105-106. NINE YEARS--HILLS. Hallam, Lord Tennyson, in the Memoir, quotes
Fitzgerald's short account of a row on Lake Windermere with the poet;
"'Resting on our oars one calm day on Windermere, whither we had gone for
a week from dear Spedding's (Mirehouse), at the end of May, 1835; resting
on our oars, and looking into the lake quite unruffled and clear, Alfred
quoted from the lines he had lately read us from the MS. of _Morte
d'Arthur_ about the lonely lady of the lake and Excalibur:

"Nine years she wrought it, sitting in the deeps,
Under the hidden bases of the hills.

"--Not bad, that. Fitz, is it?

"This kind of remark he would make when rendering his own or others'
poetry when he came to lines that he particularly admired from no vanity
but from a pure feeling of artistic pleasure." (Vol. I. pp. 152-153).

112. Note the slowness of the movement expressed in the rhythm of this
line, and compare with it line 168. Contrast the swiftness and energy
expressed in ll. 133-136.

121. AUTHORITY--KING. This line has been described as Shakespearian.
Its strength is derived from the force of the metaphorical
personification. The boldness of the poetical construction is carried
into the metaphor in the next line.

129. FOR A MAN. Because a man.

132. AND SLAY THEE WITH MY HANDS. Compare Malory: "And but if thou do
now as I bid thee, if ever I may see thee, I shall slay thee with mine