[57] Miselle, epithet of the dead like our “poor” So-and-so.
[58] Robinson Ellis notes, “The rhythm of the line and the continued a-sound well represent the eternity of the sleep that knows no waking,” and that is just the effect that Tennyson’s reading gave with infinite pathos; and then the sudden passionate change, da mi basia——
[59] An old experiment, being written in 1859, finished in 1860. He himself only called it “a far-off echo of the Attis of Catullus.”
[60] See Carlyle, Fr. Rev. (Part I. Bk. v. c. ix), for the cry of the mob. And for Béranger, cf. Memoir, ii. 422.
[61] Compare Merlin’s song, “From the great deep to the great deep he goes.”
[62] Some commentators insist that Tennyson was born on August 5 because the date looks like 5th in the Register of his birth. He used to say, “All I can state is that my mother always kept my birthday on August 6, and I suppose she knew.”
[63] I can confirm this last statement from more than one talk with him. He would note the perfection of the metre. The second line affords an instance of the delicacy of his ear. We were speaking of the undoubtedly correct reading:
The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,
not, as is so often printed, winds. I forget his exact comment, but the point of it was that the double s, winds slowly, would have been to his ear most displeasing.
Again, speaking of the line,