TEN YEARS' SILENCE.
103
of Greek in one hand, his meerschaum in the other, so far advanced towards the seventh heaven that he would not thank you to call him back into this nether world." Towards the middle of the century we find him a frequent visitor at the chambers of John Forster, to whom he entrusts the Farewell Sonnet to Macready, to read it at the dinner given to the latter on his retirement from the stage, March 1, 1851.[1] He seems also to have been now and then a visitor at the house of Landor, who on one occasion sent him the following playful invitation:
"I entreat you, Alfred Tennyson,
Come and share my haunch of venison.
I have too a bin of claret
Good, but better when you share it.
Tho' 'tis only a small bin,
There's a stock of it within,
And as sure as I'm a rhymer,
Half a butt of Rudesheimer.
Come and share my haunch of venison.
I have too a bin of claret
Good, but better when you share it.
Tho' 'tis only a small bin,
There's a stock of it within,
And as sure as I'm a rhymer,
Half a butt of Rudesheimer.
- ↑ "Mr. John Forster said he had been entrusted with a few lines of poetry by his friend the Poet Laureate, Alfred Tennyson, addressed to their distinguished guest, and it was left to his discretion whether he should read them in public tonight or not. He thought he ought, and was sure he should have permission to do so."—People's and Howitt's Journal, April, 1851, p. 150.
