Algernon Charles Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne (London, April 5, 1837 - London, April 10, 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and literary critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in every year from 1903 to 1907 and again in 1909.

Life
Swinburne was born at 7 Chester Street, Grosvenor Place, London, on 5 April 1837. He was the eldest of six children born to Captain (later Admiral) Charles Henry Swinburne and Lady Jane Henrietta, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Ashburnham. He grew up at East Dene in Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight and attended Eton College 1849-53, where he first started writing poetry, and then Balliol College, Oxford 1856-60 with a brief hiatus when he was rusticated from the university in 1859 for having publicly supported the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Felice Orsini, returning in May 1860, though he never received a degree.

He spent summer holidays at Capheaton Hall in Northumberland, the house of his grandfather, Sir John Swinburne, 6th Baronet (1762–1860) (see Swinburne Baronets) who had a famous library and was President of the Literary and Philosophical Society in Newcastle upon Tyne. Swinburne considered Northumberland to be his native county, an emotion memorably reflected in poems like the intensely patriotic 'Northumberland', 'Grace Darling' and others. He enjoyed riding his pony across the moors (he was a daring horseman) 'through honeyed leagues of the northland border'. He never called it the Scottish border.

In the years 1857–60, Swinburne became one of Lady Pauline Trevelyan's intellectual circle at Wallington Hall and after his grandfather's death in 1860, would stay with William Bell Scott in Newcastle. In December 1862, Swinburne accompanied Scott and his guests, probably including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, on a trip to Tynemouth. Scott writes in his memoirs that as they walked by the sea, Swinburne declaimed the as yet unpublished 'Hymn to Proserpine' and 'Laus Veneris' in his lilting intonation, while the waves 'were running the whole length of the long level sands towards Cullercoats and sounding like far-off acclamations'.

At Oxford Swinburne met several Pre-Raphaelites, including William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. After leaving college he lived in London and started an active writing career, where Rossetti was delighted with his 'little Northumbrian friend', a reference to Swinburne's diminutive height—he was just over five feet tall.

His poetic works include: Atalanta in Calydon (1865), Poems and Ballads (1866), Songs before Sunrise (1871), Poems and Ballads Second Series, (1878) Tristram of Lyonesse (1882), Poems and Ballads Third Series (1889), and the novel Lesbia Brandon (published posthumously in 1952).

Poems and Ballads caused a sensation when it was first published, especially the poems written in homage Sappho of Lesbos such as "Anactoria" and "Sapphics": Moxon and Co. transferred its publication rights to John Camden Hotten. Other poems in this volume such as "The Leper," "Laus Veneris," and "St Dorothy" evoke a Victorian fascination with the Middle Ages, and are explicitly mediaeval in style, tone and construction. Also featured in this volume are "Hymn to Proserpine", "The Triumph of Time" and "Dolores (Notre-Dame des Sept Douleurs)".



Swinburne devised the poetic form Roundel, a variation of the French Rondeau form, and some were included in A Century of Roundels dedicated to Christina Rossetti. Swinburne wrote to Edward Burne-Jones in 1883: "I have got a tiny new book of songs or songlets, in one form and all manner of metres ... just coming out, of which Miss Rossetti has accepted the dedication. I hope you and Georgie [his wife Georgiana, one of the MacDonald sisters] will find something to like among a hundred poems of nine lines each, twenty-four of which are about babies or small children". Opinions of these poems vary between those who find them captivating and brilliant, to those who find them merely clever and contrived. One of them, A Baby's Death, was set to music by the English composer Sir Edward Elgar as the song Roundel: The little eyes that never knew Light.

Swinburne was an alcoholic and algolagniac, and a highly excitable character. His health suffered as a result, and in 1879 at the age of 42 he was taken into care by his friend Theodore Watts, who looked after him for the rest of his life at The Pines, 11 Putney Hill, Putney SW15. Thereafter he lost his youthful rebelliousness and developed into a figure of social respectability. He died at the Pines, on 10 April 1909 at the age of 72 and was buried at St. Boniface Church, Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight.

Writing


Swinburne is considered a decadent poet, although he perhaps professed to more vice than he actually indulged in; Oscar Wilde stated that Swinburne was "a braggart in matters of vice, who had done everything he could to convince his fellow citizens of his homosexuality and bestiality without being in the slightest degree a homosexual or a bestializer."

His mastery of vocabulary, rhyme and metre is impressive, although he has also been criticized for his florid style and word choices that only fit the rhyme scheme rather than contributing to the meaning of the piece. He is the virtual star of the third volume of George Saintsbury's famous History of English Prosody, and A.E. Housman, a more measured and even somewhat hostile critic, devoted paragraphs of praise to his rhyming ability.

Swinburne's work was once quite popular among undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge, though today it has gone out of fashion. This is at least somewhat contextual, as it tends to mirror the popular and academic consensus regarding his work, although his Poems and Ballads, First Series and his Atalanta in Calydon have never been out of critical favour.

It was Swinburne's misfortune that the two works, published when he was nearly 30, soon established him as England's premier poet, the successor to Alfred Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning. This was a position he held in the popular mind until his death, but sophisticated critics like A.E. Housman felt, rightly or wrongly, that the job of being one of England's greatest poets was beyond him.

After the first Poems and Ballads, Swinburne's later poetry is devoted more to philosophy and politics (notably, in favour of the unification of Italy, particularly in the volume Songs before Sunrise). He does not stop writing love poetry entirely (including his great epic-length poem, Tristram of Lyonesse), but the content is much less shocking. His versification, and especially his rhyming technique, remain in top form to the end.

T.S. Eliot read Swinburne's essays on the Shakespearean and Jonsonian dramatists in The Contemporaries of Shakespeare and The Age of Shakespeare and Swinburne's books on Shakespeare and Jonson. Writing on Swinburne in The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism, Eliot found that as a poet writing notes on poets, he had mastered his material, writing "'he is more reliable to them than Hazlitt, Coleridge, or Lamb: and his perception of relative values is almost always correct." However, Eliot disliked Swinburne's prose. About this he wrote "the tumultuous outcry of adjectives, the headstrong rush of undisciplined sentences, are the index to the impatience and perhaps laziness of a disorderly mind."

Recognition
Four of his poems ("Chorus from 'Atalanta'," "Hertha," "Ave atque Vale," and "Itylus") were included in the Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.

Poetry

 * Poems and Ballads. London: Moxon, 1866.
 * published in U.S. as Laus Veneris, and other poems and ballads. New York: Carleton, 1866.
 * A Song of Italy. Boston: Ticknor Fields, 1867.
 * Songs before Sunrise. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1871.
 * Songs of Two Nations. London: Chatto & Windus, 1875.
 * Studies in Song. London:Chatto & Windus, 1880.
 * Poems and Ballads: Second series. London: Chatto & Windus, 1878. New York: Crowell, ca. 1885.
 * Specimens of Modern Poets: The Heptalogia; or, The seven against sense. London: Chatto & Windus, 1880.
 * Tristam of Lyonesse, and other poems. London: Chatto & Windus, 1882
 * Portland, ME: Mosher, 1904.
 * A Century of Roundels. New York: Worthington, 1883.
 * A Midsummer Holiday, and other poems. London: Chatto & Windus, 1884.
 * Poems and Ballads: Third Series. London: Chatto & Windus, 1889.
 * Selections from the Poetical Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne. London: Chatto & Windus, 1889.
 * Songs of the Springtides. London: Chatto & Windus 1891.
 * Astrophel, and other poems. London: Chatto & Windus; New York: Scribner, 1894.
 * The Tale of Balen. New York: Scribner, 1896.
 * Robert Burns. A poem. Edinburgh: Burns Centenary, 1896.
 * A Word for the Navy. London: George Redway, 1896.
 * Poems and Ballads: Second & third series. Portland, ME: Mosher, 1902.
 * A Channel Passage, and other poems. London: Chatto & Windus, 1904.
 * The Poems of Algernon Swinburne (6 volumes). London: Chatto & Windus, 1904; (6 volumes), New York: Harper, 1904. Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, Volume 6.
 * Anactoria, and other lyrical poems. New York: M. Kennerley, 1906.
 * The Marriage of Monna Lisa. London: privately printed, 1909.
 * In the Twilight. London: privately printed, 1909.
 * The Portrait. London: privately printed, 1909.
 * The Chronicle of Queen Fredegond. London: privately printed, 1909.
 * Of Liberty and Loyalty. London: privately printed, 1909.
 * Ode to Mazzini. London: privately printed, 1909.
 * The Ballade of Truthful Charles, and other poems. London: privately printed, 1910.
 * The Ballade of Villon and Fat Madge. London: privately printed, 1910.
 * Border Ballads. Boston: Bibliophile Society, 1912.
 * Lady Maisie's Bairn and other poems. London: privately printed, 1915.
 * Poems from "Villon", and other fragments. London: privately printed, 1916.
 * Poetical Fragments. London: privately printed, 1916.
 * Posthumous Poems (edited by Edmund Gosse and Thomas James Wise). London: Heinemann, 1917.''
 * Rondeaux Parisiens. London: privately printed, 1917.
 * The Italian Mother, and other poems. London: privately printed, 1918.
 * The Ride from Milan, and other poems. London: privately printed, 1918.
 * A Lay of Lilies, and other poems. London: privately printed, 1918.
 * Queen Yseult, A poem in six cantos. London: privately printed, 1918.
 * Lancelot, The death of Rudel, and other poems. London: privately printed, 1918.
 * Undergraduate Sonnets. London: privately printed, 1918.
 * French Lyrics, privately printed (London), 1919.
 * Ballads of the English Border (edited by William A. MacInnes). London: Heinemann, 1925.

Plays

 * The Queen-Mother and Rosamond. Two Plays. Pickering, 1860; Boston: Ticknor Fields, 1866.
 * Atalanta in Calydon. London: Moxon, 1865; Boston: Ticknor Fields, 1866.
 * Chastelard. London: Moxon, 1865; New York: Hurd Houghton, 1866.
 * Bothwell: A tragedy. London: Chatto & Windus, 1874.
 * Erechtheus: A tragedy. London: Chatto & Windus, 1876.
 * Mary Stuart. New York: Worthington, 1881.
 * Marino Faliero. London: Chatto & Windus, 1885.
 * Locrine: A tragedy. New York: Alden, 1887.
 * The Sisters: A tragedy. New York:, United States Book Company, 1892.
 * Rosamund, Queen of the Lombards: A tragedy, Dodd, 1899.
 * The Duke of Gandia. New York: Harper, 1908.
 * A Criminal Case. London: privately printed, 1910.
 * The Cannibal Catechism. London: privately printed, 1913.
 * Felicien Cossu: A Burlesque. London: privately printed, 1915.
 * Theophile. London: privately printed, 1915.
 * Ernest Clouet. London: privately printed, 1916.
 * A Vision of Bags. London: privately printed, 1916.
 * The Death of Sir John Franklin. London: privately printed, 1916.
 * The Queen's Tragedy. London: privately printed, 1919.

Fiction

 * Love's Cross-Currents: A year's letters (novel). Portland, ME: Mosher, 1901; London: Chatto & Windus, 1905.
 * Les Fleurs du Mal, and other stories. London: privately printed, 1913.
 * Lesbia Brandon (edited by Randoph Hughes). London: Falcon Press, 1952,
 * The Novels of A.C. Swinburne. Farrar, Straus Cudahy, 1962.

Non-fiction

 * Notes on Poems and Reviews. London: J.C. Hotten, 1866.
 * William Blake: A critical essay. London: Hotten, 1868; New York: Dutton, 1906.
 * Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1868 (with William Michael Rossetti). London: Hotten, 1868.
 * Under the Microscope. London: D. White, 1872
 * Portland, ME: Mosher, 1899.
 * George Chapman: A critical essay. London: Chatto & Windus, 1875.
 * Essays and Studies. London: Chatto & Windus, 1875.
 * Note of an English Republican on the Muscovite Crusade. London: Chatto & Windus, 1876.
 * A Note on Charlotte Bronte. London: Chatto & Windus, 1877.
 * A Study of Shakespeare. New York: Worthington, 1880.
 * A Study of Victor Hugo. London: Chatto & Windus; New York: Worthington, 1886.
 * Miscellanies. London: Chatto & Windus; New York: Worthington, 1886.
 * A Study of Ben Jonson. London: Chatto & Windus; New York: Worthington, 1889.
 * Studies in Prose and Poetry. London: Chatto & Windus; New York: Scribner, 1894.
 * Percy Bysshe Shelley. Philadepphia, PA: Lippincott, 1903.
 * Charles Dickens. London: Chatto & Windus, 1913.
 * A Pilgrimage of Pleasure: essays and studies. Boston: R.C. Badger, 1913. 
 * A Study of Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables,". London: privately printed, 1914.
 * Pericles, and other studies. London: privately printed, 1914.
 * Thomas Nabbes: A Critical Monograph. London: privately printed, 1914.
 * Christopher Marlowe in Relation to Greene, Peele and Lodge. London: privately printed, 1915.
 * The Character and Opinions of Dr. Johnson. London: privately printed, 1918.
 * Contemporaries of Shakespeare. London: Heinemann, 1919.

Books on Shakespeare

 * The Age of Shakespeare. New York: Harper, 1908.
 * Shakespeare. London, New York, Toronto, Melbourne: Henry Frowde, 1909.

Translated

 * The book of François Villon: The little testament and ballads translated into English verse by Algernon Charles Swinburne, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Payne.. Boston: International Pocket Library, 1931.

Collected editions

 * The Complete Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne (20 volumes, edited by Edmund Gosse and Thomas J. Wise). London: Heinemann/ Wells, 1925-1927.
 * The Swinburne Letters (six volumes, edited by Cecil Y. Lang). new Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1962.
 * New Writings by Swinburne (edited by Cecil Y. Lang). Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1964.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.