And how delicate was this emotion! He
has not rudely trenched upon truth and
passion. He has risen to the height of
noble and tender sentiments... It is part
of their luxury as of their morality; it is
an eloquent confirmation of their
principles, and a precious article of their
drawing-room furniture.
Likewise he remarks that Dickens submits to
public taste, submitting to it not "as an
external restraint" but feeling it "inwardly as
an inner persuasion," and that the Counsels
of public taste go like this:
Be moral... We believe in family life, and
we would not have literature paint the
passions which attack family life-
Beware of resembling in this respect the
most illustrious of our neighbours
George Sand paints impassioned women;
paint you for us good women. George
Sand makes us desire to be in love; do
you make us desire to be married.
Many of Dickens's English contemporaries
would have snorted at this clear implication
that the Gallic male denies the compatibility
of love and marriage, but later readers
would agree that Taine is pointing to real
limitations in Victorian literature - not that
"Be moral" is an empty or foolish injunction,
any more than that common-sense is to be
undervalued.
As I mentioned, there came, towards the
end of Dickens's lifetime, a reaction against
his pathos, as "sentimentality", at least
among more sophisticated readers. I cannot
here trace or account for this, but I mention
it again as a reminder that both he and
Tennyson had long literary careers, Dickens
publishing from 1833 to 1870, Tennyson
(incredibly) from 1827 to 1892. Neither
outlived his talent, nor his popularity, but,
when one talks of their being spokesmen of
their age, one should remember that this was
more fully the case in their early and mid
career. Tennyson, who survived into the time
of Wilde and Yeats, Shaw and Kipling, was
more obviously the voice of educated opinion
in the 1840s to '60s, than in '70s to '90s.
"The age has changed, but Tennyson has
remained constant," remarked the Edinburgh
Review in 1880, and when he died in 1892
the Times obituarist said of him: "Like all
men who have strongly influenced their own
generation, he was a true child of his time,
but it must be remembered that the 'mother-
age' which bred him was not ours." It was
around 1830, this obituarist continued, that
"the views and the beliefs which guided him
though his long career took shape and
substance." Elsewhere I have argued that
Dickens may be regarded as a "man of 1832"
(the year of the first Parliamentary Reform
Act). These cautions made, it will, I hope,
be agreed that I have indicated how
centrally Dickens and Tennyson were "true
children of their time," eloquently expressing
important elements of its mind and spirit,
and highly regarded and well rewarded by
their contemporaries for doing so.
Note: most of the quotations from
contemporaries can be found in Tennyson:
the Critical Heritage, ed. John D.Jump
(Routledge, 1967) and Dickens: The Critical
Heritage, ed. Philip Collins (1971).
