And all that makes man loveable to man. All blood and vengeance, all the cloud of grief The earth a darkness, when my grandsire-0 From madness, and proclaim that it befits If thou lov'st her as I Orestes (else Thou God wert less than man, since well 'tis sung, The human being divine oppressed with bonds, Then, I adjure thee, aid him! set him free Far through the lengthening years in quiet seats; Electra, whom not having seen I love. Lord de Tabley. 1835-1895. LORD DE TABLEY, better known to readers and scholars in his earlier life by his nom de plume of William P. Lancaster, and later as the Hon. John Byrne Leicester Warren, was born on the 26th of April, 1835. He was educated at Eton, and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1856. He was called to the Bar in 1860, and in 1868 unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary seat of MidCheshire in the Liberal interest. "Poems," 1859; "Ballads and Metrical Sketches," 1860; "The Threshold of Atrides," 1861; and " Glimpses of Antiquity," 1862; all published under the nom de plume "G. F.," or George F. Preston," have been erroneously described as the joint work of Lord de Tabley and his friend George Fortescue. There is no foundation for this statement. Lord de Tabley was alone responsible for them. In the year 1863 he published two papers on "Numismatics," one "An Essay on Greek Federal Coinage," and the other a paper "On some Coins of Lycia under the Rhodian Domination, and of the Lycian League," communicated to the Numismatic Society of London. These were followed by Praeterita," 1863; "Eclogues and Monodramas," 1864; Studies in Verse," 1865; two metrical dramas, "Philoctetes," 1866, "Orestes," 1867; two novels, "A Screw Loose," 1868," Ropes of Sand," 1869; two volumes of verse, Rehearsals," 1870, and "Searching the Net," 1873; a drama, "The Soldier of Fortune," 1876; and A Guide to the Study of Book Plates," 1880. In 1893, after an interval of twenty years, he published "Poems Dramatic and Lyrical," and in 1895, "Poems Dramatic and Lyrical," Second Series. "Philoctetes" has been ranked with the finest classical dramas of the century. The Saturday Review said, "In careful structure of plot, in classic chasteness of style and language, in nice and exact interweaving of part with part, in finish and completeness of the whole, 'Philoctetes' is worthy-and this is saying muchto be named in the same day with 'Atalanta in Calydon,' although the latter is entitled to a marked precedence"; and the Spectator spoke of it as beautiful in detail, and powerful as a whole; and as leaving the same sort of impression of sad majesty upon the reader as many of the finest Greek dramas themselves do, characterising it as "combining the self-restraint and subdued passion of the antique style, with here and there a touch of that luxuriance of conception, and everywhere that wider range of emotions and deep love of natural beauty characteristic of the modern." "Orestes," which followed in 1867, was received with high anticipation, and was read without disappointment. The poet's fine perception of the true spirit of the antique still showed itself, together with an even larger control of the means of its expression. "Orestes" is full of force and beauty in both dialogue and description, and the scene in which Orestes reproaches his mother, whom he believes to be guilty of seeking his life, rises to the level of adequate passion. The two volumes of shorter poems, "Rehearsals" and "Searching the Net," contain work of such power and beauty that it is difficult to understand why they should have been allowed to remain so long out of print. The Saturday Review, in writing of "Rehearsals, after noticing its wide choice of styles, goes on to say, "the author has found his gift, and its presence is visible, more or less, in every piece on which he has tried his hand. This gift we take to be a compound of rich fancy and imagination, fostered by a keen and loving insight of nature, and kept in check by a sustained and observant study of the antique models, which better than any later examples, supply lessons of power and chasteness to modern verse writers." Of the classic poems in this volume "Pandora" is the most important. In "Searching the Net" the noble poem "Jael" given entire (pp. 210-218), is doubtless one of the finest, if not the very finest, of the collection. The "Poems Dramatic and Lyrical," 1893, include the best poems of the earlier volumes, together with others not previously published, the Second Series, 1895, contains only the poet's later verse. It cannot be denied that these two volumes present a fine body of independent poetic work. The earlier poetry of most poets shows the influence of the elder bards, or of the stronger of contemporary writers, and it is no detraction from the merit of Lord de Tabley's best work to say that some of his earlier efforts betray the influence of both Swinburne and Browning. But these volumes stand in need of no such apology. "Ambitious strength and an uncommon fertility of invention," says the Speaker, in reviewing the First Series of "Poems Dramatic and Lyrical," "are the two impressions chiefly left us by Lord de Tabley's volume. The mere essaying of such themes as 'Phaethon,' 'Jael,' Nimrod,' 'Pandora,' 'Zeus,' alone bespeaks a courage rare among our latter-day poets, who shrink more and more from themes smelling of the epic or drama— themes that demand toilsome conception or patient construction." And these poems are much more than mere essays or attempts; they are accomplishments-great themes adequately treated. Lord de Tabley's nature poems are equally felicitous and individual. "The Frosty Day," "The Study of a Spider," "Rural Evening," "A Winter Sketch," and "The Windmill," are remarkably graphic vignettes of rural life or scenery, while his Love lyrics express many moods, of which his "Nuptial Song" and Retrospect evidence the variety. With "Poems Dramatic and Lyrical" before us we could but hope and look for more work from the same pen. Nor was hope altogether disappointed, for "Orpheus in Thrace," a posthumous volume issued in 1901, adequately testifies to the unimpaired powers of his latest years. Weakened by successive attacks of influenza, Lord de Tabley died somewhat suddenly on Friday, the 22nd of November, 1895. The "collected poems " of Lord de Tabley were published in one volume by Chapman and Hall in 1903. It is a fine monument of poetic work. " ALFRED H. MILES. |