The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-07-30
TENNYsON'S " "oUEEN MARY"

the Poet Laureate.
The London Times of June 10Th, ha
the following review of Mr.. Tennyson'
Queen Mary: The appearance of Mr.
TennysOn in the field of drama is al
event of interest, it says, both for Eng
Gsh poetry and the English stage. T.
say that the experiment was regarded
with some anxiety by those who mos
appreciate the subtlety of his artistic
power is only to say that fine poem il
the dramatic form is not necessarily
fine drama but, unless we are deceived
it will be generally allowed that Qaeel
Mary is not only a fine poem, but fin,
drama, and that though each of the
several powers which go to make it 81
has already been proved by the author
the mastery harmony in which they
work together here entities Queen MARY
to be considered something re thar
merely a success in a new kind. The
dramatic glow and impetus which are
proper to poem of action may be imi
tated, but cannot be replaced by epic
splendOr or lyrical passion. In Oul
own days we have seen these, or feeblel
substitutes, essaying to do DUTY for it
but it is long since the genuine inspira
tion, at least of tragedy, has been
among us. The ingenuity of the apollo
gies which have been suggested for the
fact is characteristic of the ago which
required them, but the fact is generally
| allowed. If we welcome Mr.. Tenny-
sons drama for one reason more than
another, it is for this-because here we
seem to recognize the presence of that
rare and precious virtue which has so
| long seemed dead even in those works
of English poetry which are most dis
! tinctly products of dramatic
| fire; and if we had to say when last this
! great quality found a comparably vivid
embodiment in the treatment of an
English historical subject, we should
not know where to stay our search until
it had carried us back to the year when
the series of Shakspeares English his
tories was completed and crowned with
| Henry V. The action of the drama
covers the five years from "MGry's y
accession, in 1853, to her death, in 1858.
| As a study of the time, at once truth
| full in its broad aspects and accurate in
! detail, we believe that it would bear the
scrutiny of Mr.. FrOude and Mr.. Sped
ding. AS vivid picture of the whole
reign-of the feeling in England toward
! the Spanish marriage, of Mary's "
effort to cancel not merely the Protes-
tant reformation, but the more mod
crate reforms of the new learning, of
the temper in which the new parlia-
ment aud the nation, after the submis-
sion to the papacy, refused to accept
the purely Catholic policy of Spain,
and, lastly, of that profound tragedy
which centers in the blasted hopes and
| blighted love of the queen-the drama,
merely as matter of English history,
can be appreciated by all. Some ex-
tracts follow, and then the reviewer con-
! times: The paramount merit of the
poem as a work of art consists IN the
skill with which the dramatist has held
the balance between the horror excited
by ''Mary, the prosecutor, and the COM
passion felt for " Mary" the sufferer.
Howard tells " Paget how he has
seen heretics of the poorer sort, in daily
expectation of the rack, lying chained
in sitting dungeons over steaming sew
ers, fed with bread that crawled upon
| the tongue, drinking water of which
every drop was a worm, until they died
of rotted limbs. Among those voices of
! the night which pass the palace in
which Mary is dying, there is one of
a citizen who had seen a woman burned
in Guernsey.
~ and in her agony
| The mother came upon her-a child was
| born
And sill, they hurled IL back into the fire,
| That, being but baptized i'll fire, the babe
| Might be i'll fire forever"
The impression made by the entire
| drama deepens that red brand which
rests on the memory of "Mary's, reign.
| Yet, while the awful cruelties of a more
than Spanish bigotry are thus made to
! live before the imagination, we are at
! the same time irresistibly drawn to SYM
! pathize with whatever is wOmanly,
whatever is heroic, whatever is of tragic
| intensity in the miserable story of " Ma
J rvs" personal life. When, some months
! after her marriage, MARY" for a mo-
ment anticipates the realization of a
| great hope, her Joy finds utterance in
what is, perhaps, the grandest, as it is
certainly the most pathetic passage OF
the whole poem
! He hath awalledl he hath awaked.
| He stirs within the darkness!
| Oh! Philip, husband now thine love to mine
VIII cling more close, and those bleak man.
That make me ashamed and tongue-tied in
my love
! The second Prince of Peace
. The great unborn defender or EalGh.
| Who will avenge me of mine enemies
He comes and my star rises.
| The stormy Wvatts and Northumberland
| The proud ambitions OF Elizabeth,
| And all her tierCcst partlsans-are pale
| Before my star
| The light of this new learning wanes and
dies;
The ghosts of Luther and Zumglius fade
| Into the deathless hell, which Is their doom
| Before my star
| His sceptre shall so forth from Ind to Ind!
His sword shall hew the hereto peoples
down?
His faith shall clothe the world that will be
his,
Like universal air and sunshine! Open,
Ye everlasting gates The King is here -
My star, my SON.
And when the end is near, anG
MARY" on her death bed, has passed
into delirium, the anguish brought by
the failure of that hope is interpreted
in a scene of wonderful power, from
which we quote only few lines:
| Mary This Philip shall not
Stare in upon me in my haggardness
| Old, miserable, diseased,
| Incapable of children. Come thol
down. [Cuts out the picture
| and throws it down..
Lie there. [Waitsl. o God, 1 hav
killed my Philip.
| Afce- No.
Madame. you have but cut the canva
out,
We can replace it.
| Mary All Is well then; rest
l will to rest he said must hav
rest.
The narrative passages of the drami
especially the descriptions of Lad,
Jane Grey's" death, andOf "Cranmer s
death-are worthy of Mr.. Tennyson
and, for descriptive passages, ther
could not well be higher praise. TIL,
two or three songs, again, are, as Nigh
have been expected, perfect in thei
way. The prose assages-dialogue be
tween citizen, etc. are in one sens
the most difficult for a nineteenth cen
tury dramatist treating a sixteenth cen
tury subject, since it is precisely i
homely talk that the artist runs mos
risk of seeming an antiquarian. 1t
Mr.. Tennyson's humor which has er
abled him to succeed so well here. Th
J conversation between the two "garrU
lous country wives" in Act ~, seen
8, could hardly have been written sav