ith rewards (such as Here
proffers) would not make me fairer.

153-164. Pallas reads the weakness of Paris's character, but disdains to
offer him a more worldly reward. An access of moral courage will be her
sole gift to him, so that he shall front danger and disaster until his
powers of endurance grow strong with action, and his full-grown will
having passed through all experiences, and having become a pure law unto
itself, shall be commensurate with perfect freedom, i.e., shall not know
that it is circumscribed by law.

This is the philosophy that we find in Wordsworth's _Ode to Duty_.

Stern Lawgiver! Yet thou dost wear
The Godhead's most benignant grace;
Nor know we anything so fair
As is the smile upon thy face:
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,
And fragrance in thy footing treads;
Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong,
And the most ancient heavens, through thee,
are fresh and strong.

165-167. Note how dramatic this interruption is.

170. IDALIAN APHRODITE. Idalium was a town in Cyprus; an island where
the goddess was especially worshipped. She was frequently called Cypria
or the Cyprian.

171. FRESH AS THE FOAM. Aphrodite was born from the waves of the sea,
near the Island of Cyprus.

NEW-BATHED IN PAPHIAN WELLS. Paphos was a town in Cyprus. Aphrodite was
said to have landed at Paphos after her birth from the sea-foam. She is
sometimes called the Paphian or Paphia on this account.

184. SHE SPOKE AND LAUGH'D. Homer calls her "the laughter-loving
Aphrodite."

195-l97. A WILD--WEED. The influence of beauty upon the beasts is a
common theme with poets. Cf. Una and the lion in Spenser's _Faery Queen_.

204. THEY CUT AWAY MY TALLEST PINES. Evidently to make ships for Paris's
expedition to Greece.

235-240. THERE ARE--DIE. Lamartine in _Le Lac_ (written before 1820)
has a very similar passage.

250. CASSANDRA. The daughter of King Priam, and therefore the sister of
Paris. She had the gift of prophecy.

260. A FIRE DANCES. Signifying the burning of Troy.

THE EPIC AND MORTE D'ARTHUR

First published, with the epilogue as here printed, in 1842. The _Morte
d'Arthur_ was subsequently taken out of the present setting, and with
substantial expansion appeared as the final poem of the _Idylls of the
King_, with the new title, _The Passing of Arthur_.

Walter Savage Landor doubtless refers to the _Morte d'Arthur_ as early as
1837, when writing to a fri