Arthur Hughes. The Rift within the Lute. 1861-62. Oil on canvas. H 52 x W 92 cm. Collection and photo credit: Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery. Accession no. 1949.125.23, bequeathed by Emily and Gordon Bottomley, 1949. Image downloaded by George P. Landow with text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee.
Briefly described as "a moral subject but treated symbolically with the doomed lute and verses by Tennyson" (Morris 58), this depiction of a sorrowing woman with her tuneless lute, and with some picked and some crushed bluebells, conveys a tale of lost love. The relevant verses by Tennyson come from his poem in Idylls of the King, "Merlin and Vivien":
In Love, if Love be Love, if Love be ours,
Faith and unfaith can ne’er be equal powers:
Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.
It is the little rift within the lute,
That by and by will make the music mute,
And ever widening slowly silence all.
The little rift within the lover’s lute,
Or little pitted speck in garner’d fruit,
That rotting inward slowly moulders all.
It is not worth the keeping: let it go:
But shall it? answer, darling, answer, no.
And trust me not at all or all in all.
There seems to be little hope of a happy resolution here, especially since a fox (almost blended into the woodland scenery) can be seen running away in the background. It is as if nature, for all its beauty and desirability, contains a threat to its own promise.
Links to Related Material
- The fox in the background
- Merlin and Vivien (another work inspired by the poem, a bas relief by Frank Lynn Jenkins and Gerald Moira)
- Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King
Bibliography
Morris, Edward. Public Collections in North-West England: A History and Guide. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2001.
The Rift within the Lute." Art UK. Web. 25 April 2023.
Created 25 April 2023