26 AUGUST 1882, Page 15

TENNYSON AND GOETHE.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]

S111,---In your issue on the 12th instant, a correspondent states that Mr. Tennyson admitted he had forgotten what poet he referred to in the opening stanza of "In Memoriam," but thought it might be Goethe. It is because I have heard this from the Poet Laureate's own lips, that I claimed to speak "on the highest authority," in my "Key to In Memoriam," and I have adhered to the statement in a revised edition of my little work, now in the press.—I am, Sir, &C., ALFRED GATTI', D.D.