PREFACE
artistic mistake was ever made than that of deferring to this preposterous criticism, as it is conceded that the original text of the Poems (1870) was of unblemished beauty.
In after years an attempt at reparation and conciliation with Rossetti was made by Buchanan,[1] but it is not on record that an apology was ever tendered the author of Under the Microscope.[2] Nevertheless, the whirligig of time may be said to have brought in its revenges unaided by Mr. Swinburne. Buchanan, after successively, if not successfully, posing as poet, novelist, playwright and critic at large, has, in these later days, turned publisher on his own account. As for Mr. Alfred Austin,—that gifted author of The Poetry of the Period is now poet-laureate in place of Tennyson, the illustrious predecessor whose poetry to the astute critic of that day seemed so deserving of moral disapproval. Truly the gods that preside over literary destinies could do no more—or much less—for either gentleman!
That Mr. Swinburne did not meekly submit to the strictures passed upon his poetry let Under the Microscope make manifest. It remains as a portent and a warning should a later generation be confronted with a later moralist-critic like "Thomas Maitland" Buchanan.
