ur eyes were drawn together, and the hue
Fled from our altered cheek. But at one point
Alone we fell. When of that smile we read,
The wished smile, rapturously kissed
By one so deep in love, then he, who ne'er
From me shall separate, at once my lips
All trembling kissed. The book and writer both
Were love's purveyors. In its leaves that day
We read no more."

This poetic material was appropriated also by the countrymen of Dante,
Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso, by Hans Sachs in Germany, by Spenser,
Shakespeare, and Milton in England. As Sir Walter Scott has sung:--

"The mightiest chiefs of British song
Scorned not such legends to prolong."

Roger Ascham, it is true, has, in his 'Scholemaster' (1570 A.D.), broken
a lance against this body of fiction. "In our forefathers' tyme," wrote
he, "whan Papistrie, as a standyng poole, couered and ouerflowed all
England, fewe bookes were read in our tong, sauyng certaine bookes of
Cheualrie, as they sayd, for pastime and pleasure, which, as some say,
were made in Monasteries, by idle Monkes, or wanton Chanons; as one for
example, 'Morte Arthure': the whole pleasure of which booke standeth in
two speciall poyntes, in open mans slaughter, and bold bawdrye: in which
booke those be counted the noblest Knights, that do kill most men
without any quarrell, and commit foulest aduoulteries by
sutlest shiftes."

But Roger's characterization of "the whole pleasure of which booke" was
not just, nor did it destroy interest in the theme. "The generall end of
all the booke," said Spenser of the 'Faerie Queene,' "is to fashion a
gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline;" and for
this purpose he therefore "chose the historye of King Arthure, as most
fitte for the excellency of his person, being made famous by many men's
former workes, and also furthest from the daunger of envie, and
suspition of present tyme."

The plots for Shakespeare's 'King Lear' and 'Cymbeline' came from
Geoffrey's 'Historia Britonum,' as did also the story of 'Gorboduc,' the
first tragedy in the English language. Milton intended at one time that
the subject of the great poem for which he was "pluming his wings"
should be King Arthur, as may be seen, in his 'Mansus' and 'Epitaphium
Damonis.' Indeed, he did touch the lyre upon this theme,--lightly, it is
true, but firmly enough to justify Swinburne's lines:--

"Yet Milton's sacred feet have lingered