A CRUX IN TENNYSON. [To THE EDITOR OP TER "
SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Mr. J. B. Mayor's letter in the Spectator of August
26th under the above title is interesting, but surely the puzzle is exaggerated. The obscurity is limited to a single line — " And Love the indifference to be,"
and Mr. Mayor's suggestion that "In Love" would be better than " And Love" will commend itself to many ; but why " the indifference " P Why not simply, " In Love indifference to be "? If the whole stanza read thus
" Oh, if indeed that eye foresee
Or see (in Him is no before)
In more of life true life no more In Love indifference to be"
the obscurity vanishes.
There can, however, be no MS. authority for that change, or the poet's son would have introduced it in his notes to the Eversley edition of his father's poem. He merely gives us a wise editorial interpretation of the familiar line in the teens receptus : "And that the present love will end in future indifference."
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