The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-11-14

and Julictr Nevertheless IL is full Of conccits."
TO his mind, ono OF tho most passionate things
in tho English language is Romeo's speech. He
deemed 1t more passionate than anything in
shelley. Indeed, he thought that no ono has
drawn tho true passion Of love like Shakespeare
Amen, Amenl But, como what sorrow can,
It cannot countcrvail the exchange of Joy
That one short minute gives me in her sight.
For inimitably natural talk between husband
and wife, Tcnnyson would quote the scene be-
tween Hotspur and Lady Percy r'King Henry
w." part ~. and would exclaim: How do
~liciously playful Is that
In faith, III break thy little nngor. Harry,
An IL thou wilt not tell me all things true"
Macbeth was considered by Tcnnyson not, 40
is too ofton represented. n noisy swashbucklefI
but, on the contrary, as n full-furnished, ambt
tious man. "In tho scene with Duncan the or
cess Of courtesy adds a touch to the tragedy. 10
is like Clytcmnestra's profusion to Agnmemnon,
who, by the way, always strikes me as uncom-
monty cold and naughty to the wife whom he
had not seen for years." Elsewhere Tcnnyson OK
pressed the opinion that: liking Lear cannot
possibly be acted; 1t is too titanic. Al the begin
ming Of the play Loar. In his old ago. has grown
half mad, choloric, and despotic, and therefore
cannot brook Cordelia's silence. This play
shows a btate Of society whore mems pas.
sions are savage and uncurbed. No play
llkB Il1B any WnBTe-HOU 6NCn In0 ARuD1CWs
non is so terriically human" Once mores
ACTORS do not comprehend that Shake
speare's greatest villains. Iago among them.
have always q touch of conscience. You SEQ the
conscience working-therci lies one OF Shake
spearc's preeminences. Iago ought to DO ncted.
as the honest Iago,' not as the stage villain; 10
Is he who is essentially tho jealous man, MOB
Othello." Parts of The Two Noble Kinsnen,"
he considered, wero by Shakespeare. For In.
atance avcb lipaa M thosa hoar hta tunnr0nnf
That makes the stream seem flowers and
who dost pluck
with hand armipotent from forth blue clouds
The mnson'd turrets; that both mak'st aud breakst
The stony girths OF cities.'
OF Marlowe, too, Tennyson was very fond, and
he would often quote Ford's Broken Heart"
Touching American poets, no remarked: IT
know several striking poems by American poets,
but l think that Edgar Poe is taking his poetry
and prose togethcr) the most original American
genius" When asked to write an epitaph in
one line for Poc's monument in Westminster
Churchyard, Baltimore. he answered: How
can SO strange and so fine q genius and SO sad q
life be expressed and compressed in ono linei"
o writing poetry, he said: Simple poems
with simple thoughts. and in simple language.
arc the most difficult to write. I might say that,
In blank verse, The easiest things are hardest
to be done;' and tho converse is often true with
me. The hardest things are easiest to be DONE
] feared for years to touch the subject Of the
Holy Grail and. when l began, finished 1t in Q
fortnight"
IL.
In some "reminiscences contributed to this
volume by Mr.. w E.. H. Lecky, we arc told that
1t was a surprise to him to find that Tennyaon
possessed q strong sense Of humor, that he de-
lighted in witty stories, and told them admir-
ably. This was q side of his nature which
never appeared IL his writings before Tho
Northern Farmer" which was published early
in tho sixties. Lecky found, also. that Tenny-
son was not only q great poet, but also the
best critic Of verse he had ever known. His
ear for all the delicacies of rhythm has. I sup
pose. very seldom been equallod. He had
an admirable verbal memory for the poe
try OF others as we'll as for his own,
and he had tho true instinct of genius
i'll detecting among commonplace surroundings
some happy phrase or some original metaphor.
His taste lay chiefly in sixteenth and soven-
teenth century poetry, in which he was widely
rcad, and which he used to quote with admirable
power. ! can still remember the almost terrible
force he threw into tho noble lines of Rochester
on the Vanity Of Human Reason" We learn
from the same source that in eighteenth century
poetry Tennyson especially admired Burns,
whom he placed on almost as high n level as
Carlyle did; his admiration was rather increased
tudn ulmlnisneu ny tne skill Win Wnlcn Burns,
by a few strokes of genius. immortaliZcd
30 many of the old songs of Scotland and
Incorporated great parts of them in his
own poetry. Burns did," said Tcnnyson,
"for the old songs of Scotland almost what
Shakespeare had done for the English drama
that preceded him." 1t is Mr., Lecky's impress
sion that. among nineteenth century poets, Ten
nyson placed Keats on the highest pinnacle. He
maintained. like Lander. That Keats had moro
~ A.. ,na Ito n,,ar thn. haIlnx n~I H..
thought it difficult to overestimatc tho height
to which he might have risen il he had lived.
Byron he seemed TO place on a lower level, and
he considered his poetry too much akin TO rhcto-
ric. In discussing Byron. Mr.. Lccky once
quoted the passage in THE Giaour" beginning,
He who hath bent him DER the dead.
comparing Greece to the dead man in tho
moment after death. T%ennyson admitted it's
beauty, but said that to his taste tho idea was
too beaten out. "A Greek poet would have
conveyed 1t by a single stroke. He would have
said. The faco of the land is as the smile of the
dead" He lamentcd that Campbell. in Tho
Battle of tho Baltic" had spoiled tho intense
reality and truthfulness Of ono of the noblest
patriotic odes in the language by ono false and
Earring note: And the mcrmaid's song con-
dolcs." He admired much the plays of his old
friend Henry Taylor, but complained that they
were too uniformly stately. that no mover laid
aside the co,lurnus.'
1t is also Mr.. Lecky who tells US that Tenny.
son had no kind Of sympathy with the theory
which would divorce art from morals. Tennyson
did, in truth, believe that art. thus divorced, be-
came "procuress to the lords ofhcll." No literary
man has had n higher sense of duty in conneo-
ton with his work. 1t was n sense of duty not
only to the living and the unborn, but also. and
in a very marked degree, to the dead. Mr..
Lecky recalls, for instance. that Tennyson, speak
ing of the character of Beckett. expressed the
dread ho always felt lest he should DO some
Injustice to the actions or motives Of those who
arc in their graves. He hated with an intense
hatred all literary quarrels and rivalries and
jealousics, and his literary Judgment seemed to
Mr.. Lecky not only singularly sane and unex-
aggeratcd, but also singularly unbiased by his