Tennyson with Browning and Swinburne 27 December 1884
In one 1884 Punch
cartoon Tennyson, Browning, and Swinburne are shown as “Christmas Waits” with
Tennyson reading from his Becket. The
caption-verse beneath suggests the fairly common critique that the better-known
poets were inspired at least as much by money as by the muse:
Oh, bless
you, Gentlemen, whose looks
Are very
far from frowning,
Pay cash,
and buy the latest books
Of
Tennyson, Swinburne, Browning!
Have We Forgotton Gordon from Punch 5 August 1891
Lord Tennyson, under this heading, writes appealing to Englishmen for subscriptions to the funds of the "Gordon Boys' Home" at Woking, which is in want of 40,000 pounds. Contributions should be sent to the Treasurer, General Sir Dighton Probyn, V.C., Marlborough House, Pall Mall
Mr. Tennyson Reading “In Memoriam” to His Sovereign, 1904, by Max Beerbohm
“In 1862, a year after the death of the Prince Consort, Queen Victoria
wished Alfred Tennyson to call and see her when she was next at Osborne.
The visit, which took place on 14 April of that year, sparked Max’s
famous drawing captioned, ‘Mr Tennyson, reading “In Memoriam” to his
Sovereign’, published in The Poet’s Corner (1904). It shows a tiny
gesticulating poet declaiming his famous elegy in an immense, sparsely
furnished room in Osborne, the royal mansion in the Isle of Wight, and
at an enormous distance from him, an even tinier Queen in widow’s weeds,
listening and reminiscing about Albert, whose portrait appears above
the mantelpiece.” Max Beerbohm's Mischievous Wit: A Literary
Entertainment By Jacobus Gerhardus Riewald, pg. 99
Woolner at Farringford, 1857 dated 1917, by Sir Max Beerbohm. Graphite and watercolor on paper. Tate, UK
"The only other major drawing Max did of Tennyson represents Thomas
Woolner sculpturing the Laureate’s bust, and Emily, the Great Man’s
wife, asking him ‘when do you begin modeling his halo?’ Max Beerbohm's
Mischievous Wit: A Literary Entertainment By Jacobus Gerhardus Riewald,
pg. 99
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