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Alfred Tennyson by Andrew Lang
page 175 of 219 (79%)
the stage. The scenery and the acting of the protagonists are not
easily to be forgotten. The play ran for a hundred and thirty
nights. Sir Henry Irving had thought that Becket (then unpublished)
would prove too expensive, and could only be a succes d'estime.
Tennyson had found out that "the worst of writing for the stage is,
you must keep some actor always in your mind." To this necessity
authors like Moliere and Shakespeare were, of course, resigned and
familiar; they knew exactly how to deal with all their means. But
this part of the business of play-writing must always be a cross to
the poet who is not at one with the world of the stage.

In The Cup Miss Ellen Terry made the strongest impression, her part
being noble and sympathetic, while Sir Henry Irving had the
ungrateful part of the villain. To be sure, he was a villain of much
complexity; and Tennyson thought that his subtle blend of Roman
refinement and intellectuality, and barbarian, self-satisfied
sensuality, was not "hit off." Synorix is, in fact, half-Greek,
half-Celt, with a Roman education, and the "blend" is rather too
remote for successful representation. The traditional villain, from
Iago downwards, is not apt to utter such poetry as this:-


"O Thou, that dost inspire the germ with life,
The child, a thread within the house of birth,
And give him limbs, then air, and send him forth
The glory of his father--Thou whose breath
Is balmy wind to robe our bills with grass,
And kindle all our vales with myrtle-blossom,
And roll the golden oceans of our grain,
And sway the long grape-bunches of our vines,
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