Arthur's Round Table. It contained seats for 150 knights. Three were reserved, two for honor, and one (called the "siege perilous") for sir Galahad, destined to achieve the quest of the sangreal. If any one else attempted to sit in it, his death was the certain penalty.
There is a table so called at Winchester, and Henry VIII. showed it to François I. as the very table made by Merlin for Uther the pendragon.
And for great Arthur's seat, her Winchester
prefers,
Whose old round table yet she vaunteth to be
hers.
M. Drayton, Polyolbion, ii. (1612).
Arthur (King), in the burlesque opera of
Tom Thumb, has Dollallolla for his queen, and Huncamunca for his daughter. This dramatic piece, by Henry Fielding, the novelist, was produced in 1730, but was altered by Kane O'Hara, author of Midas, about half a century later.