430 ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON 



nation is so pure that 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? Yes 

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

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

 world. As for the characters, they interest us less. The blame- 

 less Arthur never seems quite real ; he is rather a bundle of good 

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

 to recall another chivalrous saint, one who really walked this 

 earth, — if Joinville tells us of his royal master, Saint Louis, 

 — 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 but little, and 

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

 ing in her courtship, 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 lil}^ maid of 

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

 less love. It is 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 the verse 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. He was not strong in imagination of plot, in conception of 

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

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

 Tennyson was never so doleful as when he wanted to be f unn3^ 

 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. 



What is to be the permanent place of Tennyson in English 

 literature? The poet sings first to his own age, he lives with 

 its life, he burns with its passions, he interprets it to itself, and 

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



