'Yet think not that I come to urge thy crimes,
I did not come to curse thee, Guinevere,
I, whose vast pity almost makes me die
To see thee, laying there thy golden head,
My pride in happier summers, at my feet.

The wrath which forced my thoughts on that fierce law,
The doom of treason and the flaming death,

(When first I learnt thee hidden here) is past.

The pang-which while I weigh'd thy heart with one
Too wholly true to dream untruth in thee,
Made my tears burn-is also past, in part.
And all is past, the sin is sinn'd, and I,
Lo! I forgive thee, as Eternal God

Forgives do thou for thine own soul the rest.
But how to take last leave of all I loved?
O golden hair, with which I used to play
Not knowing! O imperial-moulded form,
And beauty such as never woman wore,
Until it came a kingdom's curse with thee-
I cannot touch thy lips, they are not mine,

But Lancelot's: nay, they never were the King's.

I cannot take thy hand; that too is flesh,

And in the flesh thou hast sinn'd; and mine own flesh, Here looking down on thine polluted, cries

"I loathe thee:" yet not less, O Guinevere,

For I was ever virgin save for thee,

My love thro' flesh hath wrought into my life

So far, that my doom is, I love thee still.
Let no man dream but that I love thee still.
Perchance, and so thou purify thy soul,
And so thou lean on our fair father Christ,
Hereafter in that world where all are pure
We two may meet before high God, and thou
Wilt spring to me, and claim me thine, and know
I am thine husband-not a smaller soul,
Nor Lancelot, nor another. Leave me that,
I charge thee, my last hope. Now must I hence.
Thro' the thick night I hear the trumpet blow:
They summon me their King to lead mine hosts
Far down to that great battle in the west,
Where I must strike against my sister's son,

Leagued with the lords of the White Horse and knights
Once mine, and strike him dead, and meet myself

Death, or I know not what mysterious doom.

And thou remaining here wilt learn the event;
But hither shall I never come again,

Never lie by thy side, see thee no more,
Farewell!'

"And while she grovell'd at his feet,
She felt the King's breath wander o'er her neck,
And, in the darkness o'er her fallen head,
Perceived the waving of his hands that blest.

Then, listening till those armed steps were gone, Rose the pale Queen, and in her anguish found

The casement: 'peradventure' so she thought,
'If I might see his face, and not be seen.'
And lo, he sat on horseback at the door!
And near him the sad nuns with each a light
Stood, and he gave them charge about the Queen,
To guard and foster her for evermore.

And while he spake to these his helm was lower'd,
To which for crest the golden dragon clung
Of Britain; so she did not see the face,
Which then was as an angel's, but she saw,
Wet with the mists and smitten by the lights,
The Dragon of the great Pendragonship
Blaze, making all the night a steam of fire.
And even then he turn'd; and more and more
The moony vapour rolling round the King,
Who seem'd the phantom of a Giant in it,
Enwound him fold by fold, and made him gray
And grayer, till himself became as mist

Before her, moving ghostlike to his doom."

It will be observed that throughout this scene Mr. Tennyson seems to treat the three Guineveres as one only. The happiest portion of Arthur's life, as well as the most brilliant aspects of his Court and Round Table, are to be found during the queenship of the second Guinevere-a circumstance that would tend to remodel the king's address in the Idyll. We have no good opinion of any part of the third queen's life save its penitential close. The old distich tersely touches her character,

"Gwenhwyvar, merch Gogyrvan Gawr,
Drwg yn vechan, gwaeth yn vawr!"

Throughout all the Idylls, and especially in the last, is apparent a high appreciation of Arthur's character, for which, in the interest of truth and of nationality, we cordially thank Mr. Tennyson. Yet the somewhat indefinite manner in which the hero's conduct is glanced at will prevent the full comprehension of him in the popular mind. And we are not sure that the epithet "blameless," applied to him, is itself blameless, or well chosen. We maintain that Arthur should be considered not as a demi-god, but as a hero lifted, it is true, above his fellows in virtue, ability, and valour, yet partaking of their failings, weaknesses, and sorrows. The solemn epic of humanity, as it is the dearest to human sympathies, is the highest that human genius can frame. We recur, therefore, to the leading purpose of this notice, and solicit from Mr. Tennyson a poem of greater expansion in design and detail-a heroic poem, worthy to the fullest extent of his hero, and of himself. Let him thus raise a monument to the glory at once of the sixth and the nineteenth centuries, solid and self-sustained, commanding the love and admiration of all who are called Britons, which may not be given for the mere subordinate enrichments of episode and allusion, even though these be set in a Polyolbion, or a Faery Queen. We hail the present volume as bringing to him a fair accession of fame, and to us of good poetry, in a time when so much

of spurious is poured from a too facile press. But while confessing that this arrow has well reached the mark assigned to it, we demand from his richly stored quiver another and a mightier shaft, to be despatched on a loftier mission, and directed with a nobler aim.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL. Published under the Direction of the Central Committee of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. June, 1859.

The present Number of this valuable Journal is highly interesting, not only in respect of the original articles it contains, but also with regard to the part appropriated to the report of the various meetings of the Institute. From the latter portion we learn that, at one of the recent meetings, Mr. W. W. E. Wynne, M.P., exhibited a cross and crucifix, found last year at Llanaber Church, in Merionethshire; and a thurible, apparently of the thirteenth century, found last year, near Corwen Church, in the same county. On the occasion of their exhibition, Mr. Wynne made the following observations, which we have much pleasure in transferring to our pages:

"Llanaber is unquestionably the most interesting church in North Wales; in magnificence it certainly does not vie with the large, though very late churches of Mold, Gresford, and Wrexham, but, independently of its great beauty, it has some very peculiar features, as has been suggested by Mr. Freeman, either native Welsh, or imported from Ireland. These were described in a very interesting account of the church by that gentleman in one of the recent volumes of the Archæologia Cambrensis, but the representation of the roof as there given is incorrect. It is not the good Early English roof of the nave, but that of the chancel, of probably much later date, and of a type, though good, very common in the North Wales churches. I will not dwell upon the generally admirable restorations of Llanaber Church, but proceed to give an account of the finding of this crucifix. At the east end of the south aisle was a rude mass of rubble masonry, which evidently had been the support of an altar-slab and frontal. This it was intended to preserve, but the workmen, when not watched, removed it. The cross was first found in the débris of this altar, and immediately afterwards the image. It seems doubtful, however, whether they belong to each other. The cross measures 74 inches in length. I should mention that the clerestory windows of Llanaber, early as they appear to be, are insertions subsequent to the erection of the church. The principals of the roof come down immediately over the windows, and the end of each principal is cut off horizontally. Upon removing the plaster underneath the windows, in a line immediately below each principal, a square hole was discovered, edged with worked freestone; into these, evidently, had originally been inserted a hammer beam or corbel, supporting the roof above.

"In reference to the suggestion of Mr. Freeman, in his description of Llanaber to which I refer, that there are features essentially Welsh or essentially Irish in the architecture of the church; I may mention, that about the middle of the thirteenth century, or a little later1 perhaps, a branch of the

1 A relic of considerable interest is to be seen placed against the north wall of Llanaber church. It is the stone inscribed CALIXTVS MONEDO REGI, stated to have been found at the Cerrig Duon (the Black Stones) on the sea-shore, about half a mile distant from the church. Mr. Westwood has taken a careful fac-simile of this inscription.

great Irish sept of the Geraldines, Osborn (or Osber) Fitz Gerald, more commonly called Wyddel-the Irishman-settled in the neighbourhood. In an original tax-roll preserved in the Chapter House at Westminster, of about

Bronze Cross and Early Crucifix Figure, found, in 1858, among the remains of an altar in Llanaber Church, Merionethshire.

(Two-thirds of the original size.)

the latter end of the reign of Edward I., those assessed at the highest sums in the parish of Llanaber, are 'Decanus,' doubtless the Rural Dean of Ardudwy, and Osborn.' Is it not probable that the latter person was founder of the church? If so, Irish features might reasonably be expected in its style.

CAMB. JOUR., 1859.

2 Y

"With regard to the Church of Corwen, near which the thurible was found, it has hardly an interesting feature. It is a rather large cruciform church, and probably its walls may be of Early English date, but the windows are of Late Perpendicular style, almost Debased, with the exception of an Early English triplet over the altar, now walled up. Corwen was the parish of the wild Glyndwr,' as he was sometimes styled. The bronze thurible found at Corwen

is here figured; it measures about 5 inches in height; diameter 3 inches. It stands upon three short feet. A portion of bronze chain of very skilful workmanship was found with it; having doubtless served, when entire, for swinging the thurible and raising the pierced cover. These relics have been assigned to the thirteenth, or the earlier part of the fourteenth century. The Very Rev. Dr. Rock remarked that the cross is an example of the description termed the Lorraine Cross, which it is customary to carry in certain services of the church according to the Paris rite. The curious little long-vested crucifix figure does not appear, as he considered, to have originally belonged to the cross."

The woodcuts are those that appeared in the Archaeological Journal. We owe their appearance in this Journal to the kindness of Mr. Albert Way, to whom we take this opportunity of returning our best thanks