Interpretation.—Compare the picture of the court that we get here with the one that is drawn in Gareth and Lynette.
What stage in the history of the Round Table does this story mark? What is the central idea of the poem?
Form.—Compare this Idyll with Gareth and Lynette with reference to meter, and to choice of language.
The Passing of Arthur
Setting.—Where is the scene of the story laid? At what season of the year? How does the season fit the story? Do the descriptive passages help you to imagine the places? Illustrate. Do they help you to feel the situations? Illustrate. Of what importance are place and time here?
Plot.—Make a simple outline to show the chain of incidents that form the plot. Compare this Idyll, in respect to reality, with the other two you have studied.
Characters.—Is Arthur's character essentially the same as it appears in the other Idylls we have studied?
What is his mood at the beginning? Does he talk like a vanquished man?
Interpretation.—Do we think of Arthur here as King of Britain, or as a figure in an allegory? Why?
What is indicated by the fact that Arthur did not die, but was taken away by the three Queens?