第 4 节
作者:
理性的思索 更新:2021-02-21 10:15 字数:9322
of God and of the soul。 We shall later have to discuss the opinion
of an eminent critic; Mr Frederic Harrison; that Tennyson's ideas;
theological; evolutionary; and generally speculative; 〃followed;
rather than created; the current ideas of his time。〃 〃The train of
thought〃 (in In Memoriam); writes Mr Harrison; 〃is essentially that
with which ordinary English readers had been made familiar by F。 D。
Maurice; Professor Jowett; Dr Martineau; Ecce Homo; Hypatia。〃 Of
these influences only Maurice; and Maurice only orally; could have
reached the author of The Mystic and the Supposed Confessions。 Ecce
Homo; Hypatia; Mr Jowett; were all in the bosom of the future when In
Memoriam was written。 Now; The Mystic and the Supposed Confessions
are prior to In Memoriam; earlier than 1830。 Yet they already
contain the chief speculative tendencies of In Memoriam; the growing
doubts caused by evolutionary ideas (then familiar to Tennyson;
though not to 〃ordinary English readers〃); the longing for a return
to childlike faith; and the mystical experiences which helped
Tennyson to recover a faith that abode with him。 In these things he
was original。 Even as an undergraduate he was not following 〃a train
of thought made familiar〃 by authors who had not yet written a line;
and by books which had not yet been published。
So much; then; of the poet that was to be and of the philosopher
existed in the little volume of the undergraduate。 In The Mystic we
notice a phrase; two words long; which was later to be made familiar;
〃Daughters of time; divinely tall;〃 reproduced in the picture of
Helen:…
〃A daughter of the Gods; divinely tall;
And most divinely fair。〃
The reflective pieces are certainly of more interest now (though they
seem to have satisfied the poet less) than the gallery of airy fairy
Lilians; Adelines; Rosalinds; and Eleanores:…
〃Daughters of dreams and of stories;〃
like
〃Faustine; Fragoletta; Dolores;
Felise; and Yolande; and Juliette。〃
Cambridge; which he was soon to leave; did not satisfy the poet。
Oxford did not satisfy Gibbon; or later; Shelley; and young men of
genius are not; in fact; usually content with universities which;
perhaps; are doing their best; but are neither governed nor populated
by minds of the highest and most original class。
〃You that do profess to teach
And teach us nothing; feeding not the heart。〃
The universities; in fact; teach a good deal of that which can be
learned; but the best things cannot be taught。 The universities give
men leisure; books; and companionship; to learn for themselves。 All
tutors cannot be; and at that time few dreamed of being; men like
Jowett and T。 H。 Green; Gamaliels at whose feet undergraduates sat
with enthusiasm; 〃did EAGERLY frequent;〃 like Omar Khayyam。 In later
years Tennyson found closer relations between dons and
undergraduates; and recorded his affection for his university。 She
had supplied him with such companionship as is rare; and permitted
him to 〃catch the blossom of the flying terms;〃 even if tutors and
lecturers were creatures of routine; terriblement enfonces dans la
matiere; like the sire of Madelon and Cathos; that honourable
citizen。
Tennyson just missed; by going down; a visit of Wordsworth to
Cambridge。 The old enthusiast of revolution was justifying passive
obedience: thirty years had turned the almost Jacobin into an almost
Jacobite。 Such is the triumph of time。 In the summer of 1830
Tennyson; with Hallam; visited the Pyrenees。 The purpose was
politicalto aid some Spanish rebels。 The fruit is seen in OEnone
and Mariana in the South。
In March 1831 Tennyson lost his father。 〃He slept in the dead man's
bed; earnestly desiring to see his ghost; but no ghost came。〃 〃You
see;〃 he said; 〃ghosts do not generally come to imaginative people;〃
a remark very true; though ghosts are attributed to 〃imagination。〃
Whatever causes these phantasms; it is not the kind of phantasia
which is consciously exercised by the poet。 Coleridge had seen far
too many ghosts to believe in them; and Coleridge and Donne apart;
with the hallucinations of Goethe and Shelley; who met themselves;
what poet ever did 〃see a ghost〃? One who saw Tennyson as he
wandered alone at this period called him 〃a mysterious being;
seemingly lifted high above other mortals; and having a power of
intercourse with the spirit world not granted to others。〃 But it was
the world of the poet; not of the 〃medium。〃
The Tennysons stayed on at the parsonage for six years。 But;
anticipating their removal; Arthur Hallam in 1831 dealt in prophecy
about the identification in the district of places in his friend's
poems〃critic after critic will trace the wanderings of the brook;〃
as;in fact; critic after critic has done。 Tennyson dislikedthese
〃localisers。〃 The poet's walks were shared by Arthur Hallam; then
affianced to his sister Emily。
CHAPTER II。POEMS OF 1831…1833。
By 1832 most of the poems of Tennyson's second volume were
circulating in MS。 among his friends; and no poet ever had friends
more encouraging。 Perhaps bards of to…day do not find an eagerness
among their acquaintance for effusions in manuscript; or in proof…
sheets。 The charmed volume appeared at the end of the year (dated
1833); and Hallam denounced as 〃infamous〃 Lockhart's review in the
Quarterly。 Infamous or not; it is extremely diverting。 How Lockhart
could miss the great and abundant poetry remains a marvel。 Ten years
later the Scorpion repented; and invited Sterling to review any book
he pleased; for the purpose of enabling him to praise the two volumes
of 1842; which he did gladly。 Lockhart hated all affectation and
〃preciosity;〃 of which the new book was not destitute。 He had been
among Wordsworth's most ardent admirers when Wordsworth had few; but
the memories of the war with the 〃Cockney School〃 clung to him; the
war with Leigh Hunt; and now he gave himself up to satire。 Probably
he thought that the poet was a member of a London clique。 There is
really no excuse for Lockhart; except that he DID repent; that much
of his banter was amusing; and that; above all; his censures were
accepted by the poet; who altered; later; many passages of a fine
absurdity criticised by the infamous reviewer。 One could name great
prose…writers; historians; who never altered the wondrous errors to
which their attention was called by critics。 Prose…writers have been
more sensitively attached to their glaring blunders in verifiable
facts than was this very sensitive poet to his occasional lapses in
taste。
The Lady of Shalott; even in its early form; was more than enough to
give assurance of a poet。 In effect it is even more poetical; in a
mysterious way; if infinitely less human; than the later treatment of
the same or a similar legend in Elaine。 It has the charm of
Coleridge; and an allegory of the fatal escape from the world of
dreams and shadows into that of realities may have been really
present to the mind of the young poet; aware that he was 〃living in
phantasy。〃 The alterations are usually for the better。 The daffodil
is not an aquatic plant; as the poet seems to assert in the first
form …
〃The yellow…leaved water…lily;
The green sheathed daffodilly;
Tremble in the water chilly;
Round about Shalott。〃
Nobody can prefer to keep
〃Though the squally east wind keenly
Blew; with folded arms serenely
By the water stood the queenly
Lady of Shalott。〃
However stoical the Lady may have been; the reader is too seriously
sympathetic with her inevitable discomfort …
〃All raimented in snowy white
That loosely flew;〃
as she was。 The original conclusion was distressing; we were dropped
from the airs of mysterious romance:…
〃They crossed themselves; their stars they blest;
Knight; minstrel; abbot; squire; and guest;
There lay a parchment on her breast;
That puzzled more than all the rest
The well…fed wits at Camelot。〃
Hitherto we have been 〃puzzled;〃 but as with the sublime incoherences
of a dream。 Now we meet well…fed wits; who say; 〃Bless my stars!〃 as
perhaps we should also have done in the circumstancesa dead lady
arriving; in a very cold east wind; alone in a boat; for 〃her blood
was frozen slowly;〃 as was natural; granting the weather and the
lady's airy costume。 It is certainly matter of surprise that the
young poet's vision broke up in this humorous manner。 And; after
all; it is less surprising that the Scorpion; finding such matter in
a new little book by a new young man; was more sensitive to the
absurdity than to the romance。 But no lover of poetry should have
been blind to the almost flawless excellence of Mariana in the South;
inspired by the landscape of the Provencal tour with Arthur Hallam。
In consequence of Lockhart's censures; or in deference to the maturer
taste of the poet; The Miller's Daughter was greatly altered before
1842。 It is one of the earliest; if not the very earliest; of
Tennyson's domestic English idylls; poems with conspicuous beauties;
but not without sacrifices to that Muse of the home affections on
whom Sir Barnes Newcome delivered his famous lecture。 The seventh
stanza p