TENNEMANN, WILHELM GOTTLIEB. 



TENNYSON, ALFRED. 



OC6 



1845; and a ' Life of Allan Ramsay, with Remarks on his Writing?,' 

 prefixed to an edition of the ' Gentle Shepherd,' not published till 

 1852 at New York. Another little production deserves to be men- 

 tioned, as showing the cheerfulness with which he bore the calamity 

 of his lameness. ' The Anster Concert,' a small pamphlet of 12 pages, 

 published at Cupar in Jan. 1811, purports to be by W. Crookleg, and 

 preceded by some months the publication of his ' Anstor Fair.' It is 

 in the Scottish dialect, with mottoes on the title-page in Hebrew, 

 Greek, Latin, and English, and pleasantly alludes to the peculiarities 

 of the inhabitants of Anstruther, as well as to his own condition. He 

 also wrote some miscellaneous poems, including translations from the 

 Persian, Greek, and German, of more than average merit. He died on 

 the 15th of February 1848, at his house near Dollar. 



TENNEMANN, WILHELM GOTTLIEB, was born at Brembach, 

 near Erfurt, on Dec. 7, 1761. His father was pastor of Brembach, 

 and undertook his early education, but sickness and an unsuitable 

 method of instruction prevented hia profiting much by it. In 1778 he 

 was placed in the public school, and in 1779 in the university, of 

 Erfurt. It was intended that he should study theology, but an early 

 inclination for metaphysical philosophy withdrew him from that 

 pursuit. In 1781 he removed to the university of Jena, where he at 

 first opposed the doctrines of the philosophy of Kant, but was after- 

 wards converted, and became a supporter of its critical principles. In 

 1788 he passed his examination as a teacher; in 1791 he published a 

 work ou the ' Lehren und Meinungeu der Sokratiker iiber die Unster- 

 blichkeit der Seele ' (Doctrines and Opinions of the Socratics on the 

 Immortality of the Soul) ; and in 1792-94, in four volumes, the ' System 

 der Platonischen Philosophic.' In 1798 he was made professor extra- 

 ordinary of philosophy at Jena, whence he was called in 1804 to be 

 professor at the university of Marburg. In 1816 the office of librarian 

 was added to that of professor, and he held both offices till his death 

 on Sept. 30, 1819. His other works were translations of Hume, ' On 

 the Human Understanding' (Uutersuchung u'ber den menschlichen 

 Verstand), published in 1793 ; of Locke, ' Essay concerning the Human 

 Understanding' (Versuch iiber den menschlichen Verstaud), in 1795- 

 1797; and Degerando's 'Comparative History of the Systems of Phi- 

 losophy ' (Vergleichende Geschichte der Systeme der Philosophic) in 

 1806. His principal work however, on which his reputation chiefly 

 rests, is his ' Geschichte der Philosophic,' of which the first volume 

 was published in 1793, and the eleventh, leaving the work incomplete, 

 in 1809: this work has gone through several editions. He also issued in 

 1812, ' GrundrisS der Geschichte der Philosophic,' which is an abstract 

 of his larger work. It has also gone through several editions, has been 

 translated into English by Mr. A. Johnson under the title of a ' Manual 

 of Philosophy ; ' revised, enlarged, and continued by J. R. Morell, in 

 Bohn's 'Philological Library 'in 1852; Victor Cousin gave a French 

 translation of it in 1839; and it has been rendered into modern Greek. 



* TENNYSON, ALFRED, English poet, is one of the sons of the 

 late Rev. Dr. George Clayton Tennyson, Rector of Somersby, a 

 small parish in Lincolnshire, by Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. 

 Stephen Fytche, who still (1857) survives at an advanced age. The 

 Rev. Dr. Tennyson was a man of energetic character, and remarkable 

 for his great strength and stature. Of a family of eleven or twelve 

 children, seven of whom were sons, Alfred was the third. He was 

 born at Somersby in 1810. His elder brothers were Frederick and 

 Charles, both of whom have published poems. The poet's paternal 

 grandfather was George Tennyson, Esq., of Bayon's Manor and Usselby 

 Hall, Lincolnshire, who had inherited large property from a maternal 

 uncle named Clayton, and who had come into more by his marriage 

 in 1775, with the daughter and ultimate heiress of John Turner, Esq., 

 of Caistor, Lincolnshire. He died in July 1835 at the age of eighty-five. 

 His eldest son, the poet's father, had pre-deceased him, and the bulk of 

 his property became the possession of his second sou, the poet's uncle, 

 Charles Tennyson, better known as the Right Hon. Charles Tennyson 

 D'Eyncourt, of Bayon's Manor and Usselby Hall, a privy councillor, 

 late M.P. for Lambeth, F.R.S., &c. The addition of D'Eyncourt to 

 the family name of Tennyson in the case of the poet's uncle was made 

 by royal licence July 27, 1835, " in compliance with a condition 

 attached to the enjoyment of certain manors and estates by a codicil to 

 the will of his father ; in order to commemorate bis descent from the 

 ancient and noble family of D'Eyncourt, Barons D'Eyncourt of Blank- 

 nsy, &c." Accordingly in the books of pedigrees of the landed gentry, 

 those who are curious in such matters may still, by referring to th^ 

 name of the uncle, trace the descent of the more illustrious nephew back 

 to the D'Eyncourts of the Norman times, and may also see the quar- 

 terings of the Tennyson family, with a score of other Norman, Saxon, 

 and modern English families; such as those of Clayton, Hildeyard, 

 Hilton, Lascelles, Tyson, Swyne, Kilham, De la Haye, De la See, Colics, 

 Monceaux, Thwenge, Darell, Bruce, Arches, Fitzroger, Eustace, Nigell, 

 Lizares, Lancaster, Plantagenet, Welby, Moultou, Lindsey, Friskney, 

 Styute, Leke, Towers, Staveley, Hilary, Marmion, Grey, Harestou, 

 Bardolf, Warren, Swift, Wickersley, and Turner. (See Burke' s 'Dic- 

 tionary of the Landed Gentry,' where several pages are devoted to the 

 pedigree of Mr. Tennyson D'Eyncourt.) All this may seem insignificant; 

 but it is at least interesting to know that our great modern poet 

 has a pedigree, even in the herald's sense, superior to that of many 

 of the English nobility ; and somehow, in reading over the preceding 

 list of family-names, one seems to feel as if they all represented 



elements that were necessary towards forming the genius of a Tenny- 

 son. From the very first, at all events, it was evident that the children 

 of the Lincolnshire clergymen had inherited genius rare in kind and 

 degree. In the rectory of Somersby, we have heard the writing of 

 tales and verses was the amusement of all the children from the time 

 that they could use a pen. The three eldest son*, in going to Cambridge 

 carried this literary taste and talent with them. In 1828 Frederick 

 Tennyson obtained the medal for a Greek poem recited at the com- 

 mencement of that year; and in the following year, 1829, Alfred 

 obtained the Chancellor's medal for an English poem in blank verse 

 consisting of about 250 lines and entitled ' Timbuctoo.' Both brothers, 

 as well as the intermediate brother, Charles, were then undergra- 

 duates of Trinity College, and pupils, wo believe, of the present 

 master, Dr. Whewell, then one of the tutors of the college. The 

 poem on ' Timbuctoo,' unlike most prize-poems, exhibits the promise 

 of true poetical genius of a kind, however, that would have to 

 create an appreciation for itself, and might for a time fail to be 

 widely recognised. In or about the same year, Alfred, in conjunction 

 with his brother Charles, published privately a small volume of 



poems, which Coleridge is reported to have noticed with praise 



though with praise more of Charles's contributions to it than of 

 Alfred's. But since 1830 it has been mainly Alfred that has vindi- 

 cated by his actual career the poetical genius of the family Frederick 

 having published nothing with his name till 1854, when he published 

 a collection of poems entitled 'Days and Hours;' and Charles 

 having given up literature for the Church, and having in 1835 become 

 vicar of Grasby in his native county of Lincoln about which time, in 

 consequence of his succeeding, by his grandfather's death, to property 

 which had come into the family through his grandmother, he assumed 

 the name of Turner. In 1830, appeared ' Poems, chiefly Lyrical,' by 

 Alfred Tennyson,' published by Effingham Wilson, Cornhill. This first 

 acknowledged volume of Tennyson's, which appeared while he was 

 still an undergraduate of Trinity College, consisted of about 150 pages 

 and contained ' Claribel/ ' Lilian/ Isabel,' ' Elegiacs,' ' The How and 

 the Why,' 'Mariana,' 'Madeline,' 'The Merman/ 'The Mermaid/ 

 ' Supposed Confessions of a second-rate sensitive mind not in unity 

 with itself/ 'The Burial of Love/ 'The Owl/ ' Recollections of the 

 Arabian Nights/ ' Ode to Memory/ 'Adeline/ ' A Character,' ' The 

 Poet/ ' The Poet's Mind/ ' Nothing will Die/ ' All things will Die,' 

 ' Hero to Leander/ ' The Mystic/ the Dying Swan/ ' A Dirge/ ' The 

 Grasshopper/ 'Love, Pride, and Forgetfulness/ 'Lost Hope/ 'The 

 Deserted House/ ' The Tears of Heaven/ ' Love and Sorrow/ ' To a 

 Lady sleeping/ 'Love and Death," The Ballad of Oriaua,' ' English 

 War-song/ ' National Song/ ' Dualisms/ ' The Sea-Fairies/ and various 

 other short pieces with less definite title?. Of this volume, a recent 

 critic has said "It must always possess considerable interest for 

 those who read and admire his mature productions; but, with few 

 exceptions, the poems it contains owe their main attraction to the fact 

 that they are the earliest efforts of one who has gained a position of 

 which they afforded no certain promise. Many of them are exquisitely 

 musical ; great command of the resources of metre is manifest ; and a 

 richness of phraseology everywhere abounds. But substantial interest 

 they certainly want." At all events the volume did not produce much 

 impression on the public ; and such criticism as there was, was de- 

 preciatory rather than favourable. In 1833, Tennyson, at the age of 

 twenty-three, made his second stroke as an author in a new volume of 

 ' Poems by Alfred Tennyson/ published by Moxon. In this volume 

 several of the pieces in the former one were reprint-d (not without 

 alterations, however it_ being a habit with Mr. Tennyson con- 

 tinually to retouch and improve, even after a piece has been in print) ; 

 but it contained some striking new ones, including ' The Lady of 

 Shalott/ ' Mariana in the South/ ' The Miller's Daughter/ ' ^Enone/ 

 ' The Palace of Art/ ' The May Queen/ ' The Lotus Eaters/ and ' A 

 Dream of Fair Women.' " Characterised as a whole," says the critic 

 above quoted, " the volume of 1833, in comparison with the first 

 volume, marks a surprising advance, both in conception and exe- 

 cution." From that time, accordingly, the circle of Tennyson's 

 admirers gradually increased, and his name began to be known. The 

 year 1842 was a new epoch in his literary career. In that year he 

 published in two volumes ' Poems by Alfred Tennyson,' being that 

 collected edition of his smaller pieces of which there have since been 

 some nine or ten issues. These volumes contained, besides reprints of 

 many of the pieces in its predecessors, a series of new pieces, including 

 ' Lady Clara Vere de Vere/ ' Morte d'Arthur/ ' Dora/ ' St. Simeon 

 Stylites/ 'The Talking Oak/ 'Ulysses/ ' Locksley Hall/ ' Godiva/ 

 ' The Gardener's Daughter/ ' The Two Voices/ ' The Lord of Bur- 

 leigh/ and 'The Vision of Sin.' " With the publication of this third 

 series," says the critic quoted above, "Mr. Tennyson appears distinctly 

 as the poet of his own age. His apprenticeship over, his mastery over 

 the instruments of his art is complete, and he employs it in either 

 presenting the life of his contemporaries, the thoughts, incidents, 

 and emotions of the nineteenth century in England, or in treating 

 legend and history with reference to the moral and intellectual 

 sympathies now active among us." From that time also Tennyson's 

 place in English poetry has been universally acknowledged. He has 

 both extended and deepened his reputation however by the works 

 which have followed. Of these, the fiist was his narrative poem, 

 entitled ' The Princess ; a medley/ with its exquisite interspersed 



