Page:Adams - Essays in Modernity.djvu/40

28 the hero of 'In Memoriam,' 'the man' the poet 'held as half divine,' had something to do with this presentment of the  'flos regum,' and in 'dedicating, in consecrating, with tears,' these idylls to the memory of the late lamented Prince Consort, we are told that 'he held them dear, perchance as finding there unconsciously some image of himself.' All this helps us to realise the better what Lord Tennyson means by a modern gentleman. But there can be little doubt on the subject: his conception is too clearly marked. From the very first, where Arthur is introduced as a candidate for matrimony, he portrays himself with a supreme ingenuousness. Leodogran, the King of Cameliard, had but one child, a daughter—

Arthur, with a touching modesty, promptly recognises his predestined bride. For,' says he,

'Saving I be joined To her that is the fairest under heaven, I seem as nothing in the mighty world, And cannot work my will, nor work my work, Wholly, or make myself in mine own realm Victor and lord.'

Accordingly, he procures the lady, assuring her that 'her doom is his,' and that 'let chance what will, he loves her to the death.' In the same heroic and unegotistic spirit, and in almost the same terms, he addresses the man who he feels is 'the mightiest of