Victorian medievalism study questions (by Florence Boos)

William Morris Questions for "The Defence of Guenevere"

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1. What situation is captured in the opening scene? What details about Guenevere's appearance does the poem present? What seem to be her emotions?

2. What seems to be Guenevere's attitude towards the "great lords"? What seems her purpose in telling her audience of a death-bed illness and the choosing cloths?

3. What seems to be meant by the allegory of the cloths?

4. What effect is served by the poem's stanza form and rhymes?

5. What are some features of Guenevere's speech and behavior? Are some of these unexpected, and if so, how are these to be explained? Do you think she is using the most persuasive means to convince her immediate audience of her innocence?

6. If not, why do you think her speech is constructed as it is?

7. How does the fact that Guenevere is on trial for her life affect our judgment of her testimony? Does it lend it more or less credibility?

8. How do we know what the narrator's attitude toward her is? Is her speech a dramatic monlogue?

9. What details does she record of her relationship with Launcelot? What imagery is associated with the memory of his presence?

10. What claims does Guenevere make about her marriage? Her past behavior? What defense does she give for the morality of her love for Launcelot?

11. What is suggested by the metaphor of slipping down a path to the sea? (ll. 93-103) What is the purpose of the sudden jump to describing her garden tryst with Launcelot?

12. What are some elements of her meeting with Launcelot in the garden? What seems to be her relation to her own body and to nature?

13. What may be her implied answer to the question, "After that day why is it Guenevere grieves?"

14. What argument for her innocence does she make to her accuser Gauwaine? What personal appeal does she make to his own memories? What threats?

15. What account does she give of the events which preceded the capture of Launcelot in her bedchamber? What explanation does she give for omitting certain facts? What events have allegedly "proved" Mellyagraunce to have falsely accused her in the past?

16. What does the fight with Mellyagraunce reveal about Launcelot's character?

17. What further defense does she make of her cause in ll. 223ff.? Why would she appeal to her beauty as a sign of innocence?

18. According to her account, what was the nature of their relationship and last meeting? What is the significance of the sudden break in her account, "By God! I will not tell you more to-day"?

19. In the poem's logic, why may she be unable to remember "just that which would save me"? What is the meaning of her reiterated statement that "Whatever may have happen'd these long years," Gauwaine's accusations are a lie? Is her definition of innocence a simple one?

20. How does the poem end? Do you find this a satisfactory solution for the issues raised?

21. What are repeated patterns of imagery throughout the poem? How do they affect its meaning?

22. In the Morte d' Arthur, Malory makes contradictory claims about the sexual nature of Launcelot and Guenevere's relationship; at one point he says their love was courtly but not sexual, but at other points he describes their lovemaking. How would the view that Morris had accepted one or the other of these versions affect one's interpretation of Guenevere's claims, or is this irrelevant?

23. What seems to be the narrator's attitude toward the issue of Guenevere's innocence? Is this innocence argued on moral or literal grounds?

24. Would Morris's audience have likely agreed with a defense of the queen's innocence?

25. How successful do you think Morris was at creating the inner consciousness of a woman? Was he intending to do this, or may he also have intended to present her from the outside?

26. What seems the poem's final claims about the importance of romantic love? Does the poem have any relevance to social debates of its time?

The Idylls of the King

An "idyll" (from Latin "idyl[lium]" and Greek "eidyllion," a short pastoral poem) is defined as "a poem or prose composition describing pastoral scenes or events, or any charmingly simple episode, appealing incident, or the like; a long narrative poem on a major theme; material suitable for an idyll; a episode or scene of idyllic charm; or in music, a composition, usually instrumental, of a pastoral or sentimental character."

According to Hallam Tennyson, the word was to be pronounced "I-dylls"/"Eye-dells." The title also contains a pun on the world "idle," not in the sense of "frivolous" but in the sense of imaginative, fictive, lacking immediate practical application and therefore able to speak to the deepest truths.

Tennyson began his epic cycle based on Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, with the tales of Enid and Nimue--an ideal wife juxtaposed with an evil temptress. Thus the moral cycle of the kingdom was conceived of as playing out-ironically for a story set in a time of severe restraints on women-the respective values of its female characters.

"The Coming of Arthur"

What are some legendary or mythological allusions associated with the hero?

What are some traditional signs of Arthur's divinity, including comparisons with Christ?

To what extent does Arthur represent Victorian ideals of heroism and manliness?

What are some features of the language of the Idylls? What aspects of its meter, sounds and descriptions make its language memorable?

Can you see seeds of kingdom's fall even in this beginning book of the cycle?

How are Arthur's origins described? Are these seen in natural or supernatural terms?

What is significance of Merlin's song?

What are some allegorical elements introduced in this idyll?

What do we learn about Guinevere and the motivation of Arthur's love for her? Does his response represent a common Victorian ideal?

What are some of the idyll's most important images?

What are some of its memorable ideas? Which of the narrative's preoccupations would have seemed especially pertinent to the Victorians?

"The Passing of Arthur"

This portion of the cycle embodies Tennyson's most deeply-felt theme, the remembered perfection of an idealized loved one lost to death.

What are features of the poem's language and tone?

How does it differ from his earlier 1842 "Morte d'Arthur"?

• ll. 1-169 and 441 ff. were added in 1869. How do these additions affect the meaning and political emphases of the idyll? Our sense of its certainty?

What is the effect of emphasizing Bedivere's role as witness?

Are there ways in which this poem seems different in language or mode of narration from the poems of the cycle written later? Which style do you prefer?

Is the story itself well-integrated thematically and allegorically into the other poems of the cycle? Does it seem a culmination of and appropriate closure for the earlier ones?

If this poem seems somewhat different, how may this be appropriate?

Where and what is Lyonesse? What does it represent? What symbolic qualities appear in the final battle?

Why must the sword be returned to the mere?

What reason does Arthur give for the fall of his order? Is this consistent with the motive given in the other tales of the Idylls?

Does Arthur--and the poet--come to a final resolution of the problem of evil? (last scene, 400 ff.)

Can you explain the symbology of the barge? What historic kings had been so buried?

What is added by the presence of the three weeping queens, and what may they represent? (fates)

What is the effect of the poem's biblical echoes? ll. 155 ff., wound, l. 169, ll. 190ff.

Will Arthur indeed come again? Do we know?

What theory of history seems implied by Arthur's last words, with its recognition that no form of order, however desirable, can last indefinitely?

Are the views expressed in this poem consistent with Victorian views of progress? (Theories of inevitable progress were beginning to be replaced by theories of inevitable decay.)

In what ways is Tennyson's "Morte d' Arthur" indebted to Malory?

How has Tennyson changed his original source, for example, in the presentation of the Lady of the Lake? (body not seen in Malory)

What are some political and social implications of Tennyson's sequence? Are these fully integrated with the narration and epic style?

According to the messages embodied in the Idylls, what may be the deepest psychological experiences available to humans?

Can you compare this poem with William Morris's early Arthurian poems such as "The Defence of Guenevere"?

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