THE ARTHURIAN POEMS.
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fragmentary attempts to poetize this story. The "Morte d' Arthur," purporting to be the eleventh book of a juvenile epic, of which the other books had been destroyed; "Sir Galahad," and "Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere." Rumours reached the public from time to time that Tennyson was occupied with a great work, of which the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table was the theme; and at last, in July, 1859, appeared the first instalment of "Idylls of the King."[1]
The Dedication to the Memory of the Prince Consort was added in the edition of 1862, which, with the exception of three or four verbal alterations,[2] is an exact reprint of the former edition.
For the story of Enid (the first Idyll), the poet is
- ↑ The writer in the "Fortnightly Review" states that the first two of these Idylls were privately printed in 1857 (probably printed for publication, and withdrawn for further alterations) under the title of "Enid and Nimue; or the True and the False;" that they form a thin volume of 139 pages, and that a few copies are said to be still in private hands. On June 22, 1858, Clough "heard Tennyson read a third Arthur poem—the detection of Guinevere, and the last interview with Arthur" (Clough's "Remains," vol. i. p. 235).
- ↑ At pp. 49 (last line), 149, 183 (line 1), 240, should any reader wish to note them.
