for autobiographical revelations, like In Memoriam. They are, on the
other hand, imaginative and dramatic. They illustrate the pangs of
disappointed love of woman, pangs more complex and more rankling than
those inflicted by death. In each case, however, the poet, who has
sung so nobly the happiness of fortunate wedded loves, has chosen a
hero with whom we do not readily sympathise--a Hamlet in miniature,


"With a heart of furious fancies,"


as in the old mad song. This choice, thanks to the popular
misconception, did him some harm. As a "monodramatic Idyll," a
romance in many rich lyric measures, Maud was at first excessively
unpopular. "Tennyson's Maud is Tennyson's Maudlin," said a satirist,
and "morbid," "mad," "rampant," and "rabid bloodthirstiness of soul,"
were among the amenities of criticism. Tennyson hated war, but his
hero, at least, hopes that national union in a national struggle will
awake a nobler than the commercial spirit. Into the rights and
wrongs of our quarrel with Russia we are not to go. Tennyson,
rightly or wrongly, took the part of his country, and must "thole the
feud" of those high-souled citizens who think their country always in
the wrong--as perhaps it very frequently is. We are not to expect a
tranquil absence of bias in the midst of military excitement, when
very laudable sentiments are apt to misguide men in both directions.
In any case, political partisanship added to the enemies of the poem,
which was applauded by Henry Taylor, Ruskin, George Brimley, and
Jowett, while Mrs Browning sent consoling words from Italy. The poem
remained a favourite with the author, who chose passages from it
often, when persuaded to read aloud by friends; and modern criticism