suffix is found in a few other words as 'sluggard,' 'wizard.'

The Welsh story here says, that as they came near to a forest they saw four horsemen come forth from it, and 'when the

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