“Love, like an Alpine harebell hung with tears,
By some cold morning glacier; frail at first
And feeble, all unconscious of itself,
But such as gathered color day by day.”
The Prince represents the poet himself, and when he speaks it may be taken for granted that his opinions relative to woman’s sphere and duties are the opinions of Tennyson himself. It may be noticed that his character is not defined in very strong colors, simply because he is a foil to the Princess, and would, if brought out more strongly, detract from the brilliancy of the Princess as well as mar the general unity of the poem. The character of the Prince must have given Tennyson a great deal of trouble, for it was not until after the fourth edition that he ceased to elaborate it. It is hard to understand why the poet added the passages relating to the weird seizures of the Prince. Perhaps his object was to set forth the weakness and incompleteness of the poet side of the Prince’s character until he has found rest in his ideal.
It will be observed, too, that the Prince aims at elevating woman, but he differs from Ida as to the means. Ida dreams of intellectual advancement alone. The Prince recognizes moral elevation to be the higher of the two. He pays tribute to the moral greatness of woman where he says they are,
“Not like that piebald miscellany, man;
Bursts of great heart and slips in sensual mire;
But whole and one; and take them all in all,
Were we ourselves but half as good, as kind,