The Irony of “The protector alike of high and lowly”
Merlin states, “Not every king would care to start his reign with the wholesome massacre of children. This is what they whisper of Arthur, even though in other ways he is held up as the type itself of the noble ruler, the protector alike of high and lowly.” Regarding the Arthur as an exemplary protector is ironic considering that he is partly liable for innocent children’s deaths. If he were an absolute protector, he would not have permitted the children to pay for his incestuous engagements. His being called a protector depicts the society’s hypocrisy which encourages people to ignore the depravities of powerful individuals.
The Irony of Arthur “he wanted his own child killed”
Merlin expounds, “So, although a witch plotted the massacre and another king gave the order for it, and though I myself tried to shoulder the blame murmur still persist, that in the first year of his reign, Arthur the high King had his troops seek out and destroy some score of newly-born babies in the hope of catching in that bloody net one single boy-child, his bastard by incest with his half- sister Morgause…it is true that he wanted his own child killed. So it is just that some of the blame should rest on him: just, too, that some of it should rest on him.” Fatherhood would ordinarily excite a man. However, Arthur’s hatred for his child indicates that he regards the child as a source of his disgrace, considering his blood relationship with the mother. Desiring to have the child dead is a strategy which Arthur anticipates would help him to avoid the backlash and castigation which will ensue once it is divulged his participation in incest. Moreover, Arthur himself is an illegitimate child; thus, he would have been expected to be merciful to his ‘bastard son.’
