whose essays and sermons involved was not the right explanation of the him in some fierce controversies. Stan- parable. The poem seems to be a metzas 4-7 describe the poet's new home rical paraphrase of the quotation, "In near Freshwater. The eighth stanza this world are few voices and many touches on the Crimean War. echoes." Will, p. 183. First published with Maud in 1855. Man's free-will was one of the fundamentals of Tennyson's creed. See prologue of In Memoriam and CXXXI. (p. 522). In the Valley of Cauteretz, p. 183. First published with Enoch Arden, 1864. Written while the poet was travelling in the French Pyrenees in 1861, overcome by reminiscences of other days when he and Arthur Hallam visited this lovely valley together in 1830. The mistake in writing "two and thirty years' seems to have been due to carelessness. In the Garden at Swainston, p. 184. First published in Cabinet edition of Tennyson's Works, 12 vols., 1874-77. Written at the home of Sir John Simeon, one of the poet's dearest friends, who died in 1870. To Lady Simeon he wrote (June 27, 1870), "I knew none like him for tenderness and generosity, not to mention his other noble qualities, and he was the very Prince of Courtesy." The other two men were Arthur Hallam and Henry Lushington. Cf. the line "With a love that ever will be " with the last line of Vastness (p. 660). Requiescat, p. 184. First published with Enoch Arden, 1864. The stanzas recall Wordsworth's verses on "Lucy," written in 1799-1800. The Sailor Boy, p. 184. First published in Victoria Regia, Dec. 25, 1861; reprinted with Enoch Arden, 1864. The poem well expresses youthful love of adventurous activity and dislike of indolent ease. The Islet, p. 185. own First published in the Enoch Arden volume, 1864. Of the purpose of the poem Luce remarks: "Dwelling apart by ourselves, seeking only our happiness, may be likened to solitary existence on a beautiful island in the tropics; when the real work of life is suspended, where the only music is the false note of the mocking-bird, and where loathsome diseases lurk in every profusion of loveliness. Like 'The Voyage,' this slighter poem is an occasion for vivid sketches of far-off isle and ocean.' The City Child, p. 185. This and the companion poem (125) were first published in St. Nicholas (February, 1880); reprinted in the collected edition of Tennyson's Works, 1886. These " child-songs and many other lyrics of Tennyson's were set to music by his wife. Minnie and Winnie, p. 186. First published in St. Nicholas, New York (February, 1880). The same maga zine for February and March contains Mrs. Tennyson's settings of the two poems. The Spiteful Letter, p. 186. First published in Once a Week (January, 1868); reprinted with alterations in Library edition of Tennyson's Works, 1871-73. The poet wrote: "It is no particular letter that I meant. I have had dozens of them from one quarter or another." Literary Squabbles, p. 186. First printed with the title Afterthought in Punch, March 7, 1846; republished with new title in Library edition, 1872. Throughout his long career Tennyson was free from the petty spites and jealousies of authors. Once, in 1846, he deigned to reply to an attack by Bulwer, but he regretted the unauthorized publication of his satirical verses- The New Timon and the Poets (in Punch, March 7, 1846), and in this second poem expressed his attitude of indifference and silence. The Victim, p. 186. First published in Good Words, January, 1868; reprinted with the Holy Grail, 1869. Privately printed, 1867. Wages, p. 188. First printed in Macmillan's Magazine, February, 1868, and republished in the Holy Grail volume, 1869. The poem is an expression of Tennyson's passionate desire for personal immortality. Cf. Locksley Hall Sixty Years After, lines 67-72 (p. 642). "Wouldst know the whole? then scan the parts; for all That moulds the great lies mirrored in the small." Says Leibnitz: "He who should know perfectly one monad would in it know the world, whose mirror it is.” A Dedication, p. 189. First published in Enoch Arden vol ume, 1864. A tribute to his wife, who was the presiding genius of the Tennyson household for more than forty years. Edith, in Locksley Hall Sixty Years After, is doubtless another name for Lady Tennyson. She is also praised in June Bracken and Heather (1892). In his mother and in his wife Tennyson found his high ideal of womanhood realized. Boädicea, p. 190. The Higher Pantheism, p. 188. First published in the Holy Grail volume, 1869. The poem was read at the first meeting of the Metaphysical Society (June 2, 1869). Mrs. Tennyson's journal for 1867 contains this entry (dated Dec. 1st.): " A. is reading Hebrew (Job and the Song of Solomon and Genesis): Atys' of Catullus," written in 1859. he talked much about his Hebrew, and The poet "wanted some one to annotate about all-pervading Spirit being more it musically so that people could underunderstandable by him than solid mat-stand the rhythm." Queen Boädicen First published with Enoch Arden, 1864. An experiment in a new metrical form, "an echo of the metre in the (d. 62 A.D.) headed an unsuccessful | vember 4: "A. did not like publishing revolt against the Romans in Britain. Hexameters and Pentameters, songs that were so trivial at such a grave crisis of affairs in Europe," because of the Franco-Prussian War; hence the words "in the dark shadow of these days." First printed in Cornhill Magazine, December, 1863, but not republished in 1864 with the following experiments in classic metres (136 and 137); restored in collected editions of later years. Cf. Arnold's Lectures on Translating Homer."At twenty-four I meant to write an Milton, p. 192. Printed in the Cornhill (December, 1863), and later in the Enoch Arden volume, 1864. See notes of Tennyson's talk on Paradise Lost, in Memoir, II., pp. 518-23. Hendecasyllabics, p. 192. Printed in the Cornhill (December, 1863), and later in the Enoch Arden volume, 1864. A skilful handling of "the dainty metre" of Catullus in English. Tennyson expressed his appreciation of the graceful Roman singer in Frater Ave atque Vale (p. 636). Specimen of Translation of Homer's Iliad, p. 192. Printed in the Cornhill (December, 1863), and later with Enoch Arden, 1864. An admirable rendering of this oftquoted passage. "He's a wonderful man for dovetailing words together," said Carlyle of Tennyson, whom he begged to translate Sophocles. The Window, p. 193. Privately printed in 1867, and published with alterations in 1870; afterward republished in collected editions of Tennyson's Works. The Window Songs call for no special comment. A phrase in the preliminary note (dated December, 1870) needs explanation. Mrs. Tennyson writes in her journal for No Idylls of the King, p, 197. About the time of the publication of The Holy Grail (1869) Tennyson said: epic or a drama of King Arthur; and I thought that I should take twenty years about the work. Now they will say I have been forty years about it." The Morte d'Arthur of the 1842 volumes was a fragment of the proposed epic. The earliest of his published Arthurian poems was The Lady of Shalott (1832), described as "another version of the story of Lancelot and Elaine." of Arthur through the books of Geoffrey Tennyson was familiar with the history and Malory. He seems to have got some details from Ellis's Metrical Ro mances. of the sources of the Arthur legend. He made no exhaustive study Had he read the tales in the Old French of Chrestien de Troyes, the Thornton Morte Arthure, Sir Gawayne, and other Middle-English romances, he would have I formed a different conception of "the blameless king," of Gawain, and other knights of the Table Round. Besides the old chronicles and romances, he found more or less material in Celtic myths and traditions, especially the stories of the Mabinogion, translated by Charlotte Guest. He depended for much upon his own imagination. Says Hutton: "In taking his subject from the great medieval myth of English chivalry, it was of course open to Mr. Tennyson to adopt any treatment of it which would really incorporate the higher and grander aspects of the theme, and also find an ideal unity for a number of legends in which of unity there was none.' For many years not much progress was made in the composition of Tenny son's epic, probably because of Hallam's was made in 1891, when he inserted the death and other circumstances. After line-Maud was off his hands, he resumed work on the subject that had haunted him and wrote Vivien and Enid in 1856. "Ideal manhood closed in real man in the Epilogue after the line 66 with Soul." In the summer of 1857 these two idylls New-old, and shadowing Sense at war were privately printed, with the title: Enid and Nimuë; or, The True and the False. It is said that of the six original copies only one is now in existence, that in the British Museum. There is an interesting record in Mrs. Tennyson's journal of this year: "A. has brought me as a birthday present the first two lines that he has made of 'Guinevere,' which might be the nucleus of a great poem. Arthur is parting from Guinevere, and says: "But hither shall I never come again, Never lie by thy side; see thee no more; Farewell!"" In the winter of 1858 Guinevere was completed. Then Elaine was written, and in 1859 these four Arthurian stories appeared with the title: Idylls of the King. They were arranged in this order: Enid, Vivien, Elaine, Guinevere, Then preparation for other idylls was begun, but the undertaking was interrupted for several years. The poet was urged to write on the Sangreal, but was not "in the mood for it." In 1868 The Holy Grail was written; it "came suddenly as if by a breath of inspiration.' Others followed, and in 1869 another instalment of four idylls was published: The Holy Grail, The Coming of Arthur, Pelleas and Ettarre, and The Passing of Arthur. Afterward The Last Tournament was printed in the Contemporary Review (December, 1871) and republished in 1872 with Gareth and Lynette. A little later Balin and Balan was written, though not published until 1885 in the Tiresias volume. Of the innumerable changes in the text, Professor Jones has made thorough study in his Growth of the Idylls of the King, 1895. The poet's last correction The most important addition, lines 6–146 The Princess, p. 381. The While at Eastbourne, in the summer of 1845, Tennyson was engaged on The Princess, but the poem was mostly written in London. Come down, O maid (p. 435), was composed among the Alps 66 descriptive of the in 1846, and was waste Alpine heights and gorges, and of the sweet, rich valleys below." poet told Aubrey de Vere that the Bugle Song (p. 404) was written at Killarney, and O Swallow, Swallow (p. 406) was first composed in rhyme. cerning one of his most characteristic and successful strains, that wonderful "blank-verse lyric" - Tears, idle tears (p. 405), he said: "The passion of the past, the abiding in the transient, was expressed in 'Tears, idle tears,' which was written in the yellowing autumntide at Tintern Abbey, full for me of its bygone memories." In the manuscript the first line originally stood: Con Ah foolish tears, I know not what thes mean." The hand of the artist made a happy change to "Tears, idle tears." Possibly the first hint of the plot was suggested by Johnson's Rasselas, Chap. XLIX. However, the main structure of | (1856) Farringford, which had been the poem was essentially original with leased in 1853.1 Tennyson. Collins pointed out a number of phrases and similes that sound like echoes of older singers. Dawson calls the Princess "a transfusion of the Greek spirit into modern life." The first edition of The Princess was a very different poem from that of 1853, which has remained unchanged. The dedication to Henry Lushington,1 in the second edition, was dated January, 1848; but few alterations were made in the text of the poem. A number of additions and omissions were made in the third edition (1850); the intercalary songs were inserted, and the Prologue and conclusion were revised. In the fourth edition (1851) "the passages relating to the weird seizures of the Prince" were inserted. The fifth edition (1853) contains many new readings, also lines 35-49 of the Prologue; this is the final text of the poem. Maud, p. 440. The nameless stanzas, O that 'twere possible, written in 1834 and printed in the Tribute (1837), later became the foundation of Maud. As the poet wrote: "Sir John Simeon years after begged me to weave a story round this poem and so 'Maud' came into being." It was thus written backward, the work being chiefly done in 1854 and 1855. In the early proofs of the poem the title was Maud; or the Madness. The laureate remarked, "This poem is a little' Ham let.'" The lyrics in it which he liked best were: I have led her home; Courage, poor heart of stone; and that 'twere possible. He was vexed at the hostile reception of the poem on the part of the critics, and was grateful for the defence of Dr. Mann and for the fine commentary of Brimley. With the proceeds of the sale of Maud he bought 1 Park House, home of the Lushingtons, near Maidstone, is Vivian Place (referred to in the Prologue). Of The second edition of Maud (1856) contained "considerable additions, extending to some ten pages." The poem was afterward divided into two parts, and ultimately into three parts. section IV. (pp. 457-59), contributed to the Tribute, Luce remarks: "The stan zas, as they originally appeared, formed a poem of strange and pathetic beauty. A portion of them, with certain alterations, now constitute the fourth section of the second part of ‘Maud.'” Enoch Arden, p. 463. First published in 1864 in the volume entitled Idylls of the Hearth. The poem was first called the Old Fisherman. It was written in the summer of 1862, and occupied him only about two weeks when once started, though he had brooded on the subject a long while. Tennyson got the incident from the sculptor Thomas Woolner. Similar stories had been told in Suffolk, Brittany, and other places. Here was a theme well suited to his powers, one that took him into a different world from that of the Arthurian idylls. He was so much at home in the society of humble fisher-folk that 1 A writer in Good Words (October, 1892) refers to the beautiful word-pictures in Maud of the sea and sky as observed at Farringford in the Isle of Wight: "If one would wish to see the influence which the island has had on the great minstrel, let him read 'Maud,' where its magic has been most profusely translated into speech. Here, too, surely is the 'little grove' where he sits while 'A million emeralds break from the ruby. budded lime;' and here in a gap of the trees one catches a gleam of white, where 'The far-off sail is blown by the breeze of a softer clime, Half-lost in the liquid azure bloom of a crescent |