We may, without conscientious scruples, take Mr. Andrew Lang's advice, and enjoy a laugh over Lockhart's performance. Its mock appreciations are, perhaps, far-fetched at times; but there are enough effective passages to give zest to the article. It has been said in all seriousness that Lockhart failed to appreciate the beauty of most of Tennyson's lines, and that he confined his remarks to the most assailable passages. Surely, when a critic undertakes to write a mock-appreciation, he will not quote the best verses, to the detriment of his plan. The poet must see to it that his volume does not contain enough absurdities to form a sufficient basis for such an article. There is a striking contrast to the humor of Lockhart in the little-known review of the same volume by the _Literary Gazette_, 1833, pp. (772-774). The latter seized upon some crudities that had escaped the _Quarterly's_ notice, and, with characteristic brutality, decided that the poet was insane and needed a low diet and a cell. Although the reception accorded to _Poems_ (1842) was generally favorable, the publication of _The Princess_ in 1847 afforded the critics another opportunity to lament Tennyson's inequalities. The spirit of the review of _The Princess_ here reprinted from the _Literary Gazette_ of August 8, 1848, is practically identical with that of the _Athenæum_ on January 6, 1848, but specifies more clearly the critic's objections to the medley. It is noteworthy that Lord Tennyson made extensive changes in subsequent editions of _The Princess_, but left unaltered all of the passages to which the _Literary Gazette_ took exception. The beautiful threnody _In Memoriam_ (1850) and Tennyson's elevation to the laureateship in the same year established his position as the leading poet of the time; but the appearance of _Maud_ in 1856 proved to be a temporary check to his popularity. A few personal friends admired it and praised its fine lyrics; but as a dramatic narrative it failed to please the reviews. The most interesting of the critiques (unfortunately too long to be reprinted here) appeared in _Blackwood's Magazine_, XLI (311-321), of September, 1855,--a forcible, well-written article, which, incidentally, shows how much the magazine had improved in respectability since the days of the lampooners of Byron, Shelley, and Keats. The authorship of the article has not been disclosed, but we know that W.E. Aytoun asked permission of the proprietor to review Tennyson's _Maud_. (See Mrs. Oliphant's _William Blackwood and his Sons_.) The publication of the _Idylls of the King_ (1859), turned the tide more strongly than before in Tennyson's favor, and subsequent fault-finding on the part of the critics was confined largely to his dramas. 153. _Catullus_. See Catullus, II and III--(_Passer, deliciæ meæ puellæ_, and _Lugete, O Veneres Cupidinesque_).