761. Albeit I give etc. The temper of the man moves him to conceal for the present the reason which he has, that he may make trial of Enid's love and submission to his desires. This tendency to suspect and prove is the defect in his otherwise fine character: see note on 1. 28.

Albeit is from al in the sense of 'even,' as in 'although,' for which word it is often used in older English not only with 'be' but with other verbs, as Chaucer, Prologue, 734:-' Al speke he nevere so rudelyche and large.' Here the full meaning is, although it be that I give' etc.

764. flaws are 'blasts of wind.' Hamlet says of the dust of Caesar :

"O that that earth that kept the world in awe

Should patch a wall, to expel the winter's flaw.'

In Shakspeare the word is also used metaphorically of sudden gusts of emotion, as in Macbeth, 3, 4 :—

'these flaws and starts

(Impostors to true fear) would well become

A woman's story at a winter's fire.'

laying lusty corn. This use of 'lay' in the sense of 'beat down,' used of corn crops, is common enough: lusty' means first ‘pleasant,' then 'vigorous,' as 'listless' meant originally 'without pleasure' and then 'without vigour': cp. Geraint and Enid, 251, 258.

765. she knew not why. The feeling is partly no doubt due to the fact that she is by this act exchanging her mother's rule for that of another, and partly to the half-felt sense that more confidence might have been shown in her by her lover, the same sense which Made her cheek burn and either eyelid fall' when Geraint looked keenly and suspiciously at her afterwards: cp. Geraint and Enid, 430.

768. Her mother silent too etc. the construction as in 1. 147, 'he sitting high in hall.'

769. costly-broider'd: Tennyson uses costly as an adverb: cp. Audley Court, 22, "a pasty costly-made," and Geraint and Enid, 231.

774. As careful robins, i.e. as robins watch the digger, to see if he turns up something which may serve for their food. This comparison is used again in the same words, Geraint and Enid, 431, and there also of a searching and suspicious look. It is one of those touches which show how close an observer the poet is of bird (as of other) life.

790. service done so graciously, i.e. the clothing of the bride for her bridal by the Queen, according to her promise. It should be noted as an ironical touch that the first exhibition of jealous

temper on the part of Geraint is justified on the ground of his desire that Enid and the Queen should be friends, how can Enid find A nobler friend?' while afterwards the principal ground of his jealousy is this very friendship which he had promoted.

791. fain I would, gladly should I desire that the two' etc., a rather redundant expression. Ordinarily when we say 'fain would I' it is with another verb, as 'fain would I speak,' in which case would' is simply a conditional auxiliary. Here however it stands alone as the conditional of the verb 'will,' meaning 'desire.'

797. I doubted etc. Here comes in the jealousy which is characteristic of him.

799. weal, 'welfare.'

800. false, because the duskiness of her present surroundings and his contrasting brightness are only external circumstances, of little real consequence.

801, 802. overbore Her fancy etc. He is afraid that she may have been overpowered for the moment by his outward brilliancy, as contrasted with the duskiness of the surroundings among which she dwelt, and so be induced to accept his offer less from love for him than from desire to move in the brilliant society from which he came dwelling in this dusky hall' would refer probably to Enid herself rather than to her fancy, 'the fancy of her who dwelt.'

810. Yet therefore tenfold dearer etc. He means that the newness of it would make it attractive, and still more because not new to her altogether. By this very fact it would have greater attraction now, from the force of former usage intermitted.

812. a rock, i.e. no more moved by casual circumstances such as might in another person cause jealousy, than a rock by the ebb and flow of the tide.

813. Now, therefore, I do rest. He thought afterwards of this 'false doom,' see Geraint and Enid, 247.

818. gaudy-day, day of festival,' properly 'joyous day,' from Lat. gaudium. Some University and College festivals at Oxford are called 'gaudy days' or 'gaudies.'

826. Guinevere expected him, both because of his promise to return on the third day, 1. 222, and because of the report brought by Edyrn of him and his bride.

827. The giant tower, see note on 1. 146: the great tower at Caerleon is mentioned also in Pelleas and Ettarre, 159 :—

'the gilded parapets were crowned

With faces, and the great tower fill'd with eyes
Up to the summit.'

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, 11. 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.

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. mount.'

6

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

perforce, 'of necessity.'

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 :—

For 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.

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