SPECIAL ARTICLE.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18888, 31 December 1926, Page 13

SPECIAL ARTICLE.

TENNYSON'S TALK. —-♦ UNMEASURED ELOQUENCE. (i/icuLLT w»im* ton tb» rang.) [By J. H. E. ScunonEK.j U.-Jfo: <"" lunri, is raen t| ont , d ia Ik* !»!* Recorder of Manchcstrr's A...L bier'»rfc7 ("A* 1 Went on My w»v• ■' >r A. J Ashton).—half a cft M "'• »4 » bo.tl. of Mowlle. Tho S 'T, ,iol,t >•*-,:dj.m of tho win* .„;„ ££ fttily «"ith the delicious, »li g hllv .„,,, «,Tour of th* hlrrf. It w ,,t™ who ..Id to .„ admirer, ..,r," n 'd .mK ,»liib with which the port- w „ ' h r c j BS » phi. of cold hoii,,, h J,. UC Y!"V, i 7'" l ''Th.™" aw, "■"■• '""ifood to dotmi|h«n«»V in Tennv.on'/^v," 1 " Hon It h»t no, been Efficiently rC aised by rr-ponors and hioyranhen•.JUiliMr to <"<->rrr<pondent, in ••T'm v

I If 8.F., homer lie may l, e , 111fJ | wbatever j,j d question, did not eongratu | !at« himself on answer sur | gdtire of two sncl, different but * e I Jjghtftri invr-thvafin,,,, i, c mugt h(j ' a I ion tuck. ff> might very happily oc- § agf himsdf for a yfbr or , wo - ln ' tcst _ * faf "Affabl- ifawk's" endorsement of I lie Record'r of Manchester's recipe for I , periVl lunch; for it h a question I upon which he might easily get, sav , I ftoimoT iSaintsbiiry to pronounce, 0 r I Mr Arnold Bennett, and other ' dis--1 fiuguuuVd amateurs of food and drink, I isd finding (no doubt; their opinions I is conflict, develop by agreeable cxperi- | sent both a talent for comparative criI litism and a pretty taste of his own I H« might amuse himself, too, by tip! I fwiDg through the long-drawn aisles of 1 "Th« Life of Tennyson," where the jpliliog anthem swell* the note of praise. H«» he might, glancing from the BosVtll In his hand to the inscriptions on tie pious brasses, endeavour to catch fcl th«m that "Johnsonian downrightMil" to which "Affable Hawk" ditttta him; and he might go further in Mtosoniana and further in tlur records »t Tennyson before he became weary Jl the quest. 11l epicurean experiment B.F. has a

nit advantage over us whom these bar

klrie outlandu hold; but when a finger bttkons in to join Johnson and TennyMl 41 they talk and to hear how tho iwent of one sounds in the voice of tho •tter, wo are not less free nnd able tun he to hasten up. Two or three stories, met with outside tho official T'Kfe," had long ago suggested to the present writer that Tennyson's talk ■ait havo been fuller-flavoured and attnetively rougher in grain than the pMBi most often rend would lead one to expect. There was, for instance, ftaf story, recently repeated in a ftu»* leader, of the clergyman who ateopied one of those old-fashioned ''boxes" in a country inn, nest to that W which Tenuyson and some friends wre talking the night away. When tee party broke up, the parson emerg«l and begged the honour of shaking ItMyion's hand and learning his name; Aria had "never heard such talk in his #i." Perhaps this talk was one of tkow which Tennyson enjoyed with Mpave, Holman Hunt, Val Prinsep, ai Woolner, when, during a holiday tftr, the famous "Golden Treasury" planned. Palgrave's daughter gives Hi i delightful glimpse of the loquaci#»party. "While walking, the friends hiked so fait and so eagerly that they , WMtimes found it necessary to make tndd that each one, when particularly Sprous of being heard, should enforce on the others, by prefacing his ijjNds with an uplifted hand." But I fabun Hunt actually describes the sort < rf'after-dinner flowering of speech i/b&tb must have spell-bound the listWtr in the next box. •!**<f%t comments on the verses offerIpg themselves for consideration were Mir/ resolved upon after dinner, when ■MI and a pint of port ripened the ■ipmir of the company. . . ." And PdvM us, also, an amusing picture of iCf. Palfrave in pursuit of his lion Si friend: #We eonld watch Tennyson in his gmb bat and his clinging coat, wan.jjpif away among the rocks, assiduMKf Attended by our literary friend; l&if by chance the poet escaped his <p for » moment, the voice of Palfttre was heard above the sea and tho |W, ealling 'Tennyson, Tennyson,' Uttt he darted about here and there Ittyl be again held the arm of the •oast comrade." ■''Urn may hope that it was not such e teagress of taste, but simply PalVava's own, which certainly denied .Sake light of entry into tho "Golden ftfttary," and if memory serves, treat♦tDwae is the same hoity-toity fashik . . . There was, too, the illogitf'ifidenee of the story about Tenny■*rt wiait to Carlyle, whon the poet *t «a one side of the fire, the sage *lto other, when both smoked churchMrdtM and both were silent for the **»!•' evening, and when Carlyle, after Altiag Tennyson out at last, after Ok prolonged and magnificent exbibi- <* frf taciturnity, said he had never 9& w ovening with a companion so WOjatkstic and intellectual—or some*«lg like that. There were a few *** things, too, which may crop up by tt» iray ia what follows. fcrtltwas "Affable Hawk's" rep y t»fb» hungry inquisitiveness of o.h*Meb made some sort of deliberate en**7» obligation, and conscripted one Jjjtrof Hallam Tennyson's Life of Ins «wr. It is a much-abused book, so ****tttly scorned and waved away as •» feteple of monumental falsity and rnktorj that nobody reads it; and W h • pity. Tennyson is no doubt "pttatttafised and idealised and pietm into ridiculousness; but the book frM of extraordinarily interesting ftbfc records of plain fact, for the fcKjart, which the interpretative zeal *»ll«m is forced to leave in their **tri*y. A great many of the letters JJJ layings of Tennyson are set down. w»t they are a selection, and a selec- *» determined bv a partial view, w mm enongh; but this does not dimin- • tbtir interest. Tennyson emerges •"» this spatter of dots and lines, a ■My figure, but not without some rteg» of definition. There is also Anne otdnray Ritchie's "Tennyson, kusW»»tad Browning" to resort to, tor •fiintment of view; and Fitzgerald s fcttera, and Mr Faasset's coldly susiWws and sceptical "modern por- *#,» and Mr Nicholson's more gen•J*estimate; but when all is read ana «* U considered, when the romantic *»Ueetions of Thackeray's daughter «» balanced against the quizzical fcfoe Of Mr Fausset, Tennyson striK.cs •• » a lets interesting, less notable •*» than Johnson. He had so much «* to My. Who can imagine Johnson * ftaiident of the Metaphysical bo--2*7, »»d silent! Of Tennyson n '«t capacity it is written: 1 " *» remember that the Laureate toow *V P»rt in the discussion, but w Jg» pretence added dignity to a <Ug»»J* Wembly." Johnson was a"™?* "*• than a "mere presence. n *? i»v« been a poor metaphysics"; ■**h»n be opposed his ignorance u> s*J»l>bjlical learning, lie .at least f|W the metaphysicians to stand to #* "I refute it thus," said John-

**", the inte nd 7d r f n ?nr* *' Pnc ' ?l h apa ignorant ™ i r ."" tnt, °n was per'east i ,' ancl '"ational; hut at !? pwios o ;hic:,r Bnen 8 n en; i c se t n o sc ' s , chaiien « c "most OTOllnt " to ,PrO'l»Cn its 'lent of the ' *Lm '??' As Pr^; - Bi 'y Tennyson tCc". at the Cniv "- dually excmnt fr„ q rescrvp d, and "*": hut jShL„ m s,ls P ic i°n of cmptiE'lwards tell, u ? , " ot ' ,PCXCcllcnt Mr M S co eval, an,' *?"'* fcar in all not bv a miiP.»i. > Cim g,less expression hut }* bold «J"»Hv bold nriH • r °P<»l°nS and difFerencc s ann -° f oth( ' r ''- Tim dicta Bo h worp ,';" their recorded lntnse f wiHmnt i- - « '«»»£ u «? -A«- h r. b ;„ffb Johnson'., „„ mor P nu ° s i"', mn conviction. Tcnnvnm sheltered behind his beliefs »,";;',,,? poj-jjlo East winds: h But "Affable Hawk" is r i c ht- there was « resemblance between them in their talk. The delicate cleg.,„ ™hi h i» sometimes so tiresome inSeasons poetry dropped away as h e spoke " to his fnonds, and he could summon up an eloquence at its best as bluntly masculine as any man's. Indeed he was n rough sort of person, and found it easy to bo ruder than Johnson. Johnson was accused of knocking his man down with the butt-end of his pistol, if it missed fire. Tennyson sometimes omitted to try a legitimate shot, and battered his man, or his woman, at once. This is evident in the famous story of the tuft-hunting lady in Italy' —tho famous stay s-and-braces story; and it is evident also in the story of the MS poem. Tennyson was the- guest of the great Master of Balliol, Jowett, and was asked to read aloud one of his poems. Ho brought down a new one in manuscript and road it. It was bad, and trie uneasy eompanv waited for Jowett to be tactful. At last his thin silvery voico broke the silence: "I wouldn't publish that, if I were you, Tennyson." The outraged Laureate glared, and evorybody expected the heavens to fall in splintering thunder. . . . Tennyson roared: "Come to that, Master, the sherry you gave us at dinner wasn't fit to drink!" Mrs Cameron said to Tennyson, who had furiously resented certain strangers' gazing at'him over the Farringford hedge: "Thoy came to see a Lion and they, found a Bear." A Bear that poor authoress must have thought him who, when Tennyson was reading "Maud" and stopped suddenly to ask what birds were calling "Maud, Maud, Maud," faltered "Nightingales." "Pooh, pooh," said Tennysoto, "what a cockney you are! Nightingales don't say 'Maud'—rooks do, or something like it: Caw, caw, caw, caw, caw, caw." But Tennyson was unlike Johnson in being uncomfortable with strangers. Johnson rose to the intellectual demands of strange society, and was in as good form among the Scotch dignitaries to whom Boswell proudly exhibited him as in the Mitre Tavern in London. Tennyson was not sufficiently a man of the world to treat the world as his circle. One wonders whother he was not, in his heart, afraid lost he should totter there from tho pinnacle on which he stood secure among his friend 9 and relations; and so it was the "mere presenco" which dignified tho assemblages iu which Tennyson found himself for time to time. He was admirable and admired, rather for what he might have said or had published, than for what he then said. But how ho charmed Mb own circle! How he could delight the household of Thackeray; seem to "Old Fitz" in recollection "like Chaucer himself"; talk, after a performance of "Hamlet," with the groat actor of the Prince's part and the company, so carrying all before him that "I could scarcely tell at last where reality began and Shakespeare ended"; force Carlyle to say "I do not meet in these late decades such company over a pipe"; and commune with old Samuel Eogers "about death till the tears rolled down his face." Tennyson had himself less humour than appreciation of humour in others. He said good things, but they were neat, not humorous or witty. Wordsworth, he said, was "thick-ankled." Pindar he said was "a sort of Australian poet: he has long tracts of gravel with immensely large nuggets embedded." There is a. saying that one imagines accompanied by a Johnsonian roll of the shoulders: someone asked, "Mr Tennyson, which do you consider the creator poet, Browning or Bla-nk?" and Tennyson said emphatically, "Blank, compared with Browning, is as the dung beneath my feet." "I can t read Ben Jonson," he said; "he appears to me to move in a wide sea of gluo." It was in exactly Johnson's vein of derisive criticism thnt he mado fun of Johnson's own lines:

Let observation with extended view Stirtoy mankind from China to Peru

"Why did he not," asked Tennyson, "say 'let observation, with extended observation, observe extensively'?" Mr Frederick Locker-Lampson and Tennyson went together to the theatre in Paris, and could find only a little box at the top of the house, up against the ceiling and alongside an enormous gaschandelier. They looked down on a deep gulf, and what with the depth of it the glare, and their short sight, could see nothing. The stage seemed darkened. Tennyson said: "Locker, this i« like being stuck on a spike over Hell." Once he magnificently recited "Lyeidas," and then unexpectedly burst out: "I don't suppose one blessed German can appreciate tho glory of the verse as I can"; but this is much less amusing than Johnson's proportion between Englishmen and Frenchmen. Of Pope he said: "His lancet touches are very fine"; of Crabbe: "There is a 'tramp, tramp, tramp', a merciless sledge-hammer thud about his lines which suits his subjects." "We have eot so-and-so, and so-and-so, and so-and-so to breakfast with us next Wednesday morning at ten a.m.," sard the Dichess of Argyll; "do you think Mr Tennyson, yon could be persuaded to ioin our partv?" Tennyson briefly clos-ed negotiations: "I should hate it, Duchess." , , . .„ 'These snippets and fragments w,n not do: but the long conversations recorded by Hallam Tennyson arc impossible to quote. One thing * clear enough, that Tennyson was tar soundSuage and rhythm h f9 built up Ton- «««'« Scanty material info a rornnd"SVal Johnson was a bigger man. « ~J ~,v that Tennyson resembles he resembles Tcnny son.

«. G B. Shaw (according to an , write-; an almost inconceivab hundred vords on a postcard. But eral hunarea handwntiug is to <'°. hm , " l„ fact, one is struck amazingly clear- h cad| A though almost as letter » "'EI" 1 ;. » s H. C. Wells' handsmall as Mr bna -, fo rgad siting !S much n rM( , mblc Some of n l3 '»«k shorthand phrases.