Arthur Symons and his forgotten Tristan and Iseult
Studies in Cornish Language and Culture; 8

Arthur Symons (1865–1945) was a British poet, dramatist and literary critic. He is now best known for his critical work, The Symbolist Movement in Literature (1899), and his role as a poet within the Decadent Movement. This volume makes a reassessment of Symons’ work and its relationship to Cornwall and Anglo-Cornish Literature. Though usually recognized as being Welsh (he was born in Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire), Symons had Cornish parentage and was fully aware of his ethnicity. Not only did Symons write a number of distinctly Cornish poems, but he also completed a largely forgotten symbolist version of the legendary story of Tristan and Iseult (1917) in the form of an innovative stage drama. The text is presented here, alongside a new critical study of Symons’ contribution to Anglo-Cornish Literature. Leading Cornish literary critic Alan M, Kent examines the historicist context of Symons’ work, linking him to figures such as Oscar Wilde and W. B. Yeats; and also examines the psychological make-up of the writer. Symons suffered a mental breakdown during his life, which culminated in the production of his dramatic imagining of the legendary Celtic love triangle. Drawing on new evidence, Kent also demonstrates how the incorporation of a new character, Meriadoc, connects to his Cornish heritage, and perhaps even to the Cornish-language Medieval miracle play, Beunans Meriasek (The Life of St Meriasek). Kent argues that Symons is clearly an important figure in Cornish culture, meriting new academic treatment and consideration within the field of Cornish Studies.