Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1898 — Trials of Genius. [ARTICLE]

Trials of Genius.

Tennyson exercised no direct guidance over his and he must frequently have been astonished at their interpretation of his ideas. In the poem of “The Lady of Shalott,” for example, the lady’s hair is never mentioned. Holman Hunt, however, represents her with flying masses of crimped hair spreading over her like a veil. “My dear Hunt,’’ said Tennyson, when he first saw this illustration, “I never said that the young woman’s hair was flying all over the shop.” “No,” said Hunt, “but you never said it wasn’t;” and after a time the poet came to be wholly reconciled to the design. He never quite forgave the same artist, however, for giving King Gophetua a long flight of steps to descend to meet the Beggar Maid. “I never said,” he complained, “that there were a lot of steps; I meant only one or two.” “Well,” retorted Hunt, “the flight of steps doesn’t contradict your account; you merely said: Tn robe and crown, the king stept down.’ ” But Tennyson was not to be appeased, and kept on declaring that he meant only two steps at the outside.