Maud was
threatened with a broadside from "that pompholygous, broad-blown
Apollodorus, the gifted X." People who have read Aytoun's diverting
Firmilian, where Apollodorus plays his part, and who remember "gifted
Gilfillan" in Waverley, know who the gifted X. was. But X. was no
great authority south of Tay.
Despite the almost unanimous condemnation by public critics, the
success of Maud enabled Tennyson to buy Farringford, so he must have
been better appreciated and understood by the world than by the
reviewers.
In February 1850 Tennyson returned to his old Arthurian themes, "the
only big thing not done," for Milton had merely glanced at Arthur,
Dryden did not
"Raise the Table Round again,"
and Blackmore has never been reckoned adequate. Vivien was first
composed as Merlin and Nimue, and then Geraint and Enid was adapted
from the Mabinogion, the Welsh collection of Marchen and legends,
things of widely different ages, now rather Celtic, or Brythonic, now
amplifications made under the influence of mediaeval French romance.
Enid was finished in Wales in August, and Tennyson learned Welsh
enough to be able to read the Mabinogion, which is much more of Welsh
than many Arthurian critics possess. The two first Idylls were
privately printed in the summer of 1857, being very rare and much
desired of collectors in this embryonic shape. In July Guinevere was
begun, in the middle, with Arthur's valedictory address to his erring
consort.
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