THE LADY OF SHALOTT. A river flows gently through fields of tall, waving grain; beside it, winds a road, leading to the manytowered city, which can be faintly seen in the distance. In the middle of the stream, lies a little island encircled by water-lilies, from which rises an old castle with its massive walls. Lovely flowers cover the island, but the castle glooms' by itself apart in silent loneliness. Along the margin of the river, heavy barges drag their slow length, and silken-sailed shallops flit merrily by on their way to the city below; but no sign of life comes from the island. No knight or lady looks forth from the casement or rides over the drawbridge. "Life and thought have gone away Side by side." Do you like the picture, and do you feel the mystery that pervades it? If you do, let me explain to you its meaning. The "many-towered city" of which we can just catch a glimpse is the famous city of Camelot, the 1Glooms; looks dark. home of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere and all the brave Knights of the Round Table; while the silent isle, in its circlet of lilies, is the fairy Island of Shalott. The legend runs that in the old gray castle there lived a beautiful lady. She had never been seen by the people as they journeyed past the island; and they would not have believed in her existence, had there not sometimes been heard, in the early morning or evening, a faint, sweet song echoing from the river. "Tis the fairy Lady of Shalott," they would whisper; and they listened eagerly lest they should lose the melodious strains. They did not know that the mysterious lady was compelled, by some magic power, always to remain in the castle. Year after ́ year went by, but there she dwelt, always at work and always young and beautiful. "There she weaves by night and day A magic web with colors gay. She has heard a whisper say, A curse is on her if she stay To look down to Camelot. She knows not what the curse may be, And so she weaveth steadily, And little other care hath she, The Lady of Shalott." But the outside world was not entirely closed to her view; for, before her, hung a mirror in which were reflected all the sights that moved to and fro beneath her window. All day long and all night long, she watched the flickering shadows as they came and went. "Sometimes a troop of damsels glad, Or long-haired page1 in crimson clad, And sometimes thro' the mirror blue, The knights come riding two and two; The Lady of Shalott." Often in the silent night, she would see a funeral train with its plumes and lights and music on its way to Camelot; and sometimes at early evening, when the moon casts its silver radiance all around, there would flash into her mirror the moving forms of two happy young lovers. She was quite content as she sat there, steadily, "Abbot: the governor of a church or abbey. |