What sang Sir Lancelot?

Subject: What sang Sir Lancelot?
From: Dan
Date: 06 May 99 - 12:39 PM

A line from Tennyson goes, "Tira lira, by the river, sang Sir Lancelot." Is this perchance a phrase from an actual song? Does anybody know it?

Subject: RE: What sang Sir Lancelot?
From: John Hindsill
Date: 06 May 99 - 10:14 PM

Darn, I got real excited when I saw this thread...hoped it was about Sir Lancelot the calypso singer of the 40s and 50s. Who cares about Arthurian legend**grin**?

Subject: RE: What sang Sir Lancelot?
From: T in Olkahoma
Date: 07 May 99 - 09:07 AM

I have always thought "tira lira" in Tennyson's Lady of Shalott to be generic song words, like "tra la la" or "hey nonino" rather than a reference to some specific song.

Subject: RE: What sang Sir Lancelot?
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Apr 05 - 01:49 AM

it's from shakepeare's a winter's tail. it is a representation of the note of the skylark, or of a similar sound uttered as an exclamation of delight or gaiety, according to the OED.

Subject: RE: What sang Sir Lancelot?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 27 Apr 05 - 02:38 AM

Guest is essentially correct. Shakespeare wrote it tirra-lyra. Fife-Geoffrey used it as the sound of a lark before him, as tirali (in the OED as Tiralee).
So, was Tennyson inferring that Sir Lancelot sounded like a lark?

("Toora-loora-loora, toora-loora-lay; just an Irish ....")