We owe no apology for speaking of the dead poet as "Tennyson." This is how he will be known by posterity1. The rank is but the guinea's stamp, and in this case it was not requisite2. A true poet's gold can neither be made more precious nor more current by empty titles. In our opinion, it is a degradation3, instead of an honor, for one of nature's aristocrats4 to herd5 with the artificial nobility of an hereditary6 peerage. We also take the opportunity of regretting that Tennyson ever became Poet Laureate. The court poet should not survive the court dwarf7 and the court jester. It is painful to see a great writer grinding out professional odes, and bestowing8 the excrements of his genius on royal nonentities9. The preposterous10 office of Poet Laureate should now be abolished. No poet should write for a clique11 or a coterie12; he should appeal directly to the heart of the nation.
Tennyson's funeral took place at Westminster Abbey. The heads of that establishment, following the example set by Dean Stanley, now act as body-snatchers. They appropriate the corpses13 of distinguished15 men, whether they believed or disbelieved the doctrines16 of the service read over their coffins18. Charles Darwin's body is buried there—the great Agnostic, who repudiated19 Christianity; Robert Browning's too—the poet who said "I am no Christian20" to Robert Buchanan. Carlyle took care that his corpse14 should not join the museum. Tennyson's, however, is now in the catalogue; and, it must be admitted, with more plausibility21 than in the case of Browning—with far more than in the case of Darwin.
Christian pulpiteers, all over the country, have been shouting their praises of Tennyson as a Christian poet. They are justified22 in making the most of a man of genius when they possess one. We do not quarrel with them. We only beg to remark that they have overdone23 it. The Christianity of Tennyson is a very different thing from the Christianity they vend24 to the credulous25 multitude.
There is no real evidence that Tennyson accepted the legendary26 part of Christianity. Even in "In Memoriam," which was published forty-three years ago, the thought is often extremely Pantheistic. It is nearly always so in the later poems. God, not Christ, became more and more the object of the poet's adoration27, "Strong Son of God, immortal28 Love"—the first line of tne earlier poem—does not necessarily mean Christ; while the exclamation29, "Ring in the Christ that is to be," is more symbolic30 than personal. There is also a strong hope, rather than the certitude, of a future life. No thoroughly31 convinced Christian could have written of
The Shadow cloaked from head to foot,
Whose faith has centre everywhere,
Nor cares to fix itself to form.
is bidden to leave his sister undisturbed when she prays; the poet exclaiming
Oh, sacred be the flesh and blood
To which she links a truth divine!
In the last line of the next stanza35 this "sacred flesh and blood" of Christ (it is to be presumed) is called "a type"—which is a wide departure from orthodox Christianity. And what shall we say of the final lines of the whole poem?
One God, one law, one element,
And one far-off divine event,
To which the whole creation moves.
Like other passages of "In Memoriam," it is a distinct anticipation37 of the thought of "The Higher Pantheism," "Flower in the Crannied Wall," "De Profundus," and "The Ancient Sage36."
Much has been made of the "Pilot" in one of Tennyson's last poems, "Crossing the Bar."
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.
This has been treated as a reference to Christ; but a friend of Tennyson's, writing in the Athen?um, says that the reference was really to the poet's son, Lionel Tennyson, who "crossed the bar" of death some years previously38. How much more natural and human is the reference in the light of this explanation! Yet it appears, after all, from a later letter to the press by Tennyson's surviving son, that he did mean Christ. This is not, however, a confession40 of orthodoxy. The sentiment might be shared by men like the venerable Dr. Martineau, who deny the deity of Christ and strongly dissent41 from many time-honored Christian teachings.
Tennyson most assuredly revolted against the brutalities of Christianity; which, by the way, are countenanced43 by very explicit44 texts in the New Testament45. He did not approve the text, "Great is your reward in heaven." He was above such huckstering. He sang of Virtue—
Give her the wages of going on, and not to die.
A noble petition! though in the teeth of a too patent destiny.
The doctrine17 of eternal Hell he first turned from, then denounced, and finally despised. It was for wavering as to this hideous50 dogma that the Rev39. F. D. Maurice got into trouble with his College. He was godfather to Tennyson's little boy, and the poet invited him, in exquisitely51 charming verse, to share his hospitality.
For, being of that honest few,
Who give the Fiend himself his due,
Should eighty-thousand college-councils
Thunder "Anathema," friend, at you;
At you, so careful of the right,
Yet one lay-hearth would give you welcome
Tennyson had already, in "In Memoriam," proclaimed himself a Universalist, as Browning did afterwards in his powerful lines on the old Morgue at Paris. He had expressed the hope
That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life should be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete;
That not a worm is cloven in vain;
Is shrivelled in a fruitless fire,
Or but subserves another's gain.
Such, a poet could never see the divinity of the wicked, awful words, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting54 fire." He denounced it in "Despair," a poem of his old age. Well does he make the Agnostic cry out to the minister—
What! I should call on that
Infinite Love that has served us so well?
Infinite cruelty rather that made everlasting Hell,
Made us, foreknew us, foredoomed us, and does what he will with his own;
This is fierce denunciation, but it pales before the attack on Hell in "Rizpah"; that splendid poem, which is perhaps the very noblest effort of Tennyson's genius; outweighing57 hundreds of Balaclava charges and sea-fights; outshining the flawless perfection of "Maud":—a poem written in heart's blood and immortal tears, with a wondrously58 potent59 and subtle imagination, and a fire of humanity to burn up whole mountains of brutal42 superstitions60.
The passionate61 words of the poor old dying mother, full of a deathless love for her boy who was hung, go straight as an arrow to its mark, through all the conventions of society and all the teachings of the Church.
Election, Election and Reprobation—it's all very well,
But I go to-night to my boy, and I shall not find him in Hell.
And if he be lost—but to save my soul, that is all your desire;
Do you think that I care for my soul if my boy be gone to the fire?
Tennyson gives the very essence of the moral revolt against Hell. Human nature has so developed in sympathy that the sufferings of others, though out of sight, afflict62 our imaginations. We loathe63 the spectacle of Abraham and Lazarus gazing complacently64 on the torture of Dives. Once it was not so. Those who were "saved" had little or no care for the "damned." But the best men and women of to-day do not want to be saved alone. They want a common salvation65 or none. And the mother's heart, which the creeds have trampled66 upon, hates the thought of any happiness in Heaven while son or daughter is agonising in Hell.
It is perfectly67 clear that Tennyson was far from an orthodox Christian. Quite as certainly he was not a Bibliolator. He read the Bible, of course; and so did Shelley. There are fine things in it, amidst its falsehoods and barbarities; and the English version is a monument of our literature. We regard as apocryphal68, however, the story of Tennyson's telling a boy, "Read the Bible and Shakespeare; the one will teach you how to speak to God, and the other how to speak to your fellow-men." Anyhow, when the poet came to die, he did not ask for the Bible and he did ask for Shakespeare. The copy he habitually69 used was handed to him; he opened it at "Cymbeline," one of the most pagan of Shakespeare's plays; he read a little, and then held the book until Death came with the fall of "tired eyelids70 upon tired eyes."
It was a poetic71 death, and a pagan death. There lay the aged72, world-weary poet; artificial light was withdrawn73, and the moonlight streamed through the window upon his noble figure. Wife and son, doctors and nurses, were silent around him. And as Death put the last cold touch on the once passionate heart, it found him still clasping the book of the mighty74 magician. * Let it be also noted75 that no Christian priest was at his bedside. He needed not the mum-lings of a smaller soul to aid him in his last extremity76. Hope he may have had, but no fear. His life ended like a long summer day, slowly dying into night.
* The present Lord Tennyson wrote as follows to Sir Arthur
Hodgson, Chairman of the Shakespeare's Birthplace Trustees:
"I beg to convey from my mother and myself our grateful
acknowledgment to the Executive Committee of Shakespeare's
Birthplace for their most kind expression of sympathy and
for their beautiful wreath. My father was reading 'King
Lear,' 'Troilus and Cressida,' and 'Cymbeline' through the
last days of his life. On Wednesday he asked for
Shakespeare. I gave him the book, but said, 'You must not
try to read.' He answered, 'I have opened the book.' I
looked at the book at midnight when I was sitting by him,
lying dead on the Thursday, and found he had opened on one
of the passages which he had called the tenderest in
Shakespeare. We could not part with this volume, but buried
a Shakespeare with him. We had the book enclosed in a metal
box and laid by his side.
—Yours faithfully, Hallam Tennyson."
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1 posterity | |
n.后裔,子孙,后代 | |
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2 requisite | |
adj.需要的,必不可少的;n.必需品 | |
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3 degradation | |
n.降级;低落;退化;陵削;降解;衰变 | |
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4 aristocrats | |
n.贵族( aristocrat的名词复数 ) | |
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5 herd | |
n.兽群,牧群;vt.使集中,把…赶在一起 | |
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6 hereditary | |
adj.遗传的,遗传性的,可继承的,世袭的 | |
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7 dwarf | |
n.矮子,侏儒,矮小的动植物;vt.使…矮小 | |
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8 bestowing | |
砖窑中砖堆上层已烧透的砖 | |
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9 nonentities | |
n.无足轻重的人( nonentity的名词复数 );蝼蚁 | |
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10 preposterous | |
adj.荒谬的,可笑的 | |
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11 clique | |
n.朋党派系,小集团 | |
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12 coterie | |
n.(有共同兴趣的)小团体,小圈子 | |
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13 corpses | |
n.死尸,尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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14 corpse | |
n.尸体,死尸 | |
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15 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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16 doctrines | |
n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 );教义;学说;(政府政策的)正式声明 | |
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17 doctrine | |
n.教义;主义;学说 | |
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18 coffins | |
n.棺材( coffin的名词复数 );使某人早亡[死,完蛋,垮台等]之物 | |
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19 repudiated | |
v.(正式地)否认( repudiate的过去式和过去分词 );拒绝接受;拒绝与…往来;拒不履行(法律义务) | |
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20 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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21 plausibility | |
n. 似有道理, 能言善辩 | |
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22 justified | |
a.正当的,有理的 | |
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23 overdone | |
v.做得过分( overdo的过去分词 );太夸张;把…煮得太久;(工作等)过度 | |
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24 vend | |
v.公开表明观点,出售,贩卖 | |
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25 credulous | |
adj.轻信的,易信的 | |
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26 legendary | |
adj.传奇(中)的,闻名遐迩的;n.传奇(文学) | |
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27 adoration | |
n.爱慕,崇拜 | |
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28 immortal | |
adj.不朽的;永生的,不死的;神的 | |
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29 exclamation | |
n.感叹号,惊呼,惊叹词 | |
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30 symbolic | |
adj.象征性的,符号的,象征主义的 | |
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31 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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32 creeds | |
(尤指宗教)信条,教条( creed的名词复数 ) | |
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33 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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34 deity | |
n.神,神性;被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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35 stanza | |
n.(诗)节,段 | |
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36 sage | |
n.圣人,哲人;adj.贤明的,明智的 | |
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37 anticipation | |
n.预期,预料,期望 | |
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38 previously | |
adv.以前,先前(地) | |
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39 rev | |
v.发动机旋转,加快速度 | |
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40 confession | |
n.自白,供认,承认 | |
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41 dissent | |
n./v.不同意,持异议 | |
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42 brutal | |
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的 | |
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43 countenanced | |
v.支持,赞同,批准( countenance的过去式 ) | |
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44 explicit | |
adj.详述的,明确的;坦率的;显然的 | |
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45 testament | |
n.遗嘱;证明 | |
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46 isle | |
n.小岛,岛 | |
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47 isles | |
岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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48 grove | |
n.林子,小树林,园林 | |
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49 bask | |
vt.取暖,晒太阳,沐浴于 | |
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50 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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51 exquisitely | |
adv.精致地;强烈地;剧烈地;异常地 | |
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52 foam | |
v./n.泡沫,起泡沫 | |
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53 moth | |
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54 everlasting | |
adj.永恒的,持久的,无止境的 | |
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55 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
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56 groan | |
vi./n.呻吟,抱怨;(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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57 outweighing | |
v.在重量上超过( outweigh的现在分词 );在重要性或价值方面超过 | |
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58 wondrously | |
adv.惊奇地,非常,极其 | |
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59 potent | |
adj.强有力的,有权势的;有效力的 | |
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60 superstitions | |
迷信,迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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61 passionate | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,激昂的,易动情的,易怒的,性情暴躁的 | |
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62 afflict | |
vt.使身体或精神受痛苦,折磨 | |
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63 loathe | |
v.厌恶,嫌恶 | |
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64 complacently | |
adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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65 salvation | |
n.(尤指基督)救世,超度,拯救,解困 | |
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66 trampled | |
踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 ); 践踏; 无视; 侵犯 | |
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67 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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68 apocryphal | |
adj.假冒的,虚假的 | |
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69 habitually | |
ad.习惯地,通常地 | |
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70 eyelids | |
n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 );眼睛也不眨一下;不露声色;面不改色 | |
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71 poetic | |
adj.富有诗意的,有诗人气质的,善于抒情的 | |
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72 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
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73 withdrawn | |
vt.收回;使退出;vi.撤退,退出 | |
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74 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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75 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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76 extremity | |
n.末端,尽头;尽力;终极;极度 | |
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