POET LAUREATE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 13101, 14 June 1913, Page 3

POET LAUREATE.

LONDON. June 6. ! Tho remains of the late Mr Alfred ■Austin were incinerated at- the Colder' s ; Green Crematorium iv North-east Lou- ' dors. An "In Memoriaum" service wa^ previously held at the Chapel Royal, St. James's, by permission of "the 'Kin.'j. Tho Times iv a leader on the Poet Lauieateship, says: "We are still m a country where tradition counts for much, and where there is a general and . very healthy unwillingness to destroy places and customs which have lasted fcr three centuries. Therefore, we trust that his Majesty and the Prime Minister will look carefully at the matter before determining either to leave m abeyance or abolish the Poet Laureateshin." There is considerable speculation m literary circles as to who will succeed the late Mr Alfred Austin as Poet Laureate. Those whose chances of securing the honor who are most favored are : Mr Rudyard Kipling, Mr Robert Bridges, Mr Henry J. Newbolt. * Others whose names are mentioned are Mr William Watson, Mr John M. Sefield, Mr Thomas , Hardy, Mr W. B. Yeats, Mr Stephen Phillips, Mrs Mey- , nell. The first Poet Laureate m the modern sense was Spenser, who was granted a pension Of £50 by Queen Elizabeth m 1591 ; but the fir^t who received the- office by formal letters-patent was Ben Jonson. His salary was 100 marks, raised by Charles I. to the same number of pounds sterling, with the addition of a tierce of Canary. James 11. was mean enough to discontinue the allow- ; ance of wine, but it was afterwards re- ' sumed, until commuted for £27 a year m the laureateship of Pye. It was long the duty of the poet laureate to , write an ode on the King's birthday — "his quit-rent ode, his peppercorn of praise," m Cowper's phrase. ; but this task fell into abeyance towards the end of '< the reign of George 111. The last of poets laureate preserves the memory of a few names else almost forgotten; but it contains Spenser, ' Ben Joncon, Dryden, iSoi'they, Wordsworth and Tdnnyson.. Tho complete list, with the years of office, is as follows : Edmund Spenser (1591-99), Samuel Daniel (1569^1619), Ben Jonson (1619-37), followed by an interregnum' until 1660; William Davenant, knight (1660-68), John Drvden (1670-89), Thom.^ Shadwell (D 68&92), Nahun Tait (1692-1715), Nicholas Rowe (1715-18), Laurence Eta'sden, c'-erk (1713- * 30), Colley Cibber (17~0-57), William Whitehead (1757-85), Thomas Warton, clerk (1785-90), Henry James Pye (1790---1813), Robert Southey (1813-43). Wii- * liam Wordsworth (1843-50), Alfred Tennyson (1850-92), Alfred Austin, appointed m 1896. ,