New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-12-05
PAINTING THE LILY,

The London Morning Post says 1t is probable
that Mr.. Tennyson, the poet, will shortly be
raised to the peerage." We hope this news is
not true. Alfred Tennyson cannot DO ennObed
by Queen Victoria. He possesses already
patent of nobility in comparison with which
the highest rank the greatest sovereign can be-
stow is insignificant. He who wears the laurel
crown worthily and with the suffrages of half
the world, has nothing to ask from princes, nor
il IL in their power to exalt him. And what
should Mr.. Tcnnyson do with peerage
When Charles Dickens refused that honor 1t was
felt that he had merely declined what would
have been not merely an unpopular honor but a
compromising one. II is the special virtue Of
genius 10 render its posscssor Independent of all
ceremonial and artificial distinctions. There is q
kind of beauty In woman so dignited, pure and
ennobling that it renders all advcntitlOus
adOrnments not only petty and futile, but dis
cordant and intrusive. Just so is it with the
nobility of genius The fortunate pOsSessOr OF
that high gift not only needs no adventtious
aids but they clash with the insignia of that
spiritual rank which distinguishes him. Be-
tween genius and mere hereditary aristocracy,
indeed, there is all the difference between
lUUGS tfltSlldl anu llluE0 tNIitoNAhii' Nv ''h
happy Thompson. the author of that powerful
poem @The CITY of Dreadful Night" has in an
other poem. entitled "The Naked Goddess
allegorized this distinction. The news is
brought to a certain town that beautiful naked
goddess has taken up her abode in the neigh
boring forest Forthwith 1t is determined that
she must be clothed. and tho people go out, and
when she appears before them the priests and
the sages and the magistrates in turn offer her
such robes rs they wear. The goddess tries the
vcstments on, but they are all too narrow, and
one by one she filings from her their crampng
and combining folds. So genius spurns the
trammes of earthly decorations.
There Is no fame to accrue to Mr.. Tennyson
from a title He has won worldwide celeb
rty already. His name Is familiar in our
mouths as household words" Wherever the
English language is spoken-in Greater Us well
AS in Great Britain-he is known and admired.
Could the peerage bring him one iota more of
the worldshomagoH On the contrary, the world
would recognize In his acceptance of a title the
exposure of a painful defect in his character
IL would say u This man did not rise to the
"height of his own inspiration. He could not
"rcst content with the only fame worth hay
"ing. He must betray his kinship with Il lower
humanity by hungerng after its gauds and
"baubcs. This is to sink not to rise" And
the Judgment OF the world would be sound.
Monckton Mines might desire to become peer,
for he was not great poet. Bulwer does not
belong to the front rank in literature, yet he
was greater "a Bulwer than as Lord Lytton.
Earl Beaconsficld was descent from Benjamin
Disraei. Robert Lowe was better-known
name than Lord Shcrbrooke. And who can
conceive Thackcray with a title; or Lamb !;
or gentle Thomas HoodP What title is there
half so lofty as that of the genius who also bears
q the grand old name of gentleman" "not soled
with an ignOble use"3