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Sir Lancelot is a well-known figure from the world of Arthurian legend. Heroic in battle, Lancelot ranks high among the Knights of the Round Table. He is a close companion of King Arthur, yet he is also the secret lover of Arthur’s wife, Guinevere. But these familiar details from Arthurian lore aren’t particularly important for the events of “The Lady of Shalott.” Far more consequential is Sir Lancelot’s famed handsomeness. A notoriously attractive man, his presence in Tennyson’s poem serves primarily as a lure for the Lady of Shalott’s desire. Immediately upon appearing in her window, he captures her attention and excites her imagination. The four full stanzas devoted to describing him and his horse are, alone, enough to indicate how entrancing the Lady finds him, and Tennyson’s idealized description confirms his charismatic allure (lines 73–77):

A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley-sheaves,
The sun came dazzling thro’ the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
      Of bold Sir Lancelot.

Yet however much he fans the flames of the Lady’s desire, Lancelot ultimately remains aloof. After stopping to sing a song by the river, he continues to Camelot. And when he finally does lay eyes on the Lady when her boat delivers her corpse to court, he speaks with a gentle pity that falls tragically short of the Lady’s intense desire for him. 

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