Page:The bibliography of Tennyson (1896).pdf/69
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1878.]
OF TENNYSON.
53
[In 1878 two stanzas appeared in Punch (preceded by a quotation from a leading article in that ne plus ultra of political tergiversation, the Daily Telegraph). The quotation and the stanzas, as nearly as I can recollect, ran as follows:
"Of Mr. Gladstone we may say, with Imogen, 'My lord, I fear, has forgot Britain';[1] and History will add, as Jachimo does, 'And himself,'"[2]
"'Has forgot Britain'? Blatant buncombe shapes
A Britain generous Britons would disown;
A mock-Britannia, whose stage-ermine drapes
A sham, of selfish frothiness upblown,
The truest lover of his land is not
The tap-room patriot of the pipe and pot.
A Britain generous Britons would disown;
A mock-Britannia, whose stage-ermine drapes
A sham, of selfish frothiness upblown,
The truest lover of his land is not
The tap-room patriot of the pipe and pot.
"'Forgot himself'? Ay, in a nobler sort
Than sordid self-regard can understand.
What, brave the loud reproach, the foul report,
The taunt of treason to his native land!
Say, what can base Jachimo do less
Than scoff at such fine self-forgetfulness?"
Than sordid self-regard can understand.
What, brave the loud reproach, the foul report,
The taunt of treason to his native land!
Say, what can base Jachimo do less
Than scoff at such fine self-forgetfulness?"