Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/545

* TRIST. 475 TRISTRAM. dalffo was sisriod Folnuarv 2, 1S4R, nnd was ratified by the United States Senate. TRIS'TAN. See Tristram. TRISTAN DA CUNHA, tristan' da koon'ya. A group of three small volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, situated in .37° 6' south latitude, 12° 1' vest longitude, 1500 miles south-southwest of Saint Helena, and nearly mid- way between Cape Town and Buenos Ayres (Map: World, Eastern Hemisphere, N 19). Total area. 44 square miles. The largest and only inhabited island consists of an ex- tinct volcano 8.500 feet high. The climate is equable and healthful. The inhabitants numbered over 100 in 1S80, but only 64 in 1897. They are chieHv the descendants of the British soldiers stationed there during Napoleon's cap- tivity at Saint Helena, and of settlers from whal- ing ships. They are supported by agriculture and have a considerable number of cattle. The islands were discovered in 150(i by the Portuguese navigator Tristan da Cunha. and were taken by Great Britain in 181G. TRIS'TIA (Lat., laments). Five books of short jjoems, in the elegiac metre, written bj' Ovid between 9 and 12 a.d. during his banish- ment at Tomi. The poems are letters to friends at home, recalling his former life, describing his present surroundings, and appealing for a miti- gation of his harsh lot. TRIS'TRAM, TRISTREM, or TRISTAN. The hero of a Welsh or Armorican romance origi- nally distinct from the Arthurian cycle, but early incorporated with it. Tristram was the son of Roland of Ermonie by Blanchofleur. sister to King Mark of Cornwall. His father slain, his mother dead of grief (which she expressed in the child's very name), Tristram was reared by a faithful steward. At the age of fifteen he drifted to the Court of his uncle. King Mark, whose favor he won by his skill in the chase and in minstrelsy. He slew in mortal combat ^Moraunt, brother of the Queen of Ireland, who had come to demand tribute from King Mark. After suffering for three years from severe wounds, he sailed to Ire- land, where they were healed by Iseult (vari- ously spelled ), daughter of the Queen. On his return to Cornwall, Tristram told his uncle of the marvelous beauty of the Irish princess, and was sent back to Ireland to ask her hand in marriage for the King. On the voyage from Ireland to Cornwall. Tristram and Iseult drank of a love- potion intended for King Mark and ever after loved each other. Iseult married JIark, but con- trived, with the aid of her clever maid, to have many secret interviews with Tristram. .t length the lovers were discovered, and Tristram fled to Wales, and later to Brittany, where he married another Iseult. the White-handed, daughter to Duke Florentine: but he never forgot Iseult of Ireland. Desperately wounded, he sent a messenger to Cornwall to summon her to heal him once more. He directed the messenger to hoist a white sail on the return voyage if the princess were on board; if not, a black sail. The Queen of Cornwall hastened to save her lover. As the vessel neared the shores of Brittany. Iseult of the White Hand saw the white sail; but, fired with jealous hate for her rival, she told her husband that the sail was black. Tristram sank back and died. Iseult ox Ireland fell prostrate Vol. XI.k.— 31. over the body of Tristram and died of a broken heart. King Mark subsequently learned the story of the love-])otion, and buried the lovers in one grave, planting over Iseult a rose and over Tristram a vine, growing so intertwined that no one could sep;iratfi them. This passionate story, having some basis in Celtic myth, got into literature in the twelfth century and spread through Western Europe. It may be traced back to a poem, now existing only in fragments, by an Anglo-Norman trouvSre named Bf-roul (about 1150). A little later than this (about 1100), the theme was treated by Chrestien de Troves (q.v.) in a poem now lost. So far as has been determined, the source of the many later Tristranis is a very prolix poem by an . gIo-Norman named Thomas (about 1170). Before the close of the twelfth ccnturj- Tristram and Iseult were among the favorite themes of the troubadours. From the French the romance passed into the German Tristrant (about 1175) by Eilhard of Oberge and the Tristaxt. und Isolde (between 1200 and 1225) by Gottfried of Strass- burg. Gottfried's poem, extending to 19,573 lines, is the most beautiful of all early versions. Left incomplete, it was continued by Ulric of Tiir- heim and by Henr_y of Freiburg. The great popu- larity of the romance in Germany is further at- tested by numerous chapbooks. To the year 1220 belongs a Scandinavian version, Tristram Saga ok Isondar, and this in turn was put into Ice- landic prose. The earliest extant English version is known as Sir Tristrem. The only e.xtant manu- script belongs to the middle of the fifteenth cen- tury. It was composed in the last part of the thirteenth centui-y, and has been ascribed to Thomas the Rhymer (q.v.). In 1469 was pub- lished at Rouen an immense prose Tristram in French, which was translated into German, Spanish, and Italian. It was also used by Sir Thomas Malory (q.v.) for his ilorte D'.lrthur (1485). In the nineteenth century Tristram and Iseult became a favorite theme in England and Germany. Following Malory, Tennyson wove the story into the Idijlls of the King ("The Last Tournament"). In his noble Tristram and Iseult, Matthew Arnold awakened pity for Iseult of Brit- tany. But Swinburne in his Tristram of Lyon- esse best expressed the tremendous passion of the mediaeval tale. The theme was also treated by Karl Immermann (1841), and splendidly by Wagner in his operatic poem Tristan und Isolde (1859). Consult the English Sir Tristrem as edited by G. P. McNeill for the "Scottish Text Society" (Edinburgh, 1886), and by E. Kiilbing in Die nordische und die englische VersJon. der Tristansage (Heilbronn, 1878-82) ; also Golther, Die Sage ron Tristan nnd Isolde (Munich, 1887). A charming version of the Tristram story is that of J. B4dier. Le roman de Tristan et Isent (5th ed., Paris. 1902). TRISTRAM, Henry Baker (1822—). An English clergy-man. traveler, and author, born at Eglingham, Northumberland. He graduated at Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1844. and in 1880 became rural dean of Durham. He traveled ex- tensively in biblical lands and elsewhere, and published, among otlier works: The Great Sahara (1860); Land of Israel (1865; 2d ed. 1882); Natural History of the Bible (1867; 5th ed. 1880) ; Bible Places, or Topographif of the Boh) Land (1872-97); Land of iloab (1873; 2d ed.