29 October 2026
(3 June 2016) Last time, in our reading of Tennyson’s “Morte D’Arthur,” Arthur saw through Bedivere’s subterfuge when the latter recounted what happened after casting the sword into the lake; this week, Bedivere goes the second time, with similar rationalizations:
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 forever from the earth,
Which might have pleased the eyes of many men.
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.
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.”
So spake he, clouded with his own conceit,
And hid Excalibur the second time,
And so strode back slow to the wounded King.
Notice that the second stanza above is a direct quotation of Bedivere’s words to himself, his second attempt to justify disobeying the king, and it begins, again, as Bedivere gazes at the sword, bewitched by its beauty a second time. He argues with himself, saying Arthur is wounded and not in his right mind, so obedience to his command would be folly, moving to the honor he reasons he will receive in the future should he keep and preserve the sword as a show piece. Next time, we will again see that Arthur is not fooled, for he knows, as Bedivere does not, what will happen when Excalibur is returned to the Lady of the Lake. Good reading!
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