By this wild king to force her to his wish,
Nor bent nor broke nor shunned a soldier’s death.’”
These last lines form a key to the story which Tennyson employs in giving us his views as to the proper sphere of woman, for this “miracle of women” is the prototype of the Princess Ida. While discussing the character of this heroine who defended her castle in days agone, the question at once arises among the members of the picnic party—are there such women now? One of the young ladies, Lilia, the baronet’s daughter, answers:
“There are thousands now
Such women, but convention beats them down,”
and in a half serious, half sportive way protests against the way in which nowadays the powers of her sex are dwarfed by insufficient culture, and as a consequence women are no longer capable of exhibiting such heroic qualities. Young Walter Vivian in the course of his remarks, which are banteringly addressed to his sister, mentions a favorite game which he and his college companions used to play, of telling a story from mouth to mouth, each one in succession taking up the thread till among them they brought the story to a close. It is then forthwith agreed that the seven youths should transfer this medieval miracle of womanhood to modern times in a story to which each should contribute a chapter. Of course, the conception out of which the plot is developed is the founding of a Ladies’ University by the Princess Ida, who has set before her the task of
“Raising the woman’s fallen divinity
Upon an equal pedestal with man.”
It may be added that the question discussed in this poem by Tennyson is one of vital importance to the human race, and is in every way worthy of the attention of the best and most earnest minds of our century. The poem proper is made up of seven cantos, written in semi-heroic verse, each story linked to and growing out of the previous canto. The first canto represents the Prince, who is none other than the poet himself, as longing for the bride betrothed to him in childhood. She, however, disregarding all pledge and promise, has conceived the idea of founding a University for Women, from which men are to be excluded on pain of death. To carry out her strange project she obtains from her father one of his castles with the domain surrounding it. Here the Princess Ida establishes her faculty, and rains down the dews of knowledge upon the thirsty flowers that bud and bloom under her high-souled care. This lofty enterprise is, however, in no way acceptable to the Prince, nor to the King, his father, who, inflamed with rage at her refusal to marry his son, swears
“That he will send a hundred thousand men