INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Reading edition
The success which has attended the publication of my Tennyson Concordance in 1912, has prompted me to undertake the compilation of this Dictionary.
The book is intended as a work of reference for all lovers of Tennyson’s works. Its principal function is to identify and describe the multitudinous characters, place-names, etc.—whether fictitious or historical—created or utilized by the Poet; anything, therefore, in the nature of criticism is entirely outside its scope.
The two chief features claimed for this compilation are brevity and accuracy. The Synopses furnish a short explanatory account of the Poems and Plays, and the Dictionary proper a short description of the characters and place-names, together with the names of towns, rivers, horses, birds, flowers, etc. In all there are some 2,040 entries.
A list of the books consulted or quoted throughout the work is appended; and for the valuable information obtained from them I take this opportunity of expressing my acknowledgments.
A. E. B.