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Alfred Austin DL (30 May 1835 – 2 June 1913) was an English poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896, after an interval following the death of Tennyson, when the other candidates had either caused controversy or refused the honour. It was claimed that he was being rewarded for his support for the Conservative leader Lord Salisbury in the General Election of 1895. Austin’s poems are little-remembered today, his most popular work being prose idylls celebrating nature. ==Life== Alfred Austin was born in Headingley, near Leeds, on 30 May 1835, to a Roman Catholic family. His father, Joseph Austin, was a merchant in Leeds; his mother was a sister of Joseph Locke, the civil engineer and M.P. for Honiton . Austin was educated at Stonyhurst College (Clitheroe, Lancashire), St Mary's College, Oscott, and University of London, from which he graduated in 1853.〔Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911〕 He became a barrister in 1857 but after inheriting a fortune from his uncle gave up his legal career for literature. 〔The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 6th Edition. Edited by Margaret Drabble, Oxford University Press, 2000 Pp 53〕〔〔 Politically conservative, between 1866 and 1896 Austin edited ''National Review'' and wrote leading articles for The Standard.〔 He was Foreign Affairs Correspondent with the Standard, and served as a special correspondent to The Ecumenical Council of the Vatican in 1870; at the Headquarters of the King of Prussia during the Franco-Prussian War, 1870; at the Congress of Berlin, 1878 where he was granted an audience by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. An ardent imperialist and follower of Disraeli he became, in 1883, joint editor of the National Review with W.J. Courthope and was sole editor from 1887 until 1896. 〔The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 6th Edition. Edited by Margaret Drabble, Oxford University Press, 2000 Pp 53〕 On Tennyson's death in 1892 it was felt that none of the then living poets, except Algernon Charles Swinburne or William Morris, who were outside consideration on other grounds, was of sufficient distinction to succeed to the laurel crown, and for several years no new poet-laureate was nominated. In the interval the claims of one writer and another were assessed, but eventually, in 1896, Austin was appointed to the post〔 after Morris had declined it. As a poet Austin never ranked highly in the opinions of his peers, and was often derided as being a ‘Banjo Byron’ Broadus writes that the choice of Austin for poet-laureate had much to do with Austin's friendship with Lord Salisbury, his position as an editor and leader writer, and his willingness to use his poetry to support the government.〔Edmund Kemper Broadus, "The Laureateship, A Study Of The Office Of Poet Laureate In England With Some Account Of The Poets" 1921, p203.〕 For example, shortly before his appointment was announced, Austin published a sonnet entitled ''A Vindication of England'', written in response to a series of sonnets by William Watson, published in the ''Westminster Gazette'', that had accused Salisbury's government of betraying Armenia and abandoning its people to Turkish massacres.〔William Watson, "The Purple East, A Series Of Sonnets On England's Desertion of Armenia", London, 1896, p7-8.〕 Sir Owen Seaman (1861–1936) gave added currency to the supposed connection with Lord Salisbury in his poem, 'To Mr Alfred Austin', ''In Cap and Bells'', London & New York, 1900, 9: 'At length a callous Tory chief arose, Austin served as Deputy-Lieutenant for Herefordshire. Austin died of unknown causes in Ashford, Kent, England. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alfred Austin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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