TENNYSON'S "S's."
[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."]
" There will come a witness soon Hard to be confuted."—Tennyson.
SIR,—It would be difficult to accept Mr. Malleson's theory (Spectator, October 30th) that Tennyson meant something so different from what be is reported to have said, even if it were consistent with the facts; but as it fails to explain such lines as- " Borne down by gladness so complete"
—In Memoriam, mil, and-
" The moanings of the homeless sea" xxxv.,
it may be summarily dismissed. In these cases we have the very collocation of " s's " which Mr. Malleson rather un- fortunately asserts that Tennyson "would certainly not have written." Again, I can hardly believe that even Mr. Malleson would read the line, "And so may place retain us still," as if it were written in the Somerset dialect " uz still." In all these cases, as well as in the motto which I have chosen for this letter, if the "a's" are not "sibilant" it would be interest- ing to know what Mr. Malleson means by that term. My faith in Tennyson's knowledge of his own supreme technique makes me think it is more probable that he has been mis- reported than that he made the inaccurate statement attributed
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