Something of the same kind is true of _Maud_, which is a novel told in dramatically varied verse.

The hero is morbid, his social satire peevish, and a story which could have been completely redeemed by the ending (the death of the hero), which artistic fitness demands, is of value for us now through its three amazing songs, in which the lyric genius of Tennyson reached its finest flower.

It cannot be denied, either, that he failed--though magnificently--in the _Idylls of the King_.

The odds were heavily against him in the choice of a subject.

Arthur is at once too legendary and too shadowy for an epic hero, and nothing but the treatment that Milton gave to Satan (i.e.flat substitution of the legendary person by a newly created character) could fit him for the place.