The sun., 1901-11-09
WV BOOKS


- q sunai1 octave volume OF soma <<V
~ Macmillan Company has pub
49, "A Commentary on Tennyson's In
s..u,or,sm,s by A. G. Bradley. Ill. d..
n.asss.or Of Poetry In the University OF
nr,ord The author tells US that his pur-
-. n IN be Of use TO such readers ~
% study I'm Memoriam' closely BY
ssavtns the bearing Of the sections on one
.no.h.r. and by dealing with many OF the
Im.,,,ties of Interpretation which he haa
N1-'.,,,ntared In his own reading OF the
-, or In conversation, OF In teaching
=. ,hose who think all commentary on
~, Memoriam' supernous. DR. Bradley
I,a,s.,s that they can never have studied
~ noem. II they do 90. they VIII Ger.
..in,v And. he says. that the meaning OF
ny " ~ the passages is doubtful and that
. few are extremely obscure. of sestne'io
criticism there h next to none IN the oook
h.fOre US, and many VIII doubt whether
,be obscurities. which for the most part
oocur in Tennyson's speculations on I'M
mortality, are worth calculation. Tenny-
an himself was well aware that the quee-
,,or sWhither' cannot be fruitfully dis
s,s.ed without some consideration on the
.rsv,ous question Whence Unfortu-
n.telv for him, he did not have before him
~ materials needed for the prosecution
~ The preliminary inquiry. Touching
,Ais point II sufflces TO remark that all OF
~. short poems collected under the title
a sIn Memoriam' were written many
v.syr before the publication OF Darwin's
:Odein of Species The space, therefore.
.,otted In this volume to an exposition
n Tennysons ideas respecting the nature
~ the human soul, and concerning It's
orietn and destiny, seems TO US to have
been wasted, not only because Tennyson
Aid not profess to be thinker, In the proper
..nse Of the term, but because, even had
bs been q thinker, he lacked some OF the
data Indispensable to the formation OF
Judgment.
90 far as the book deals With Tennyson's
habit Of repeating himself, and with his
indebtedness to other poets. 1t Is interest
ns, II not important. DR.. Bradley con-
osdes that In .In Memoriam' we encounter
q larger number Of phrases which recall
the phrases Of other poets than we should
probably be able to find in the same amount
Of verse by any other famous English
author, except Gray. When Gray, how
ever, or, for that matter. Milton. trans
lates, paraphrases or In any way repro
duoes the words Of an earlier writer. he
senerslly does 1t knowingly. and with the
intention that the reader should recognize
it; indeed, IL the reader fails to recognize 1t.
be does not fully appreciate the passage.
Examples Of such deliberate reproduction
may be found in Tennyson, and In some
notes TO his earliest volumes, he called
vxla rxia iar4a nnh0dv
pretends that Tennyson was ever guilty;
BY plagiarist being understood q person
who uses the words Of a predecessor, know
ing what he is doing, but not intending
the origin Of the phrase TO be observed.
That Is Dr. Bradley's definition, and every
body will accept It. The only question
here examined in connection with this
particular subject Is whether most OF the
'borrowings- observed in Tennyson are
10 be regarded as mere condolences or as
unconscious reproductions, that Is to say,
unidentified "reminiscences. Touching
this point DR.. Bradley observes: The
poet himself seems to have considered
them to be the former. and scarcely TO
have realized that such thing as uncon-
sc,ous reproduction exists. Probably 10
some minds its limits are well defined;
but with other writer's this u not 30. and
many . man Of letters has often TO endure
the vexation OF finding that phrase. which
sesmed particularly appropriate and
came particularly easily was not his own
property at all. Such writers are equally
apt TO reproduce phrases OF their own.
without any suspicion that they are re-
pesting themselves and in general IL is
In. thaf. rafa af
u emory may he combined with unusual
unconsciousness that memory Is being
employed
To DR.. Bradley II seems TO be beyond
doutt that while some Of Iennyson's Dor
rUwings' are cases Of mere coincidence.
q greater number are unconscious reIni-
nisoences. In other words, the author
Of In Memoriam- was more than com
monty subject 90 the trick ~ memory just
mentioned The author of this book thinks
uat the abnormal extent Of TennysOn's
bOTto wings is IN favor Of this Wow why.
otherwise. he Asks, should this language
happ-n to coincide with that of other ISOsts
- much more often than does this langlsg
say of Shelley 81 k.atsi' II must alsO lie
sdmitted that when thore can be ittle doubt
thai 1-nny-on had read ,he passage ~ an
earier poe, Ia which a given phTaro occurs
10 morr probable that hs reproduced
us phfa,a than uat he invented II. Ibus,
4 t.e uurds g. S-,ok the empiy, vast and
~ardeuns air had occurred la sane sslduin
feai ihsAls-tAan 80 JaolhoAn dTamati-i. .
90 mlght Take 1onnyslu's 'drup- Ia his
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