The Stages in Tennyson's Composition of "Balin and Balan"

Abstract

UNLIKE MANY other poets Tennyson composed primarily in his head, writing down manuscript versions so close to final ones that any differences, while usually interesting, are seldom significant. Even to claim significance, therefore, a manuscript study of his work must take advantage of some special circumstance. Balin and Balan, one of his Idylls of King, was indeed special. Although Tennyson did not publish it until 1885, he had probably begun work on it almost fifteen years earlier. During some of this time, I feel, he simply did not know how to retell this story in Malory.1 First of all, to quote Clyde de L. Ryals, the last published, 'Balin and Balan' was Tennyson's last opportunity to weave threads of continuity to tie together episodic structure of Idylls.2 Second, although he wrote idyll ostensibly to introduce Vivien,3 she had no real part in Malory tale. Third, this tale contained a plethora of miracles, even for Malory. Tennyson, who had already boasted that every wonder in Idylls had a rational explanation,4 felt himself forced to transform these miracles into allegory, as he had in 1 872 idyll, Gareth and Lynette. Yet he hlad also been forced to complain that readers were pushing even allegory too hard.5 This combination of quandaries produced a great many manuscript drafts, which in turn present a great many different conceptions of poem. Students of Tennyson will probably recognize some of these versions. prose sketch The Dolorous Stroke was printed first in 1893 and then, far more conspicuouisly, in Hallam Tennyson's Memoir (II, 134141). two other most important variant passages were included in