of every day with him, as she could go in and out at will. Such is a summary of the story,[1] to which should be added that when Merlin had been missed at Arthur's court and several knights had gone in search of him, one of them, as he was passing through the forest of Brécilien, heard a groaning close by him; so he looked up and down, 'and nothinge he saugh, but as it hadde ben a smoke of myste in the eyre that myght not passe oute.' Merlin then, speaking out of the smoke of mist to the knight, explained to him how he came to be thus imprisoned, adding that no one should any more address him, save his mistress alone, since the knight would never be able to find the spot again.[2] Another story places the scene in another forest. Lastly, Merlin's prison is represented as a sepulchre of marvellous beauty, in which his leman has by magic arts entombed him alive,[3] a view partially reflected by old Welsh poetry in that it makes Merlin 'the man who speaks from the grave,' where he is consulted with deference and respect by Gwenᵭyᵭ, who is, moreover, not associated with his interment: they address one another as brother and sister,[4] which recalls the romance that represents the Lady of the Lake always a virgin, as regarded the enchanter, who doted on her charms. According to another legend, of Breton origin,[5]
- ↑ See the Early English Text Society's edition of Merlin (1865—1869), pp. 680-1; and Southey's Introd. to his ed. of Kyng Arthur, &c. (London, 1817), pp. xlv—xlviij, quoted in Guest's Mab. i. 216—218.
- ↑ E. Eng. T. Society's Merlin, pp. 692-3; Southey's Introd. p. xlviij.
- ↑ Southey's notes to his Kyng Arthur, ij. 463—468; Guest, i. 219.
- ↑ Red Book of Hergest, see Skene, ij. 234, and i. 462—478 et seq.
- ↑ Southey's Introd. p. xlviij, where he refers to Anne Plumptre as his authority. He meant, I find, her Narrative of a Three Years' Residence in France, &c. (London, 1810), iij. 187.
