Return no more,' "

And so it proved. What happened to Galahad and
the rest does not belong to the main movement, and
it could not be translated into prose — it is part of
that which is not to be believed in the understand-
ing. But the order of the Bound 'Table was virtually
broken up.
There is a passage in the early part of this idyll
that used to take my fancy, but that now, in the
light of things that are, makes me shiver.
The nun, Percivale's sister, has seen the Holy
Grail. To her is brought Galahad, the knight in
white armour, to whom Arthur- had said, upon knight-
ing him —

" ' God mate thee good as thou art beautiful." '

Upon him the maiden lays her charge that he, as her
spiritual knight, shall go forth in quest of the Grail.
Alread)^ things are doubtful. Such commissions do
not properly derive so. Kings, not maidens, made
knights, even in the natural sphere. Much more.
IDYLLS OF THE KING'



spiritual commissions do not so derive. But now the

passage ends —

" And as she spake
She sent the deathless passion in her eyes
Thro' him, and made him hers, and laid her mind
On him, and he believed in her belief."

This is almost the language of Mesmerism, of mes-
meric, of hypnotic, suggestion, whatever these gi-ave-
sounding words may mean. If the poet had intended
us to think that the whole thing was spiritually un-
clean, the language would be intelligible. But as no
such intention appears in the poem, the words are
distressing.
