of human society that is always so alluring in the poetry and so
discouraging in the prose of life.

The following explanation appeared in the early editions of the poem
as an introductory note:

"According to the mythology of the Romancers, the San Greal,
or Holy Grail, was the cup out of which Jesus Christ partook
of the last supper with his disciples. It was brought into
England by Joseph of Arimathea, and remained there, an
object of pilgrimage and adoration, for many years in the
keeping of his lineal descendants. It was incumbent upon
those who had charge of it to be chaste in thought, word,
and deed; but, one of the keepers having broken this
condition, the Holy Grail disappeared. From that time it was
a favorite enterprise of the Knights of Arthur's court to go
in search of it. Sir Galahad was at last successful in
finding it, as may be read in the seventeenth book of the
Romance of King Arthur. Tennyson has made Sir Galahad the
subject of one of the most exquisite of his poems.

"The plot (if I may give that name to anything so slight) of
the following poem is my own, and, to serve its purposes, I
have enlarged the circle of competition in search of the
miraculous cup in such a manner as to include not only other
persons than the heroes of the Round Table, but also a
period of time subsequent to the date of King Arthur's
reign."

In the last sentence there is a sly suggestion of Lowell's
playfulness. Of course every one may compete in the search for the
Grail, and the "time subsequent to King Arthur's reign" includes the
present time. The Romance of King Arthur is the _Morte Darthur_ of Sir
Thomas Malory. Lowell's specific indebtedness to the medieval romances
extended only to the use of the symbol of consecration to some noble
purpose in the search for the Grail, and to the name of his hero. It
is a free version of older French romances belonging to the Arthurian
cycle. _Sir Launfal_ is the title of a poem written by Sir Thomas
Chestre in the reign of Henry VI, which may be found in Ritson's
_Ancient English Metrical Romances_. There is nothing suggestive of
Lowell's poem except the quality of generosity in the hero, who--

"gaf gyftys largelyche,
Gold and sylver; and clodes ryche,
To squyer and to knight."

One of Lowell's earlier poems, _The Search_, contains the germ of _The