And bring her in a whirlwind.”
The Prince, in company with two friends, Cyril and Florian, steals away by night from his father’s court for the purpose of making a personal appeal to his affianced bride, encouraged by a mysterious voice, borne upon the winds in the woods, which whispered,
“Follow, follow, thou shalt win.”
In his interview with Gama, the King, father of the Princess Ida, who, by the way, was powerless to oppose the wishes and designs of his daughter and her two widow companions, we learn the two fallacies which mislead the Princess in her design to found a Ladies’ University: that the woman is equal in all respects to the man, and that knowledge is all in all. These are the very two fallacies which to-day are productive of most mischief to the true advancement of woman.
The second book or canto brings the Prince and his two companions, disguised as women, to the University, where the detection of Florian by his sister, Lady Psyche, one of the lady lecturers, is narrated. The description of the grounds and walks leading to the University shows Tennyson’s keen knowledge of feminine nature. Just note, please, the following appointments in the grounds. Do they not reflect the artistic taste of woman?
“We follow’d up the river as we rode,
And rode till midnight, when the college lights
Began to glitter firefly-like in copse
And linden alley: then we past an arch,
Whereon a woman-statue rose with wings