He settled with his bride at Twickenham, where he lived for three years. Then lie leased and shortly afterwards purchased the estate of Farringford, near Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight. where he lived until 1870. After that he divided his time hetween Farringford and Aldworth. a house which he built on Blackdown Hill, near Haslemere.
In 185;" appeared ]laud. and Other Poems. "Maud," a great favorite with Tennyson, puzzled the critics, who tried to find in it the result of the author's own experience, though it is rather a vivid dramatic conception. rare with Tennyson. "No modern poem," said Jowett, "contains more lines that ring in the ears of men." The same volume contained the popular "Brook" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade." Returning to Arthurian legend, Tennyson published in 1859 four of the Idylls of the King; others were added in 1869, and in 1872 they were arranged in se quence, with a completion in "Balin and Balan" (1885). Though his conception of the Arthu rian romances has been severely criticised, the idylls are probably his highest achievement. Enoch Arden (18134) was the most immediately popular of all his volumes; sixty thousand copies were sold, and the title poem was translated into eight languages. From the epic Tennyson turned to the drama, producing Queen Mary (1875), Harold (1876), and Becket (1884). Be sides these magnificent historical pieces arc The Falcon (1879), The Cup (1881), The Promise of May (1882), and The Foresters (1892), of which The Cup was the most successful as an acting play. Tennyson's productive imagination con tinued active throughout his last years. His last volumes were Ballads and Other Poems (1880), containing "Rizpah" and "The Northern Cob bler:" Tiresias and Other Poems (1885) ; Dem eter and Other Poems (1889), containing "Cross ing the Bar:" and the posthumous Death of (Enone and Other Poems (1892).
In 1884, after some hesitation, the poet ac cepted a peerage. He died at Aldworth October 6, 1892. and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
No English poet has produced Masterpieces is so many different kinds as Tennyson; and he is the supremely representative figure in litera ture of the Victorian era, because he touched and reconciled a greater number of its diverse interests than any other writer. Yet he is in constant protest against the individualism which that period inherited from the Romantic revival.
The most salient feature of his mental attitude is his sense of law; it is the 'reign of law' as shown by modern science which most attracts him to scientific subjects. The consummate artistic excellence of his verse. resembling in many of its qualities that of Vergil, gives him an abiding place in literature. No better example exists in English of the 'eclectic' style made up of ele ments inherited from many of his great pred ecessors, emulating "by turns the sweet felicity of Keats. the tender simplicity of Wordsworth, the straightforward vigor of Burns, the elusive melody and dreamlike magic of Coleridge, the stormy sweep of Byron, the large majesty of Milton:" and he expressed, with such an instru ment, a teaching which was uniformly pure, noble, and consoling.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. The authorized life of TennyBibliography. The authorized life of Tenny- son is the Memoir by his son Hallam (London, 1897). The standard editions of the works as revised by the author are the Cabinet Edition (ib., 1898) and the one-volume Globe Edition (ib., 1898). Books devoted to the study of his poetry are numerous. Consult particularly Stop ford Brooke, Tennyson, His Art and Relation to Modern Life (London, 1894) ; Van Dyke. The Poetry of Tennyson (New York, ISSO ; 10th ed., revised, 1898) Sneath, The Mind of Tennyson (ib., 1900) ; Stedman, in Victorian Poets (re vised ed., ib., 1887) ; Frederic Harrison, Tenny son, Buskin, and Mill (London, 1899), corrected in some particulars by Andrew Lang, Alfred Ten nyson (New York. 1901) : Collins,. Illustrations of Tennyson (London, 1891) ; Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Records (ib., 1892) ; id., Tennyson and His Friends (ib., 1893) ; Gwynn, A. Critical Study of Tennyson (ib., 1899) ; Luce, Hand-book to Tennyson's Works (New York, 1896) ; Dixon, .1 Tennyson Primer (ib., 1896) ; .Napier, The homes and Haunts of Tennyson (London. 1892) ; Rawns ley, Memories of the Tennyson (Glasgow, 1900) ; Masterman, Tennyson as a Religious Teacher (London, 1900) ; Collins, The Early Poems of Tennyson, with bibliography and various read ings (ib., 1900) ; Maceallum, Tennyson's Idylls of the King and the Arthurian Story (New York, 1894) ; Bradley, Commentary on In Memoriam. (London. 1901) ; Lyall. Tennyson, in "English Alen of Letters" series (New York, 1902) ; Ilrightwell, Concordance (London, 1869) ; Shep herd, Bibliography ( ib., 1896).