ABSTRACT
Those writers who have reproduced in a modern form the antique legends of the past have often enjoyed very great success, but it is plain that this success must depend on certain conditions-either they must preserve faithfully the spirit as well as the exterior form of the legends (in which case a wide success amongst modem readers is hardly to be promised them); or the age which gave birth to the legends must not be so distant that every trace of the leading idea of that age is lost; or, lastly, the subject of the legends must be simply one ofthe common wants and fears ofhumanity, which are alike in all ages, and which the animating spirit of every age, however different, suits and inspires equally. Mr. Tennyson has observed none of these conditions, and it is, as I take it, a natural consequence that he has failed.
