Page:Studies on the legend of the Holy Grail.djvu/270

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244
MERITS OF THE QUESTE—TENNYSON HAWKER.

womanhood or for his narrow and sickly view of life. But when we are bidden to seek example of him, it is well to state the facts as they are.[1]

If his transformation of the story has been rudely effected without regard to its inherent possibilities, if the spirit of his ideal proves to be miserably ascetic and narrow, what then remains to the Queste, and how may we account for its popularity in its own day, and for the abiding influence which its version of the legend has exercised over posterity. Its literary qualities are at times great; certain scenes, especially such as set forth the sacramental nature of the Grail, are touched with a mystical fervour which haunts the imagination. It has given some of the most picturesque features to this most picturesque of legends. But I see in the idea of the mystic quest proclaimed to and shared in by the whole Table Round the real secret of the writer's success. This has struck the imagination of so many generations and given the Queste an undeserved fame. In truth the conception of Arthur's court, laying aside ordinary cares and joys, given wholly up to one over-mastering spiritual aim, is a noble one. It is, I think, only in a slight degree the outcome of definite thought and intent but was dictated to the writer by the form into which he had recast


  1. The perplexities which beset the modern reader of the Queste are reflected in the Laureate's retelling of the legend. Nowhere else in the Idylls has he departed so widely from his model. Much of the incident is due to him, and replaces with advantage the nauseous disquisitions upon chastity which occupy so large a space in the Queste. The artist's instinct, rather than the scholar's respect for the oldest form of the story, led him to practically restore Perceval to his rightful place as hero of the quest. His fortunes we can follow with an interest that passing shadow, Galahad, wholly fails to evoke. Nor, as may easily be seen, is the fundamental conception of the twelfth century romance to the Laureate's taste. Arthur is his ideal of manhood, and Arthur's energies are practical and human in aim and in execution. What the "blameless king" speaks when he first learns of the quest represents, we may guess, the author's real attitude towards the whole fantastic business.

    It is much to be regretted by all lovers of English poetry that Hawker's Quest of the Sangraal was never completed. The first and only chant is a magnificent fragment; with the exception of the Laureate's Sir Galahad, the finest piece of pure literature in the cycle. Hawker, alone, perhaps of moderns, could have kept the mediæval tone and spirit, and yet brought the Quest into contact with the needs and ideas of to-day.