‘So careful of the type?’ but no

Section introductions from Alfred Gatty, <i>A Key to Lord Tennyson's “In Memoriam”</i>, 4th ed. (George Bell &amp; Sons, 1900; Project Gutenberg #36637). Line notes credited “[Tennyson]” are Tennyson's own notes; “[Hallam Tennyson]” marks a note that is wholly his son and editor's own explanatory bracket, not the poet's own words; “[Emily Tennyson]” marks the few notes signed by his wife. All three are from <i>The Works of Tennyson, Annotated by the Author</i>, ed. Hallam, Lord Tennyson, vol. 3 (Macmillan, 1908; Internet Archive worksoftennysona03tennuoft). Line notes credited “[Bradley]” are A. C. Bradley's, from <i>A Commentary on Tennyson's In Memoriam</i> (Macmillan, 1910; Internet Archive commentaryontenn00braduoft). All these number sections by the final, 131-section text, not the site's own 1850 numbering: from final XL to LVIII subtract one section number, from LX on subtract two, to reach the site's; the site prints the 129-section first edition of 1850 (see the work's own blurb), so two of the final text's numbered sections have no home here and are skipped.

1. Stanza 1, line 1 See LV. 7. [Bradley]
2. Stanza 1, line 2 Cliff and quarry are full of the fossils of extinct species. ' scarped ': cut away vertically so as to expose the
   
   strata. [Bradley]
3. Stanza 2, line 3 ' spirit,' and all that it does and promises (10-18). [Bradley]
4. Stanza 3, line 1 For the poet's own belief see cxvui. [Bradley]
5. Stanza 3, line 3 'wintry' answers to 'fruitless' in 12. Cf. Liv. 16. The idea, as the next stanza shows, is that the apparent fruitless- ness of his praises and prayers did not shake his faith. [Bradley]
6. Stanza 5, line 4 Like any other fossil. [Bradley]
7. Stanza 6 Dragons of the prime. The geologic monsters of the early ages. [Tennyson]
8. Stanza 6, line 1 'No more?' refers back to line 8, the idea of which must be taken to include the consequences drawn from it in stanzas 3-5.
   
   ' A monster,' etc. If all that we count highest in man ends in extinction, his nature is that of the monsters of fiction, or such an incongruous combination as occurs in a dream. The ' dragon ' of the first ages of the earth may seem horrible to us, but at least it was in harmony with itself. The point is not that man, if doomed to extinction, would be in discord with the rest of Nature, but that he would be in discord with himself. The conclusion here,
   
   also is not that such a self-contradictory being is impossible, but that man's life, if he were such, would be as futile as we know it to be frail. With the dragon cf. the * monstrous eft ' of Maud, I. iv.; with ' prime,' The Princess, II., of primitive man, 'Raw from the prime.' [Bradley]
9. Stanza 7, line 3 ' answer ': cf. the conclusion of the Vision of Sin (Eve)- ' Redress ': for the injustice of this futile existence. Cf. Prologue 12. [Bradley]
10. Stanza 7, line 4 The general meaning of this line is not doubtful, but it is impossible to say what metaphor was in the poet's mind. He may have thought of * the holy place within the veil, before the mercy-seat which is upon the ark,' Levit. xvi. 2, with which cf. Heb. vi. 19, 20. But it seems more probable that he refers to the inscription at Sais contain- ing the words, ' No one has lifted my veil ': for cf. in the section of Maud just quoted,
    
    For the drift of the Maker is dark, an I sis hid by the veil;
    
    and for the image of a veiled statue cf. ciii. 12. In De
    
    Profundis the words,
    
    our mortal veil And shatter'd phantom of that Infinite One,
    
    seem to describe the world of space and time. See also note on LIV. 15 for a quotation from The Two Voices. In any case the idea is that the 'veil' can never be removed in this life. [Bradley]