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Lord Tennyson And King Arthur

LORD TENNYSON and KING ARTHUR

Alfred Tennyson was born at Somersby, Lincolnshire, August 6, 1809. He was the fourth of twelve children to George and Elizabeth (Fytche) Tennyson. Alfred Tennyson had a lifelong fear of mental illness. Several men in his family had a mild form of epilepsy, which in Tennyson’s time was thought to be a shameful disease. His father George and brother Arthur made their cases worse by excessive drinking. Tennyson’s brother Edward had to be confined in a mental institution after 1833 and Tennyson himself spent a few weeks under doctors’ care in 1843. In the late twenties his father’s physical and mental condition worsened, and he became paranoid, abusive, and violent.
In 1827 Tennyson escaped the troubled atmosphere of his home when he followed his two older brothers to Trinity College, Cambridge, where his tutor was William Whewell. Because they had published Poems by Two Brothers in 1827 and each won university prizes for poetry (Alfred winning the Chancellor’s Gold Medal in 1828 for “Timbuctoo”) the Tennyson brothers became well known at Cambridge. In 1829 The Apostles, and undergraduate club, whose members remained Tennyson’s friends all his life, invited him to join. The group, which met to discuss major philosophical and other issues, included Arthur Henry Hallam, James Spedding, Edward Lushington, and Richard Monckton Milnes.
Arthur Hallam was the most important and influential friend that Tennyson had. Hallam and Tennyson knew each other only four years, but their intense friendship had a major influence on the poet. On a visit to Somersby, Hallam met and later became engaged to Emily Tennyson, and the two friends looked forward to a life-long companionship. Hallam’s death from illness in 1833 (he was only 22) shocked Tennyson profoundly, and his grief lead to most of his best poetry, including In Memoriam, “The Passing of Arthur”, and “Ulysses”.
After Hallam’s death Tennyson...

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