If thou canst make a wholesome use of these
To chink against the Norman, I do believe
My old crook’d spine would bud out two young wings
To fly to heaven straight with.”
Tennyson doubtless considers this very English and spirited. Stigand may have disliked the Normans, and doubtless did. With all our hearts! But this mode of expressing his dislike is, in the mouth of a Catholic and a prelate, surely not in character.
Again he asks:
“... Be there no saints of England
To help us from their brethren yonder?”
As though a Catholic or Christian could dream of the saints warring in heaven or of affixing nationality to sanctity! Tennyson’s Edward, with a solitary gleam of intelligence, rebukes him thus:
“Prelate,