430 ALFEED. LOBD TENNYSON. 



d pure tliat nothing can be foul in its neighborhood. 

 Tennyson hates unchastity so thoroughly and honestly that he 

 tells of it chastely. 



Is the poem as great a triumph of art as it is of morals? Yea 

 and no. The Idylls axe very readable, from their scenery and 

 from their smoothness. We are glad to be in an enchanted 

 world. As for the chars, ters, rhey ll" - stnsl ss. The blame- 

 :hur n ms quite real; he is rather a bundle of good 



qualities than a man of flesh and blood. If we turn from him 

 . ecall another chivalrous saint, one who really walked this 

 earth, — if Joinville tells us of his royal mas" . S int L 

 — we feel that we have a true saint and a living man before us ; 

 that Joinville has really loved his hero and comrade. Did 

 Tennyson really love King Arthur, week-days and all? Lance- 

 lot and Tristram, and the rest, are somewhat shadowy. Queen 

 Guinevere, although often referred to, appears bat little, and 

 generally not to advantage. Enid, that patient Grizzel. charm- 

 ing in her -;hip, hardly obtains in her persecution by her 

 brutal husband the sympathy which she labors so hard to deserve. 

 Vivien is a bad woman, and Tennyson could no more describe 

 a bad woman than Era Angelico could have painted one. Only 

 "Elaine the fair, Elaine the lovable, Elaine the lily maid of 

 Astolat," "vius us with her beauty, and melts us with her hap- 

 I ss love. It :s to her sorrows, and to the repentance of 

 Guinevere, and to the death of Arthur, that the poet's best 

 powers are given. In describing these th- is more than 

 smooth and stately ; it is poetry of a high order. 



It was not until his seventh decade was well advanced that 

 Tennyson took to writing dramas. The attempt was unfortu- 

 nate. There was nothing dramatic in his genius or in his train- 

 ing. II ras not - r on g in imagination of plot, in conception of 

 character, or in invention of situations. Moreover, a bad tradi- 

 tion of the fcish stage calls for funny scenes in a tragedy, and 

 Tennyson was never so doleful as when he wanted to be funny. 

 The best to be expected in his tragedies was fine lines, and fine 

 lines do occur in them from time to time, although less often 

 than in any other of his poems. 



TVhat is to be the permanent place of Tennyson in English 



.' The poet sings first to his own age, he lives with 



its life, he burns with it- ions, he inl t to itself, and 



it repays him with enthusiastic affection. Such is the feeling of 



