the classical theme the tone is consistently modern, as may be gathered
from the philosophy of the speech of Pallas, and from the tender yielding
nature of Oenone. There is no hint here of the vindictive resentment
which the old classical writers, would have associated with her grief.
Similarly Tennyson has systematically modernised the Arthurian legend in
the _Idylls of the King_, giving us nineteenth century thoughts in a
conventional mediaeval setting.

A passage from Bayne, puts this question clearly: "Oenone wails
melodiously for Paris without the remotest suggestion of fierceness or
revengeful wrath. She does not upbraid him for having preferred to her
the fairest and most loving wife in Greece, but wonders how any one could
love him better than she does. A Greek poet would have used his whole
power of expression to instil bitterness into her resentful words. The
classic legend, instead of representing Oenone as forgiving Paris, makes
her nurse her wrath throughout all the anguish and terror of the Trojan
War. At its end, her Paris comes back to her. Deprived of Helen, a
broken and baffled man, he returns from the ruins of his native Troy, and
entreats Oenone to heal him of a wound, which, unless she lends her aid,
must be mortal. Oenone gnashes her teeth at him, refuses him the remedy,
and lets him die. In the end, no doubt, she falls into remorse, and
kills herself--this is quite in the spirit of classic legend; implacable
vengeance, soul-sickened with its own victory, dies in despair. That
forgiveness of injuries could be anything but weakness--that it could be
honourable, beautiful, brave--is an entirely Christian idea; and it is
because this idea, although it has not yet practically conquered the
world, although it has indeed but slightly modified the conduct of
nations, has nevertheless secured recognition as ethically and socially
right, that Tennyson could not hope to enlist the sympathy and admiration
of his readers for his Oenone, if he had cast her image in the tearless