THE STORY OF LAUNCELOT.- THE LADY OF SHALOTT.
KING ARTHUR proclaimed a solemn tournament to be held at Winchester.
The king, not less impatient than his knights for this festival, set
off some days before to superintend the preparations, leaving the
queen with her court at Camelot. Sir Launcelot, under pretence of
indisposition, remained behind also. His intention was to attend the
tournament in disguise; and having communicated his project to
Guenever, he mounted his horse, set off without any attendant, and,
counterfeiting the feebleness of age, took the most unfrequented
road to Winchester, and passed unnoticed as an old knight who was
going to be a spectator of the sports. Even Arthur and Gawain, who
happened to behold him from the windows of a castle under which he
passed, were the dupes of his disguise. But an accident betrayed
him. His horse happened to stumble, and the hero, forgetting for a
moment his assumed character, recovered the animal with a strength and
agility so peculiar to himself, that they instantly recognized the
inimitable Launcelot. They suffered him, however, to proceed on his
journey without interruption, convinced that his extraordinary feats
of arms must discover him at the approaching festival.
In the evening Launcelot was magnificently entertained as a stranger
knight at the neighboring castle of Shalott. The lord of this castle
had a daughter of exquisite beauty, and two sons lately received
into the order of knighthood, one of whom was at that time ill in bed,
and thereby prevented from attending the tournament, for which both
brothers had long made preparations. Launcelot offered to attend the
other, if he were permitted to borrow the armor of the invalid, and
the lord of Shalott, without knowing the name of his guest, being
satisfied from his appearance that his son could not have a better
assistant in arms, most thankfully accepted the offer. In the meantime
the young lady, who had been much struck by the first appearance of
the stranger knight, continued to survey him with increased attention,
and before the conclusion of supper, became so deeply enamored of him,
that, after frequent changes of color, and other symptoms which Sir
Launcelot could not possibly mistake, she was obliged to retire to her
chamber, and seek relief in tears. Sir Launcelot hastened to convey to
her, by means of her brother, the information that his heart was
already disposed of, but that it would be his pride and pleasure to
act as her knight at the approaching tournament. The lady, obliged
to be satisfied with that courtesy, presented him her scarf to be worn
at the tournament.
Launcelot set off in the morning with the young knight, who, on
their approaching Winchester, carried him to the castle of a lady,
sister to the lord of Shalott, by whom they were hospitably
entertained. The next day they put on their armor, which was perfectly
plain, and without any device, as was usual to youths during the first
year of knighthood, their shields being only painted red, as some
color was necessary to enable them to be recognized by their
attendants. Launcelot wore on his crest the scarf of the maid of
Shalott, and, thus equipped, proceeded to the tournament, where the
knights were divided into two companies, the one commanded by Sir
Galehaut, the other by King Arthur. Having surveyed the combat for a
short time from without the lists, and observed that Sir Galehaut's
party began to give way, they joined the press and attacked the
royal knights, the young man choosing such adversaries as were
suited to his strength, while his companion selected the principal
champions of the Round Table, and successively overthrew Gawain,
Bohort, and Lionel. The astonishment of the spectators was extreme,
for it was thought that no one but Launcelot could possess such
invincible force; yet the favor on his crest seemed to preclude the
possibility of his being thus disguised, for Launcelot had never
been known to wear the badge of any but his sovereign lady. At
length Sir Hector, Launcelot's brother, engaged him, and, after a
dreadful combat, wounded him dangerously in the head, but was
himself completely stunned by a blow on the helmet, and felled to
the ground; after which the conqueror rode off at full speed, attended
by his companion.
They returned to the castle of Shalott, where Launcelot was attended
with the greatest care by the good earl, by his two sons, and, above
all, by his fair daughter, whose medical skill probably much
hastened the period of his recovery. His health was almost
completely restored, when Sir Hector, Sir Bohort, and Sir Lionel, who,
after the return of the court to Camelot, had undertaken the quest
of their relation, discovered him walking on the walls of the
castle. Their meeting was very joyful; they passed three days in the
castle amidst constant festivities, and bantered each other on the
events of the tournament. Launcelot, though he began by vowing
vengeance against the author of his wound, yet ended by declaring that
he felt rewarded for the pain by the pride he took in witnessing his
brother's extraordinary prowess. He then dismissed them with a message
to the queen, promising to follow immediately, it being necessary that
he should first take a formal leave of his kind hosts, as well as of
the fair maid of Shalott.
The young lady, after vainly attempting to detain him by her tears
and solicitations, saw him depart without leaving her any ground for
hope.
It was early summer when the tournament took place; but some
months had passed since Launcelot's departure, and winter was now near
at hand. The health and strength of the Lady of Shalott had
gradually sunk, and she felt that she could not live apart from the
object of her affections. She left the castle, and, descending to
the river's brink, placed herself in a boat, which she loosed from its
moorings, and suffered to bear her down the current toward Camelot.
One morning, as Arthur and Sir Lionel looked from the window of
the tower, the walls of which were washed by a river, they descried
a boat richly ornamented, and covered with an awning of cloth of gold,
which appeared to be floating down the stream without any human
guidance. It struck the shore while they watched it, and they hastened
down to examine it. Beneath the awning they discovered the dead body
of a beautiful woman, in whose features Sir Lionel easily recognized
the lovely maid of Shalott, Pursuing their search, they discovered a
purse richly embroidered with gold and jewels, and within the purse
a letter, which Arthur opened, and found addressed to himself and
all the knights of the Round Table, stating that Launcelot of the
Lake, the most accomplished of knights and most beautiful of men,
but at the same time the most cruel and inflexible, had by his rigor
produced the death of the wretched maiden, whose love was no less
invincible than his cruelty.
The king immediately gave orders for the interment of the lady, with
all the honors suited to her rank, at the same time explaining to
the knights the history of her affection for Launcelot, which moved
the compassion and regret of all.
Tennyson has chosen the story of the Lady of Shalott for the subject
of a poem:-
"There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colors gay.
She has heard a whisper say
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.
"And moving thro' a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot:
There the river eddy whirls,
And there the surly village churls,
And the red cloaks of market girls
Pass onward from Shalott.
"Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd lad,
Or long-haired page in crimson clad
Goes by to towered Camelot.
And sometimes thro' the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two:
She has no loyal knight and true,
The Lady of Shalott.
"But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often thro' the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot:
Or when the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed;
'I am half sick of shadows,' said
The Lady of Shalott."
The poem goes on as the story: the lady sees Launcelot, he rides
away, and she afterward dies and floats down the river in a boat to
Camelot. The poem ends as follows:-
"Under tower and balcony,
By garden wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by
Dead-pale between the houses high,
Silent unto Camelot.
Out upon the wharves they came,
Knight and burgher, lord and dame,
And round the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.
"Who is this? and what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they crossed themselves for fear
All the knights at Camelot:
But Launcelot mused a little space;
He said 'She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott."'
The story of "Elaine, the fair, Elaine, the lovable, Elaine, the
lily-maid of Astolat," one of the earliest of the "Idylls of the
King," is of course the same tale as the Lady of Shalott.