Princess, The: A Medley

Princess, The: A Medley, a poem by Tennyson, published 1847. Some of the well-known lyrics (‘The splendour falls’, ‘Ask me no more: the moon may draw the sea’) were added in the third edition of 1850, but others, including ‘Tears, idle tears’ (composed in 1834 at Tintern) and ‘Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white’ were included in the first.

A prince has been betrothed since childhood to Princess Ida, daughter of neighbouring King Gama. She becomes a devotee of women's rights, abjures marriage, and founds a university. The prince and two companions, Cyril and Florian, gain admission to the university dressed as women, and are detected by the two tutors, Lady Psyche and Lady Blanche, who from different motives conceal their knowledge. The deceit is presently detected by Ida, but not before the prince has had occasion to rescue her from drowning. Her determination is unshaken, and a combat ensues, between fifty warriors led by the prince and fifty led by Gama's son, during which the three comrades are wounded. The university is turned into a hospital, the prince urges his suit, and he wins Ida, envisaging a future in which ‘The man [may] be more of woman, she of man’. It formed the basis of the satirical Gilbert and Sullivan opera Princess Ida.