The Strayed Reveller

Introdu6tion.
of Vivien's enchantment of Merlin is admirably told,
but, unlike the similar episode of the river in " Sohrab
and Rustum," is a mere ornament with no vital relation
to the poem.
" Tristram and Iseult" had been published in 1852
along with " Empedocles on Etna," which failed to
re-appear in the 1853 volume. Arnold explains its
withdrawal by saying that he had come to look upon
this powerful representation of the discouragement of a
philosopher compelled to surrender the healthy objectivity
of the early Greeks as over-morbid and
monotonously painful. " Everything is to be endured,
nothing is to be done." There is truth in the self
criticism, but, after all, there seems no reason why a
poet may not paint a dejected mood in a long soliloquy,
especially when this is broken by such exquisite lyrics as
the songs of Callicles, which are among the loveliest
examples in our language of description blent with
lyrical emotion. The poem was ultimately restored to
a place in the author's works at the intercession of
Robert Browning.
Arnold's poems of later date than 1853, having no
place in this edition, do not, strictly speaking, concern
us; but the two most important cannot well be
omitted from any general review of his work, especially
as the principal, " Balder Dead," has received much
less praise than it deserves. It is astonishing to find
so competent a critic as Mr. T. H. \\'ard, and one who
might so easily have been forgiven for a partial judgment,
apparently doubting whether " Balder Dead "
"has a distinct value of its own." It seems to us
impossible to allow any considerable interval between
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