In details
Tennyson
follows the novel sometimes very closely.
Tennyson
After 1851 no alterations were made.
This poem was suggested by Miss Ferrier's powerful novel 'The
Inheritance'. A comparison with the plot of Miss Ferrier's novel will
show with what tact and skill Tennyson has adapted the tale to his
ballad. Thomas St. Clair, youngest son of the Earl of Rossville, marries
a Miss Sarah Black, a girl of humble and obscure birth. He dies, leaving
a widow and as is supposed a daughter, Gertrude, who claim the
protection of Lord Rossville, as the child is heiress presumptive to the
earldom. On Lord Rossville's death she accordingly becomes Countess of
Rossville. She has two lovers, both distant connections, Colonel Delmour
and Edward Lyndsay. At last it is discovered that she was not the
daughter of Thomas St. Clair and her supposed mother, but of one Marion
La Motte and Jacob Leviston, and that Mrs. St. Clair had adopted her
when a baby and passed her off as her own child, that she might succeed
to the title. Meanwhile Delmour by the death of his elder brother
succeeds to the title and estates forfeited by the detected foundling,
but instead of acting as Tennyson's Lord Ronald does, he repudiates her
and marries a duchess. But her other lover Lyndsay is true to her and
marries her. Delmour not long afterwards dies without issue, and Lyndsay
succeeds to the title, Gertrude then becoming after all Countess of
Rossville.
In details Tennyson follows the novel sometimes very closely.
Thus the "single rose," the poor dress, the bitter exclamation about her
being a beggar born, are from the novel.
The 1842 and all editions up to and including 1850 begin with the
following stanza and omit stanza 2:--
Lord Ronald courted Lady Clare,
I trow they did not part in scorn;
Lord Ronald, her cousin, courted her
And they will wed the morrow morn.
It was the time when lilies blow,
And clouds are highest up in air,
Lord Ronald brought a lily-white doe
To give his cousin Lady Clare.
I trow they did not part in scorn:
Lovers long-betroth'd were they:
They two will wed the morrow morn!
God's blessing on the day!
"He does not love me for my birth,
Nor for my lands so broad and fair;
He loves me for my own true worth,
And that is well," said Lady Clare.
In there came old Alice the nurse,
Said, "Who was this that went from thee? "
"It was my cousin," said Lady Clare,
"To-morrow he weds with me. "
"O God be thank'd! " said Alice the nurse,
"That all comes round so just and fair:
Lord Ronald is heir of all your lands,
And you are not the Lady Clare. "
"Are ye out of your mind, my nurse, my nurse? "
Said Lady Clare, "that ye speak so wild";
"As God's above," said Alice the nurse,
"I speak the truth: you are my child.
"The old Earl's daughter died at my breast;
I speak the truth, as I live by bread!
I buried her like my own sweet child,
And put my child in her stead. "
"Falsely, falsely have ye done,
O mother," she said, "if this be true,
To keep the best man under the sun
So many years from his due.
This poem was suggested by Miss Ferrier's powerful novel 'The
Inheritance'. A comparison with the plot of Miss Ferrier's novel will
show with what tact and skill Tennyson has adapted the tale to his
ballad. Thomas St. Clair, youngest son of the Earl of Rossville, marries
a Miss Sarah Black, a girl of humble and obscure birth. He dies, leaving
a widow and as is supposed a daughter, Gertrude, who claim the
protection of Lord Rossville, as the child is heiress presumptive to the
earldom. On Lord Rossville's death she accordingly becomes Countess of
Rossville. She has two lovers, both distant connections, Colonel Delmour
and Edward Lyndsay. At last it is discovered that she was not the
daughter of Thomas St. Clair and her supposed mother, but of one Marion
La Motte and Jacob Leviston, and that Mrs. St. Clair had adopted her
when a baby and passed her off as her own child, that she might succeed
to the title. Meanwhile Delmour by the death of his elder brother
succeeds to the title and estates forfeited by the detected foundling,
but instead of acting as Tennyson's Lord Ronald does, he repudiates her
and marries a duchess. But her other lover Lyndsay is true to her and
marries her. Delmour not long afterwards dies without issue, and Lyndsay
succeeds to the title, Gertrude then becoming after all Countess of
Rossville.
In details Tennyson follows the novel sometimes very closely.
Thus the "single rose," the poor dress, the bitter exclamation about her
being a beggar born, are from the novel.
The 1842 and all editions up to and including 1850 begin with the
following stanza and omit stanza 2:--
Lord Ronald courted Lady Clare,
I trow they did not part in scorn;
Lord Ronald, her cousin, courted her
And they will wed the morrow morn.
It was the time when lilies blow,
And clouds are highest up in air,
Lord Ronald brought a lily-white doe
To give his cousin Lady Clare.
I trow they did not part in scorn:
Lovers long-betroth'd were they:
They two will wed the morrow morn!
God's blessing on the day!
"He does not love me for my birth,
Nor for my lands so broad and fair;
He loves me for my own true worth,
And that is well," said Lady Clare.
In there came old Alice the nurse,
Said, "Who was this that went from thee? "
"It was my cousin," said Lady Clare,
"To-morrow he weds with me. "
"O God be thank'd! " said Alice the nurse,
"That all comes round so just and fair:
Lord Ronald is heir of all your lands,
And you are not the Lady Clare. "
"Are ye out of your mind, my nurse, my nurse? "
Said Lady Clare, "that ye speak so wild";
"As God's above," said Alice the nurse,
"I speak the truth: you are my child.
"The old Earl's daughter died at my breast;
I speak the truth, as I live by bread!
I buried her like my own sweet child,
And put my child in her stead. "
"Falsely, falsely have ye done,
O mother," she said, "if this be true,
To keep the best man under the sun
So many years from his due.
