Merlin

Merlin, blank‐verse dramatic narrative by E.A. Robinson, published in 1917. It belongs with Lancelot and Tristram in the author's Arthurian trilogy.

The wizard Merlin abandons worldly power to spend an idyllic decade with his mistress, Vivian, at Broceliande, in Brittany. At Camelot, meanwhile, Arthur is troubled by the schemes of his illegitimate son Modred, and by the infidelity of Guinevere with his trusted knight Lancelot. His rule is threatened by civil strife, and he summons Merlin to him, chiding him for having “gone down smiling to the smaller life,” and asking him to correct the evils of the time. Merlin replies that he can prophesy but not control events, and that he can only advise Arthur to consider his kingdom his queen, since Guinevere is fated to love Lancelot, while England's future depends on Arthur. Still doubting and grieving, the king allows Merlin to return to Broceliande, but there the wizard and his mistress find their blissful preoccupation with each other vanished. He acknowledges that he has “seen too far” and “known too much,” and they sadly part. Merlin returns to Camelot, “the stricken city” that he cannot save. With Dagonet, the fool who is so bitterly wise, he contemplates the ruin of the kingdom, and they find “a groping way Down through the gloom together.”