"The Defence of Guenevere"

1. In what various senses is this poem a "defence of" Guenevere?
2. In the same year that Morris published this poem, Tennyson published the book of his long Arthurian poem, Idylls of the King, devoted to Guenevere. Tennyson depicted the Queen in the convent at Amesbury, in the midst of the civil wars occasioned by her affair with Launcelot and the treachery of Arthur's nephew, Modred; guilt-stricken and repentent, she is visited a final time in her life of seclusion by Arthur, who both chastises and forgives her. How does Morris's portrait of Guenevere differ? What is significant about the moment in time at which he chooses to portray her?
3. Like Browning's Fra Lippo Lippi, Guenevere finds herself in a rather unpleasant situation and attempts to talk her way out of it. Can you chart the various strategies she employs in defending herself? What, in particular, are the meanings and purposes of her hypothetical example of the red and blue cloths (16-45), of the day she fell in love with Launcelot (61-92), of her reference to Arthur's "great name and his little love" (83), of the day Launcelot first kissed her (104-41), of her reminding Gawaine about his brother's beheading of their mother (150-66), of her recalling the story of Mellyagraunce's earlier accusation of her (167-241), of her version of how she and Launcelot were found together (242-82)? Notice that many of these are at least potentially self-incriminatory, strange things for the accused to draw attention to.
4. "God knows I speak truth, saying that you lie!" Guenevere repeatedly tells Sir Gauwaine. What is the poem's view of truth and lying?
5. The final lines of the poem surely surprise us when we first read them. How do they alter our understanding of Guenevere and of what she's been saying?
6. How does the portrait Morris provides of the Middle Ages in "The Defence of Guenevere" compare to those we've seen in Carlyle's Past and Present and Ruskin's "On the Nature of Gothic"?