SOURCE CITATION The woman knows that she must not look full upon Camelot, lest a curse befall her. She spends her nights and days on the isle weaving a "magic web." Instead of looking directly at the city, she weaves in front of a mirror that reflects that city, the highway, and the river leading to the city's gates. It is through this mirror that she sees life passing her by; she observes the red cloaks of market girls, a troop of damsels, an abbot, and a shepherd lad. Sometimes, she sees the knights passing in the mirror, but she does not have a knight of her own. She continues weaving and watching in the mirror, and at times, funerals pass through in the night. However, when a young newly-wedded couple drives by on a moon-lit night, she proclaims: "'I am half sick of shadows.'" What draws her away from her weaving and her mirror is the sight of the magnificent Sir Lancelot riding by on his steed. He is, to her eyes, a magical and irresistible visage:
Upon seeing him in her mirror, she springs away from her loom and web and walks three paces in the room, getting a glimpse of a water-lilly, Lancelot's helmet and plume, and Camelot. At that moment, the web flies away, the mirror breaks, and she knows that she is now cursed. She then becomes determined to leave her island prison, in
a rain storm that has come over the land. She goes down to the
shore of the stream, where she finds a boat and writes her name
on the front of it: The Lady of Shalott. She then sits
in the boat and stares, as if in a glassy-eyed trance, at Camelot,
recognizing all of her misadventure and bad luck. As it starts
to get dark, she unties the boat and lays down in it, letting
the stream bear her toward Camelot, her flowing white clothes
waving about her in the breeze. She sings her final song as the
boat winds its way through the fields and hills, and she dies
as the boat reaches the first house of the city. Her boat continues
to float through the city, carrying her body within it. The citizens
of Camelot come out to see her, reading her name on the boat,
but not recognizing her. The knights are all afraid, all except
Lancelot who says, "She has a lovely face; / God in his
mercy lend her grace, / The Lady of Shalott.'" |