the Saviour from the cross, used the dish to receive the gore from his wounds. Thus made doubly holy, it became a possession of inestimable value. For forty-and-two years it was the solace of Joseph in prison, keeping him from hunger and pain. Upon his release, he carried the holy vessel with him to Britain, where it was deposited for safe keeping in the treasury of a king called the Fisher-King. Merlin was a magician-" a barbarian compound of madman and poet, of prophet and bard." He was represented as the son of a fiend who knew things past, present, and to come. "But our Lord took him to his own use on account of the mother's repentance; and, instead of being an instrument in the devil's hands to work men mischief, he becomes a preacher and tells of the loving of Jesus Christ."* The story relates that King Vortigern, being in danger of an attack from the Saxons, determined to build a strong castle in Wales. But, although he and his knights and workmen labored hard, they could make no progress; for no matter how strong they built, that which they built in the day-time fell down at night. Sages and men practiced in witchcraft were called upon to try their enchantments, but all to no avail. At length one stood up and said that he had discovered the remedy. A male child who never had father must be found, his breast must be opened, and the blood flowing from the wound must be mingled with the lime, and then the walls will stand to the end of the world. Messengers were at once sent out. Finding Merlin, who, being the son of a fiend, was unable to explain his parentage, they conducted him at once to King Vortigern. He had no trouble in explaining why the walls fell down. He commanded the king to dig deeper into the earth until he should find a stone; under the stone was water, and, when the water was drained off, two dragons were discovered, whose fighting during the night always caused the walls to tumble. Then Merlin fore

* W. D. Nash: Merlin the Enchanter and Merlin the Bard, p. 1.

told to Vortigern the coming of Arthur: "Uther shall have a son who shall come out of Cornwall; he shall be like a wild boar bristled with steel, and shall consume cities and devour the traitors with authority. He shall kill all thy rich kindred; he shall be most brave and noble in thought; to Rome shall his authority extend, and he shall fell all his foes to the ground."* After this we are told of a great battle on Salisbury Plain between Uther and Pendragon on one side and the Saxon invaders on the other. Pendragon is slain, and is buried at the place now called Stonehenge, "and those mighty stones-the wonder of every age-which Merlin ordained to endure to the world's end" were brought by the potent charms of the magician from Ireland, and placed in their position over his grave. And now the story of the Round Table comes in. There were at different times three tables: the first was the one at which the Last Supper was eaten; the second was made by Joseph of Arimathea, and upon it was placed the Holy Graal; the third was made by Uther in accordance with directions from Merlin and in the name of the Trinity. This was set up at Cardwell, in Wales, and the feasting around. it was the occasion of great events. Among the noble company who were accustomed to sit at this table were Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, and his fair wife Igerna. Uther becoming enamored of the lady was enabled, through the assistance of the magician Merlin, to visit her in her castle, disguised as her husband Gorlois. Their son was Arthur, who, as soon as he was born, was given into the care of Merlin to be cared for and educated. The boy was kept in ignorance of his high descent until the death of Uther. Then he was crowned, and after reigning many years was married to Guinevere, "the fairest woman in the land." Having obtained the enchanted table which had been set up at Cardwell, he founded a new order of knighthood called that of the Round Table, and among the noble

knights were Sir Launcelot of the Lake, Sir Tristram of Lyoness, Sir Gawain, Sir Mordred, Sir Galahad, Sir Percivale, and others. All these having vowed to live uprightly, to deal justly, and to preserve their souls in purity, sat at their festival, with the Holy Ghost in their midst, leaving one seat vacant as that which the Lord had occupied, and which was reserved for that one of them which was without sin. This seat was called the Seat Perilous, and whatever impure man sat thereon was swallowed up by the earth. The Holy Graal which Joseph of Arimathea had so long ago brought to Britain had disappeared, and on its recovery depended the honor and peace of the country. But, being visible only to pure eyes, none of the knights succeeded in the quest save Sir Galahad, and to him was awarded the honor of sitting in the Seat Perilous. Of the wonderful series of exploits, of the adventures at home and abroad of these heroes, and of the various episodes so skillfully woven into the narrative, our space will not permit us to speak. The story ends by relating the treason of Sir Mordred, who allies himself with the invading Saxons. A great battle is fought in Cornwall on the river Camlan, and Arthur is slain at the hands of the traitor. But a company of fairies bear him away

"To the island valley of Avilion ;

Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies
Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard-lawns,
And bowery hollows crowned with summer sea,'

whence, in the fullness of time, says the legend, he shall come again to give the Britons victory over their foes.

The legends of Arthur and his knights have for the last six centuries been the subject of numberless poems, dramas, and romances. And these, with the various discussions and treatises relating to the Arthurian myth, would form

* Tennyson: The Passing of Arthur.

almost a literature within themselves. We have space to mention only a few.

Besides the fragments and translations belonging clearly to the Transition Period, there are a metrical romance entitled La Mort Arthure, supposed to have been written in the fifteenth century; Sir Launfal, a metrical romance. translated from the French by Thomas Chestre; The Romance of Merline, in nine parts; the story Of Arthour and of Merline, a very old poem in MS.; Gawan and Gologras, printed at Edinburgh in 1508; Sir Gawan and Sir Galaron of Galloway, written perhaps in the time of Henry VI. The Early English Text Society has recently printed, with notes and critical commentaries, several of the earlier Arthurian manuscripts. Among these we will mention: Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight (from the unique MS.), 1360. Edited by Dr. R. Morris.

The Morte Arthure (from the Thornton MS.), 1440. Edited by G. C. Perry.

Arthur and Merlin (from the unique MSS.), 1440. Edited by Furnivall and Wheatley.

Lancelot of the Laik, 1500. Edited by Skeat.

The best known among the prose versions of the Arthurian legends is A Book of the noble Hystoryes of Kynge Arthur, and of certayn of his Knyghtes, reduced into Englysche by Syr Thomas Malory, knyght. It is a translation from several French romances, and was printed by Caxton in 1489.

A similar translation is that of Lord Berners, entitled The Hystory of the Most Noble and Valiant Knight, Arthur of Lytel Brytayne. It was written about the year 1500.

So popular were these romances at the beginning of the sixteenth century, that, if we believe good Roger Ascham, they composed almost the entire reading-matter of the people. He says:

"No thinge was read at that time but bookes of fayned chevalrie, wherein a man by readinge should be led to none other ende, but onely to manslaughter and baudrye. If anye man suppose they were goode enough to passe the

time withal, he is deceived. These bookes (as I have heard say) were made the most part in abbayes and monasteries, a very likely and fit fruite of such ydle and blind kind of lyving. This is good stuff for wise men to laugh at or honest men to take pleasure at, yet I know when God's Bible was banished the court and La Morte d'Arthur received into the prince's chamber.”*

The poet Spenser in his Faerie Queene has chosen King Arthur as the hero of his poem and the type of all manly virtues, "as most fitte for the excellency of his person, being made famous by many men's former workes, and also furthest from the daunger of envy and suspition of present time."

Lord Bacon, in 1587, assisted in the representation of a tragedy at Greenwich entitled The Misfortunes of Arthur, written by Thomas Hughes, of Gray's Inn. The play was remodeled by Richard Hathaway, and again acted in 1598.

John Milton, while searching for the subject for a great poem, decided at first upon that of Arthur, but afterwards changed it for that of Paradise Lost. John Dryden, in 1691, wrote an opera entitled King Arthur, which he dedicated to Lord Halifax. Four years afterwards Sir Richard Blackmore published his so-called epic on the same subject. In 1848 Lord Lytton published his poem, King Arthur. It consisted of twelve books, wherein, under the thin disguise of medieval heroes, he introduces several famous characters of modern times. The poem is very deficient in merit, and has been severely handled by the critics.

But it was reserved for Alfred Tennyson, the present poet laureate of England, to embody this legend in a form not only acceptable and delightful to modern readers, but one in which is exhibited the highest degree of poetic art. The Idylls of the King-Tennyson's poem-consists of

*Works of Roger Ascham. Edition of 1761, p. 57.