Such ideals are different from the Rugby ones, which Tennyson represents in literature. Attempts have been made to defend the Idylls from the lack of epic interest by claiming them as an allegory of the struggle of man's soul through life. But the defence is really a verdict against the poet. The medium that carries the allegory must be of interest on its own account, as in the Faerie Queene, Pilgrim's Progress, Faust, or Dr. Jekyll, or else where is the advantage of the allegorical mode of treatment?
It is scarcely denied that Tennyson transformed the tone of his originals, of the Mabinogion and the Morte d'Arthur. The unworthy gibe that the Morte d'Arthur of Tennyson was a Morte d'Albert was the more unfair, as the Morte d'Arthur is the least unsuccessful of the series, and departs least from the original. But the whole conception of Guinevere, and still more of Vivien, was that of the nineteenth-century English gentleman, and something in the spirit of Mr. Podsnap. The control of passion, which is so characteristic a part of the Rugby ideal, has its noble side, but it has a narrowing effect on the artist when dealing with passionate subjects. Along with it goes a want of humour, conspicuous alike in Tennyson and in Wordsworth. The Northern Farmer is almost the sole exception
