Page:Tennyson - Walter Irving (1873).djvu/25

 king. In striving to make Arthur as splendid as his office, he has striven in vain, for he has simply produced a nonentity, a mere phantom king. The actions of Hector and Achilles cannot be reproduced in English thought without appearing ridiculous and fantastical.

Mr Tennyson is greatly inferior to Dryden, Pope, and Wordsworth. He has not the subtle-mindedness or masculine breadth of Dryden; the vigour, point, and propriety of Pope; or the pure and elevated idealism of Wordsworth. Simplicity is the main feature of the Poet Laureate's style. But simplicity cannot give elevation to passion, refinement to thought, or just expression to lofty conceptions. Moreover, simplicity has an awkward tendency always to degenerate into vulgarity and commonplace. It has taken this turn in the hands of Mr Tennyson, who has no vigour to give point to his language. The following passage, selected at random from Gareth and Lynette, will afford our readers an opportunity of becoming acquainted with vigorous writing:—