15.
“Perfect ruin, shame eternal, everlasting degradation,
Freedom bought and sold, truth bound and treason free”
Yet an hour is here for answer; now, if here be yet a nation,
Answer, England, man by man from sea to sea!
Algernon Charles Swinburne.
June 30, 1886.
The Times, July 1, 1886.
The next day The Daily News, which was in favor of Mr. Gladstone’s policy of Home Rule for Ireland, published a parody of the poem, and, in one of its articles, alluded to Mr. Swinburne in the following terms of reproach:—
“Every topic of prejudice is being urged by the opponents of Home Rule. All the sins of the Irish people, all the errors of their leaders, are being daily enumerated by critics who have made it their business to stir up international hatred between the two countries as the best means of consolidating union. The latest ally of the Tories is a red republican, who happens also to be the foulest-mouthed and foulest-minded poet of the age. Mr. Swinburne is alleged by Mr. Theodore Watts to be a man of genius, and he has unquestionably a marvellous command of rhythmical and sonorous verse. But the words in which he attacks Mr. Gladstone are faint and feeble when compared with the language in which he has previously inveighed against Christianity, morality, and Almighty God.”