“The moony vapour rolling round the King,Who seem’d the phantom of a Giant in it.”
Can “the haze of grief” refer to the tear, which acts as a magnifying lens?
[22]“My proper scorn”—proprius—is scorn of myself, an imprecation. See Lancelot’s self-condemnation at the end of “Lancelot and Elaine.”
[23]The churches are not to be identified. Those in the neighbourhood of Somersby have too small belfries to allow of change ringing. The sounds may have been only in the Poet’s mind.
[24]John, xii., 3
[25]A South African snake—bucephalus Capensis—commonly called the “Boom-slange ”—attracts birds into its mouth as prey, drawing them by an irresistible fascination. Dr. Smith, in his “Zoology of South Africa,” describes the process.
[26]In Cary’s translation of Dante’s “Hell,” canto iii., line 21, we find this note on what Dante and Virgil encountered in the infernal shades—“Post hæc omnia ad loca tartarea, et ad os infernalis baratri deductus sum, qui simile videbatur puteo, loca vero eadem horridis tenebris, fætoribus exhalantibus, stridoribus quoque et nimiis plena erant ejulatibus, juxta quem infernum vermis erat infinitæ magnitudinis, ligatus maxima catena.”Alberici Virio, § 9.
[27]If time be merged and lost in eternity, why may not place, all sense of locality, be equally lost in infinitude of space?
[28]I remember holding a serious conversation with an enlightened physician, some years ago, who said, “I hardly like to venture the theory, but it almost seems to me, as if what is now said and thought becomes written on the physical brain, like a result of photography, and that a revelation of this transcript, may be our real accuser at the day of judgment.” Had Shakespeare any such notion, in making Macbeth say,
“Raze out the written troubles of the brain?”
[29]Wordsworth entertains the notion of our having lived before in his fine Ode, “Intimations of Immortality,” wherein he says,
“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:The soul that rises with us, our life’s star,Hath had elsewhere its setting,And cometh from afar,” &c.
See Sir W. Scott’s “Journal,” where a like impression is acknowledged on 17th February, 1828.
Tennyson also says in “The Two Voices:”
“Moreover, something is or seemsThat touches me with mystic gleams,Like glimpses of forgotten dreams—Of something felt, like something here,Of something done, I know not where,Such as no language may declare.”
[30]“Ay” must have the force of the Greekἄι“alas”—and “ay me” be as the Latinhei mihi, “woe is me!” See also P. xl., 6.
[31]The early purple orchis is said to bear 200,000 seeds, and perhaps one grows to a plant.
[32]Coleridge says: “The Jacob’s ladder of Truth let down from heaven to earth, with all its numerous rounds, is now the common highway on which we are content to toil upward.”—Friend, viii.
[33]The doctrine of evolution may dispute this statement, and tell us that the type, or form, of the winged lizard of chaos, now fossilized in the rock, has been developed and continued in the reptile of the ditch; but its living self has perished, and its type is gone.
[34]“To die,—to sleep,—no more.”—Hamlet.
[35]
“But O for the touch of a vanish’d hand,And the sound of a voice that is still.”
[36]The term “toll” is correct—
“When we lament a departed soulWe toll.”
[37]Dixitque novissima verba, Æ. iv., 650.
[38]A poem by Catullus (Carmenci.) who visits his brother’s grave, concludes with these lines:
“Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,Atque in perpetuum, frater, Ave, atque Vale.”
Aveis the morning greeting:Valethat of the evening. This seems the like idea to that of the morning and evening star. See P. cxxi., 5.
[39]There is often great charm in the cheerfulness of those who we know have suffered.
[40]See the Poet’s own words on this point at the end of PoemXCVII.
[41]“Doubtful shore” may mean that here there may be doubt, whether there has not been a previous existence.
[42]“Thou, as one that once declined,” recalls in Hamlet, Act I., s. 5, “To decline upon a wretch, whose natural gifts were poor to those of mine.”
[43]Clevedon Church, which is dedicated to St. Andrew, is quaint and picturesque in appearance, but not architecturally beautiful. It is an irregular structure, which has evidently been added to at various times, the chancel being the original fisherman’s church, and it has a solid square tower. Within the sanctuary is the Hallam vault, on which the organ now stands. Two cliffs, known as Church Hill and Wains Hill, rounded and grass-grown, that rise on either side, seem to guard and shelter it, with its surrounding churchyard that holds the quiet dead. There are only two bells in Clevedon Church—a small one, on which are three initial letters L. A. C., and a larger one, weighing 25 cwt. which is inscribed—
“I to the church the living call,And to the grave do summon all.”—1725.
[44]There are other tablets in this church, which contain touching memorials of the Hallam family. The historian’s own death is recorded as having taken place on 21st January, 1859. Mrs. Hallam died 28th April, 1840. Their son Henry Fitzmaurice died at Sienna, 25th October, 1850, aged 26; and he is said, by one who knew him, to have had all the charm and talent of Arthur. On 13th June, 1837, in her 21st year, Eleanor Hallam was suddenly called away, and was buried in the vault where her brother, Arthur, had been laid.
It was after this sad bereavement, that Mr. and Mrs. Hallam made a brief sojourn at Sevenoaks, then unspotted by villas, where they lived in strict retirement. Mr. Hallam only associated with Sir John Bayley, the retired judge, who was a kind friend of my own youth. I see the sorrowing couple at church in garments of the deepest mourning: and the fine brow of Mr. Hallam resting on his hand, as he stood during the service in pensive devotion.—A. G.
[45]The Severn is nine miles wide at Clevedon.
[46]Consanguineus leti sopor.Æn. vi. 278. See also Iliad xiv., 231, and xvi., 672.
[47]In Tennyson’s “Ode to Memory” the lines occur
“The seven elms, the poplars four.That stand beside my father’s door.”
[48]The foot of “Maud” opened these fringes by treading on the daisies. “Her feet have touched the meadows, and left the daisies rosy.”
[49]Sir Thomas Browne, in his “Letter to a Friend,” says, with reference to some one recently dead, that “he lost his own face, and looked like one of his near relations: for he maintained not his proper countenance, but looked like his uncle.”
[50]In “The Two Voices,” Tennyson says,
“I know that age to age succeeds,Blowing a noise of tongues and deeds,Adustof systems and of creeds.”
And again, in “The Vision of Sin,”
“All the windy ways of menAre butdustthat rises up,And is lightly laid again.”
Also in PoemLXXI., 3.
“thedustof change.”
[51]Shakespeare says,—“Till the diminution of space had pointed him sharp as my needle.”—Cymbeline, Act i., s. 4.
Chaucer says,
“And all the world as to mine eyeNo more seemed than a prike.”Temple of Fame.
[52]“The Poet Laureate has written his own song on the hearts of his countrymen that can never die. Time is powerless against him,” said Mr. Gladstone, in returning thanks at Kirkwall for himself and Mr. Tennyson. To both of whom the freedom of the borough was presented, on the occasion of their visit—13 Sept., 1883.
[53]This term is Shakespearean,
“What devil was’tThat thus hath cozen’d you at hoodman-blind.”Hamlet, Act iii., s. 4.
[54]A younger sister of Lady Tennyson.
[55]Their scholarly father gave them their first classical training. He was a strict tutor, and would make them repeat some odes of Horace before breakfast.
[56]In “The Two Voices” we find the idea that man may pass “from state to state,” and forget the one he leaves behind:
“As old mythologies relate,Some draught of Lethe might awaitThe slipping thro’ from state to state.”
[57]Miss Emily Tennyson eventually married a naval officer, Captain Jesse.
[58]In this Poem occurs the line
“Arrive at last the blessed goal.”
“Arrive” is thus made an active verb: but there are good authorities for this use, which has the meaning of “attain,” or “reach.”
“But ere we could arrive the point proposed,Cæsar cried, Help me, Cassius, or I sink.”Julius Cæsar, Act i., s. 2.
“I mean, my lords, those powers that the queenHath raised in Gallia have arrived our coast.”3 Henry VI., Act v., s. 3.
“Over the vast abrupt, ere he arriveThe happy isle.”Paradise Lost, B. II., l. 409.
[59]This Poem was written “through a course of years,” and during that long period the author was devotedly attached to the lady whom he ultimately married, but they were not allowed to meet. May not this separation have tinctured, with double sadness, this wonderful elegy in memory of his friend? Lord Tennyson’s marriage, and the first publication of “In Memoriam,” both occurred in 1850.
[60]
“all things rareThat heaven’s air in this huge rondure hems.”Shakespeare,Sonnet XXI.
[61]The “towering sycamore” must be a notable tree on the lawn, again alluded to in P. xcv., s. 14.It is cut down, and the four poplars are gone, and the lawn is no longer a flat one.
[62]“In summer twilight she, as evening star, is seen surrounded with the glow of sunset,crimson-circled.”
Spedding’sBacon, vol. vi., p. 615.
[63]In the “Lotus Eaters,” we read
“all hath suffered change;For surely now our household hearths are cold:Our sons inherit us: our looks are strange:And we should come like ghosts to trouble joy.”
[64]The kingfisher is here meant, which, like other birds, puts on its best plumage in early spring—see “Locksley Hall”—
“In the spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin’s breast;In the spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest;In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish’d dove.”
Longfellow sings in “It is not always May:”
“The sun is bright—the air is clear,The darting swallows soar and sing,And from the stately elms I hearThe blue-bird prophesying spring.”
I can positively say that the kingfisher is the bird to which the poet refers. Another parallel passage may be quoted:
“The fields made golden with the flower of March,The throstle singing in the feather’d larch,And down the river, like a flame of blue,Keen as an arrow flies the water-king.”
“The little halcyon’s azure plumeWas never half so blue.”—Shenstone.
[65]Campbell says, “Coming events cast their shadows before.” The sun, by refraction, still appears in full size above the horizon, after it has really sunk below it; and reappears in full, when only just the upper edge has reached the horizon.
“As the sun,Ere it is risen, sometimes paints its imageIn the atmosphere, so often do the spiritsOf great events stride on before the events,And in to-day already walks to-morrow.”Death of Wallenstein, Act v. Scene i.
[66]The wish realized. See Poem xcv. s. 9.
[67]Somersby may be described as being utterly secluded from the “madding crowd”—the most rural retirement that the most agricultural country can show. I find the population was recorded in 1835, when the family still resided there, as being sixty-one, whilst the church accommodation was for sixty. Small, however, as both church and parish were, and still are, the so-called Rectory is a roomy family house, with its back to the road, on which there can be but little traffic, and it fronts a very extensive stretch of country, on which you enter by a steep slope of ground. There are no striking features in this expanse of soft undulations, but you feel a consciousness that the sea is not far off, and that the scenery is well adapted for fine cloud and sunset effects. The air seems to have a bracing tone, and the several equally small churches around, tell of thin populations, and a general condition of rustic simplicity and peace.
[68]
“They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead:They brought me bitter news to hear, and bitter tears to shed;I wept, as I remember’d how often you and IHad tired the sun with talking, and sent him down the sky.“And now that thou are lying, my dear old Carian guest,A handful of grey ashes, long long ago at rest,Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake,For death he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.”
I cannot resist quoting these touching lines, which are translated from the Greek of Callimachus, librarian of Alexandria, 260B.C., on his friend Heraclitus of Halicarnassus.
[69]See P. cix., s. 3.
[70]
“Jocund dayStands tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops.”Romeo and Juliet, Act iii., s. 5.
[71]Ignis fatuus—“Will o’ the Wisp.”
[72]That is, theursa minor, or little bear, which is a small constellation that contains the pole star, and never sets in our latitude.
[73]This is a favourite figure. In Poem xlix., stanza 1, we read,
“Like light in many a shiver’d lanceThat breaks about the dappled pools.”
[74]
“This holly by the cottage-eave,To-night, ungather’d, shall it stand.”
Changed in later editions to
“To-night ungather’d let us leaveThis laurel, let this holly stand.”
[75]
“Use and Wont,Old sisters of a day gone by.They too will die.”—Poem xxix.
[76]“Ligna super foco large reponens.” Thackeray sang,
“Care, like a dun,Lurks at the gate,Let the dog wait!Happy we’ll be.Drink every one.Pile up the coals,Fill the red bowls,Round the old tree.”
[77]“All stone I felt within,” Dante’s Inferno, xxxiii. 47. Wright’s translation. “My heart is turned to stone,” Othello, act iv., s. 1. Eloisa says, “I have not quite forgot myself to stone.”
[78]Lucan has, “ulularunt tristia Galli.”
[79]“Nearest” in later editions.
[80]Sir Thomas Browne, in his “Christian Morals,” says, “the true heroick English gentleman hath no peer.”
[81]InMeasure for Measure, act iii., s. 1, we read
“To be imprison’d in the viewless winds.”
“Sightless” and “viewless” are alike used for “invisible.”
“O, therefore, from thy sightless range.”P. xciii., 3.
[82]
“Cælum mutant, qui trans mare currunt.”Hor. Ep. xi., 27.
[83]“The work begun by Nature is finished by the Supernatural—as we are wont to call the higher natural. And as the veil is lifted by Christianity, it strikes men dumb with wonder. For the goal of Evolution is Jesus Christ. The Christian life is the only life that will ever be completed. Apart from Christ, the life of man is a broken pillar, the race of men an unfinished pyramid.”—Drummond’sNatural Law in the Spiritual World, p. 314.
[84]See Poem xcvi.
[85]What is the difference of meaning in the two words “adieu” and “farewell”? Byron says inLara,
“Farewell to life, but not adieu to thee.”
[86]
“With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.”Romans x., 10.
[87]
“But as I rav’d, and grew more fierce and wildAt every word,Methought I heard one calling,Child,And I reply’d,My Lord.”The Collar, G. Herbert.
[88]Many years ago, I had a conversation with the Poet in his attic study at Farringford, that lasted till nearly daybreak. He discoursed on many subjects, and when we touched on religion, he said,I am not very fond of creeds: it is enough for me that I know God Himself came down from heaven in the form of man. I cannot resist testifying to the singular frankness and impressiveness of his conversation, especially when talking to my wife, who approached much nearer to his intellectual level than I did, and whom he has now joined “on the mystic deeps.”—A. G.
[89]Shakespeare says,
“Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead,Excessive grief the enemy to the living.”All’s well that ends well, act i., s. 1.
[90]The late Sub-Dean Garden said, that E. L. Lushington was the most learned man in England, after Bishop Thirlwall. Professor Lushington died 13th July, 1893.