[9] 1883. Sovran lady.
[10] As the old men say, Iliad, iii., 156-8.
[11] The one is Iphigenia.
[12] Aulis.
[13] It was not till 1884 that this line was altered to the reading of the final edition, i. e., “Which men called Aulis in those iron years”. For the “iron years” of that reading cf. Thomson, Spring, 384, “iron times”.
[14] From 1833 till 1853 this stanza ran:—
“The tall masts quivered as they lay afloat,
The temples and the people and the shore,
One drew a sharp knife thro’ my tender throat
Slowly,—and nothing more”.
It is curious that Tennyson should have allowed the last line to stand so long; possibly it may have been to defy Lockhart’s sarcastic commentary: “What touching simplicity, what pathetic resignation—he cut my throat, nothing more!” With Tennyson’s picture should be compared Æschylus, Agamem., 225-49, and Lucretius, i., 85-100. For the bold and picturesque substitution of the effect for the cause in the “bright death quiver’d” cf. Sophocles, Electra, 1395, νεακόνητον αἷμα χειροῖν ἔχων, “with the newly-whetted blood on his hands”. So “vulnus” is frequently used by Virgil, and cf. Silius Italicus, Punica, ix., 368-9:—
Per pectora sævas
Exceptat mortes.
[15] She expresses the same wish in Iliad, iii., 73-4.
[16] Cleopatra. The skill with which Tennyson has here given us, in quintessence as it were, Shakespeare’s superb creation needs no commentary, but it is somewhat surprising to find an accurate scholar like Tennyson guilty of the absurdity of representing Cleopatra as of gipsy complexion. The daughter of Ptolemy Aulates and a lady of Pontus, she was of Greek descent, and had no taint at all of African intermixtures. See Peacock’s remarks in Gryll Grange, p. 206, 7th edit., 1861.
[17] After this in 1833 and in 1842 are the following stanzas, afterwards excised:—
“By him great Pompey dwarfs and suffers pain,
A mortal man before immortal Mars;
The glories of great Julius lapse and wane,
And shrink from suns to stars.
“That man of all the men I ever knew
Most touched my fancy.
O! what days and nights
We had in Egypt, ever reaping new
Harvest of ripe delights.
“Realm-draining revels! Life was one long feast,
What wit! what words! what sweet words, only made
Less sweet by the kiss that broke ’em, liking best
To be so richly stayed!
“What dainty strifes, when fresh from war’s alarms,
My Hercules, my gallant Antony,
My mailed captain leapt into my arms,
Contented there to die!
“And in those arms he died: I heard my name
Sighed forth with life: then I shook off all fear:
Oh, what a little snake stole Caesar’s fame!
What else was left? look here!”
“With that she tore her robe apart,” etc.
[18] This stanza was added in 1843.