Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/387

 Dictionary of English Literature 375 TEMPLE, SIR WILLIAM (1628-1699). Statesman and

ssayist, s. of Sir John T., Master of the Rolls in Ireland, was 6. in Condon, and ed. at Camb. He travelled on the Continent, was for ome time a member of the Irish Parliament, employed on various iplomatic missions, and negotiated the marriage of the Prince of )range and the Princess Mary. On his return he was much con- ulted by Charles II., but disapproving of the courses adopted, re- ired to his house at Sheen, which he afterwards left and purchased door Park, where Swift was for a time his sec. He took no part in ae Revolution, but acquiesced in the new regime, and was offered, ut refused, the Secretaryship of State. His works consist for the nost part of short essays coll. under the title of Miscellanea, but onger pieces are Observations upon the United Provinces, and Essay n the Original and Nature of Government. Apart from their immedi- te interest they mark a transition to the simpler, more concise, and nore carefully arranged sentences of modern composition.

TENNANT, WILLIAM (1784-1848). Poet and scholar, a

ripple from his birth, was b. at Anstruther (commonly called Anster) Fife. As a youth he was clerk to his brother, a corn-merchant, ut devoted his leisure to the study of languages, and the literature f various countries. In 1813 he became parish schoolmaster of ^asswade, near Edinburgh, thereafter classical master at Dollar

cademy, and in 1835 Prof, of Oriental Languages at St. Andrews, n 1812 he pub. Anster Fair, a mock-heroic poem, in ottava rima, full f fancy and humour, which at once brought him reputation. In ater life he produced two tragedies, Cardinal Beaton and John

aliol, and two poems, The Thane of Fife and Papistry Stormed. He Iso issued a Syriac and Chaldee Grammar.

TENNYSON, ALFRED, IST LORD (1809-1892). Poet, was

he fourth s. of George T., Rector of Somersby, Lincolnshire, where was b. His /. was himself a poet of some skill, and his two elder rothers, Frederick T. (q.v.) and Charles T. Turner (q.v.), were poets f a high order. His early education was received from his /., after h he went to the Grammar School of Louth, whence in 1828 he roceeded to Trinity Coll., Camb. In the previous year had ap- eared a small vol., Poems by Two Brothers, chiefly the work of his rother Charles and himself, with a few contributions from Frederick, ut it attracted little attention. At the Univ. he was one of a group f highly gifted men, including Trench (q.v.), Monckton Milnes, after- vards Lord Houghton (q.v.), Alford (q.v.), Lushington, his future rother-in-law, and above all, Arthur Hallam, whose friendship and arly death were to be the inspiration of his greatest poem. In 1829 e won the Chancellor's medal by a poem on Timbuctoo, and in the oUowing year he brought out his first independent work, Poems hiefty Lyrical. It was not in general very favourably received by ic critics, though Wilson in Blackwood's Magazine admitted much romise and even performance. In America it had greater popu- arity. Part of 1832 was spent in travel with Hallam, and the same ear saw the publication of Poems, which had not much greater uccess than its predecessor. In the next year Hallam d., and T. jegan In Memoriam and wrote The Two Voices. He also became