‘Lady of Shalott, The’
‘Lady of Shalott, The’,a poem by Tennyson , published 1832 , much revised for the 1842 Poems. Tennyson said of it ‘I met the story first in some Italian novelle: but the web, mirror, island etc. were my own. Indeed, I doubt whether I should ever have put it into that shape if I had then been aware of the Maid of Astolat in Mort Arthur.’ (Quoted by F. J. Furnivall , 1868 .) The story bears little resemblance to his subsequent treatment of it in ‘Lancelot and Elaine’ of the Idylls of the King . The Lady, like Mariana , was one of several enchanted or imprisoned maidens to capture the Victorian imagination, and was the subject of many illustrations, including a notable one by Holman Hunt .
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