Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-09
TALES OF TENNYsON.
WRITTEN FOR THE D,srArcn.I


Many years ago in Graham's Magasins
Edgar Allen Poe said that Tennyson was
"the most ETHEREAL poet Of this or any other
age:" Thackeray declared him to be the
wisest man he knew; George Eliot oaid that
his dramas tran Shakespeare's Close" and
Dickens, reading his poems by the seashore'
exclaimed, ,"W hat a great creature he is" The
man OF whom these opinions were expressed
has calmly and peace 'uly laid down tho
burdens of life; but as Horace expresses 10,
che has left for himself o memorial more
lasting than brnss," and the interest Of the
masses in that memorial is now at its height.
Some, at least OF the following incidents
and anecdotes are not generally known,
and may at present prove acceptable.
The year of Tennyson's birth, 1909, was o
year in which were born many persons of
genius, Gladstone and Elizabeth Barrett
Browning. and in this country Poe and OH
yer Wendell Holmes. Tennyson spent his
youth In the hamlet of Somersby. in Lin
colnshire, hamlet through which runs the
brook which is so con ntinu ually present in his
poems, and which is described by O native
as "the noisiest and most ripping / ever
heard, and full Of trout" Tennyson was al
ways del GIFTED with the water, and was
passionately fond OF the sea, one of his play
mates declaring that he has known him as q
youth to run bareheaded from his home to
the coast of the meaning German ocean that
he might be inspired by its monot-
onous music. With two older and sew.
eral younger brothers, his youth was
fIed'with the games of imaginative lads.
Inspired by the stories of Arthur's knights,
they became champions and warriors. de-
Tending n stone heap, or with wand stuck
in the ground as king. set up opposing
camps. and standing around their king de-
Tended him with firmer sticks. And when
they became tired, they would sit and tell
stories, Alfred having one which he called
1.-THE Old Horse" which lasted for months.
First Literary Efforts.
AS lads their first efforts in literature
were made. One day when the others were
going to church, an older brother handed
Alfred a slate, and giving him the flowers in
the garden as q subject, told him to write a
poem while they were gone. Upon his re-
turn the brother, Charles, examined the
blank verse submitted, and said to the boy:
Eyes, you can write" A little later his grand
father asked him to compose an elegv on
his grandmother. recently deceased. When
it was completed, the old gentleman ,nded
to the boy 10 snillings, saying: "There. that
is the first money you have earned by your
poetry. and, take nv word for it, it will be
tho last" Little did he imagine that for
many years that boy would have an income
OF $4,000 from his writings. When Alfred
was about Is he and his older brother
Charles published their first volume. en-
titled "Poems by Two Broi hers" For the
copyrignr OF this volume they received & 10,
an unusual favor for poems by unknown
authors. Tho volume now commands about
SIS.
Tennyson was very fond Of reading Byron,
he remembers as a lad OF l5 WALKING out
alone and carving in the sandstone byron
is desd." and feeling as though the light had
gone from the earth.
From the preparatory school in which the
brothers were when they publish d their
first volume they went to Cambridge.
among their close friends here were Merf-
vale, afterward the famous historian; Arch
bishop Trench, who Is said to have known
moro about the English LANGUAGE than any
other man of his time: Brookfleld, for many
years a fashionable London preacher, and
beyond all Arthur Hallam: that most % re-
Brookneld was an irresistible wit and q
cotempnrary says that Tennyson and the
others would often lie on the floor for unre-
strained laughter while he poured forth
with perfectly grave face q succession of
ima9inary dialogues between characters
real or fictitious, one exceeding another in
drollery or humor. While here Tennyson
took the Chancellor's prize for the best
original poem, his subject being "Timbuc-
tOO." Thnckeray while at Cambridge pub
lished in a paper called Sno6 some burlesque
lines on the same subject. one stanza being:
.1n Africa. a quarter of the world.
Mems skins are black their hair is crisped
ana CURED;
view,
A mighty city lies, called Timbuctoo."
Both Tennyson and Thackeray. the two
most distinguished Cambridge mon of the
century, left their university without taking
q oegree.
An Attack of Banter and Ridicule.
1000
Ill 1oo2 apPeareu ahotner Folume oi
poems. The criticisms of this were some of
them very friendly, but the Quarterly gave
it Is pages OF banter and ridicule. Quoting
the line. "If any sense in me remains.n it
..-.. .'yUo ,.Lo NAN onrssIv.s 70 r.ossrr.
saVe, "o "Ao uPo" ouiee.'o' "
MI. Tennyson thae. even after ne snail De
dead and buried, as much sense will still re-
main as he has now the good fortune to DOS
sessn In 1s45. through the influence of Sir
pot.r. De-, r.n,rsnr race,yad a ,.n.ion
as cono adin :y.I 80 go III ~,
VI 1ZW IuirneuatoIy no "as asaoAou ~
the famous Bulwer-Lytton, VINO spoke OF MS
poetry as 1inglinS meioay OF pnrinlnen :,
concelts, anu, eaiin nim MISS Airen,
in the prime of lile without either wife or
snaa ling Of Lytton as
.rr,,. .aa.a no, that ,,o .,.rs.
who Killed The girls. and thrilled the bows
with pathos."
Another critic, parodying ''The Norman