889. I was prick'd with some reproof: see Marriage of Geraint, 39 f. 890. stagnate, like water, which becomes fouler because left undisturbed and stagnant. 891. thro' alien eyes, i.e. 'the eyes of others' instead of my own. 892. delegated: a delegate is one who is appointed to do something in place of some superior, who gives him commission to do it for him. Arthur reproaches himself with having trusted to the reports and the action of others instead of seeing with his own eyes and working with his own hands. 894. Cp. Marriage of Geraint, 39. 902, 903. the vicious quitch Of blood and custom. Quitch or quitch-grass, also called couch grass, is a plant of the wheat kind, which is common in Europe and North America. It is perennial, and has long creeping roots, which make it extremely difficult of extirpation. In some places it is grown for pasture in loose sandy soils, but in others it is chiefly known as a troublesome weed. Here the metaphor is of weeding land, the faults to be extirpated being both of blood and custom,' that is, both natural and acquired by evil habit. 914. Than if some knight of mine etc. The reference is of course to Geraint's own feats, which he feels are 'neither great nor wonderful.' 'My subject with my subjects under him' is an exact description of the position of the tributary prince, and the single onslaught on a realm of robbers, in which he had risked his life and his wife's honour, is censured by implication as rash and unreasonable. 922. leech, 'physician,' from a stem meaning 'heal.' Hence also the species of worm which is used to draw blood is called a leech, that is a 'healer.' 926. genial, 'pleasant,' coming through French from Latin genialis, which has the same meaning, a meaning derived probably from the idea of agreement with one's natural disposition, the genius of a person being his spiritual counterpart, representing his natural disposition in a kind of abstract way. Here 'the genial courses of his blood' stand for those channels of feeling which formerly were poisoned by jealousy and distrust, but now are being filled with pure streams of love: the epithet is therefore rather anticipative, 'fill'd the courses of his blood and made them flow genially.' 928. As the south-west etc. Bala lake is in Wales, and out of it flows the river Dee, at first in a north-easterly direction. The south-west wind blows from end to end of the lake, and as it drives the water to the north-east it would more and more fill the channel of the river. The Dee was by the ancient Britons accounted a sacred stream, and its name, Deva, perhaps means 'divine.' Milton in Lycidas speaks of Deva's 'wizard stream in the same sense. As to 'south-west' for 'south-west wind' cp. Gareth and Lynette, 1117 : 'Loud south-westerns rolling ridge on ridge'; but this use of 'south-western' for S. W. wind is common in ordinary language, whereas 'south-west' is poetical. 930. lay healing, i.e. 'lay a-healing,' as we say 'the house was building' (for 'a-building'), in which expressions 'healing' and 'building' are verbal nouns, and a-healing' is for 'on healing,' like 'asleep' (for 'on sleep'), 'abed,' 'afire' etc. 933. guard the justice, 'administer the laws' of the King, as opposed to those of each petty baron: cp. Gareth and Lynette, 373: According to the justice of the king.' 935. Men weed the white horse: still the metaphor is from weeding, but this time for a different purpose. 'The white horse on the Berkshire hills' is the gigantic figure of a horse made on the side of a hill by cutting away the turf (and so leaving exposed the white chalk beneath), which commemorates the victory of Ashdown gained by the English under Alfred over the Danes, in the year 871. The hill on which it is cut is called from it the White Horse Hill. The white horse was the emblem of the Saxons or English, as the dragon of the Britons and the raven of the Danes. So in Guinevere, 15: 'the Lords of the White Horse Heathen, the brood by Hengist left.' To keep the figure of the horse white and clean, it is regularly weeded, and this is the operation referred to here. 938. wink'd at, shut his eyes to.' 'To wink' is properly 'to move the eyelids quickly,' hence as here of shutting the eyes for a moment. A distinction is made between those officers who had allowed wrong to be done from mere sloth, and those, more guilty, who had received bribes to let it pass. 940. With hearts and hands, that is, with the will to do right, and also the energy to carry their will into effect. 942. Clear'd the dark places etc., as sunlight is let in by clearing away trees in a forest: cp. Coming of Arthur, 58 ff. :— 'Then he drave The heathen; after, slew the beast, and fell'd The forest, letting in the sun, and made Broad pathways for the hunter and the knight There however the clearing of the forest is a literal tact, here it is metaphorical. 950. breathed upon. The metaphor is from the dulling of bright or transparent things, as metal or glass, by breathing upon them. 953 f. Repeated from M. of Geraint, 44 f. 957. the spiteful whisper is that mentioned in M. of Geraint, 56 ff. 966. fealty, 'fidelity.' 967, 968. fell Against the heathen etc. See note on M. of Geraint, 1. The heathen of the Northern Sea are the Saxons. |