Page:The bibliography of Tennyson (1896).pdf/69

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1878.]
OF TENNYSON.
53

[In 1878 two stanzas appeared in Punch (preceded by a quotation from a leading article in that ne plus ultra of political tergiversation, the Daily Telegraph). The quotation and the stanzas, as nearly as I can recollect, ran as follows:

"Of Mr. Gladstone we may say, with Imogen, 'My lord, I fear, has forgot Britain';[1] and History will add, as Jachimo does, 'And himself,'"[2]

"'Has forgot Britain'? Blatant buncombe shapes  A Britain generous Britons would disown; A mock-Britannia, whose stage-ermine drapes  A sham, of selfish frothiness upblown,The truest lover of his land is notThe tap-room patriot of the pipe and pot.
"'Forgot himself'? Ay, in a nobler sort  Than sordid self-regard can understand.What, brave the loud reproach, the foul report,  The taunt of treason to his native land!Say, what can base Jachimo do lessThan scoff at such fine self-forgetfulness?"
I have always been inclined, since first seeing them, on the day of publication, to attribute these lines to
  1. ↑ [Cymbeline, Act I, sc. 7.]
  2. ↑ Daily Telegraph.
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