There is already an extensive Tennyson literature. Of books relating to
the scenes connected with his life and works, are Walters' _In Tennyson
Land_; Brooks' _Out of Doors with Tennyson_; also Church's _Laureate's
Country_, and Napier's _Homes and Haunts of Lord Tennyson_. There is a
mass of material, both critical and biographical, in Shepherd's
_Tennysoniana_; Wace's _Life and Works of Tennyson_; Tainsh's _Study of
the Works of Tennyson_; Jennings' _Sketch of Lord Tennyson_; and Van
Dyke's _Poetry of Tennyson_. Besides these may be mentioned Brightwell's
_Tennyson Concordance_; Irving's _Tennyson_; Lester's _Lord Tennyson and
the Bible_; also Collins' _Illustrations of Tennyson_.
Valuable help for understanding and appreciating _In Memoriam_ is afforded
by the volumes on that poem written by Robertson, Gatty, Genung, Chapman
and Davidson. Much interesting information is given in Dawson's _Study of
"The Princess"_; Mann's _Tennyson's "Maud" Vindicated_; Elsdale's _Studies
in the Idyls_; and Nutt's _Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail_. A
collection of Tennyson's songs, set to music by various composers, has
been issued by Stanley Lucas and by Harper & Bros.
Several volumes of selections from Tennyson's writings have appeared as
follows: _Ausgewaehlte Gedichte_, with notes (in German) by Fischer,
Salzwedel, 1878; _Lyrical Poems of Alfred Tennyson_, with notes (in
Italian) by T. C. Cann, Florence, 1887; _Lyrical Poems of Lord Tennyson_,
annotated by F. T. Palgrave; _Select Poems of Tennyson_, and _Young
People's Tennyson_, both edited by W. J. Rolfe; _Tennyson Selections_,
with notes by F. J. Rowe and W. T. Webb; and _Tennyson for the Young_,
edited by Alfred Ainger.
Among school editions of Tennyson's poems, are _The Princess_, with notes
by Rolfe, also by Wallace; _Enoch Arden_, with notes by Rolfe, by Webb,
and by Blaisdel; _Enoch Arden_, with notes (in German) by Hamann,
Leipzig, 1890; _Enoch Arden_, with notes (in French) by Courtois, Paris,
1891; _Enoch Arden_, with notes (in French) by Beljame, Paris, 1891; _Les
Idylles du roi, Enoch Arden_, with notes (in French) by Baret, Paris,
1886; _Enoch Arden, les Idylles du roi_, with notes (in French) by
Sevrette, Paris, 1887; _Aylmer's Field_, annotated by Webb; _The Two
Voices_ and _A Dream of Fair Women_, by Corson; _The Coming of Arthur_ and
_The Passing of Arthur_, by Rowe; _In Memoriam_ and other poems, by
Kellogg.
Innumerable papers on Tennyson and his poetry have been published in
newspapers and periodicals. A large number of these reviews and some
descriptive articles are contained in the following volumes: Horne's
_Spirit of the Age_; Howitt's _Homes and Haunts of British Poets_;
Hamilton's _Poets-Laureate of England_; Robertson's _Lectures_; Kingsley's
_Miscellanies_; Bagehot's _Literary Studies_; Japp's _Three Great
Teachers_; Buchanan's _Master Spirits_; Austin's _Poets of the Period_;
Forman's _Our Living Poets_; Friswell's _Modern Men of Letters_; Haweis'
_Poets in the Pulpit_; McCrie's _Religion of Our Literature_; Devey's
_Comparative Estimate of English Poets_; Gladstone's _Gleanings of Past
Years_; Archer's _English Dramatists of To-Day_; Stedman's _Victorian
Poets_; Cooke's _Poets and Problems_; Fraser's _Chaucer to Longfellow_;
Dawson's _Makers of Modern English_; Egan's _Lectures on English
Literature_; and Ritchie's _Light-Bearers_.
For favorable or unfavorable estimates of Tennyson, the reader is referred
to the lectures of Dowden and Ingram in the _Dublin Afternoon Lectures on
Literature and Art_, and to the collected essays of Brimley, Bayne,
Hadley, Masson, Stirling, Roscoe, Hayward, Hutton, Swinburne, Galton,
Noel, Heywood, Bayard Taylor and others.
Some side-lights are thrown on the Laureate in Ruskin's _Modern Painters_;
Hamerton's _Thoughts on Art_; Masson's _Recent British Philosophy_; and
Arnold's _Lectures on Translating Homer_. Stray glimpses of the man in his
personal relations are found in the _Carlyle and Emerson Correspondence_;
Fanny Kemble's _Records of a Girlhood_; Caroline Fox's _Memories of Old
Friends_; Reid's _Life of Lord Houghton_; and in the _Letters and Literary
Remains of Edward Fitzgerald_.
But with all that has been written concerning Tennyson, no monograph, so
far as I am aware, has hitherto appeared which is at once comprehensive
and accurate. Mrs. Ritchie's beautiful portraiture of the Laureate, with
its touch of hero-worship, lacks a great deal of being a survey of his
literary career. No biography of Alfred Tennyson has been published which
is worthy the name. For many years students and lovers of the poet
encountered difficulty in obtaining full and exact information on the
chief events of his life. I undertook to supply this want in the essay
entitled "Tennyson's Life and Poetry."
In the preparation of this paper, I had occasion to consult various
periodicals and works of reference. With scarcely an exception, I found
the articles on Tennyson in cyclopedias and biographical dictionaries
faulty in many particulars. Even the sketches in recent compilations and
journals are full of misleading and conflicting statements. I became
impressed with the thought that these errors ought to be exposed and
corrected. The result was the critique--"Mistakes concerning Tennyson." I
gathered my materials from a variety of sources, and always aimed to
disengage the truth. I depended largely on Rev. Alfred Gatty, Mrs.
Ritchie, Mr. Gosse, Prof. Palgrave, Prof. Church, Mr. C. J. Caswell, and
Dr. Van Dyke as the most trustworthy authorities.
My thanks are due Dr. W. F. Poole, of the Newberry Library, for placing at
my disposal an immense collection of bibliographies, catalogues and
bulletins of foreign books. I desire also to express my obligations to Dr.
Henry van Dyke, of New York City, for aiding me in my researches.