Glossing Tennyson: The Platypus Reads Part XCV

    Then went Sir Bedivere the second time
Across the ridge, and paced beside the mere,
Counting the dewy pebbles, fixed in thought;
But when he saw the wonder of the hilt,
How curiously and strangely chased, he smote
His palms together, and he cried aloud:

   'And if indeed I cast the brand away,
Surely a precious thing, one worthy note,
Should thus be lost for ever from the earth,
Which might have pleased the eyes of many men.

Arthur as a “saint” should have appropriate holy relics, but every relic risks becoming an idol.  Arthur’s mission was to point men to God, not thrill them with baubles, however costly.  As all the old certainties are upset, Bedivere is clutching at straws.  The irony is that Arthur is not even dead.

What good should follow this, if this were done?
What harm, undone? Deep harm to disobey,
Seeing obedience is the bond of rule.
Were it well to obey then, if a king demand
An act unprofitable, against himself?
The King is sick, and knows not what he does.

Tennyson leads us through a very creditable process of rationalization.  As a cynical Heinlein once quipped: “Man is not a rational but a rationalizing animal.”

What record, or what relic of my lord
Should be to aftertime, but empty breath
And rumours of a doubt? But were this kept,
Stored in some treasure-house of mighty kings,
Some one might show it at a joust of arms,
Saying, "King Arthur's sword, Excalibur,
Wrought by the lonely maiden of the Lake.
Nine years she wrought it, sitting in the deeps
Upon the hidden bases of the hills."
So might some old man speak in the aftertime
To all the people, winning reverence.
But now much honour and much fame were lost.'

Bedivere’s temptation now becomes clear: to disobey Arthur for the sake of Arthur’s honor.  This is a frequent motif in the gospels.  James and John wish to call down thunder when a village rejects Jesus’ teaching.  Peter strikes off the High Priest’s servant’s ear when they come to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane.  In each case, Jesus rebukes his disciples.  They are zealous for Christ’s glory, but not for Christ.  Like Peter, James, and John, Bedivere is one of Arthur’s most ardent disciples.  In the coming of Arthur, he is swift to defend his sovereign’s legitimacy: “Then Bedivere, the first of all his knights/Knighted by Arthur at his crowning, spake-/For bold in heart and act and word was he,/Whenever slander breathed against the King-“.  Now Bedivere faces a different test to his loyalty: can he separate his obedience to Arthur the man from his zeal for Arthur the legend?  The passage regarding the forging of Excalibur is also a tour de force of Romantic poetry.  These heart-piercing images will continue as the poem reaches its tragic conclusion. 

   So spake he, clouded with his own conceit,
And hid Excalibur the second time,
And so strode back slow to the wounded King.

Bedivere’s “clouded conceit” parallels the mist which covered the battle.  He is running the risk of becoming confused like the traitor knights.

   Then spoke King Arthur, breathing heavily:
'What is it thou hast seen? or what hast heard?'

The king’s heavy breathing shows us that he is dying and thus adds a sense of urgency.

   And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:
'I heard the water lapping on the crag,
And the long ripple washing in the reeds.'

   To whom replied King Arthur, much in wrath:
'Ah, miserable and unkind, untrue,
Unknightly, traitor-hearted! Woe is me!
Authority forgets a dying king,
Laid widowed of the power in his eye
That bowed the will. I see thee what thou art,
For thou, the latest-left of all my knights,
In whom should meet the offices of all,
Thou wouldst betray me for the precious hilt;
Either from lust of gold, or like a girl
Valuing the giddy pleasure of the eyes.
Yet, for a man may fail in duty twice,
And the third time may prosper, get thee hence:
But, if thou spare to fling Excalibur,
I will arise and slay thee with my hands.'

Arthur seems to misunderstand Bedivere’s motivation here, or perhaps he understands it all too well and is revealing it for the shallow thing it is.  Either way, his ability to command and reproach remains intact.  His threat to slay Bedivere as a judicial act comes across as completely creditable despite the king’s wounds.  Even in defeat, Arthur remains a powerful and commanding figure.  The offer of a third chance has biblical resonance.  Simon Peter denied Christ three times.  We also see again that since Arthur knows his place, he is able to remind Bedivere of his and even in death serve as a force for order.  It is another reminder that Arthur serves as the “Reason” of the body politic of Camelot.

   Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran,
And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged
Among the bulrush beds, and clutched the sword,
And strongly wheeled and threw it. The great brand
Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon,
And flashing round and round, and whirled in an arch,
Shot like a streamer of the northern morn,
Seen where the moving isles of winter shock
By night, with noises of the Northern Sea.
So flashed and fell the brand Excalibur:
But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
And caught him by the hilt, and brandished him
Three times, and drew him under in the mere.
And lightly went the other to the King.

The emphasis on Northern imagery in the casting away of Excalibur serves as a metaphor for death.  Soon Arthur, like his famous sword, will be “cast” back into the sea from where he purportedly came.  The white arm is presumably that of the Lady of the Lake.  Her appearance serves as the prophesied sign that Bedivere has acted rightly.  We can see this as parallel to the cock-crow that Jesus foretold would be the sign of Peter’s denial.  Like Arthur, Bedivere stands on the far side of the Crucifixion and thus receives help that Peter lacked (remember that Peter was not allowed to speak with Christ during the course of his own temptation) allowing him to succeed on the third attempt where the Apostle failed.  Tennyson draws our attention in his own gloss to “And flashing round and round, and whirl’d in an arch” which mimics the sound of the sword spinning through the air.

   Then spoke King Arthur, drawing thicker breath:
'Now see I by thine eyes that this is done.
Speak out: what is it thou hast heard, or seen?'

   And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:
'Sir King, I closed mine eyelids, lest the gems
Should blind my purpose, for I never saw,
Nor shall see, here or elsewhere, till I die,
Not though I live three lives of mortal men,
So great a miracle as yonder hilt.
Then with both hands I flung him, wheeling him;
But when I looked again, behold an arm,
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
That caught him by the hilt, and brandished him
Three times, and drew him under in the mere.'

Bedivere’s confession seems to imply that he still does not understand the purpose of Arthur’s command, but the relationship between king and subject is set right based on his obedience.  This matches Arthur’s submission to the unfathomable will of God in Camelot’s overthrow.  It is a picture of Faith in an age of doubt: we act based on trust in the rightness of God’s decrees even when they seem inscrutable or unclear.