A MEDLEY FOR MONDAY.
John Bulljohn was a citizen
Of credit and renown,
Of Volunteers a captain he
Of famous London town.
John Bulljohn's mother said, "My dear,
Though living here we've been
This goodness knows how long, yet we
Have never seen the Queen.
"To-morrow to the new Law Courts
Our sovereign does repair;"
Says John, "Good gracious! so she does—
Dear mother, we'll be there."
And ere he went to bed, J. B.
His aged ma did kiss;
And, feeling like a boy again,
Did softly warble this:
You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear—
To-morrow'll be the happiest time of all this famous year;
Of all this famous year, mother, the grandest, jolliest day,
For look on our Queen we may, mother, look on our Queen we may.
There's many a loyal heart, they say, but none so true as mine,
There's Sandy and there's Dougal, across the Border line;
But none so true as Johnny, not e'en by Alum Bay,
So look on my Queen I may, mother, look on my Queen I may.
All the Strand, dear mother, 'll be gay with flag and green;
And they're selling seats in windows for gold to see the Queen;
O long shall Johnny remember the Law Courts' opening day,
When look on the Queen he may, mother, look on the Queen he may.
In London when the Queen was low,
Too sad at heart about to go,
Or in our streets her face to show
Did loyalty fade rapidly.
But London saw another sight
When she, our Liege, recovered quite,
Came, on a morning clear and bright,
Through arches, flags, and greenery.
To where the new Law Courts were made,
Attended by a cavalcade.
O, how the English crowd hoorayed!
And all was joy and revelry.
Then shook the sky with thunder riven,
For never heartier cheers were given,
As through the streets the Queen was driven,
Attended by her soldiery.
The longest and most important work (by many also considered the finest) of Alfred Tennyson is the collection of Arthurian Idyls, known as the Idyls of the King. These were originally published in detached parts, in somewhat irregular order, but in recent editions the Author has striven to arrange them in a consecutive and more connected form.
The first to appear in order of date was the Morte d'Arthur, which was published in the 1842 volume, in the later arrangement of the poems this has been absorbed into the last Idyl, entitled "The Passing of Arthur."
In the original it commenced thus:—
"So all day long the noise of battle roll'd
Among the mountains by the winter sea;
Until King Arthur's table, man by man,
Had fall'n in Lyonness about their Lord,
King Arthur; then because his wound was deep,
The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him,
Sir Bedivere, the last of all his knights,
And bore him to a chapel nigh the field,
A broken chancel with a broken cross,
That stood on a dark strait of barren land.
On one side lay the Ocean, and on one
Lay a great water, and the moon was full.
Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:
"The sequel of to-day unsolders all
The goodliest fellowship of famous knights
Whereof this world holds record. Such a sleep
They sleep—the men I loved. I think that we
Shall never more, at any future time,
Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds,
Walking about the gardens and the halls
Of Camelot, as in the days that were.
I perish by this people which I made,—
Tho' Merlin sware that I should come again
To rule once more—but let what will be, be,
I am so deeply smitten through the helm
That without help I cannot last till morn.
Thou, therefore, take my brand Excalibur,
Which was my pride:
* * * * *
take Excalibur,
And fling him far into the middle mere:
Watch what thou seest, and lightly bring me word."
This mission was distasteful to Sir Bedivere, who exclaims:—
"And if indeed I cast the brand away,
Surely a precious thing, one worthy note,
Should thus be lost for ever from the earth,
Which might have pleased the eyes of many men.
What good should follow this, if this were done?
What harm, undone? Deep harm to disobey,
Seeing obedience is the bond of rule.
Were it well to obey then, if a king demand
An act unprofitable against himself?
The King is sick, and knows not what he does.
What record, or what relic of my lord
Should be to aftertime, but empty breath
And rumours of a doubt? but were this kept,
Stored in some treasure-house of mighty kings,
Some one might show it at a joust of arms,
Saying, 'King Arthur's sword, Excalibur.'"
Thus much of the original must indeed be in one's thoughts ere the Voyage de Guillaume can be appreciated; it recounts the holiday trip of the Prime Minister to the north in September, 1883. It will be remembered that Mr. Gladstone was the guest of Sir Donald Currie, on board the Pembroke Castle, and that Alfred Tennyson was also one of the party.