1840. They then tried Tunbridge Wells; but, the air proving too strong for Tennyson's mother, they again removed in 1841 after only a year's residence, to Boxley, near Maidstone.
Meantime Tennyson continued to work earnestly and steadily at his art. As early as 1835 we hear of much fresh material for a new volume being complete, including the 'Morte d' Arthur,' the 'Day Dream,' and the 'Gardener's Daughter.' In 1837 an invitation to contribute to a volume of the 'keepsake order,' consisting of voluntary contributions from the principal verse writers of the day, resulted in Tennyson giving to the world, which probably took little notice of it, a poem that was later to rank with his most perfect lyrical efforts.The volume, entitled 'The Tribute,' and edited by Lord Northampton, was for the benefit of the family of Edward Smedley [q. v.], a much respected literary man who had fallen on evil days, and to it Tennyson contributed the stanzas beginning:
Oh ! that 'twere possible
After long grief and pain,
To find the arms of my true love
Round me once again.
In this same year Tennyson was first introduced to Mr. Gladstone, who became thenceforth his cordial admirer and friend. Meantime, as late as 1840, the engagement with Emily Sellwood remained in force; but after this date correspondence between the two was forbidden by the lady's family, the prospects of marriage seeming as remote as ever. At last, in 1842, the long-expected 'Poems' (in two vols.) were allowed to see the light. The date marks an epoch in Tennyson's life, for his fame as unquestionably the greatest living poet (Wordsworth's work being practically over) was now secure. In addition to the reissue of the chief poems from the volumes of 1830 and 1833, many of them rewritten, the second volume consisted of absolutely new material, and included 'Locksley Hall,' the 'Morte d'Arthur,' 'Ulysses,' 'The Two Voices,' 'Godiva,' 'Sir Galahad,' the 'Vision of Sin,' and such lyrics as 'Break, break, break,' and 'Move eastward, happy earth.'
But, notwithstanding this new success and the growing recognition that followed, the fortunes of Tennyson did not improve. He and other members of the family had invested a considerable part of their small capital in a scheme for 'wood-carving by machinery,' which was to popularise and cheapen good art in furniture and other household decoration. A certain Dr. Allen was the originator, and to him the Tennyson family seem to have blindly entrusted their little capital. The speculation, from whatever cause, did not succeed, and the money invested was hopelessly lost. 'Then followed,' says his son, 'a season of real hardship, for marriage seemed further off than ever. So severe a hypochondria set in upon him that his friends despaired for his life.' It was doubtless this critical condition of his health and fortunes that led his friends to approach the prime minister of the day, Sir Robert Peel; and in September 1845 Henry Hallam was able to announce that, in reply to the appeal, the premier had placed Tennyson's name on the civil list for a pension of 200l. a year. It was Monckton Milnes who, according to his own account, succeeded in impressing on Sir Robert the claims of the poet, of whom the statesman had no previous knowledge. Milnes read him 'Ulysses,' and the day was won.
By 1846 the 'Poems' had reached a fourth edition, and in the same year their author was violently assailed by Bulwer Lytton in his satire, 'The New Timon: a Poetical Romance of London.' Tennyson was dismissed in a few lines as 'Schoolmiss Alfred,' and his claims to a pension rudely challenged. Tennyson replied in some stanzas of great power entitled 'The New Timon and the Poets,' signed 'Alcibiades.' They appeared in 'Punch' (28 Feb. 1846), having been sent thither, according to the poet's son, by John Forster, without their author's knowledge. A week later the poet recorded his regret and his recantation in two stanzas headed 'An Afterthought.' They still appear in his collected 'Poems ' under the head of 'Literary Squabbles,' but the previous poem was not included in any authorised collection of his works. Tennyson's next appeal to the public was in the Princess,' which appeared in 1847. In its earliest shape it did not contain the six incidental lyrics, which were first added in the third edition in 1850. The poem, duly appreciated by poets and thinkers, in spite of reaching five editions in six years, does not seem to have widely extended Tennyson's popularity.
But it was far otherwise with 'In Memoriam,' which appeared anonymously in June 1850. The poem, written in a four-lined stanza—believed by the poet to have been invented by himself, but which had been in fact long before used by Sir Philip Sidney, Ben Jonson, and notably by Lord Herbert, of Cherbury—had grown to its final shape during a period of seventeen years following the death of Arthur Hallam. Issued with
