FAMILIAR as most of us presumably are with Tennyson's "Idyls of the King," it is probable that few have either read the original legends or are acquainted with their history.

The stories of Arthur and his Court have remained to the present day, not exploded, as many similar myths have been, but forming a prominent group of legends, containing not a little truth, and as marked in the history of Britain as any of the tales of ancient Rome. The subject must always be wrapped in considerable obscurity, but, according to the best authorities, Arthur lived about 500 A. D. His exploits, and the fabulous tales arising from them, were sung in French romances, by English poets, and related by historians of the Middle Ages.

And here it is noticeable that two widely varying accounts of his life are extant, - one by Geoffrey Monmouth, a writer of the first half of the twelfth century, which was translated from a Welsh original, written by Walter Mapes, Archdeacon of Oxford; and the other by Sir Thomas Malory, printed by Caxton, in 1485.

The first treats entirely of Arthur, relating his birth, his subjection of Britain, the war with Rome, and his death in the last battle with the traitor, Sir Modred. This work was afterwards versified, and was much amplified and adorned. Sir Thomas Malory devotes most of his book to Merlin, Lancelot, the Sangreal, and Guinevere. The two histories coincide only in regard to the birth of Arthur, the Roman Expedition, and the final battle; the first is almost entirely the life of Arthur alone, and in the second Lancelot is the chief figure, and more prominence is given to other knights of the Round Table and the search for the Sangreal.

It is also interesting to notice that in Malory's history the legend seems tinged with the Greek idea of fate and of slowly coming retribution. Malory's Arthur is not the spotless knight of Tennyson, but one who has committed a deadly crime, the punishment for which and for the sins of his knights is gradually being developed.

A multitude of French romances have had for their subjects the adventures of Arthur and his knights, in war and in search of the Sangreal, and from them much of these histories was probably derived.

These legends, in poetry or prose, are well worth careful reading, not only for the quaint simplicity of the style, but also for the many really noble thoughts, and the high ideas of duty and honor characteristic of a time the chief creed of which seems to have been "to drede god, and loue ryghtwiseness, feythfully and courageously to serue your souuerayne prynce."

And, more than this, there is a pleasure rarely to be enjoyed in comparing the old poet with the new, in setting side by side the simple, earnest naturalness of the one, and the complex thought, richer and fuller, of the other. Two passages are cited by Mr. Furnival, which well illustrate the contrast: first, the reply of Sir Bedivere, -

Nothynge

But watres depe, and wawis wanne";

which becomes, -

"I heard the water lapping on the crag,

And the long ripple washing in the reeds."

And than Arthur's farewell, -

"I will wend a little stownd [time]