n all confirms,
the seating of Arthur on his father's throne; he brings the king's
nephews, Gawain and the rest, to assist their uncle, in some cases
against their own fathers; he presides over the foundation of the
Round Table, and brings about the marriage of Guinevere and Arthur; he
assists, sometimes by actual force of arms, sometimes as head of the
intelligence department, sometimes by simple gramarye, in the
discomfiture not merely of the rival and rebel kinglets, but of the
Saxons and Romans. As has been said, Malory later thought proper to
drop the greater part of this latter business (including the
interminable fights round the _Roche aux Saisnes_ or Saxon rock). And
he also discarded a curious episode which makes a great figure in the
original _Merlin_, the tale of the "false Guinevere," a foster-sister,
namesake, and counterpart of the true princess, who is nearly
substituted for Guinevere herself on her bridal night, and who later
usurps for a considerable time the place and rights of the queen. For
it cannot be too often repeated that Arthur, not even in Malory a
"blameless king" by any means, is in the earlier and original versions
still less blameless, especially in the article of faithfulness to his
wife.

We do not, however, in the _Merlin_ group proper get any tidings of
Lancelot, though Lucan, Kay, Bedivere, and others, as well as Gawain
and the other sons of Lot, make their appearance, and the Arthurian
court and _regime_, as we imagine it with the Round Table, is already
constituted. It is to be observed that in the earlier versions there
is even a sharp rivalry between the "Round Table" proper and the
"Queen's" or younger knights. But this subsides, and the whole is
centred at Camelot, with the realm (until Mordred's treachery) well
under control, and with a constant succession of adventures,
culminating in the greatest of all, the Quest of the Graal or Sangreal
itself. Although there are passages of great beauty, the excessive
mysticism, the straggling conduct of the story, and the extravagant
praise of virginity in and for itself, in the early Graal history,
have offended some readers. In the _Merlin_ proper the incompleteness,
the disproportionate space given to mere kite-and-crow fighting, and
the defect of love-interest, undoubtedly show themselves. Although
Merlin was neither by extraction nor taste likely to emulate the
almost ferocious horror of human affection entertained by Robert de
Bo