A COMMENTARY UPON "IN MEMORIAX.* THE appearance of a commentary
of two hundred pages upon Tennyson's "In Memoriam," written by the Oxford Profess, of Poetry, would seem to imply that that admirable poem has at last taken its place among the classics. Certainly Mx Bradley's attitude to it is that of a commentator upon recognised masterpiece. He rarely permits himself to praise, still more rarely to blame ; he is content to interpret; and he interprets with that fulness of sympathy, and that jealou, determination to find significance in everything, which we reserve for the accredited,Scriptures. To begin with mr Bradley does his best to justify the claim of the poem to be an artistic whole by pointing out that, however piecemeal the process by which it came into being—and we know that while some of the elegies date from 1833 others were written a dozen years later—yet in its final form it is intended to coves an ideal period of something less than three years; the changes in the poet's mood being marked chiefly by the Christmas sections, but also by the other recurring Rums and anniversaries. Nevertheless, the commentator is Con. strained to admit that "the contents of some of the later sections imply a greater distance of time from the opening of the series than is suggested by the chronological scheme." Further, he points out that in the scheme of the poem which Tennyson himself, late in life, gave to Mr. Knowles, the second Christmas is altogether ignored. We feel ourselves therefore justified in scepticism as to the value of any rigid division of the poem into parts. Obviously the poem describes a process out of heart-broken sorrow into acquiescence and even joy; and as obviously within the principal scheme there are subordinate groups of poems concerned with particular topics; but nothing seems to be gained by any elaborate divisions. Had any such scheme been in the poet's mind at the time of publication he would himself have indicated it. The first three sections, therefore, of Mr. Bradley's introduc- tion may be taken, we think, with a pinch or two of salt. The fourth section, however, which deals with the main process of development in the poet's feeling, deserves very easeful reading, and cannot be praised too highly. Here Mr. Bradley's genius for sympathetic interpretation finds its opportunity. As a specimen of his skill we will quote one of the earlier paragraphs :— " At the beginning love desires simply that which was, the presence and companionship of the lost friend; and this it desires unchanged and in its entirety. It longs for the sight of the face, the sound of the voice, the pressure of the hand. These doubt less are desired as tokens of the soul ; but as yet they are tokens essential to love, and that for which it pines is the }mules known and loved through them. If the mourner attempts to think of the dead apart from them, his heart remains cold, or he recoils; he finds that he is thinking of a phantom ; an awful thought' instead of the human-hearted man he loved' ; a spirit, not a breathing voice.' This he does not and cannot love. It is In object of awe, not of affection; the mere dead body is a thousand- fold dearer than this,–ina,turally, for this is not really a spirit,
a thinking and loving soul, but a ghost
T consists largely in the conquest of the soul overperrlesboonfdachange to sense. So long as this bondage remains, its desire is fixed on that which really is dead, and it cannot advance. But gradually it resigns this longing, and turns more and more to that which in not dead. The first step in its advance is the perception that Lou itself is of infinite value, and may survive the removal of the sensible presence of its object. But no sooner has this conviction been reached and embraced than suddenly the mourner is found to have transferred his interest from the sensible presence to the soul itself, while, on the other hand, the soul is no longer thought of as a mere awful phantom, but has become what the living friend had been, something both beloved and loving. This quest is, indeed, achieved -first in a moment of exaltation which cannot be maintained; but its result is never lost, and graduallY strengthens."
A further chapter gives a very useful analysis of the ideas habitual to the poet about the soul's history before birth and after death, and also of the grounds underlying his faith in immortality. These various analyses seem to us as well done as it is possible for them to be ; they are entirely free from anything fantastic, and they do not read into the poet's work philosophical views of the commentator's own. The intre ductory matter concludes with a chapter on the metre of rs Memoriam" and the nature of the poet's debt to his lmtleeesr,,,, which puts the recognised facts in a clear and saw.: :In light. As for the commentary itself, we have found an wig • A. Commintary on Tennyson's "In Memorians." By L. C. 13nadlob IJJ1
London : Macmillan and Co. f4s. 6d, net.1 -
discussion of all the cruces of the poem (except one) upon which we have consulted it; and although it is the temporary fashion among literati to scoff at annotation, we confess to sn old-fashioned preference for understanding our classics, whether ancient or modern. The point we excepted above was the difficult stanza opening the ninety-seventh elegy :— " My love has talk'd with rocks and trees; He finds on misty mountain-ground His own vast shadow glory-crown'd; He sees himself in all he sees.
Two partners of a married life I look'd on these and thought of thee In vastness and in mystery, And of my spirit as of a wife."
On this Mr. Bradley comments as follows :—" The stanza is not highly mystical' as Getty supposes. It is merely prefa- tory. The poet's affection for his friend finds resemblances to itself everywhere; for example, in the two partners of a married life.' The preface, however, seems too fine for what follows." It seems to the present writer that Mr. Bradley has allowed himself here to be irritated by a previous commen- tator's magniloquence into under-paraphrasing his text. For the poet does not say merely that his love "finds resemblances to itself everywhere," he particularises "misty mountain- ground " ; and we cannot doubt, especially as the next verse speaks of his friend as "in vastness and in mystery," that heaven was among the places where his love found resem-
blances to itself. Else " mountain " and " glory-crown'd " seem pointless. This, however, is the only passage where Mr. Bradley has, in our judgment, treated his author cavalierly. As a rule, he is singularly patient in attending
to the smallest details and in weighing every possible alter- native. It is impossible in a single review to discuss any of the vexed questions of interpretation, such as those arising from the forty-fourth elegy, or the hundred and eighth, or the hundred and twenty-second; but as we have noticed one passage where we do not agree with Mr. Bradley, we must refer to another, to which we believe he is the first to supply a meaning, and one that seems to us absolutely convincing. In the seventh elegy the poet says :— " Like a guilty thing I creep At earliest morning to the door."
Why "like a guilty thing" ? the reader asks, and all the answer he has hitherto received from commentators is a reference to Hamlet's ghost, which started "like a guilty thing" at cock-crow. Mr. Bradley compares the lines in " Maud "
:-
"And on my heavy eyelids My anguish hangs like shame."
We have found Mr. Bradley's parallels always singularly illuminating.
In his preface Mr. Bradley claims to have abstained almost wholly from " a3sthetic criticism." It is pleasant to find that now and then he has allowed himself a word of praise or censure. After all, people like to have their likes and dislikes supported by critical authority. Among passages which we are allowed to think not so good as the rest are the conolud- ng lines of XX. ; and the concluding lines of LXXXIX. ; which last we entirely agree with the critic "mar a beautiful passage." Among the passages which Mr. Bradley singles out for special praise are the last four stanzas of XCV., which he well calls "one of the most wonderful descriptive passages in all poetry." With this very inadequate notice we must take leave of a book whose merits as a commentary those students will beat appreciate who are acquainted with its predecessors.
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