Even when they had only known each other for mere weeks, they wrote sonnets to each other and visited each other’s homes for long periods. Such friendship was nothing extraordinary, as many men of the time paired off as best friends. But Hallam and Tennyson were somewhat different because Tennyson would later immortalize their relationship in verse.
The First Meeting
Alfred and Arthur met in April 1829 at Trinity College, Cambridge. They bonded over a university poetry contest, which they had both entered. The theme was Timbuctoo. Tennyson’s poem won the Chancellor’s Medallion as a prize. Arthur was not jealous. He boasted that he had helped Alfred along the way. The lack of negative feelings between them would be a constant in their relationship.
Kindred Spirits
Although Alfred and Arthur had plenty other college chums, they found principal enjoyment with each other. They discussed poetry and philosophy for hours on end, even staying outside all night to talk on the Somersby lawns. Both were subjected to fits of depression, and they helped each other triumph over their moods by finding solace in each other’s friendship.
A Tour of the Pyrenees
The friends were inflamed by Spanish politics, and wanted to help exiles stage a revolution. They journeyed to the Pyrenees to deliver money and messages to a revolutionary. It was risky; they did not truly grasp what they did. But they were unharmed and enjoyed the area. Tennyson was so moved by their time in Cauterets that he wrote a poem about it many years later, reflecting on how he had walked there with Hallam.
Cementing Their Friendship
Hallam and Tennyson wanted to publish a book of poems together as a way of proclaiming their friendship. Henry Hallam, Arthur’s father, put a stop to it. He deemed Arthur’s teenaged poems unfit for publication. Most were about Anna Wintour, an English woman he had met in Italy. Arthur’s infatuation with someone possibly ten years his senior troubled his father. The friends had no choice but to give up their dual publication. Alfred published alone in 1830.
A Setback to Their Relationship
In 1830, Hallam became engaged to Tennyson’s younger sister Emily. However, both fathers disapproved of the relationship, and Henry Hallam forbade Arthur from visiting Somersby Rectory until he turned twenty-one. This also hampered the amount of time Alfred and Arthur could spend together. It was exacerbated by the death of Alfred’s father in March 1831, when Alfred was obliged to return home from university, leaving Arthur behind.
A Trip Down the Rhine
Still they managed to see each other, often amongst other friends. In 1832 they went down the Rhine together at Tennyson’s insistence. Unlike their trip to the Pyrenees, this journey failed to enchant them. Alfred complained of insects and hunger the whole time. Matters were made worse when they were confined to a boat when cholera broke out. Once they were allowed to leave, they visited art museums, where the beauty they viewed enraptured Tennyson.
Last Moments Together
It is difficult to say when Arthur and Alfred’s last meeting took place. Some writers have Alfred hurrying from Scotland to be with Arthur before Arthur and his family journeyed to the Continent. Others imply that they last saw each other in April of 1833 in London. To Tennyson it probably did not seem close enough. On October 1, he learned that Hallam had died on September 15th.
Tennyson was devastated over the loss of Hallam. They had been friends for four and a half years when Arthur died. He brooded and mourned over many years, and confessed that he often wished he could die rather than continue to live without Arthur. Hallam’s death aggravated any religious doubts he may have had before. He wondered why God would create a near-perfect being such as Arthur and then take him away all too soon.
He rectified those religious doubts through the long writing process that became In Memoriam. It is a collection of poems that explore questions of God, nature, mourning, and the essence of Hallam. Tennyson recounts memories of his friend, and justifies Arthur’s death by concluding he was too perfect for this world. It was many years before he could visit Arthur’s grave. He finally did in 1850, when he went with his bride during their honeymoon.
Tennyson’s Life Without Hallam
When Arthur died at age twenty-two, Alfred had recently turned twenty-four. He lived to be eighty-three, surviving his friend by fifty-nine years. He never forgot him, though he made many other friends over the decades. In 1852 he named his firstborn son Hallam, linking their two names together. Through this, Tennyson accomplished what they had not been able to publish together. However separate their deaths, Hallam and Tennyson’s lives will always be joined.
Sources:
Kolb, Jack, Letters of Arthur Henry Hallam (Columbus: Ohio State Press, 1981).
Martin, Robert Bernard, Tennyson: The Unquiet Heart (London: Clarendon Press, 1983).
Tennyson, Alfred Lord, Selected Poems, ed. Aidan Day (London: Penguin Books, 1991).
 |
 |
