FOOTNOTES
[A] As the subject of this tale is suggested by one of the Fabliaux, the author has represented Arthur and Guenever, according to the view of their characters taken in those French romances—which he hopes he need scarcely say is very different from that taken in his maturer Poem upon the adventures and ordeal of the Dragon King.
[B] "With hair that gilds the water as it glides."—Marlowe, Edw. II.
[C] As Guenever is often called Genevra in the French romances, the latter name is here adopted for the sake of euphony.
THE BEACON.
I.
How broad and bright athwart the wave,
Its steadfast light the Beacon gave!
Far beetling from the headland shore,
The rock behind, the surge before,—
How lone and stern and tempest-sear'd,
Its brow to Heaven the turret rear'd!
Type of the glorious souls that are
The lamps our wandering barks to light,
With storm and cloud round every star,
The Fire-Guides of the Night!
II.
How dreary was that solitude!
Around it scream'd the sea-fowl's brood;
The only sound, amidst the strife
Of wind, and wave, that spoke of life,
Except when Heaven's ghost-stars were pale,
The distant cry from hurrying sail.
From year to year the weeds had grown
O'er walls slow-rotting with the damp;
And, with the weeds, decay'd, alone,
The Warder of the lamp.