Transcript Tennyson’s Idylls of the King

Tennyson’s Idylls of the King
The Concluding Idylls:
“Pelleas and Ettare”
“The Last Tournament”
“Guinevere”
“The Passing of Arthur”
“Pelleas and Ettare”
• Tennyson's source for "Pelleas and
Ettare" was Malory, who had himself
adapted the story from the PostVulgate Cycle.
• In an ironic echo of “Gareth and
Lynette”, the young, idealistic Pelleas
meets and falls in love with the lady
Ettare.
• She thinks him a fool, but treats him
well at first because she wishes to hear
herself proclaimed the “Queen of
Beauty” at the tournament. For
Pelleas' sake, Arthur declares it a
“Tournament of Youth”, barring his
veteran warriors.
• Pelleas wins the title and circlet for
Ettare, who immediately ends her
kindness to him. He follows her to
her castle, where for a sight of her
he docilely allows himself to be
bound and maltreated by her
knights, although he can and does
overthrow them all. Gawain
observes this one day with outrage.
• He offers to court Ettare for
Pelleas, and for this purpose
borrows his arms and shield. When
admitted to the castle, he
announces that he has killed
Pelleas.
• Three nights later, Pelleas enters the
castle in search of Gawain. He passes
a pavilion of Ettare’s knights, asleep,
and then a pavilion of her maidens,
and then comes to a pavilion where he
finds Ettare in Gawain’s arms.
• He leaves his sword across their
throats to show that, if not for
Chivalry, he could have killed them.
• When Ettare wakes, she curses
Gawain. Her love turns to Pelleas, and
she pines away.
• Disillusioned with Arthur’s court,
Pelleas leaves Camelot to become the
Red Knight in the North
Note the rise of animal imagery
• “I have no sword!”
I saw him there —
Let the fox bark, let the wolf yell. Who yells
Here in the still sweet summer night, but I—
I, the poor Pelleas whom she called her fool?
Fool, beast — he, she, or I? myself most fool;
Beast too, as lacking human wit — disgraced,
Dishonoured all for trial of true love —
Love?— we be all alike: only the King
Hath made us fools and liars. O noble vows!
O great and sane and simple race of brutes
That own no lust because they have no law!
For why should I have loved her to my shame?
I loathe her, as I loved her to my shame.
I never loved her, I but lusted for her —
Away —’
He dashed the rowel into his horse,
And bounded forth and vanished through the night.
“The Last Tournament”
• Guinevere had once fostered an infant
found by Arthur and Lancelot n an
eagle’s nest, who had a ruby necklace
wrapped around its neck.
• After the child died, Guinevere gave
the jewels to Arthur to make a
tournament prize.
• However, before the tournament, a
mutilated peasant stumbles into the
hall. He was tortured by the Red
Knight in the North, who has set up a
parody of the Round Table with
lawless knights and harlots.
• Arthur delegates the judging of the
Tournament to Lancelot and takes a
company to purge the evil. “The
Tournament of the Dead Innocence”
becomes a farce, full of discourtesies,
broken rules, and insults.
• Sir Tristram wins the rubies.
Breaking tradition, he rudely
declares to the ladies that the
“Queen of Beauty” is not present.
• Arthur’s fool, Dagonet, mocks
Tristram. In the north,
meanwhile, Arthur’s knights, too
full of rage and disgust to heed
their King, trample the Red
Knight, massacre his men and
women, and set his tower ablaze.
• Tristram gives the rubies to
Queen Isolt, Mark’s wife, who is
furious that he has married Isolt
of Brittany. They taunt each
other, but at the last he puts the
necklace about her neck and
bends to kiss her. At that moment
Mark rises up behind him and
splits his skull.
• Dagonet clings to Arthur’s legs.
“Guinevere”
•
•
•
Guinevere has fled to the convent at
Almesbury. On the night that she and Lancelot
had determined to part forever, Morded,
tipped off by Vivien, watched and listened
with witnesses to their farewells. Guinevere
rejects Lancelot's offer of sanctuary in his
castle overseas, choosing instead to take
anonymous shelter in the convent. She is
befriended by a little novice.
But when rumors of war between Arthur and
Lancelot and Modred's usurption reach the
convent, the novice's careless chatter pricks
the Queen's conscience. She describes to
Guinevere the glorious kingdom in her father's
day, "before the coming of the sinful Queen."
The King comes. She hears his steps and falls
on her face. He stands over her and grieves
over her, himself, and his kingdom,
reproaches her, and forgives her. She watches
him leave and repents, hoping they will be
reunited in heaven. She serves in the abbey, is
later chosen Abbess, and dies three years later.
“The Passing of Arthur”
• You should know that this
section of the Idylls is a much
expanded and altered version
of Tennyson's earlier poem
Morte d'Arthur. “The Epic”
• In the disastrous last battle,
Arthur kills Modred, and, in
turn, receives a mortal wound.
The entire Round Table has
been killed with the exception
of Sir Bedivere, who carries the
King to a church (Avalon),
where Arthur first received
Excalibur from the Lady of the
Lake.
• Arthur orders Bedivere to
throw the sword into the
lake in order to fulfill a
prophecy written on the
blade. Sir Bedivere resists
twice, but on the third time
obeys and is rewarded by
the sight of an arm
"clothed in white samite,
mystic, wonderful" rising
from the water to catch the
sword.
• This was the lady of the
lake.
• Sir Bedivere returns to
Arthur in the church and
tells him what he saw.
Arthur believes him and
passes with Sir Bedivere
watching, as the new sun
rises on a new year.