The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-05-01

strangers coming toward us,
 was told that he once complained to the queen and said that he could no longer stay In the Isle of Wight on ac- count of the tourists who came to stare at him. The queen, with a kindly irony, remarked that she did not suffer much from that grievance; but Tenny- son, not seeing what she meant, re- piled; No, madam. and if I could clap a sentinel wherever liked, should not be troubled, either"
 It must be confessed that people were very inconsiderate. Rows of tourists sat like sparroWs on the palling of his garden waiting for his appearance. The guides were actually paid by sight seers, particularly those from America, for showing them the great poet, Nay, they went so far as to dress up a sailor to look like Tennyson, and the result was that after their trick had been found out, the tourists would walk up to Tennyson and ask him; Now, are you the real Tennyson?" This, no doubt, was very annoying, and later on Lord Tennyson was driven to pay large sum for some useless downs neal his house simply In order to escape from the attentions of admiring travel CTS
 Why should not people be satisfied with the best that a poet is and can give them, namely his poetry? Few poets are greater than their poetry, and Tennyson was not one of them Like many great poets, such as Victor Hugo, for instance, the worship that was paid him by many who came to see him was painful to him and to his friends Ten nyson frequently took flight from his intending Boswells, and was the last man to appreciate the I'll parle" by which in Paris all conversation was hushed whenever Victor Hugo was present at dinner and spoke to his neighbor possibly only to ask him for the menu.
 Browning was neither of Cambridge nor of Oxford, but his genius was much more akin to Oxford than to Cambridge, and toward the end of his life, particularly after his son had en- tered at Balliol college, he was often seen among us. Though he was not what we call a scholar, his mind was saturated with classical lore, and his appreciation of Greek poetry Greek mythology and Greek sculpture was keen He could not quote Greek verses, but he was steeped in the Greek trag- edians and lyric poets. Of course, this classical sympathy was but one side of his poetry. Browning was full of sympathy, nay of worship for any, thing noble and true in literature, an cient or modern. And what was most delightful in him was his ready re- sponse, his generosity in pouring out his own thoughts before anybody who shared his sympathies For real and substantial conversation there was no after dinner talk he was admirable His health seemed good and he was able to sacrifice much of his time to so- ciety. He had one great advantage-h never consented to spoil his dinner by making, or, what is still worse, by hav- ing to make, a speech. I once fell greatly aggrieved, sitting opposite Browning al one of the Royal Academy | dinners. I had to return thanks fol 1 literature and scholarship, and was, o1 course, rehearsing my speech during the whole of dnner-time while he en- l joyed himself talking to his friends | When I told him that it was a shame that I should be made a martyr o1 while he was enjoying his dinner ir 1 peace, he laughed, and said that he had said no once for all, and that ht had never in his life made public speech I believe, as a rule, poets are not good speakers. They are too care. full about what they wish to say. Stl ! I felt it was hard on me, and I became more and more convinced of the ety
 mological identity of honor and onus. l At last my turn came. Having tt 1 face the brilliant society which is al
 ways present at this dinner, including
 the Prince of Wales, the ministers O
 both parties, the most eminent artists scientists, authors and critics I had, O course, learned my speech by heart, ans
 was getting on very we'll, when sud
 denly I saw the Prince of Wales laugh
 ing and saying something to his neigh | bor. At once the thread of my speacl
 was broken. l began to think whethe
 I could have said anything that mad
 the prince laugh, and what it coult
 have been, and while I was thinking il
 every direction, l suddenly stoot speechless. l thought it was an eterni
 ty, and I was afraid I should have t,
 collapse and make the greatest fool o
 myself that ever was. I looked a 1 Browning, and he gave me a friendl,
 nod, and at that moment my grapple irons caught the lost cable and I wa
 able to finish my speech. When it wa
 over I turned to Browning and said Was it not fearful-tllat pause?
 Far from it, he said; "it was excel
 lent. It gave life to your speech. Ev
 erybody saw you were collecting you
 thoughts, and that you were not sim
 ply delivering what you had learned b. heart. Besides, 1t did not last half
 minute" To me it had seemed at leas
 five or ten minutes. But after Brown
 ing's good-natured words I felt re lieved, and enjoyed at least what wa
 left of a most enjoyable dinner.
 The best place to see Browning wa
 Venice, and I think it was there that
 saw him for the last time. He wa | stayinp in one of the smaller DaIace