indebted to Lady Charlotte Guest's "Mabinogion,"[1] the narrative in which he has followed pretty closely, down even to minute details. It is the same and yet how different! It is interesting to trace the homely prose of the old narrative in Tennyson's magnificent setting; and perhaps no more signal instance could be given of a poet's transmutation of all he touches into pure gold. It was in this way that Shakespeare dealt with the old chroniclers and romancists; seldom himself inventing the story—only telling it in his own way.
Though Tennyson has followed the incidents of the story with almost scrupulous fidelity, he has produced them in a more artistic order. Thus the Mabinogion version begins with the hunt and its consequences, which in the Idyll is retrospective. Nor has he scrupled to suppress many unnecessary details which interfere with its movement, as, for instance, all that relates to Erbin, the father of Geraint.
- ↑ The "Mabinogion," from the Llyfr Coch o Hergest, and other ancient Welsh manuscripts: with an English translation and notes. By Lady Charlotte Guest. (Part III. Geraint the Son of Erbin.) London: Longman and Co.; and W. Rees, Llandovery, 1840.
