This choice, thanks to the popular
misconception, did him some harm. As a "monodramatic Idyll," a
romance in many rich lyric measures, Maud was at first excessively
unpopular. "Tennyson's Maud is Tennyson's Maudlin," said a satirist,
and "morbid," "mad," "rampant," and "rabid bloodthirstiness of soul,"
were among the amenities of criticism. Tennyson hated war, but his
hero, at least, hopes that national union in a national struggle will
awake a nobler than the commercial spirit. Into the rights and
wrongs of our quarrel with Russia we are not to go. Tennyson,
rightly or wrongly, took the part of his country, and must "thole the
feud" of those high-souled citizens who think their country always in
the wrong--as perhaps it very frequently is. We are not to expect a
tranquil absence of bias in the midst of military excitement, when
very laudable sentiments are apt to misguide men in both directions.
In any case, political partisanship added to the enemies of the poem,
which was applauded by Henry Taylor, Ruskin, George Brimley, and
Jowett, while Mrs Browning sent consoling words from Italy. The poem
remained a favourite with the author, who chose passages from it
often, when persuaded to read aloud by friends; and modern criticism
has not failed to applaud the splendour of the verse and the subtlety
of the mad scenes, the passion of the love lyrics.
These merits have ceased to be disputed, but, though a loyal
Tennysonian, I have never quite been able to reconcile myself to Maud
as a whole.
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