I moved as in a strange diagonal, And maybe neither pleased myself nor them. But Lilia pleased me, for she took no part 30 In our dispute: the sequel of the tale Had touch'd her; and she sat, she pluck'd the grass, She flung it from her, thinking: last, she fixt A showery glance upon her aunt, and said, "You tell us what we are," who might have told, 35 For she was cramm'd with theories out of books, But that there rose a shout: the gates were closed At sunset, and the crowd were swarming now, To take their leave, about the garden rails. So I and some went out to these: we climb'd "Look there, a garden!" said my college friend, 50 The Tory member's elder son, "and there! God bless the narrow sea which keeps her off, And keeps our Britain, whole within herself, A nation yet, the rulers and the ruled Some sense of duty, something of a faith, 55 Some reverence for the laws ourselves have made, 60 The king is scared, the soldier will not fight, Like an old woman, and down rolls the world No graver than a schoolboy's barring out; Too comic for the solemn things they are, Too solemn for the comic touches in them, Like our wild Princess with as wise a dream 70 As some of theirs - God bless the narrow seas! I wish they were a whole Atlantic broad." "Have patience," I replied, "ourselves are full Of social wrong; and maybe wildest dreams Are but the needful preludes of the truth: 75 For me, the genial day, the happy crowd, The sport half-science, fill me with a faith. This fine old world of ours is but a child Yet in the go-cart. Patience! Give it time To learn its limbs: there is a hand that guides." 80 In such discourse we gain'd the garden rails, Among six boys, head under head, and look'd 85 A great broad-shoulder'd genial Englishman, Now shaking hands with him, now him, of those That stood the nearest now address'd to speech Who spoke few words and pithy, such as closed The long line of the approaching rookery swerve More joyful than the city roar that hails Premier or king! Why should not these great Sirs Give up their parks some dozen times a year To let the people breathe? So thrice they cried, 105 I likewise, and in groups they stream'd away. But we went back to the Abbey, and sat on, 110 Blacken'd about us, bats wheel'd, and owls whoop'd, And gradually the powers of the night, That range above the region of the wind, 115 Beyond all thought into the Heaven of Heavens. Last little Lilia, rising quietly, Disrobed the glimmering statue of Sir Ralph From those rich silks, and home well-pleased we went. NOTES PROLOGUE 1 Tennyson "was present on July 6, 1842, at a festival of the Maidstone Mechanics' Institute held in our Park, of which he has introduced a lively description in the beginning of The Princess."- EDMUND LUSHINGTON. “In 1841 and 1842 I paid two visits in the month of August to Park House near Maidstone. I found there . . . a bright, charming, and happy group of his [Edmund Lushington] brothers and sisters. I remember watching him [Tennyson] as he sat on a garden seat on the grass, in a brown suit, looking somewhat grave and silent." DEAN STANLEY, in Memoirs of Lord Tennyson. 5 Borough: a town, whether corporate or not, entitled to representation in Parliament. 11 In the seventeenth century the influence of the Renaissance brought into England the fashion of Italian Renaissance domestic architecture, which embodied many Greek features, and caused it to supersede the Gothic architecture of English country seats. 14 After the suppression of monasteries by Henry VIII. many monastic estates became the homes of private families, but usually new residences were built and the stately buildings of the monks were allowed to fall into ruins in the grounds. 15 Ammonites: curved or spiral fossil shells; named from cornu Ammonis, the curling ram's horn of the Egyptian god Ammon. 17 Celts: prehistoric weapons of stone or bronze. Calumets: Indian tobacco pipes with reed stems. 18 Claymore: the heavy two-handed sword of the Scotch Highlanders. 20 A set of ivory balls carved one within another in delicate and elaborate design by the Chinese carvers of ivory. 21 Crease: a Malayan dagger or short sword having a waved blade. 25 Agincourt: a battle in which the English under Henry V. overcame the French, 1415. 26 Ascalon: a city in Palestine where Richard Coeur de Lion conquered the Saracens, 1192. 31 Slashed to right and left vigorously. 64 Will-o'-the-wisp. 87 Ambrosial: fragrant, like the food of the gods. 89 Smacking of the time: expressive of the nineteenth century's great work in developing and popularizing science. 92 The upward springing curves and points of Gothic architecture subtly suggest the lines of aspiring flames. 110-117 In the English universities, the college buildings are guarded by high stone walls and wrought-iron gates, surrounded by spikes; the windows of the first-floor rooms are heavily barred. The proctors are university officials who look after the good order of the students. They employ subproctors as police, whom the students name "bulldogs." The tutors are the college instructors, the master, the college president. 161 In English universities, the student must be in residence a certain number of weeks in each term, else the term's work cannot be counted toward the degree. 176-177 Remained at the university during the vacation to study mathematics. 184 Drank your healths. CANTO I 5-18 Tennyson wrote in 1874, at a time when he was interested in the Metaphysical Society: "I have never had any revelations through anæsthetics, but a kind of waking trance (this for lack of a better name) I have frequently had quite up from my boyhood when I have been all alone. This has often come to me through repeating my own name to myself silently, till, all at once, as it were, out of the intensity of the consciousness of individuality, the |