Chapter 2

After the death of Tristram and Iseult of Ireland, our thoughts inevitably turn to Iseult of the White Hands. The infinite pathos of her life has aroused our deepest sympathy, and we naturally want to know further concerning her and Tristram's children.

=13. cirque=. A circle (obsolete or poetical). See l. 7, Part III.

=18. holly-trees and juniper=. Evergreen trees common in Europe and America. [173] =22. fell-fare= (or field-fare). A small thrush found in Northern Europe.

=26. stagshorn.= A common club-moss.

=37. old-world Breton history.= That is, the story of Merlin and Vivian, ll. 153-224, Part III.

=79-81=. Compare with the following lines from Wordsworth's _Michael_:--

"This light was famous in its neighborhood. ... For, as it chanced, Their cottage on a plot of rising ground Stood single.... And from this constant light so regular And so far seen, the House itself, by all Who dwelt within the limits of the vale ... was named _The Evening Star_."

=81. iron coast.= This line inevitably calls to mind a stanza from Tennyson's _Palace of Art_:--

"One show'd an iron coast and angry waves. You seemed to hear them climb and fall And roar, rock-thwarted, under bellowing caves, Beneath the windy wall."

=92. prie-dieu.= Praying-desk. From the French _prier_, pray; _dieu_, God.

=97. seneschal.= A majordomo; a steward. Originally meant _old_ (that is, _chief) servant_; from the Gothic _sins_, old, and _salks_, a servant.--SKEAT.

=134. gulls.= Deceives, tricks.

"The vulgar, _gulled_ into rebellion, armed," --DRYDEN.

=140.= posting here and there. That is, restlessly changing from place to place and from occupation to occupation.

=143-145. Like that bold Cæsar=, etc. Julius Cæsar (100?-44 B.C.). The incident here alluded to Is mentioned in Suetonius' _Life of the Deified Julius_, Chapter VII. "Farther Spain fell to the lot of Cæsar as questor. When, at the command of the Roman people, he was holding court and had come to Cadiz, he noticed in the temple of Hercules a statue of Alexander the Great. At sight of this statue he sighed, as if disgusted at his own lack of achievement, because he had done nothing of note by the time in life (Cæsar was then thirty-two) that Alexander had conquered the world." (Free translation.) [174]

=146-150. Prince Alexander, etc.= Alexander III., surnamed "The Great" (356-323 B.C.), was the most famous of Macedonian generals and conquerors, and the first in order of time of the four most celebrated commanders of whom history makes mention. In less than fifteen years he extended his domain over the known world and established himself as the universal emperor. He died at Babylon, his capital city, at the age of thirty-three, having lamented that there were no more worlds for him to conquer. (For the boundaries of his empire, see any map of his time.) Pope spoke of him as "The youth who all things but himself subdued." =Soudan= (l. 149). An obsolete term for Sultan, the Turkish ruler.

=153-224=. The story of Merlin, King Arthur's court magician, and the enchantress Vivian is one of the most familiar of the Arthurian cycle of legends. =Broce-liande= (l. 156). In Cornwall. See l. 61, Part I. =fay= (l. 159). Fairy, =empire= (l. 184). That is, power; here supernatural power. =wimple= (l. 220). A covering for the head. =Is Merlin prisoner=, etc. (l. 223). Merlin, the magician, is thus entrapped by means of a charm he had himself communicated to his mistress, the enchantress Vivian. Malory has Merlin imprisoned under a rock; Tennyson, in an oak:--

"And in the hollow oak he lay as dead And lost to life and use and name and fame." --_Merlin and Vivian_. [175] =224=. For she was passing weary, etc.

"And she was ever passing weary of him." --MALORY.