■ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library PN 686.A7M47 Arthur of the En 3 1924 027 112 063 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027112063 THE ARTHUR OF THE ENGLISH POETS THE ARTHUR OF THE ENGLISH POETS BY HOWARD MAYNADIER BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY ^Iie Stibcc^itie ^n0, €amlititiae 1907 T '^ 1 J :i 1'. Si ^^ COPYRIGBT 1907 BY GUSTAVUS HOWABD MAYKADIER ALL RIGHTS RESERVBD PaHished April IW w4M^ TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER PREFACE This book has grown from a course in English Literar ture which I planned for my students at Harvard Uni- versity and Badcliffe College in the spring of 1900. I thought that there was enough interest in the Arthu- rian legends to warrant a course of lectures which should give an account of their origin, development, and history in our poetry, to those who, without car- ing to study mediaeval literature extensively, desired some knowledge of its finest poetic theme. Such knowledge it was dif&cult to obtain, for almost the only book on the subject both accurate and readable was Mr. M. W. MacCallimi's TeTvnysons Idylls and Arthurian Story, and that dealt chiefly with the Ar- thurian legends from Malory to the present time. My purpose was to tell more f uUy of the early days of the legends, their origin and growth, and in discussing their later history, to keep more closely to English countries than Mr. MacCaUum had done. Of neces- sity treating much of the material that he had treated, I have been indebted to his work for many valuable suggestions in preparing both my lectures and my book, though in general my methods of approaching the subject have been different from his. Because my lectures as first given, and as repeated viii PREFACE two or three times, have had a reasonably favorable reception, I have tried now to make them acceptable to a larger audience than that for which they were first intended. In doing so, I decided, as in the lec- tures, to discuss no authors who have not written in English except those — like Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chretien de Troies, and Richard Wagner — who have directly or indirectly influenced the poetry of the English race. I have not sought to advance new theories regarding the origia and the development of the Arthurian legends, though here and there may be found some new suggestion. My purpose has been rather to select what seem to me the sanest of the fre- quently conflicting opinions on the Eound Table stories which students of mediaeval literature have held, and to present them clearly. Nor have I sought to mention every. Arthurian author in the United Eangdom or America, but only to indicate the general tendencies of Arthurian literature in the English world from its first appearance to the present. In preparing my book I have been helped by the advice and information of various of my colleagues and other friends, whom I now take pleasure in thank- ing. Especially are my thanks due, and most heartily I offer them, to Professor Wendell, Professor Kit- tredge, and Mr. Bentinck-Smith. H. M. Cambbidge, Massachusetts, November, 1906. CONTENTS I. The Vigor of the Arthurian Legends . 1 II. The Historical Arthur .... 6 III. The Arthur of Popular Story . . .32 IV. The Chronicles and the Lais ... 60 V, Chretien de Troieb and the Eomances . 68 VI. Merlin 79 VII. Lancelot 84 VIII. The Holt Grail 106 IX. The Grail and the Swan-Knight . . 143 X. Tristram and Iseult 153 XI. The Moulding of the Legends . . . 175 XII. From Layamon to Malory. . . . 197 XIII. Sir Thomas Malory 218 XTV. Caxton and the Transition . . . 247 XV. Spenser 257 XVI. From Spenser to Milton .... 278 XVII. The Age of Prose and Reason . . . 295 XVIII. The Later Eighteenth Century . . 314 XIX. The Early Nineteenth Century . . . 335 XX. The High Tide of MEDiiSYALiSM . . 344 XXL The Newer Spirit 378 XXII. Tennyson 410 Index 439 THE AETHUR OF THE e:n^gli8h poets THE VIGOR OF THE ARTHURIAN LEGENDS • « *