Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/79

Tennyson brother Charles in the preceding year, Tennyson and his son visited Venice, Bavaria, and Tyrol. The same year (1880) saw the publication of the volume entitled 'Ballads and Poems.' Tennyson was now in his seventy-first year, but these poems distinctly added to his reputation, the range and variety of the subjects and their treatment being extraordinary. They included 'The Revenge,' 'Rizpah,' 'The Children's Hospital,' 'The First Quarrel,' 'The Defence of Lucknow,' and 'The Northern Cobbler.' Many of these were based upon anecdotes heard in the poet's youth, or read in newspapers and magazines, and sent to him by friends. In 1881 (in the January of which year 'The Cup' was successfully produced at the Lyceum) he sat to Millais for his portrait, and he lost one of the oldest and most valued of his friends in [q. v.] On 11 Nov. 1882 was produced at the Globe Theatre his drama 'The Promise of May,' written at the request of a friend who wished him to attempt a modern tragedy of village life. It was hardly a success, the character of Edgar, an agnostic and a libertine, being much resented by those of the former class, who found an unexpected champion one evening during the performance in the person of Lord Queensberry, who rose from his stall and protested against the character as a libel. The year 1883 brought him another sorrow in the death of his friend Edward Fitzgerald. In December of the same year a peerage was offered to him by the queen on the recommendation of Mr. Gladstone; the proposal had been first submitted to him while Mr. Gladstone and the poet were on a cruise together in the previous September in the Pembroke Castle, and was now (January 1884) accepted by him after much hesitation. In 1884 his son Hallam was married to Miss Audrey Boyle, and his son and daughter-in-law continued to make their home with him until the end of his life. 'The Cup,' 'The Falcon,' and the tragedy of 'Becket' were published this year. Tiresias and other Poems' appeared in the year following, containing a prologue to 'Tiresias,' dedicated to the memory of Fitzgerald. The volume contained the noble poem 'The Ancient Sage,' and the poem, in Irish dialect, 'To-morrow.' In 1886 the poet suffered the most grievous family bereavement that he had yet sustained in the death of his second son, Lionel, who contracted jungle fever while on a visit to Lord Dufferin in India, and died while on the voyage home, in the Red Sea, April 1886. In December of this year the 'Promise of May' was first printed, in conjunction with 'Locksley Hall, sixty years after.' During 1887 the poet took a cruise in a friend's yacht, visiting Devonshire and Cornwall, and was in the meantime preparing another volume of poems, writing 'Vastness' (published in 'Macmillan's Magazine' for March), and 'Owd Roä,' another Lincolnshire poem, based upon a story he had read in a newspaper. In 1888 he had a very serious illness—rheumatic gout—during which at one time his life was in great danger. In the spring of the year following he was sufficiently recovered to enjoy another sea voyage in his friend Lord Brassey's yacht the Sunbeam. In December 1889 the volume 'Demeter and other Poems' appeared, containing, among other shorter poems, 'Merlin and the Gleam,' an allegory shadowing the course of his own poetic career, and the memorable 'Crossing the Bar,' written one day while crossing the Solent on his annual journey from Aldworth to Farringford. During 1890-1 he suffered from influenza, and his strength was noticeably decreasing. In 1891 he was able again to enjoy his favourite pastime of yachting, and completed for the American manager Mr. Daly an old and as yet unpublished drama on the subject of 'Robin Hood' ('The Foresters,' which was given in New York in 1891, and was revived at Daly's Theatre in London in October 1893). In 1892, the last year of his life, he wrote his 'Lines on the Death of the Duke of Clarence.' He was able yet once more to take a yachting cruise to Jersey, and to pay a visit to London in July. As late as September he was able to enjoy the society of many visitors, to look over the proofs of an intended volume of poems ('The Death of Œnone'), and to take interest in the forthcoming production of 'Becket,' as abridged and arranged by Henry Irving, at the Lyceum (produced eventually in February 1893). During the last days of the month his health was so palpably failing that Sir Andrew Clark was summoned. The weakness rapidly increased, signs of fatal syncope appeared on Wednesday, 5 Oct., and the poet passed away on the following day, Thursday, 6 Oct. 1892, at 1.35 A.M.

On Wednesday, 12 Oct., he was buried in Westminster Abbey. The pall-bearers were the Duke of Argyll, Lord Dufferin, Lord Selborne, Lord Rosebery, Jowett, Mr. Lecky, James Anthony Froude, Lord Salisbury, Dr. Butler (master of Trinity, Cambridge), the United States minister (Mr. R. T. Lincoln), Sir James Paget, and Lord Kelvin. The nave was lined by men of the Balaclava light brigade, by some of the London rifle volunteers, and by the boys of the Gordon Boys'