Matching Moods.

Idylls of the King is not an easy read. The problem is that clauses frequently crop up in unfamiliar places – presumably to suit the metrical exigencies of the blank verse format – and it can get a bit confusing. The need to re-read about every third line is a bit of a bloody nuisance, to put it simply. But I’m soldiering on. I’ve now got to the point in the Quest for the Holy Grail where the distraught, dishevelled and disheartened knights (substitute bewitched, bothered and bewildered if you like) are back in the all-but-destroyed Camelot, pouring out their tales of woe.

The one that most interested me was Lancelot’s, since it was all about the symptoms and consequences of his descent into madness. It was intriguingly familiar. It even had lions in it…