The Wind in the Willows
11 (p. 136) “Like Summer Tempests Came His Tears”: The title for this chapter is a variation on lines from Alfred Tennyson’s 1847 narrative poem “The Princess: A Medley”: “Rose a nurse of ninety years,/ Set his child upon her knee—/Like summer tempest came her tears—/‘Sweet my child, I live for thee!’ ” (part 6, lines 13-16). Tennyson’s mock-heroic poem concerns a princess who founds a university for women and, in order to preserve it from the encroachment of men, imposes a death penalty on male intruders. When a prince enters in disguise, the princess is forced to admit her failure. She marries the prince only after it is clear he shares her views, and together they strive to free women from oppressive societal strictures. Tennyson was a peripheral member of Frederick James Furnivall’s Early English Text Society and his New Shakespeare Society, to which Grahame belonged. Grahame’s readers would have recognized the echo of Tennyson in this title, which points to Toad’s despair at losing Toad Hall to the stoats and weasels and to the resolution of his friends to help him reform and reclaim his home.
12 (p. 140) “And they’re telling the tradespeople and everybody that they’ve come to stay for good”: Toad’s adventures and exploits as he describes them in this chapter, as well as his return home to find Toad Hall usurped by the stoats and weasels, are mock heroic in tone; they recall Odysseus and his return from the Trojan War to Ithaca, where suitors of his wife have moved into his house. See Lois R. Kuznet’s Kenneth Grahame for an in-depth analysis of the mythical element in Grahame’s book.
13 (p. 152) The Return of Ulysses: Toad is humorously compared to Ulysses (Odysseus) in his return to Toad Hall. Grahame underscored the mock-heroic element in this title and in the way Rat, Badger, Mole, and Toad arm themselves (p. 152) and then enter the banqueting hall: “The four Heroes strode wrathfully into the room!” (p. 154). Grahame uses the language of heroism in his description of the fight that ensues.