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Modred: A Fragment

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Robinson, Edwin Arlington. Modred: A Fragment. New York, New Haven, Princeton: Edmond Byrne Hackett, The Brick Row Bookshop, 1929. (No. 11 of 250 copies signed by Robinson.)

Robinson also published separately in a limited edition Modred, a fragment deleted from Lancelot—perhaps for narrative concision or perhaps because the extended depiction of the villain in action using a knight's virtues against him clashed with the theme of Lancelot. This poem is a dramatic scene in which Modred manipulates Colgrevance so that he will help with the unsavory work of trapping Lancelot and the queen. Modred's ability to control the basically noble knight by using his virtues of fearlessness and sense of duty against him makes Modred a fascinatingly dangerous and despicable villain.

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