From the great deep to the great deep he goes.
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y the close of it, Arthur has ‘‘made a realm,” foundedhis Order, married Guinevere, and defied and vanquishedRome. By the end of it, too, Lancelot has met Guinevere,although there is as yet no word breathed of their love.The story of Gareth, which begins the series of “‘Idylls”proper, draws a picture of Arthur’s court at the height ofits glory and purity. At the beginning of “The Marriageof Geraint”’ comes the first rumor that rose about the Queen,Touching her guilty love for Lancelot, and that rumor is the cause of Geraint’s harsh testing of “his wife, as told in “Geraint and Enid.” In the next poem, the two brothers, Balin and Balan, die by each other’shand, and the immediate cause of the tragedy is the crythat Balin gave when he learned that the Queen was false.The informant here is the evil and insidious Vivien, thestory of whose beguilement of Merlin fills the next Idyll.Her talk is crowded with references to the corruption ofthe court, which Merlin parries. But the evil is there,whether it is fact or gossip, and evil conquers Merlin. Insharp contrast with this dark tale of malice and uncleannesscomes the lovely story of Elaine the fair. It is an effort toavert the tragedy by offering to Lancelot a pure love.
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