Alfred  Tennyson,  ditto,  p.  349  and  (March,
1880)  pp.  428-430  of  the  same  volume.
Reprinted  in   the   Poet's   Collected    Works   (1886),
Vol.  V.
1881.
/  Despair  :  A  Dramatic  Monologue.  NinC"
teenth  Century,  November,  1881  (No.
LVIL).  Twenty-one  stanzas  of  varying
leno-th.
Reprinted  in  "Tiresias,  and  Other  Poems"  (1885),


i882.]  OF  TENNYSON.  57


1882.
The  Promise  of  May.  [A  Play  partly  in
prose,  partly  in  blank  verse,  with  Songs
interposed.]  Produced  at  the  Globe
Theatre,  Nov.  11,  1882,  with  Mr.  Her-
mann Vezin  as  Edgar,  and  Mrs.  Bernard-
Beere  as  Dora  Steer.
This  play,  though  it  had  some  weeks'  run,  as  a  succes
d'estime,  was  practically  and  deservedly  damned  by  the
pit  on  the  first  night.  The  Poet  hesitated  even  to  pub-
lish it  for  some  years  afterwards,  or  to  weight  or  swell
the  small  volume  of  "  The  Falcon  and  the  Cup  "  with
it.  When  it  did  at  last  appear  in  1887,  it  appeared
under  cover  of  a  long  lyrical  poem,  the  name  of  which
had  been  a  popular  one  for  forty-five  years  ;  and  crept
into  the  volume  without  any  announcement  or  notice
on  the  title-page.
The  Song  of  "  The  Promise  of  May  "  was  printed
on  the  programme  sold  or  distributed  at  the  theatre  at
the  representation  ;  and  it  seems  probable  that  a  small
edition  of  the  entire  piece  was  privately  printed  at  the
time  for  the  use  of  the  actors  and  actresses  and  of  others
concerned  in  its  production.  This,  however,  is  mere
conjecture  on  my  part.  I  never  saw  or  heard  of  a  copy
of  such  an  edition.
58  THE  BIBLIOGRAPHY     [1882-

Charge  of  the  Heavy  Brigade,  with  a
Note.  Macmillan  s  Magazine^  March,
1882  (Vol.  XLV.,  pp.  337-339)-.
Reprinted  in  "  Tiresias,  and  Other  Poems  "  (1885).
